All Africa, 11 December 2014
Eighty-five per cent of the disease burden in Uganda is caused by poor sanitation and hygiene, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said on Monday.
Meeting Barbara Frost, the WaterAid International chief executive, and other stakeholders in the sanitation and hygiene sector at his office, he cited such diseases as diarrhoea, intestinal worms, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and scabies. He pointed out that basics such as hand washing were not strictly observed.
"As a result, the country is incurring excessive costs on diseases related to poor sanitation and hygiene. We spend $8.1m to treat sanitation and hygiene-related illness," he said, adding that even more money was being spent on premature deaths associated with sanitation and hygiene-related diseases. Read more....