Drinking Water Maps of Uganda

In 2004, Uganda's central government set national targets to increase access to clean water and sanitation to 100 percent in urban areas and 77 percent in rural districts by 2015.

So far, Uganda's investment plans, which are expected to cost approximately USD1.4 billion, have helped improve drinking water coverage in rural sub-counties, from 25 percent in the early 1990s to 65 percent in 2009. However, work remains to be done to ensure that all areas meet national targets.

Mapping a Healthier Future finds that more than 14 million people live in 506 subcounties that are ahead of the interim target set by Uganda's planners while approximately 11 million people live in 323 rural subcounties that have not kept pace with national progress on safe drinking water rates. These areas will require special attention and additional investments to keep pace with population growth.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics supplied detailed, localised maps on poverty levels and sanitation. Findings from the report also suggest that there is no clear spatial pattern between poverty rates and safe drinking water coverage rates, with past government investments targeting both poor and less poor areas. There are, however, strong geographic patterns in improved sanitation coverage rates, with lower coverage in northern and eastern Uganda, and higher coverage in central and southwestern parts of the country. Data behind the maps show a direct correlation in Uganda between high poverty rates and low access to improved sanitation.

Water-related diseases, such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera, caused 8% of all deaths in Uganda in 2002. Young children are particularly susceptible. Water-borne diarrheal diseases account for 17% of the deaths of children under the age of five annually.

The report is the result of collaborative efforts between the Uganda Ministry of Health, the Uganda Ministry of Water and Environment, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the International Livestock Research Institute, and the World Resources Institute.