Paddy Lutalo discusses WaterAid's work in Uganda

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July 2012

WaterAid has worked in Uganda since 1983,  enabling the country's poorest communities to gain access to safe, sustainable water supplies and sanitation. Kay Frew from our New York office caught up with Paddy Lutalo from WaterAid in Uganda to find out some of the current issues facing the program there:

In your country only 35% of people have access to safe water. How is WaterAid working to change that?
In Uganda we have taken on the holistic approach of providing a package of water, sanitation and hygiene education (WASH), because improving on one does not necessarily mean success in the other. We are targeting nine districts currently – Katakwi, Amuria, Napak, Pallisa, Masindi, Kampala Capital City, Nakapiripirit, Kotido and Mubende – these areas are the worst performing in terms of easy access to water and sanitation.

But the bigger picture is the policy-makers, right to the parliament. We are using implementation [of water, sanitation and hygiene programs] as learning tools that can be replicated in other areas that are experiencing similar WASH challenges. The approach is to influence local government to take the lead on WASH service delivery and ownership and they are impressed with our approach.

Currently we are working on setting up a parliamentary forum so they can address WASH issues wider on a national level– this is a huge milestone in terms of bringing out the reality of Uganda’s WASH challenges. Previously, there have been other forums that address issues of education, gender imbalance, health or HIV etc, but this will be the first forum for water and sanitation.

What do you see in these districts?
We see very high levels of poverty – these communities are marginalized as they are very rural far from social services delivery centres and often with very bad roads. These communities are mostly dependent upon agriculture, either small scale or subsistence farming, where they grow just enough grain foods for their own use at home.

These communities also have very high instances of diseases and mortality rates. They are forgotten communities of a human race living on the same planet earth like many of us.

What sort of technologies does WaterAid use to help people build new water supplies and sanitation facilities?
We are using technologies that are:

1) local and can be embraced by the communities
2) those that can be replicated by the communities
3) those that are eco-friendly.

This depends on the nature of the local area terrain. For example, we use rainwater harvesting where rain is plentiful at some times during the year. Some rainwater harvesting jars could hold up to 10,000 liters, which can be used for a family for maybe three to six months during a dry spell. In drier areas, we are using deeper wells or boreholes. We are using shallow wells less because the water table is dropping. In Northern Uganda, we are looking at sand dams, to address issue of water scarcity. This is important in these areas where Pastoralists live because they need water for their animals too which is a source of their livelihood.

What differences do you see in the communities that WaterAid has helped gain access to safe water and sanitation?
After WaterAid’s intervention, we see a reduction in instances of disease. Bringing water closer to the communities has so many positive implications:

• Children can now go to school as early as possible, instead of spending many hours walking on the roads to get water from the spring.
• Communities can use water for economic enterprises, like poultry farming to earn some small income.
• Where there are water user committees to maintain boreholes, these committees can manage revolving funds paid by the people to use the water that can also be used for people to borrow, like microfinance, especially for women’s groups.

What is the most challenging aspect of your work?
Actual implementation is very challenging, especially the weather patterns, which have become very unpredictable. For example, many of the areas where we work are prone to floods. Traditionally there were two rainy seasons (late fall and spring), but the rains have been inconsistent for 10 years now.

Also, these communities are hard to reach – in terms of doing interventions, you need to invest a lot of resources in transportation, like fuel whose price is increasing day by day.  So in the long-term this often requires high costs that are separate from the costs of just building the WASH project.

Thank you for talking to me. Is there anything else you would like to tell WaterAid’s supporters in the US?
I would like to say that we strongly appreciate and are glad that there are generous people out there who go out of their own way to put their own time and resources to change lives for the poor – those who cannot get to where they are. We are grateful that they go out of their way and the bring on board others to help too.

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