BY ZAINAB ALI
Speaker of Parliament the Rt Hon Rebecca Kadaga has asked the Ministry of Health to close all government health facilities without toilets, saying the statistics are sickening.
While opening the first-ever parliamentary symposium on Water and Sanitation, the Speaker of Parliament said she was dismayed to learn that 85% of government health centers in Uganda do not have latrines
The symposium was held at Parliament on Friday, 15 November 2019.
“If 85% of government health facilities do not have toilets, we should close them, we should create a crisis in the country, close them then the government will wake up,” said Kadaga.
The Speaker said she was disturbed that just like it is the case with latrine coverage, Uganda is grappling with low levels of water coverage.
The Speaker also told the Ministry of Water and Environment to stop painting a wrong picture of a higher coverage in the country.
she cited instances in her constituency where water shortage had become the source of domestic violence and a risk factor for child pregnancies.
Kadaga said men were habitually beating their wives for spending more time while fetching water from long distances, while children were getting raped on long journeys searching for water.
The Commissioner for Environmental Health, Dr. Julian Komuhangi, said the country is generally performing poorly in sanitation and hygiene indicators, citing districts that are still practicing open defecation.
