South Africa: Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hands down judgment on Phiri water case

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) declared [on 25 March 2009] that the pre-payment water meters used in Phiri (a township in Soweto) in respect of water level 3 consumers is unlawful, because such use is not authorised by the by-laws, but suspended its order for a period of two years so as to enable the City of Johannesburg to legalise that use if it was able to do so.

The SCA also declared that the City of Johannesburg is constitutionally obliged to provide 42 litres free water to each Phiri resident who cannot afford to pay for such water, to the extent that it is reasonable to do so, having regard to its available resources. It ordered the City and Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd to reconsider and reformulate their free water policy accordingly. Until such time as that policy is reformulated the City and Johannesburg Water were ordered to provide account holders in Phiri who are registered as indigent with 42 litres free water per day per member of his or her household.

The appeal that was brought by the City, Johannesburg Water and the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry against declarations and orders made against them by the Johannesburg High Court was partially successful, to the extent that those declarations and orders were amended.

Read the full text of the appeal here.

Source: Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, 25 Mar 2009

The Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) called the SCA judgment “a case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’”. [...] The [CAWP welcomes] “SCA’s decision to set aside the City’s present policy of limiting the provision of free basic water to 6kl per month/per household” [but it contends that] 42 litres of water per person/per day [...] falls short of what is universally accepted and recognised as the minimum amount of water needed for basic human needs and dignity”.

“Even more problematic though, is that the SCA’s order to the City to provide this amount, is conditional [and that it effectively] allowed carte blanche (through its own assessment of what constitutes ‘reasonableness’ and ‘through available resources’) to determine the timing, character and extent of changes to its existing ‘free water policy’. To make matters worse, the SCA order explicitly states that while the City is ‘reformulating’ its policy, the provision of the increased free basic amount must only be available to those who are registered as indigents with the City. [...] In making such an order, the SCA allows the City, once again, to unilaterally determine and manage who enjoys their constitutional right to water and when. Crucially, it effectively legalises the treatment of the poor majority as second class citizens”.

[...] “The order gives the City two years to pass the necessary by-laws so that the pre-paid meters can then be ‘legalised’. In practical terms, this means that the City can thus continue to forcibly install pre-paid meters in poor communities (while providing wealthier residents with full credit metered water systems and thus allowing those with the means to do, to consume as much water as they want as long as they can afford it). This is a legal cop-out”, says CAWP. A view echoed by Kerry Williams from from Webber Wentzel’s public law department in his article “Court’s slippery water remedy not good for the rule of law”published in Business Day, 30 March 2009

Source: CAWP, Anarkismo.net, 27 Mar 2009

Zimbabwe: Rural areas exposed by lack of cholera knowledge

A lack of understanding about cholera and a failure to adapt social customs in rural Zimbabwe to curb the waterborne disease is ensuring that the death toll will keep rising. Cholera has rampaged through Zimbabwe since August 2008, killing more than 4,000 people and infecting over 91,000, and although the World Health Organization (WHO) recently said reports of new cases were slowing, it warned that the “the risk of the outbreak restarting” was “real”.

Early in March [2009], Simplicius Mushayakarara, 49, returned to his rural home in Musana, about 85km northeast of the capital, Harare, after attending a funeral. His stepdaughter died from cholera but he and his wife were saved by the intervention of their son, who works in the nearby town of Bindura, in Mashonaland Central Province.

[...] “At the funeral we freely shook hands, as our custom requires, ate food without properly washing our hands, and some of us even touched the body of the deceased person as a way of bidding him farewell. To us, cholera was a disease that only occurred in towns and cities,” he said.
Mushayakarara’s son, Tatenda [...] was too late to prevent his sister’s death, but his quick thinking saved his parents. “Tatenda gave us a salt and sugar solution and organized transport that ferried us to Bindura, where we were hospitalised and treated,” Mushayakarara said.

[...] Sekai Chapwanya, 38, a community-based HIV/AIDS caregiver in a neighbouring village, has urged health officials to ramp up cholera education campaigns. “The majority of the people living in rural communities lack knowledge on how best to prevent cholera,” she told IRIN. “Health officials seem to have been concentrating on urban areas, maybe because that is where most of the deaths have occurred”.[...] Since cholera gained a foothold in rural areas Chapwanya has concentrated on teaching communities about preventing and curing the disease, with some tacit support from NGOs but none from government.

[...] The spread of cholera was worsened by the rainy season she said, and rural communities depended on water from the rivers for drinking and cooking.

[...] Tsitsi Singizi, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Zimbabwe spokesperson, told IRIN the organization had embarked on cholera education in the rural areas. “We are also providing non-food items to promote standard hygiene in cholera-affected areas, and these include the soaps and buckets used in chlorination, while at the same time providing oral and intravenous rehydration,” she said.

Source:  IRIN, 30 Mar 2009

Uganda: Local Govt Urged On Water Funds

The water and environment minister, Maria Mutagamba, has urged local governments to be committed in the management of Government funds. [...] She said efficiency in resource utilisation would earn the water sector more funding. “In 2007/08, about 38% of the grant released was not spent due to delays in procurement and award of contracts. ”This meant that a proportion of the rural population was denied access to safe water,” Mutagamba said.

The officers said chief administrative officers diverted funds meant for water projects. The director for water development, Eng. Sottie Bomukama, said some districts had failed to adhere to the ministry guidelines and their reports were not accepted.

Source: Bizimungu Kisakye, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 17 Mar 2009

Rwanda: Rwanda: Country Targets 100 Percent Access to Clean Water By 2012

By 2012, all Rwandans should have access to clean water, the Minister of State in Charge of Energy and Water, Dr. Albert Butare has pledged.

According to the Minister, the country has already shown impressive efforts towards attaining this goal, thus bringing the Millennium Development Goals’ target closer to 2012 rather than 2015 as stipulated.

“Apparently most districts have achieved about 70 percent access with Nyamagabe (Southern province) at 73 percent. We are therefore encouraging people to have water resources closer and we are certain that by 2012 every Rwandan will have access to safe water within a very short distance,” Butare said in an interview.

Read more: Irene V. Nambi, The New Times / allAfrica.com, 19 Mar 2009

Angola: EU Invests Over Euro Three Million in Improvement of Drinking Water, Pastures

At least Euro 3.5 million will be invested as from April [2009] by the European Union (EU) during the second phase of the programme for the betterment of supply of drinkable water and pastures for cattle-breeding communities, namely in the provinces of Namibe, Cunene and Huíla.

The programme, whose first phase started on July 2008, and its conclusion is predicted for 2011, is being executed by the German consulting company “GFA” and will benefit more than 300,000 people of the region.

Source: Angola Press, 14 Mar 2009

Ethiopia: Japan provides 64 Mln Birr grant for water development

Japan [has] extended financial assistance worth 557,000,000 Japanese Yen – equivalent to 64 million Ethiopian Birr – for the extension of grant aid allocated for the implementation of the project of Improvement of Equipment for Ground Water Development in Ethiopia.

[I]n addition to a contribution to this project [...]  Japan has been supplying water facilities and providing training for more than 1,700 water experts who are in charge of water and sanitation at the Ethiopian Water Technology Center (EWTEC).

[...] Japan [...] will shortly decide to extend [a] 23 million dollar grant to help the effort for humanitarian aid and emergency relief and to address the food insecurity crisis, for emergency water problem, for procurement of water drilling machineries. According to the [Japanese] Ambassador, upon the approval by the Japanese government of the said fund, the embassy will disburse the grant through UNICEF, IFRC, WFP and direct assistance to government.

Source: Yonas Abiye, Daily Mirror / allAfrica.com, 11 Mar 2009

Nigeria, Kano State: NGO Constructs 40 Toilets in Schools

A Kano based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), has constructed about 40 modern toilets in schools and primary health care facilities across the state. Disclosing this on the occasion of commissioning the toilets as part of activities to mark the International Women Day at Gabasawa Local Government of Kano state, the Director of WOFAN, Hajiya Salamatu Garba, said the gesture was to ensure good environment of the schools and the health centers.

She said WOFAN has earlier on constructed and commissioned about 96 toilets in 23 schools in 6 local government areas of the state with additional 42 boreholes. [...] Salamatu noted that many a times, children were being hit by vehicles while crossing the roads in search of water or toilet.

[...] In her speech, the wife of the state governor, Hajiya Amina Shekarau who doubled as ambassador for Gender and Water Alliance said they have decided to celebrate the International Women’s Day in Kano to impact directly on the lives of women and children.  ”It was because of this that we decided to give the theme for this year’s event as women and men united to provide adequate water and ensure good and healthy environment in the rural areas.”

Source: Halima Musa, Daily Trust / allAfrica.com, 11 Mar 2009

Mozambique: Worst cholera outbreak in a long time

With resources stretched thin, aid agencies struggling to contain a cholera outbreak across all but one of Mozambique’s 10 provinces hope the approaching end of the rainy season will bring some relief.

“This year is worse than previous years, even worse than years in which we had floods. There are more cases and the fatality rate is slightly higher,” secretary-general of the Mozambican Red Cross, Fernanda Teixeira, told IRIN. Over 12,000 cases and 157 deaths have been recorded since 1 January 2009.

The latest Southern Africa Regional Cholera Update, compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the highest number of cases had been recorded in the northeastern provinces of Nampula (3,033) and Cabo Delgado (2,427).

[...] The surge in new cases was attributed to recent heavy rainfall in a number of provinces, but the underlying factors of cholera in Mozambique have always been related to pervasive water and sanitation problems, and a chronic lack of access to health facilities.

“There are many causes, like poor sanitation in cities and in the countryside,” Texeira said. Less than 50 percent of Mozambique’s 21 million people have access to safe drinking water.

The ministry of health has been leading the response to the outbreak, with the help of partners like WHO, the Red Cross and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). According to the OCHA update, health and water and sanitation were key areas in the ongoing intervention.

“Social mobilization campaigns via radio, and distribution of information, education and communication materials were being intensified in order to reduce misconceptions and mobilize community around key cholera prevention messages,” the update noted.

The need for adequate information was recently evidenced in a tragic case of ignorance when two Mozambican Red Cross volunteers were killed by the local community, who were convinced that the volunteers were deliberately spreading cholera. The incident in early March resulted in the charity organization halting its health work in the province of Nampula.

[...] The OCHA update said a US$ 875,000 donation by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) had recently been released to help the humanitarian community in Mozambique cover the immediate needs of the response.

In the meantime, Teixiera said, “We are doing what we can with the resources we have … the rainy season will come to an end in April; usually the situation then becomes better.”

Source: IRIN, 35 Mar 2009

Africa’s water crisis: a quarter of a billion dollars down the drain

[An estimated US$215-360 million] have been wasted on rural water projects in Africa, threatening the health and livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people according to a forthcoming briefing paper by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

[...] [ Some 50,000 water supply points]  in rural areas have fallen into disrepair, depriving poor communities of water because donors, governments and nongovernmental organisations have built infrastructure but ignored the need to maintain it.

The paper provides a 30-point checklist of features that rural African water supply systems need to succeed. They include the right technology, community ownership and local capacity to repair and maintain wells.

[...] Tens of thousands of new water points – such as boreholes with motorised or hand pumps – are created in Africa each year but many fall into disrepair after just a few years. Of 52 deep water borehole and supply systems built by the charity Caritas since the 1980s in Senegal’s Kaolack Region, only 33 still function today.

The Global Water Initiative has found that 58% of such water points in northern Ghana needed repair. In western Niger, it found that of 43 boreholes, 13 are abandoned, 18 are non-functional for more than three days once a year, and 12 are non-functional for more than three days, more than three times a year.

“It seems simple and obvious but it needs to be said: there is little point in drilling wells if there is no system to maintain them. Every day that a borehole does not provide safe water, people are obliged to drink from unclean pools and rivers, exposing them to water-borne diseases”, said Jamie Skinner, author of the IIED paper.

The paper says donors, governments and nongovernmental organisations need to realise that funding infrastructure is just part of the solution. Also important are better investments in knowledge, community-led management and government capacity to sustain water supplies. It says local communities must take part in choosing and maintaining appropriate technologies, and how much they are willing or able to pay to maintain them, rather than having them imposed on them by outsiders.

[Note: The above-mentioned issues are the focus of a new project of  the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. IRC  has received a US $22 million (€ 16.1 million) grant over six years to pilot the Sustainable Service at Scale ("Triple S") project. Triple S is a multi-country learning initiative to improve rural water service delivery by moving from project based, one-off construction of water systems to delivering indefinitely sustainable rural water services at scale.]

Download the paper by Jamie Skinner in pdf format

Source: Mike Shanahan, IIED, 20 Mar 2009

Sierra Leone: Sidiki Mansark “Water is life and we want to bring it to the people”

Mansark lives and works in Kroo bay slum, in the centre of the capital Freetown, home to 13,000 people, which has two working public water taps. Kroo Bay is littered with rubbish and sewage – many people use the rubbish to reclaim land on which to build ramshackle houses.

There are no pit latrines in the slum; most residents use the beach or one of the few drop toilets constructed on it. On discovering a natural spring in the slum, Mansark decided to set up a youth cooperative, the Water Sie Boys, to run a public shower for slum-dwellers. [Water Sie Boys received US$9,000 to set up the community shower from the government Youth Employment Secretariat (YES)] . Set up in 2008, YES, supported by the UN Development Programme, has established a fund of US$700,000 to distribute grants and micro-finance loans to youth groups.

[...] “We used to have a machine to pump water into our containers, but it has been broken for months now, so now we fill up the tanks by hand.

“If you want a shower, you pay 3 US cents (100 Leones) and you can take five minutes, or we will give you a bucket of water. People need soap so we started to make it [soap] too.

“We are 20 working here – but I want to increase the number. We get by – every now and then we have to put in $1.50 to sustain our business. We want to expand it to other zones in the slum. We could employ 40 people because we always have enough customers.

“We don’t have roofing materials and we don’t have money to plaster our showers. The women’s shower is the worst – it is mouldy – but it is not their fault. None of us are trained. I did not know anything about plumbing but now I have learned. There is one plumber in the slum who helps us.

“Now everyone comes to us when they want a shower. We are not rich but water is life, and we want to bring it to the people.

Source: IRIN, 24 Mar 2009 ; IRIN, 24 Mar 2009