A Google Earth-GIS based approach to examine the potential of the current rainwater harvesting practices to meet water demands in Mityana district, Uganda

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has become an integral part of global efforts to improve water access. Despite the increasing adoption of RWH in Uganda, there remains a significant knowledge gap in the assessment of RWH systems to meet water demands. In this study, a simplified methodology to estimate rainwater harvesting potential (RWHP) as a function of mean seasonal rainfall and rooftop area, generated using Google Earth and GIS tools is applied. Desired tank storage (DTS) capacities based on user population, demand and dry period lengths, were compared with RWHP to assess whether rooftop areas and tank storage can sustainably supply water for use during the March—May (MAM) and September-November (SON) 90-day dry periods, for three demand levels (i.e. for drinking and cooking (15 litres per capita per day (l/c/d)); for drinking, cooking and hand washing (20 l/c/d); and for drinking, cooking, hand washing, bathing and laundry (50 l/c/d)). Our findings document minimum catchment areas of 60m2 to have rainwater harvesting potential that can sustain households for 90-day dry periods for all three demand levels. However, considering their storage capacities, 25%, 48% and 97% of the existing RWHTs (with storage capacities below 8,000, 10,000 and 20,000 litres respectively) are unable to meet the demand of 15 l/c/d, 20 l/c/d and 50 l/c/d respectively for a 90-day dry period. The results document that the existing storage systems are under-sized for estimated water use under 50 l/c/d demand scenarios. Costs of between 2,000,000–4,500,000 Ugandan shillings (~ 600–1, 250 USD) would be needed to increase existing tank capacities to meet the 50 l/c/d demands for a 90-day dry period. These findings document onerous financial costs to achieve rainwater harvesting potential, meaning that households in Mityana district may have to resort to other sources of water during times of shortage

Feasibility and acceptability of a pilot, peer-led HIV self-testing intervention in a hyperendemic fishing community in rural Uganda.

BackgroundNovel interventions are needed to reach young people and adult men with HIV services given the low HIV testing rates in these population sub-groups. We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of a peer-led oral HIV self-testing (HIVST) intervention in Kasensero, a hyperendemic fishing community (HIV prevalence: 37-41%) in Rakai, Uganda.MethodsThis study was conducted among young people (15-24 years) and adult men (25+ years) between May and August 2019. The study entailed distribution of HIVST kits by trained "peer-leaders," who were selected from existing social networks and trained in HIVST distribution processes. Peer-leaders received up to 10 kits to distribute to eligible social network members (i.e. aged 15-24 years if young people or 25+ years if adult man, not tested in the past 3 months, and HIV-negative or of unknown HIV status at enrolment). The intervention was evaluated against the feasibility benchmark of 70% of peer-leaders distributing up to 70% of the kits that they received; and the acceptability benchmark of >80% of the respondents self-testing for HIV.ResultsOf 298 enrolled into the study at baseline, 56.4% (n = 168) were young people (15-24 years) and 43.6% (n = 130) were adult males (25+ years). Peer-leaders received 298 kits and distributed 296 (99.3%) kits to their social network members. Of the 282 interviewed at follow-up, 98.2% (n = 277) reported that they used the HIVST kits. HIV prevalence was 7.4% (n = 21). Of the 57.1% (n = 12) first-time HIV-positives, 100% sought confirmatory HIV testing and nine of the ten (90%) respondents who were confirmed as HIV-positive were linked to HIV care within 1 week of HIV diagnosis.ConclusionOur findings show that a social network-based, peer-led HIVST intervention in a hyperendemic fishing community is highly feasible and acceptable, and achieves high linkage to HIV care among newly diagnosed HIV-positive individuals