“Disposable pads are the most commonly used material among career women in Uganda,” this is according to the findings of a situational analysis study in 2020 on menstrual health management in Uganda, which found that when menstruating:

• 52% of women in Uganda use disposable pads
• 32% of women in Uganda use pieces of cloth
• 6% of women in Uganda use reusable pads
• 5% of women in Uganda use cotton wool
• 3% of women in Uganda use toilet paper
• 2% of women in Uganda use other materials

Unfortunately, the necessary infrastructure for menstrual hygiene management in Uganda, especially in urban settings, is appallingly insufficient.

“The public toilets that we have are not enough. In the markets, the toilets have water, but when you go there you don’t have the provision of where people are supposed to put their used pads.

Similar with hotels – some have provisions but some of them also don’t have collection baskets for used pads. It means you have to go with your used pads in your own pocket.”

Uganda government official working in health sector

The status quo described by the government official isn’t at all unique to the lower working class masses who work in farmers’ markets for example. It is shocking closely the same for the upper middle class population as well.

“Even here at work there isn’t a bin in our toilets for you to drop in your used pad. The few public places where you find it, it is not the suitable one to use to drop in your used pad. I did my own personal research.

I went to some public offices, I went to markets, schools and this is what I have found out. Menstrual hygiene is not prioritized at all. No body is thinking about menstrual hygiene.”

Uganda government official working in health sector

Period-friendly toilets are central to ensuring best practice in the proper management of used disposal menstruation pads in the manner that medical waste is handled. A period-friendly toilet is one that is clean; has a special and suitable bin in which to dispose off used pads; and a wash area or room that has provision of clean water for washing up for one’s personal hygiene. In other words, all toilets designated “female toilets” should ideally be period-friendly toilets.

Without period-friendly toilets, women are forced to find ways in which to dispose off used pads in a manner that doesn’t embarrass them personally, but which is inappropriate for the disposal of medical waste. During fact-finding exploratory conversations with women executives they have candidly share that on many occasions, they have been in that predicament.

An woman executive is in my periods and has to attend a meeting in another’s office and or in a public space, like a hotel. Whilst a guest, she goes to use the host’s toilet and there is no where to dispose off her used pad. Like many women, she is forced to put her used pad in her handbag and or in her pocket, carry it or them with her, sometimes all day, until she gets home, when she disposes off it in her other home waste, that is not medical waste.

Sadly, home waste containing used pads will inevitably end up in the public garbage skip and on to a dumping ground or landfill. Other women, have testified simply finding a secluded area, where no one sees them and dumping their pad – in a bush, or even on the street. This status quo raising significant public health and environment pollution concerns.

It is against this background that we, at CPAR Uganda, would like to intervene to raise conscious awareness about the plight of the menstruating work force. In the hope that we can influence the development of the right policies and implementation strategies. And that action shall be taken to make provision for period-friendly toilets in all public places in Entebbe, in particular, and Uganda, as a whole.

As a woman executive, a Uganda government official working in the health sector, advised: “Let us go modern, but as we modernise let us get measures suitable to dispose off used pads easily and in a healthy way.”