Download a pdf version of the Katine activity, where is the loo? or read the following:
Lesson objectives
• To consider the problems associated with poor sanitation
• To realise that poor sanitation isn't just a problem in remote rural areas
• To consider the moral and political duties of a government to provide adequate water and sanitation systems
• To investigate the design and building of affordable latrines and to learn about their construction.
Introduction
In Katine, as in many settlements in developing countries, providing enough toilets is a problem. Making sure that they are safe and hygienic is even more difficult. Imagine what your bathroom at home would be like if 100 people were using it and there was no water to flush it afterwards. If your main water supply was from the bathroom too, would you be happy?
Extract 1
The chief of Sanitation: Katine
Charles Elasu, 45, is the parish chief of Ochuloi, one of six parishes in Katine sub-county. It covers an area of about 30 square kilometres, containing 16 villages and 5,000 people.
How important are sanitation issues?
Very important. If you don't live in a clean environment, you are always surrounded by problem after problem. You are always surrounded by disease.
What are the key sanitation problems in your area?
One is that we lack pit latrines in this area. The coverage is very low. We want to teach people about sanitation to avoid diseases like cholera and diarrhoea. We want to help people in this parish so that they can live in a clean environment. But people also need things like pick-axes, wheelbarrows and other tools to help sink these pit latrines.
Why is it that many people in this area don't have latrines and so use bushes instead?
We have had a lot of insurgency in this area. People were always on the run and didn't have time to dig pit latrines.
Did many people have latrines when you were growing up here?
People did not understand about the issues as much back then. So very few people had latrines.
Extract 2:
Naguru, Kampala
Twekembe slum is in the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. It is home to around 4,000 residents, many of whom are refugees.
The slum has two pit latrines that serve the whole area, including the church and local school which has 300 pupils. The latrines are open and dirty and when it rains they overflow. Some residents had no choice but to throw faeces in plastic bags into the drainage channels, with their household waste, running the risk of contaminating their water supply. The council provided one toilet, which is managed by a local landlord. However, with a charge per person, so many residents cannot afford to use it. The standard of these toilets is poor and they are badly designed. This makes them hard to clean and to maintain. Dirty, poorly maintained toilets leak sewage into the ground and water supplies, and become breeding grounds for diseases and parasites such as worms.
Supplies of clean, running water are also scarce. There are one or two taps in the whole area but residents are unable to raise the money needed to install more.
Due to the low standard of living, dirty water and poor sanitary conditions in the slum, the health of residents is poor.
Thus the project name "twekembe", meaning "let's work together and help each other".
Activity
Read the extracts and visit the weblinks before going any further.
In the UK we expect cities to have more and better facilities than villages and to be well planned settlements. When we read about Katine we might think "Well, it's a village, of course the toilets will be terrible. It's in the middle of nowhere!" but in Uganda, sanitation is a problem wherever you go.
1.What are the main sanitation problems shared by Katine and Naguru?
2. The Ugandan government doesn't want to encourage slums to grow so it doesn't supply them with toilets and fresh water. What do you think of this situation? Is it right or wrong to deny people good sanitation under these circumstances?
3. If you were asked to design a pit latrine for the residents of Katine or the Naguru slum, what advice would you give the locals? Do some research of your own about pit latrines and produce both a set of clear instructions and some diagrams to show how they could build it.
Useful web links
The chief of sanitation, Richard Kavuma.
http://www.theguardian.com/katine/2008/feb/22/health.projectgoals
Twekembe Slum Project, Kampala
http://www.visiting-uganda.com/school/twekembe.html
Uganda: Kampala Slum Dwellers Turn to 'Flying Toilets'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807071116.html
New Latrines for Primary Schools
http://www.theguardian.com/katine/2008/feb/18/projectgoals.health
