Effects of Socio - Economic Conditions on Latrine Coverage in Lakeshore Communities :

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the government of Uganda and development partners have made significant investment into improving excreta disposal in the county. Recent studies indicate that this effort has however been impeded by diverse obstacles some of which being the socio-economic characteristics of the population. However, the extent to which these socio –economic factors determine latrine coverage still remains controversial. This study was therefore conducted with the aim of establishing the Effect of socio – economic conditions on latrine coverage in Kagwara landing site, Kadungulu Sub County, Serere district.

This was a cross sectional study involving both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Purposive sampling was employed to choose the study area, the selected political and technical leaders of Serere district and Kadungulu Sub County who participated in the Key Informant Interviews as well as community and opinion leaders who constituted the Focus Group Discussion. Simple random sampling was used to choose100 household representatives on whom Questionnaires were administered to collect Quantitative data. Other qualitative methods of data collection employed in the study included; Review of secondary data sources, observation and photography. The data was analysed using SPSS (Special Package for Social Sciences) to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical tests of significance were run to determine the relationship between socio –economic conditions and uptake of excreta disposal facilities.

The findings showed that latrine coverage was still low (50%) and below the level that is empirically recommended by (Ikin, 1994) i.e. 90% for a community to enjoy public health benefits in the study area. This finding is similar to what other studies such as (Mataagi, 2001; WSSCC, 2007) have previously established. The relationship between latrine coverage and socio – economic factors was found to be statistically significant with p<0.001 at level of (5% or 0.05). The researcher therefore concluded that socio –economic factors significantly determined the level of adoption of excreta disposal facilities in Kagwara landing site. The researcher suggests that both state and non-state promoters of sanitation in the study area should increase sensitization and training of local people on hygiene and sanitation in order to counter the negative social issues affecting uptake of excreta disposal facilities, provide programs that improve economic empowerment of local people, directly target owners of rental housing units with enforcement of bye- laws and introduce excreta disposal technologies that are adapted to conditions of water logging and collapsing soil formation