Nature, Distribution and Evolution of Poverty & Inequality in Uganda

Mapping Various Dimensions of PovertyUnderstanding the relationship between povertyrates and ‘deprivation’ levels is important fordesigning and implementing comprehensivepoverty reduction interventions. Using either theexpenditure-based poverty rate or the ‘deprivation’index alone to identify the poor areas for targetingintervention programs is likely to be ineffective,either missing some poor people or wastingresources on families that are not poor. For example,targeting only areas with high poverty rates willnot reach all or most of Uganda’s poor, leadingto omission of the poor by the deprivation indexin the rural areas. On the other hand, providingresources to areas with high deprivation rates maybypass some of the poor in areas with high povertyrates. As such the non poor may benefit from suchresources. Targeted interventions are requiredmost in the Northern region and some parts ofEastern region in order to improve well-being byall dimensions of well-being.4.2 Comparing Expenditure-based metrics of Poverty and unsafe DrinkingWater sourcesWater that is free of pollutants or disease vectorsand that is available in sufficient quantities is abasic human need and provides clear health andeconomic benefits keeping household membershealthy and productive. For example, nearbyaccess to safe water allows individuals to spendless time fetching water and more time on othertasks. Inversely, unsafe water supply and sanitationsystems can lead to a number of diseases,including diarrhoea, intestinal worms, trachoma,schistosomiasis, and cholera resulting in prolongedsickness and even death.Using data on drinking water sources from the2002 Population and Housing Census 15 , this sectionexamines to what degree unsafe drinking watersources (see Box 4.1) and levels of poverty coincidein Uganda’s 856 sub-counties. Such a comparisoncan illuminate the links between poverty anddrinking water sources and help to target povertyinterventions and/or water sector interventionsmore precisely to certain geographic areas. Forexample, a map overlay of the two variables wouldbe able to show:• Where are the areas with high poverty rates (orhigh incidence of poverty) and a high proportionof families without safe drinking water sources,adding a high burden to already constrainedlivelihoods? These areas could become, forexample, priority areas for investing moreresources into the water infrastructure.• Where are the areas with low poverty rates (orlow incidence of poverty) but still high sharesof households without safe drinking watersources? Communities in these areas may havemore resources suggesting perhaps differentkind of water sector interventions than in verypoor areas.• Where are the areas with low poverty rates (orlow incidence of poverty) and low proportionof families without safe drinking water sources?These areas appear to have made great progresson both the water and the expenditure/incomedimension of poverty. It would be worthwhileto investigate further why these areas havedone so well; whether they differ in agriculturalendowment, strength of the local economy,or because of other factors; whether theseachievements had further effects, for exampleupon the prevalence of water-related diseasesor school enrolment and attendance rates ofgirls.Box 4.2Defining Unsafe DrinkingWater SourcesEight categories of water sources werecollected in the census. We classify unsafedrinking water as sources that include opensurface water sources (unprotected wells andunprotected springs ) and vendor-providedwater. Safe water sources are those thatinclude tap/piped water [public and privatestandpipes], boreholes, protected wells andsprings, gravity flow schemes, and rainwatercollection. The percent of households withoutsafe drinking water sources is measured asthe total proportion of households that relyon unsafe water sources outlined above.15Karamoja sub-region is omitted due to incomplete census data on drinking water sources.Nature, distribution and evolution of poverty and inequality in Uganda, 1992 - 2002 61