First Lady of Uganda stresses the importance of WASH in improving child and maternal health 

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Images show: The Minister of Water and Environment, the Hon. Mutagamba, and Mrs. Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda, and the Press Conference held by WaterAid and ANEW.

Apologies we have not posted a blog in the past few days, but we have been incredibly busy this past week. And here’s why… weeks ago we put in an invitation to the First Lady of Uganda, also Uganda’s National Patron for Sanitation, to partake in a press conference on sanitation and water during the AU Summit.

While the Minister of Water and Environment, the Honorable Maria Mutagamba and Professor Edward Kairu, Chairperson of ANEW, were on board from the start and enthusiastic about taking part, we were less sure about how successful we would be to secure the First Lady’s participation, especially during a very busy AU Summit schedule. We decided to propose the press conference to take place on July 26, smack in the middle of the First Ladies’ Forum.

We were in luck. Continuous follow up with the First Lady’s office finally bore fruit last week when she accepted our invitation! While many preparations were in place, it was still a week of frantic running around to meet with the First Ladies’ Office, the Ministry, the media, and those in charge of ‘protocol’ and security for the First Lady at the Summit venue.

But last night, the First Lady of Uganda, Mrs. Janet Museveni, arrived just 45 minutes delayed (not late!) amidst tight security at the media briefing room. Facilitated by Yunia Musaazi, WaterAid’s East Africa Advocacy and Policy Advisor, the press conference kicked off with a strong opening address by Professor Kairu, ANEW’s Chairperson, who had flown in from Nairobi especially for this occasion. His statement emphasised the important role that civil society organizations play in working with governments to implement continental commitments on water and sanitation, in particular the Sharm el-Sheikh commitments on water and sanitation of 2008:

“It is crucial for Civil Society and governments to work together to ensure that the voices of the millions of people who don’t have access to these basic services are heard. Governments must not forget their commitments and as civil society we must work with them to implement their promises in an equitable and sustainable manner.”

He also spoke about the importance of the partnership between ANEW, the largest Pan-African civil society network on water and sanitation in Africa with now over 300 members, and AMCOW, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), and thanked the Minister for her continued support of the network.

The Honourable Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water and Environment, followed with a passionate call for the media to take up the issue of sanitation in particular. She spoke not only on behalf of the Ministry of Water and Environment, but also as a Board member of UNSGAB, the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, and AMCOW, the ministerial body and Specialised Technical Committee (STC) of the African Union set up in 2002 to monitor progress on implementation of continental commitments on water and sanitation. In addition to highlighting some of the various solutions in sanitation, such as ECOSAN, she stated that:

“This topic is close to my heart. Having access to safe sanitation and clean water is of crucial importance for the health of a human being. It is especially important for women and children, who in many cases are disproportionately affected by lack of access to these services. […] Children fall ill due to unsanitary environments and mothers give birth in unhygienic conditions. Many school days are lost, and many work days are lost due to water and sanitation related illnesses. A child’s physical and mental health suffers, mothers suffer, and the environment suffers.” 

Lastly, Uganda’s First Lady and Patron of Sanitation, Mrs. Janet Museveni, made the key note address of the evening, urging African Heads of State to take into consideration water and sanitation when discussing child and maternal health on the continent, and expressing concern about the current states of the sanitation and water MDGs:

“I am concerned because Africa continues to lose too many women and children every day, mostly of illnesses that are entirely preventable. If we do not multiply and improve our efforts, and if we do not recognise the integrated nature of Africa’s development, improving the health of Africa’s children and Africa’s mothers will be extremely challenging.”

“I therefore urge African leaders to take the issue of sanitation, hygiene and water into serious consideration when discussing child, infant and maternal health in Africa. Heads of State must not forget previous commitments made on water and sanitation, in particular the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments on water and sanitation, and the Declaration on sanitation of 2008. These commitments must be part and parcel to the development and resourcing of national child and maternal health strategies […] I hope that the decisions and action plans that come out of the AU Summit will reflect this.”

She concluded with a reminder that “in the time I have been speaking to you, 7 African children have died just from diarrhoea. So let us act now; to ensure that every African child and woman can live a healthy and dignified life.”

Followed by a question and answer session, both the Minister and the First Lady responded to the media on issues of ensuring clean water is available in hospitals, balancing the privatization of water with ensuring it is affordable to the country’s poorest, as well as their expectations and hopes for the outcomes of the Summit.

All in all, we feel that the press conference went extremely well. Not only were we able to secure high level participation on an issue so important to the theme of the Summit, but the First Lady’s Office also stressed to us that they were very pleased with this event. We hope that the fact that this is the first time the First Lady has acted upon her role as Patron for Sanitation, this event has been the start of a longer term engagement between WaterAid and Uganda’s National Patron for Sanitation.

We feel that the Minister’s passionate plea to the media to talk more about sanitation will have an impact, and we believe that Prof. Kairu’s participation on behalf of ANEW has really raised awareness on the importance of civil society organizations in representing the voices of the poor and marginalized. Hopefully, with this press conference we will have made a small but powerful contribution to this AU Summit, and we are hoping to see the issues of WASH highlighted as the Summit comes to a close.

(First media hit can be found here and we hope it is followed by more soon! http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/ugandan-first-lady-laments-rate-of-child-mortality-in-africa-2010072753535.html).

For now, we are heading up north for the rest of the week to gather stories for the MDG Summit, but will soon follow with a separate blog on the Summit opening ceremony and some of the sessions attended by WaterAid staff.

Till then…

Mara Van Den Bold

Media officer Chloe has just sent this picture through from the slums in Kampala with the caption "water flowing through the gutter on it's way to be drunken..."

She writes on her facebook page: "the most incredible but depressing day in the slums in Kampala. mindblowing. met the most amazing people, with the most difficult lives. if only everyone could see this, I think the world would be a different place."

Mara van Den Bold writes:

Yesterday we had an incredible day visiting WaterAid Uganda’s urban programme work.

We spoke to different community members who have no safe and hygienic place to go to the toilet, and have no place to collect clean water. They thus experience first hand the impacts that unsafe sanitation, water and hygiene have on their health and especially their children’s health (see the detailed update from Chloe!).

This environment gives one a stark picture of what every day life is like in these communities, and highlights how important it is to integrate development efforts. Access to sanitation and water relates closely to the health of both children and adults; it affects children’s school enrolment – especially that of girls, it affects children’s physical and mental development, it affects the extent to which a body can absorb nutrients, it affects how those living with HIV/AIDS can be cared for and can care for their babies, it affects the environment in which mothers have to give birth to their children, it affects a family’s income due to lost work days, and the list goes on. The linkages are crystal clear in these communities: there is no way that child and maternal health can be attained without looking at crucial interventions like water and sanitation.

Tuesday was a slightly different day - one of registration and planning. Part of the WaterAid team working on the AU Summit has started to attend the official meetings, and has begun to organise various lobbying sessions with some of the key delegates attending the Summit – to ensure that sanitation and water are on their radars and that they recognise the linkages between water and sanitation and health. This is particularly important in light of the upcoming Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in September this year in New York, where world leaders will come together to discuss how to meet these goals that aim to significantly alleviate poverty by 2015.

The other part of WaterAid’s team has been busy ensuring registration and accreditation is finalized, amidst the tight security following the bombings. We also received some very exciting news, which we will share on this blog very soon – so watch this space!

Lastly, WaterAid and ANEW’s participation in the press conference last week has been picked up by a few other news agencies following yesterday’s article in New Vision – you can find them here:

• http://allafrica.com/stories/201007191788.html
  
• http://www.silobreaker.com/african-leaders-told-to-improve-sanitation-provide-clean-water-5_2263592460292718625

till tomorrow!

WaterAid media officer Chloe Irvine blogs from the slums in Kampala

How would you like to go to a toilet here?

It's a hole filled with shit. And maggots. No flush, no porcelain seat to sit on, no toilet paper. No soap, no water. Just a hole. Not to mention the smell.

For the communities living in this slum in Kawempe, a district in Kampala which we visited today, this is a reality. In fact you could say that those who have access to these ‘toilets’ are the lucky ones. With nowhere else to go to the loo, others simply use the open ground between their houses or shit into a bag which gets thrown in a gutter.

It’s not just the indignity of having nowhere to go to the toilet, today we saw first hand the appalling effect that this has on the health of people living in such impoverished conditions, particularly children.

When we arrived in Kawempe we met with a local leader who told us that at least three children die from water and sanitation related diseases every month. Many others get very sick, mostly with chronic diarrhea, on a regular basis.

As we walked through the village, meeting communities and seeing the conditions in which people were living, I was horrified. Working at WaterAid I’ve seen many photos of these types of conditions, and even lived in Africa for a few months, but nothing could quite prepare me for what we saw and the stories of the people we met.

If only the heads of state meeting at the African Union summit over the weekend could experience the life that millions across Africa endure – squatting over a maggot-infested hole, giving your child water which you know will make him or her sick, or seeing your child die simply because you and your family have no access to a safe toilet or clean water.  It’s clear to me that we need to really drive home the incredible health benefits that something as simple and cheap as a safe loo can bring.

International charity WaterAid is calling on heads of state at the African Union Summit taking place in Kampala this week to tackle the crisis by prioritising sanitation and water in their child and maternal health policies.  

We picked up a copy of Uganda’s main newspaper New Vision today, and were excited to find (on Page 3 no less!) an article on water and sanitation and their importance for child health.

The article – African leaders told to improve sanitation, provide clean water - extensively quotes Yunia Musaazi, our Regional Advocacy and Policy Advisor for East Africa, and can be read here: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/726256.

New Vision was one of the media houses covering the press conference last Thursday. Well done to WaterAiders to get sanitation and water on Page 3 of the main newspaper here in Uganda!

Friday 16 July saw the official close of the 3 day pre-Summit meeting of civil society organisations, before the African Union Summit officially starts on 19 July.

Following the discussions of the previous two days, drafting committees worked hard on Thursday night and Friday morning to develop the first versions of civil society organisations’ statement, addressed to the 15^th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union.

Two declarations were refined and adopted, on Child, Infant and Maternal health and on Peace and Security. WaterAid and ANEW were both an integral part of the drafting committee on the first declaration.

The Kampala Declaration and Recommendations emphasises the fact that every day, “an average of 800 women [die] due to pregnancy and child birth-related complications and 13,000 newborns – a situation that undermines the achievement of the other MDG targets, thus slowing development progress on the continent. The document outlines 6 recommendations, including one on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), which emphasises the need to integrate WASH with child and maternal health and urges adequate resourcing at national level, citizens’ participation and governance in the WASH sector.

The Kampala Declaration will be presented to Heads of State during the African Union Summit, and it is important that sanitation and water have featured quite strongly during the discussions over the past few days.

We expect that following the recent (and horrific) bombings here in Kampala , peace and security will be high on the African Union’s agenda, yet we also hope that significant dialogues will take place on maternal, infant and child health, and that access to safe sanitation and water are recognised as critical in improving newborn, child and maternal health in Africa.

Next week, WaterAid staff will be reporting from the AU Summit, as well as visiting our partner organisations and meeting with community members in Kampala –  to talk about their experiences living without adequate access to safe sanitation, water, and hygiene, and how this has affected the health of their mothers and children...

2: Over 20 media organisations were at the press conference

3: Yunia Musaazi speaks about the critical role of WASH in child and maternal health in Africa

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