Background: Latrines are facilities that are normally constructed at the household levels for the purpose of safe excreta disposal. Poor latrine coverage and usage at household level in any given community can leads to greater risks of spreading the feaco-oral diseases through water, soil and food contaminations. The major objective of the study research is to assess the factors influencing the availability and utilization of the household latrines in Puranga sub-county, Pader district in northern Uganda. Methodology: A cross sectional study composed of 387 households was done in Puranga sub-county. The sub-county was stratified in to six Parishes and in each parishes, villages were selected using simple random sampling. In each village selected, a complete list of households were obtained and all these households were numbered . The first household for data collection (refers to as the reference) was also selected by simple random sampling using table of random numbers. Data collection then started immediately from the household which was much closed to the reference household. . This procedure was used until the required sample size were reached in a given village. Data collection was done using standard questioners, observation checklists, key informant interviews to health workers and focus group discussions. Pre-testing of the tools was done before the actual data collection started and Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16. Main findings: 1. Household latrine availability and usage In this study, households with functional pit latrine were 206 (53%). Out of this functional pit latrines, 159 (38.7%) are owned by the individual households and 56 (14.4%) are owned by the landlords. The major type of pit latrine in the area is traditional pit latrines 176 (545.5%), followed by VIP pit latrines (4.4%). 2. Quality of the household pit latrines in use Of the latrines found in the households, 156 (75.7%) are properly sited on a well drained ground, 45(21.8%) are in the standard distance of 10 meters away from the main building, 172 (83.4%) are made up of temporary materials, 24 (11.6%) are made up of semi permanent and 6 (2.9%) are made up of permanent materials. 3. Socio-economic information 323 (83%) of the house hold members were settled on their own land. The analysis of the chi-square showed that there is a significance in owning land and the availability and usage of household latrines in the sub-county (chi- square = 184.209; P-value = 0.0005). and 287 (74%) of the respondents have ever attended school. The analysis of this result shows that, there is a significance in the education status and latrine availability and usage in Puranga sub-county (chi- square = 80.953; P-value = 0.0002). Only 15(3.9%) of the household reported that there are cultural practices affecting the availability and usage of latrines in the area. Among them were children feaces should not be mixed with adults 9 (2.3%) and that use of latrine can sometimes involves the use of ashes on feaces which is a taboo 6(1.5%) 4. Scale up efforts for latrine availability and usage 235 (60.7%) households received health education on latrine use, while 215(55.5%) of the households had attended meeting on latrine availability and usage. The chi-square analysis of this result showed that there is a significance in attending community meeting on latrine and possessing and using household latrine (chi- square = 4.344; P-value = 0.037). The availability and usage of the household latrines were much higher among the household who have knowledge on pit latrine 192(49.6%), followed by those household that are settled on their own land 187(48.3%), those who went to school 148(38.2%), those who attended the community meetings on latrines 131(33.8%) and those who are aware of the existence of the bye-laws 109 (28%). Conclusion: The latrine coverage of Puranga sub-county is 53% which is slightly higher than the one for the overall district 46%. However it is still lower than the national target of 77%. The major factors that are affecting the availability and usage of pit latrine at house hold level includes Inadequate political support on household latrine use, low level of education of the household members, poverty, limited visits to house holds by health workers to inspect homes, no prioritization of the household latrine as one of the necessity, lack of skills on latrine construction and negligence of some local communities. Recommendations: The sub-county authorities should organize home improvement campaign in order to raise the level and use of latrine at home, Advocacy meeting on household sanitation should be done to political leaders in the sub-county, Health workers should start regularly inspecting home for hygiene and sanitation standard, train more household member on how to construct latrine at home including the various latrine options and the sub-county authority should disseminate and implement the bye –laws created in the sub-county to all the lower levels.

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