Ecological sanitation coverage and associated factors in Kabale municipality

Abstract

Introduction: Ecological sanitation is a promising novel sanitation approach being promoted in many countries as an alternative to the conventional systems in efforts to boost sanitation coverage as well as meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goal 7 (MDG) of improving environmental sustainability. Objective: To assess the coverage of ecological sanitation and associated factors in Kabale Municipality. Methods: A cross-sectional study using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection was conducted in Kabale Municipality from January to March 2009. 806 households were sampled. Purposive and clustered sampling was used to select the respondents. Semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussion and key informant interview guides were tools used to collect the data. Data was entered in Epi- data and exported to Stata version 9 for analysis. Associations were identified using chi-square and statistical significance determined using 95% Confidence Interval and P-values. Odds Ratios were used as the measure of association. Multivariate analysis was done using logistic regression and qualitative data were analyzed using categorized analysis. Results The coverage of ecological sanitation in Kabale Municipality was found to be 20.2% (163/806) and 82% (661) of the respondents were knowledgeable about ecological sanitation. The factors that were significantly associated with ecological sanitation coverage included; education (Secondary – OR=0.38, CI=0.19-0.77, Tertiary- OR=0.2, CI 0.15-0.27), occupation (Peasants- OR=0.43, CI 0.26-0.71, Business- OR=0.38, CI 0.22-0.65, Salaried/ Civil servants- OR=0.17, CI 0.09-0.32), religion (Muslims- OR=10.67, CI 6.71-16.96), age of the respondents (Age category 30-39- OR=0.59, CI 0.51-0.69, Age category 40-49- OR=0.42, CI 0.27-0.67, and Age category 50 years and above- OR=0.41, CI 0.38-0.44). Conclusion Our study showed that there is a feasible increase in the coverage of ecological sanitation in Kabale municipality. Ecological sanitation contributes quarter of the total sanitation coverage with more than a half of the toilet facilities being traditional pit latrines. The factors that were significantly associated with ecological sanitation coverage included education, occupation, religion, age of the respondents and income.