Kabarole district health inspector Oliver Tumuhairwe revealed that open defecation around the source of river Mpanga in Karangura Sub-County has greatly contributed towards the contamination of about 60% of the water used by the community.
“Our water contamination level has gone as high as 69% and we have to work hard and make sure that we reverse that situation. When you go to our OPD you find cases of diarrhoea,” she said.
She explained that only 15% of the homesteads in the district have the recommended standard latrines while another 19% have no toilets.
She made the revelation during the commissioning of a newly improved toilets system in the district.
“We have not reported cases of cholera in Kabarole district in more than 20 years now but we are still at risk when we see that 69% of the sources of water are contaminated,” she noted
She further added: “So the remaining percentage of 19% out of 100% don’t have latrines at all, those ones we assume that they are using open defecation,”
She also said that hand washings after latrine use is only at 10% which exposes great risk of contracting diarrheal diseases such dysentery, typhoid, cholera among others.
Richard Rwabuhinga, the LC5 Kabarole district said it is important for the community to always protect the ground water from all sort of contamination as one way of mitigating associated challenges.
“The ash is available, the ash also kills bacteria in the faeces and finally the faeces are used as manure within our fields so it is such a cross cutting technology that also boosts agriculture in the other hand as well as sanitation issues,” he said.