Nigeria, Ogoniland: communities demand oil pollution clean-up and compensation

Residents of Ogoniland (pop. 832,000), in Rivers State, Nigeria, are demanding compensation and clean-up of the oil that has polluted water sources and destroyed their livelihoods.  A UNEP study [1] published in August 2011, concluded that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years and would require an initial investment of US$ 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the Government.

Communities relying on polluted wells should immediately be provided with adequate sources of drinking water, the UNEP study said. However, three months after the release of the study, only two of the ten communities where drinking water was found to be dangerously contaminated by oil had been provided with safe water, claimed Chris Newsom of Stakeholder Democracy Network.

A water tanker supplies potable water to a community in Nisioken Ogale, 15 Sep 2011. Photo: UNEP

Ghana: donors urged to help prevent corruption in the water sector

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has appealed to donor agencies to introduce anti-corruption policies and tools in all their water sector activities. This was one of the recommendations of Ghana’s National Water Supply Integrity Study [1] undertaken by GII as part of the Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa (TISDA) programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The GII study mentions not only petty corrupt practices like illegal connections and illegal payments to meter readers, but also instances where a single contractor bought and priced all bidding documents.

Ghana: former President John Agyekum Kufuor to chair the Sanitation and Water for All partnership

His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, former President of Ghana (2001-2009) and former Chairperson of the African Union (2007–2008), will be the first high-level Chair of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership. Kufuor is a passionate global advocate for leadership, governance and development. He is widely regarded for his African and international statesmanship, and his contributions have been recognized through awards such as the 2011 World Food Prize.

Additional information on Sanitation and Water for All, including partners, activities and governance can be found at: www.sanitationandwaterforall.org

Read the full press release [Sanitation and Water for All, 15 Nov 2011]

Financing Water and Sanitation for All in Africa, Ouagadougou Burkina Faso, 05-08 December 2011

Organised by the Centre Africain pour l’Eau Potable et l’Assainissement (CREPA), this meeting will focus on the need to improve investment in the water and sanitation sector in Africa. About 200 participants are expected from development organisations, bilateral and multi-lateral groups, civil society organisations as well as governments.

The four-day meeting will include an African Workshop on the pricing of water and sanitation services and sanitation, a ministerial dialogue, a round table of donors, and the launch of an African Forum on innovative local solutions in the field of hygiene, sanitation and drinking water supply.

Read the full announcement (in French)

Liberia: President and WASH Ambassador Ellen Johnson Sirleaf awarded Nobel Peace Prize

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf talking with journalist Rose George in April 2011. Photo: Shout-Africa

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is one of three women who were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Mrs Sirleaf became Africa’s first female elected head of state in 2005, following the end of Liberia’s 14-year civil war which left 250,000 people dead. She shares US$ 1.5 million prize money with Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.

In 2009, Ms Johnson-Sirleaf was appointed as the first Goodwill Ambassador for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa at the 2nd Africa Water Week that took place in Midrand, South Africa.

National stakeholders in Liberia are currently developing the Liberia Compact, under the framework developed by the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) initiative. President Johnson-Sirleaf received the draft compact at the end of a Joint Multi-donor Mission on sanitation and water that took place in Liberia from April 27-May 3, 2011.  Ahead of the mission Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf reaffirmed her government’s support to the WASH sector in an interview with journalist Rose George (author of the Big Necessity).

Mrs Sirleaf (72) will be competing with Winston Tubman in a presidential runoff election scheduled to be held on 8 November 2011.

Related web site: Sanitation and Water for All

Source: BBC News, 07 Oct 2011 ; Shout-Africa, 20 Apr 2011 ; WaterAid America, 17 Nov 2009

Africa: Jimmy Carter spearheads final drive to eradicate Guinea worm disease

Former US president Jimmy Carter says US$ 100 million is needed to finally eradicate Guinea worm disease. The UK has pledged a third of this amount if other donors are prepared to cough up the rest.

Dr. Donald Hopkins, vice president for Health Programs at The Carter Center, shows South Sudanese children how to prevent Guinea worm disease when they visit their local water source. Photo: Carter Center/ L. Gubb

Since the Carter Centre took up the cause in 1986, the disease has been reduced by more than 99 per cent.  The majority of the remaining cases (98%) are from South Sudan, while Mali and Ethiopia have each reported less than 10 cases so far in 2011 and there was an isolated outbreak in Chad.

In 1995 Carter personally negotiated a six-month ceasefire between northern and southern Sudan, in a successful attempt to reach remote villages where Guinea worm disease was endemic.

Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis or dracontiasis) can be prevented through heath education, the provision of cloth filters for drinking water and larvicides. The Carter Center’s goal is to stop transmission of the disease worldwide before 2015 and ensure World Health Organisation (WHO) certification within three years. This would make it the second human disease, after small pox, ever to be eradicated in human history.

Related web sites:

• Carter Center – Guinea worm
• World Health Organization – Dracunculiasis
• Wikipedia – Dracunculiasis

Related news: Health policy: global assembly approves three WASH resolutions, E-Source, 14 Jul 2011

Source: Sarah Boseley, Guardian, 05 Oct 2011 ; DFID, 05 Oct 2011

New web resource on rural water supply highlights Ghana and Uganda – www.waterservicesthatlast.org

One out of three rural water supply systems in developing countries doesn’t function at all or performs far below its promised level. IRC’s Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) initiative has put together a web resource to help those involved in financing, planning or implementing rural water supply projects or providing services. The website brings together the latest thinking on creating water services that last, including results from Triple-S work in Ghana and Uganda. It covers key elements such as monitoring, financial planning, institutional models, and capacity building for service providers and local government. Here you’ll find tools, concepts, case studies, videos, cartoons, and more.

Web site: www.waterservicesthatlast.org

Somalia: IIROSA provides drinking water to 50,000 families

The International Islamic Relief Organization of Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) has constructed wells to provide drinking water for residents of several Somali villages facing water scarcity. The project benefitted 50,000 families displaced by the country’s severe drought. The IIROSA also provided 35 water tankers to Somalis in the West Kasmayo region and sent food deliveries to displaced people in remote areas of the country.

Source: SPA / Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC, 02 Oct 2011

South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal: factory workers denied proper sanitation

Workers in many clothing and textile factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal are denied proper sanitation facilities, a trade union survey has found.

Workers were not supplied with toilet paper and being forced to use pieces of fabric, SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) secretary Chris Gina said. [...].

“Workers are expected to place these fabric off-cuts in bags or boxes next to the toilet… which are often only removed once a week, resulting in filthy, smelly, and unhygienic conditions,” he said in a statement.

“At almost all companies that we surveyed workers are not supplied with toilet paper.”

Factories that did supply toilet paper, made workers pay for it and deducted the costs from their weekly wages.

Africa: political stability and country leadership key to water and sanitation progress

Political stability has heavily influenced progress in improving access to water supply and sanitation services with low-income stable countries outperforming low-income fragile and resource-rich countries.  ”This breaks with the common perception that access to sanitation and water increases with GDP”, says Senior Financial Specialist Dominick de Waal, lead author of a new report [1] by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).

The report, commissioned by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW),  maps progress  in water supply and sanitation of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. WSP carried out the country studies together with the African Development Bank in close partnership with UNICEF, WHO, and the 32 governments.