Barriers to improved sanitary facilities, access and the problems associated with usage of unimproved sanitary facilities in Kyegegwa Town Council

Abstract

Background: In Uganda, 66% of households do not use improved sanitary facilities and 8% of households do not have a sanitary facility at all. In Kyegegwa district, about 3.7% of the households in Kyegegwa district do not have access to a sanitary facility (UBOS, 2017). In particular, Kyegegwa town council has over 87% of the households in Kyegegwa town council lacking access to improved sanitary facilities (MMU, 2016). Therefore, this study aimed to assess the barriers to improved sanitary facilities access and the problems associated with usage of unimproved sanitary facilities in Kyegegwa town council. Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed. Semi structured questionnaires and observational checklists were used to collect quantitative data from 192 randomly sampled households by face-to-face interviews. Univariate analysis of data was carried out using STATA version 12. The data was analyzed for frequencies and proportions and presented using tables. Results: Female respondents were the majority (54.17%). More than half (57.81%) of the respondents had shared sanitary facilities. in addition, majority were tenants. Access to improved sanitary facilities was hindered by the attitude of the respondents since more than three quarters of them were not feeling shame or disgusted about the poor condition of their sanitary facilities. Not being convenient, contraction of diseases, not being effective in protection against diseases and others were some of the challenges associated with utilization of unimproved sanitary facilities. Conclusion: Shared sanitary facilities were highly reported by more than half of the respondents which makes them unimproved. Therefore, there is need for collaborative efforts to improve the quality of the sanitary facilities in Kyegegwa town council.