Analysis of WASH sector performance in Uganda: case study of access to safe water by region

Abstract

The report from the study presents information on WASH performance by region, focusing on access to clean water and social economic factors in Uganda. The report also presents recommendations for improvement in line with identified gaps and challenges. The sample for the study was limited to the districts covered by the secondary data to be used for the study. Therefore, a total of 135 districts and 5 regions of Uganda was considered in the study. Data was collected from two sources which included the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE). Data was analyzed using SPSS using a sample size of 5 regions. Access to safe water fluctuated between 67% in 2015/16 to 70% in 2017/18 and falling back to 68% in 2019/20 for rural areas. In urban areas basic water attained a high of 79% in 2018/19 and fell back to 71% in 2019/20. In 2019/20 the overall access to clean water in Uganda stands at 71%. On average the level of access to clean water in Uganda is higher (72%) in rural areas compared to urban areas (64%) . Northern region registered the highest (80%) level of access to clean water, followed by Eastern with 70%, central region (without considering Kampala) with 67%, western came last at 66%. Findings show that Northern region with the highest level of access to clean water also has the highest number of boreholes, Eastern region which comes in second place in terms of access to clean water has the largest share of pipe-water systems while western which comes in third place has the highest number of rainwater harvesting systems. The central region with a comparatively lower level of access to clean water. The government and development partners should consider constructing more boreholes and pipe water systems which are the biggest drives of clean water access in Northern and Eastern Uganda. Doing this would increase access to western and central Uganda that are lagging being.