Thursday 15 May 2014

CIDI CAUSES IMPROVED LEADERS’ RESPONSIVENESS TO COMMUNITY WATER AND SANITATION NEEDS


Geared at Promoting citizens’ recognition on the right to safe water and good sanitation in Katakwi District, Community Integrated Development Initiative (CIDI) in its work identified several initiatives and recognized the need to engage several stakeholders in Katwaki to achieve this. First, CIDI engaged and advocated to WaterAid Uganda on the need to train several water boards in Katakwi District. The purpose of which was to strengthen/enhance their capacities to perform their task better. Among others, Katakwi Town Council Water Board was trained while Toroma Town Board has also been registered with them for the next training.
Other moves done to improve hygiene and sanitation were use of radio programs to educate the community on the need for, their rights and responsibilities to safe water and good sanitation and to challenge/task leaders to fulfill this human right/service delivery need.  Reports indicate that these radio programs alongside several face to face engagements with the responsible leaders caused improved responsiveness of the leaders to community needs; for example, Katakwi district has integrated hygiene and sanitation in their local government programs. They launched the action “KEEP TOROMA CLEAN”.  This sanitation drive was introduced after CIDI’s intervention and is conducted on the first Wednesday of each new month. Its purpose is to promote the best practices of hygiene and good sanitation in the district. During the sanitation drive, mobilization and education of the communities on the best practices of sanitation and hygiene is done. So far, about 150 households have been reached both within Toroma Town Board, neighboring villages and the sub-counties. And an increase in the erection and utilization of hygiene and sanitation facilities has also been registered as compared to the previous years.
As a motivation and sustainability strategy of this drive, Sub- Counties in this regard are awarding the best performing villages Certificates of Merit for adopting the best practices of hygiene and sanitation.
Finally, through the training and empowerment gained, some communities have influenced the District Water Office to give them water guard tablets. This has allowed for those people to consume safe and clean drinking water and curb disease outbreak, while others have through district dialogues with key stakeholders demanded for cleaning of their contaminated water points and testing of the water quality that was presumably substandard. It can therefore be said, that community led advocacy and the leaders’ improvement in responding to community needs has consequently led to improved hygiene and sanitation standards in Katakwi district.