The African Water Facility offered a 1 million euro grant to the Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) to support their Kawempe Urban Poor Sanitation Improvement Project (KUPSIP). The project is designed to provide affordable and sustainable sanitation services to over 100,000 urban poor living in the Kawempe Municipality, in Kampala, Uganda.

By expanding sanitation coverage and reducing environmental pollution, the KUPSIP is expected to help improve the health of slum dwellers and decrease the mortality rate of children under five by reducing the spread of cholera and diarrheal disease, which is 23 per cent higher in households where facilities are inadequate and in areas where human waste disposal is improperly managed.

More specifically, the grant will support the:

Provision of sanitation facilities for households, schools and the public in urban poor areas;

Delivery of pro-poor sanitation financing for accessing affordable and improved sanitation infrastructure;

Definition of a sustainable fecal sludge management and safe reuse strategy;

Promotion of collaboration with the private sector to identify and market affordable and consumer-friendly sanitation technologies;

Dissemination of targeted information, education and communication to promote betterhygiene practices; and

Generation and dissemination of knowledge products covering the whole sanitation chain through collaboration with agronomical research institutions.

The AWF grant will cover 74 per cent of the total project costs, while CIDI and collaborating partners will cover the remaining 26 per cent in form of financial and in-kind contributions.

The project will be executed by CIDI in partnership with Kawempe Municipality of the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the National Water and Sewerage Cooperation (NWSC) and should be completed by the end of 2015.