A village chairperson in Lyantonde district has suspended operations to arrest people without pit latrines in his area.
Deogratious Bbosa, the Lyakajula sub county chairperson, has blocked the operations to arrest people without pit latrines saying that the health authorities should first sensitize people about the dangers of open defecation instead of just arresting them.
The decision to suspend the operations comes just days after the health authorities launched the operation to crack down people without pit latrines, racks, and garbage skips among others.
According to Lyakajula sub county health inspector, Sylvia Kayinda a big number of homesteads in the area don’t own pit latrines which puts their lives at a risk of contracting diseases related to poor hygiene.
She says that for long they have been asking people to dig up pit latrines, and build racks but they have not been taking them serious which prompted them to conduct an operation to force them put up these facilities in place.
Alex Lumala sub county Chief says that government loses a lot of money to treating dieses related to poor hygiene yet these diseases can be prevented if people have pit latrines.
He says that they are going to suspend the operations for some time to give people some time to dig up pit latrines.