Always eager and willing to champion the struggle for sanitation are the staffs at Sanitation Solutions Group (SSG). So you can imagine their enthusiasm to work with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – Sanitation for Millions project in Apac District in Northern Uganda.
SSG was recently contracted to render exhauster services in Apac and will over the next few weeks empty faecal sludge from designated institutions and dump it in the newly-constructed Feacal Sludge Treatment Plant to aid in testing the facility.
The sludge is expected to be collected from Apac Municipality, Ibuje and Aduku Town Council.
The first edition of the assignment took place on May 24, 2019 where facilities from two institutional clients i.e. Maruzi Secondary School and Nightingale Nursery School.

About the Sanitation for Millions (S4M) project
S4M is a global programme with the main objective to improve access to safely managed sanitation and the hygiene situation especially in countries afflicted by high numbers of refugees and internally displaced people.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and World Bank reports, Uganda accepted about 1.25 millions of refugees until May 2017, of which about 900,000 originate from South Sudan, and about 94,000 live in Kampala.
Approximately 70 percent of the refugees are women and children. The supply with basic amenities and the maintenance of adequate hygiene conditions is a huge challenge for the host communities. There is high demand for improvements of sanitation services at public institutions such as schools. Furthermore, the services along the sanitation chain are currently inadequate and insufficient, neither fully regulated nor controlled.
S4M initiated its intervention in Kampala in May 2017, in close cooperation with GIZ’s Enhanced Water Security and Sanitation (ENWASS) programme, which aims to improve city-wide sanitation in cooperation with the Government of Uganda.

Through co-financing of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, S4M is now expanding its activities within Kampala and to several small towns in Northern Uganda, Apac district.
S4M targets the improvement of the sanitation and hygiene situation in host communities along different lines of intervention such as improvement of sanitation and handwashing facilities and building strong hygiene routines in public schools, with special attention to the needs of girls and disabled students, sustainable operation and maintenance of sanitary facilities in public schools and support to private service providers for the improvement of services along the sanitation chain.

In Northern Uganda, the interventions concentrate on upscaling of sanitation services in small towns in Apac district on the basis of comprehensive town sanitation plans developed with support of GIZ’s ENWASS programme.
The programme’s results directly contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 6 and SDG 4). S4M is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (funds earmarked for Uganda and Jordan).