Town sanitation planning experience in small towns: a case of Northern Uganda

Town Sanitation Planning is a holistic approach piloted by GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment, aimed at building capacity of local governments to develop and implement integrated and sustainable Town Sanitation Plans. It focused on improving various sanitation-related measures at the local level including coordination of town planning, sanitation marketing and behaviour change communication, involvement of the local private sector, fully-fledged stakeholder participation and law enforcement. The objective of the project was to make use of Town Sanitation Plans as a basis for planning and prioritizing investments which may result into tangible improvements to sanitation services delivery. Formation of multi-disciplinary and inclusive Sanitation Task forces, inclusive capacity development, private sector participation among others were some of the achievements and lessons learnt from the project. Challenges were encountered including among others; limited resource allocation due to low revenue base of the Town Councils, low income levels of the inhabitants which makes it difficult for the uptake of standardized lined pit designs. As an up-scaling plan, there is need to Streamline financing mechanisms and build local capacity to take up the process and ensure a reduced cost.