Pallisa District Woman Member of Parliament, Catherine Achola, has urged Ugandans to embrace the government’s monthly National Cleaning Exercise, saying improved sanitation and environmental cleanliness are key to better health, increased productivity and national development.
Achola made the call on Saturday while joining leaders and residents in Kampala during the national launch of the cleaning campaign, following the declaration by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja on July 24, 2026, that the last Saturday of every month will be observed as a National Cleaning Day under the theme, “A Clean Uganda is Everyone’s Responsibility.”
Leading by example, Achola said keeping homes and public places clean is part of her daily routine, noting that she personally sweeps, slashes bushes, and maintains sanitary surroundings. She encouraged the people of Pallisa to actively participate in the monthly exercise, describing it as a collective responsibility aimed at making Uganda’s streets, markets, and homes cleaner and healthier.
The legislator said regular community clean-up activities would also protect the environment by reducing plastic waste in drainage channels, rivers, and public spaces, thereby minimising flooding and pollution. She added that the initiative would strengthen community cohesion as residents, schools, churches, offices, and local leaders work together instead of leaving sanitation to municipal and town authorities alone.
Achola called on parish chiefs to ensure every household complies with basic public health standards by constructing pit latrines, rubbish pits, handwashing facilities and plate stands, observing that many communities abandoned good sanitation practices introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She urged Ugandans to fully support the Prime Minister’s initiative, saying the government’s goal is to transform community cleaning into a permanent nationwide culture rather than a one-off campaign. “Let us all rally behind this programme because a clean environment is everyone’s responsibility,” she said.
Pallisa District Chairperson Ben Okiria commended residents who participated in the exercise, saying the campaign is not a punishment but a preventive public health intervention that will reduce disease outbreaks and save government resources spent treating avoidable illnesses. He urged families sharing the same compound to construct and use common pit latrines instead of practising open defecation or relying on unsafe alternatives.
Pallisa General Hospital Health Inspector Shariff Oriada welcomed the government’s initiative, saying it would make health education easier by encouraging communities to embrace sanitation voluntarily. He also appealed to school heads to stop assigning the cleaning of toilets and compounds only to students punished for breaking school rules, warning that such practices create the wrong perception that cleaning is a punishment rather than a shared responsibility.