Providing decent toilets and saving lives in Kawempe (Uganda)

Kawempe is a region within Kampala. More than 300,000 people in this area suffered from poor water and sanitation facilities. Beneficiary Christine Namakula said: "There were no appropriate toilet facilities in the communities of Kawempe. Part of the population use to practice open defecation."

In 2013, we initiated a project that aimed to reduce water-borne diseases among residents and especially children under five years old living in the poor areas of Kawempe municipality by providing affordable and sustainable sanitation services.

Since our intervention, the people no longer use holes in the ground for toilets. We built 240 public toilets with handwashing points at local businesses. Five schools were also provided with handwashing points to serve 2,523 students. We built five community latrines in public places managed by local user committees.