• Every week, Water Aid said, approximately 7,000 people and between 4,200 to 7,000 trucks cross the border.
• Other facilities that have been handed over are those in Holili, Horohoro, Lungalunga and Rusizi borders
Image: HANDOUT
WaterAid and Uganda Water and Sanitation Network on Friday launched the newest one stop WASH facilities at the Malaba border point at Tororo district.
This is a key trading route in the East African region that connects Uganda and Kenya.
The WASH (Water, sanitation and hygiene) initiative is part of the ongoing activities to promote hygiene and to combat diseases such as Covid-19 across border points and promote trade. The last of such facilities in Kenya was opened on May 31 at the Busia border point.
Every week, Water Aid said in a statement on Thursday, approximately 7,000 people and between 4,200 to 7,000 trucks cross the border.
"The WASH facilities will be handed over to the Uganda Revenue Authority for use and continued sustainability and maintenance of the facilities," the statement said.
Other facilities that have been handed over are those in Holili, Horohoro, Lungalunga and Rusizi borders covering the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda crossings.
Olutayo Bankole-Bolawole, WaterAid East Africa's Regional Director said under phase one, they launched similar projects on the Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania side of the border.
"We realized for us to truly make a difference we needed to expand the project on the Uganda side as well. Managing handwashing facilities at border points should go hand in hand with continued behavior change awareness campaigns, with an emphasis on hand hygiene to combat the spread of communicable diseases, build resilient health systems, cross border trading, lives and livelihood," Bankole-Bolawole said.
WaterAid said another sanitation and hygiene facility will be launched in Vurra, Arua border point in Uganda in July.
"Beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, the one stop WASH facilities will support neighboring communities in minimizing the spread of communicable diseases," the statement added.
The organisation also announced that it has launched a new global strategy to have 400 million more people with sustainable and safe WASH globally by 2032 and $15 billion more a year mobilized towards WASH in low and middle-income countries.
"To achieve this, four focal areas will be prioritized: universal, sustainable and safe services in focused geographic areas to influence wider change; WASH across the health sector to improve public health; climate resilient WASH and increasing the quantity and quality of sector financing.
"To this end, the international NGO will continue building on its existing work, partnerships and influence since being established in 1982," it said.
Yunia Musaazi, the Executive Director of UWASNET said Covid-19 pandemic brought out the centrality and relational value the Water and Sanitation sub-sector has to human health, social and economic development and the need to prioritise the sector in the national budget.
In this regard, she said, Uganda Water and Sanitation Network is grateful to partners like WaterAid who partnered with them to fund the installation of sanitation and handwashing facilities to benefit the most affected communities along Uganda’s borders.
"We are also grateful to partners like Uganda Revenue Authority that gave us an opportunity to address some of their most pressing needs and we are hopeful the facilities will contribute to limiting the transmission of communicable diseases like cholera, intestinal worms, and Covid-19,” Musaazi said.