Kampala Klo Tour

Slum kid in Kampala, the sanitation is so bad!, originally uploaded by inainchina.

Yesterday I visited together with Kampala city council their ecological toilet projects in one of the poor parishes of Kampala. Under local conditions it is considered as a ‚slum’ , or more or less informal settlement. Considering the building structure it is not as ‚Slummy’ as for comparison what i saw in South African townships or in Bombay, where the people have no real houses at all. BUT regarding the conditions, it is as poor as everywhere. The infrastructure is not existing at all, and the people live in terrible sanitary conditions. Waste and sullage everywhere, animals and a lot of SDM Kids. Right in the middle. I met a family, owner of one of the very nice ecosan toilets, and the old lady told us, she has now 5 HIV/AIDS orphans more to take care of. Luckily the kids were all smiling at me, otherwise i would have been totally depressed and in shock. Seeing the sanitary situation I immediately felt sick.
The approach to solve the s(h)ituation is difficult but not impossible: People need to change their attitude and increase awerness, and in teh same time having the right technology for faeces and sullage, and enough waste bins & collection system established. having technology but no awarness, OR having awarness but no technology, will not change anything. so both neeed tp go hand in hand. it takes time, effort, and money, and political interest/will.
nevertheless i am truly convinced that the ecosan toilet is the right approach for slum areas instead of smelly dirty pit latrines.