On a typical day, the Ntinda Market in Kampala, Uganda, bustles with life. Market stalls overflow with colorful rows of bananas, sweet potatoes and pineapples. Among the tightly-spaced stalls, you’ll find Tabitha Kawala, whose produce shines in the mid-morning sun.
Tabitha has been a fixture in the market, watching it grow and change over the years. The market’s latest improvement, a new hand-washing station located in clear view of her stall, brings a wide smile to her face.
“Our market is upgraded now,” she says, looking at the new sky blue station complete with hand-washing information and a mirror. “We are the first to have this type of hand-washing station. It is so good, we are proud.”
Another vendor chimes in,” We show people how to use it when they come in.”
The hand-washing station is one of more than 200 installed in high-traffic areas in and around Kampala’s town center. Ntinda market has six total.
“We are the first to have this type of hand-washing station. It is so good, we are proud.” — Tabitha Kawala
Protecting the Markets
EWB-USA’s longtime partner Bechtel generously underwrote the hand-washing stations. They are important visual reminders for hand hygiene, and they also allow the 500-800 daily market visitors to do a basic task that provides considerable disease prevention: washing hands.
Many of Uganda’s urban residents rely on their daily visits to the town centers and markets. They go to sell goods or purchase foods. So when the onset of COVID-19 resulted in stay-home orders, residents were motivated to battle the virus and keep the markets opened.
“Given the role local markets play in linking urban and rural economies, providing economic opportunity and creating active public spaces, it is important to protect and enhance community markets and the people who depend upon them,” said Zoe Pacciani, the Uganda Country Director for Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA).
Soap – The New Essential
Over 64 percent of Ugandan households do not wash their hands with soap and water, according to a 2018 Water and Environment Sector Performance report. Studies indicate that soap is not widely used for hand-washing but rather for laundry and bathing.
“If we are going to control COVID-19, we have to make hand hygiene accessible to all,” — Zoe Pacciani, Uganda Country Director, Engineers Without Borders USA
Soap is frequently seen as a “non-essential” item. However, in combating COVID-19, water is simply not enough. In order to disable the virus, you need soap to dissolve the “outer envelope” of the virus cell causing it to fall apart.
Zoe saw a need for hand-washing in Kampala’s public spaces, but providing quality soap was challenge.
Soap bars can harbor bacteria, disintegrate quickly and have a tendency to walk away. Meanwhile liquid soap is expensive, not always accessible and not sustainable.
This local challenge required a local solution.
Lathering Up a Competition
Zoe reached out to the Response Innovation Lab (RIL) in Uganda for assistance.
Charlene Cabot, RIL manager for Uganda, said local innovators saw how Covid-19 put their communities at risk and were ready to address the situation quickly.
“Ugandans are quite creative and resourceful, and there are large networks of skilled inventors working within the country,” said Charlene.
The RIL put out a call for “Solid Soap for Public Hand-washing Stations in Uganda.” Forty-five innovators attended the RIL webinar that addressed the challenge. Teams needed to build a lockable soap shaver that utilized bar soap in an efficient and safe manner. The design needed to meet these three criteria:
- People should not come into physical contact with the bar of soap
- The soap needed to be in a lockable container
- The dispenser had to be easy to use
The solution should also be low cost, constructed from locally-available materials and able to be mass-produced. The soap dispenser also needed to be flexible enough to be mounted to various hand-washing station designs.
Within ten days of launching the Challenge, the RIL received 31 applications. The teams built prototypes and submitted videos of their inventions in action.
“It was a very tough competition,” said Charlene. “We had a really hard time narrowing down the applications.”
Ultimately, Ali Kabona was awarded top prize. His simple and effective design used low-cost and locally sourced materials. His innovative spirit and highly detailed presentation helped his invention stand out.
Tugume Clever and Emmanuel Achelu received second and third place, respectively.
Now Ali can see his invention at over 200 hand-washing stations around Kampala. Zoe and Charlene said the grassroots solution will motivate more people to use the stations regularly.
Looking Beyond COVID-19
Hand hygiene has never been more critical, not only in combating COVID-19, but in preventing a range of other infections plaguing fragile countries including diarrhea, cholera and typhoid.
Zoe said the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn international attention to the serious need for infrastructure improvements relating to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
While she’s got the spotlight, she aims to push for improved WASH services throughout Uganda. New infrastructure combined with good hygiene practices will serve Ugandans well beyond COVID-19.
Already Kampala residents are benefitting from the improved hand-washing habits. Susan Namtesa, health inspector for the Kampala Capital City Authority, recently reported that the local rates of communicable diseases and diarrheal infection have declined as residents turn to hand-washing stations to improve hygiene during the pandemic.