Rural Water Supply and Community Participation Research Papers (original) (raw)

A knowledge, attitudes and practices study with respect to environmental sanitation was conducted in Kabarole and Masindi Districts in western Uganda in late 1991, using focus groups, formal interviews, key informant interviews, and... more
A knowledge, attitudes and practices study with respect to environmental sanitation was conducted in Kabarole and Masindi Districts in western Uganda in late 1991, using focus groups, formal interviews, key informant interviews, and observation techniques. The purpose of the study was to develop a better understanding of the rural population's knowledge, attitudes and practices with respect to environmental sanitation, with a view to improving the sanitation component of the Integrated Rural Water and Environmental Sanitation implemented by the Government of Uganda with assistance from UNICEF. A review of the programme in 1990 had suggested both that the sanitation component was lagging behind the water component in implementation and that the sanitation programme had been concentrating too heavily on the promotion of latrines, ignoring other aspects of sanitation and local people's understanding of it.
Rural people in Kabarole and Masindi have a complex and multi-faceted conception of sanitation ("obwecumi" or "obuyongo" in the Rutoro/Runyoro languages). This conception encompasses housing, personal hygiene and food practices, as well as excreta disposal. "Sanitation" is taken to mean having a clean house and compound, washing oneself and one's clothes, having a clean kitchen and eating clean food, and having a latrine. Drinking clean water is sometimes mentioned as well. Sanitation is thought to have both social benefits (esteem, admiration from the community) and health benefits (preventing disease); 81% of respondents in formal interviews said that having a latrine helps prevent the spread of disease. While people are aware of the health benefits of sanitation, only very few respondents outside elite groups like teachers and community leaders were able to explain in detail the link between sanitation and disease prevention.
"Knowledge" of sanitation and its benefits does not seem to be a major problem in these two districts. Rather the problem for sanitation promotion lies in overcoming economic, technical and other constraints to the implementation of effective sanitation programmes and in adapting the programme's sanitation "package" to suit local needs and conventions.
While it appears that health education programmes such as the School Health Education Project have had some effect in promoting knowledge of sanitation, it does not seem that this "improved knowledge" has led to any change in practices. Further, it appears that the transfer of health and sanitation knowledge from SHEP-educated children to their parents and elders is minimal. Parents feel it is their role to teach children, not vice versa.
Seventy two per cent of households were observed to have a latrine. This figure may underestimate latrine access and use, for 24% of households reported that more than one household used their latrine. However, children under five generally do not (or are not allowed to) use latrines. Overall, the latrine seems to be by far the preferred means of excreta disposal for adults and older children, except in the pastoralist, cattle-herding societies where staying near a latrine is, for obvious reasons, impossible. Only 16% of households had access to a protected water source.
By far the most common suggestion from villagers for improving the sanitation standard of rural villages was a call for strict enforcement of a sanitation code and steep fines for offenders. Education and persuasion were widely seen to have failed as means of promoting sanitation. The enforcement agency most often favoured was the local Resistance Committee. There are, however, technical and other reasons to believe that mandatory latrine by-laws and the like would not succeed.
Strong taboos enforce strict age and gender divisions of labour related to water and sanitation in both Kabarole and Masindi. Women and children are responsible for fetching water from the source to the household; boys must stop carrying water when they reach the age of about 12 (in Kabarole) or when they marry (in Masindi). Men who fetch water are seen as being weak or even bewitched by their wives. Women are responsible for managing the use of water in the home for all purposes except construction and beer brewing, which are men's responsibility. Maintenance and light repairs of household sanitation facilties (kitchens, drying racks, latrines) fall under women's sphere; major repairs and construction of new facilties for water and sanitation (dams, wells, latrines) are men's responsibility and women are forbidden to participate.
The study concludes with a series of recommendations on how to improve the implementation of the sanitation component of the Integrated Rural Water and Sanitation Programme. Recommendations concentrate on making the programme more sensitive to local knowledge, attitudes, practices, needs and constraints.