Disabled Access – Rural Water Supply Network

by Louisa Gosling on 3 December 2021 on WaterAid WASHmatters, originally a keynote speech at the 42nd WEDC Conference

Are we doing enough to make water, sanitation and hygiene services as inclusive as possible? Louisa Gosling shares her reflections on how far we have come, and what else we need to achieve.

I started working on equality, inclusion and rights in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in 2011. The challenge then, as it is now, was to do three things:

To raise awareness of inequalities and exclusion by encouraging people working on WASH to think about the different needs of different people and understand the barriers they face.
To develop the skills and confidence of WASH professionals.
To get WASH professionals to recognise the limits of their expertise so that they reach out to others who can help find solutions.

by James Kiyimba, WaterAid Uganda

Pascal Emalu is an old man and resident of Agwajua village, Aweelu parish, Morungatuny Sub County of Amuria district which is over 330 km North East of Kampala. He remembers when young, he was very swift and energetic, doing all his household chores with ease. At 63 years now, he finds problems in doing all what he used to do in his youth full stage.

Ijan Janet Norah (old lady) demonstrating to Hazel Johns (WEDC) the challenges she goes through to use a pit latrine Photo: WaterAid / James Kiyimba

“Way back, I could not think of old age as a kind of disability. Now I am vulnerable, I face lots of challenges in squatting to use a latrine,” Pascal says.
Continue reading “Making sanitation and water accessible to people with disabilities in Uganda”