Improving access to sanitation in Kampala slums

Kampala, the capital of Uganda, faces rapid population growth which has a negative impact on the capacity to plan and deliver services. Where Kampala only had 46,735 inhabitants in 1959, by 1980 that had increased to 458,503 and at the time of the last census in 2002, Kampala had as many as 1,189,142 inhabitants. Rural-urban migration has been a principal factor in population growth in Kampala. Another challenge is the day-time population which reaches about 2.8 million on weekdays, as thousands flock to the city to earn a living.
The high rate at which the city's population continues growing, averaging about 4 per cent a year, has overwhelmed Kampala City Council (KCC) and overstretched its capacity to adequately plan the development of the city and also implement its plans. Consequently, many unplanned developments have come up, often in prohibited areas such as the wetlands. Moreover, KCC has limited capacity to provide basic services and infrastructure. That has led to the growth and expansion of slums, which are characterized by inadequate services and infrastructure, poor quality housing and poor environmental conditions. As much as poverty in Uganda has a rural face, it is the urban poor in Kampala who are much more disadvantaged; having limited productive assets such as land, housing, businesses, skills and employment. Hence, their incomes are far below the general average for the urban population and they have very poor access to the normal city services such as water, sanitation, solid waste management, education and medical services. Many of the urban poor
households are female headed. Currently, over 60 per cent of the population lives in slums -the most conspicuous manifestation of urban poverty in Kampala today. [authors abstract]

This three-day workshop aims to identify proven good practices in the sanitation and hygiene sector, as well as drawing lessons from failures to enter into the policy dialogue. It focuses on urban sanitation with an emphasis on learning and innovation in the sector. It was organised by : UNICEF, GTZ, WSSCC, WaterAid and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.