The Angolan government in Luanda announced that it would invest the equivalent of $120 million US in rural water distribution projects under the “Water for All” program. [In 2008], Water Secretary Luis Filipe da Silva declared potable water service in the country’s provincial capitals, including Lubango, Ondjiva, and Namibe, another top priority.
Source: AngolaPress / allAfrica.com [in French], 22 Jun 2009
Transparency International Kenya (TI-K) in partnership with Maji na Ufanisi a non governmental organization Monday released a report aimed at improving good governance in the Kenya water and sanitation sector.
The report dubbed “Water Governance Study” follows a study conducted between March and May in Nairobi, Mombasa, Mwingi, Kitui and Budalangi using a sample size of 2722 small-scale water users and 119 large-scale water users.
Speaking during the release of the report findings Transparency International Kenya Director Job Ogonda said that poor management and corruption within the water sector has lead to malpractices and therefore experiencing a big loss in revenue collection.
The study established that 57% of water consumed for domestic purposes was unaccounted for and that cases of bribery for illegal connections were higher in Nairobi at 87%, Mombasa 75% and Kisumu 67%.other malpractices include tampering with meter readings and diversion of water from domestic users to industries.
“Corruption in the water sector makes implementation of economic plans impossible resulting in poverty and diseases due to illegal connection of poor quality pipes in most of the slum areas,” he added.
In its recommendations, the two organizations urged the Ministry of Water to develop institutional linkages that will facilitate detection of loopholes that create opportunities for malpractices.
They further recommended the strengthening of consumer participation and feedback systems to encourage water users to file complaints.
Water Permanent Secretary David Stower welcomed the TI report saying that it would help the ministry in the ongoing reforms in the water sector. Stoer said that the ministry has asked the Nairobi water and Sewerage Company to work with law enforcement agencies to disconnect all illegal connections. He added that the ministry would also move to reduce the number of private water companies that have proliferated the sector since it was liberalised.
The reports comes amidst acute water shortage in most of households particularly in Nairobi and its environs.
Read the powerpoint summary of the report here.
Source: Margaret Kalekye, KNA / KBC, 22 June 2009
Posted in East Africa, Governance, Kenya, Publications, Transparency
Tagged Maji na Ufanisi, S0908-Africa, Transparency International Kenya
Massive rural-urban migration into Freetown [pop. 1.2 million] is putting pressure on the city’s capacity to provide clean, safe drinking water for all its residents, writes Roland Bankole Marke. In a country whose infrastructure is ‘obsolete’ and nearing ‘breaking point’, Marke calls for the nation to make an overhaul of its structural water supply system its ‘top priority’. At present water shortages leave the city vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, while the poorest cannot afford water sold privately. Solutions discussed by Marke include organisation at community level to raise funds for securing water provision, and the construction of a dam on the Orugu River.
Excerpts:
“Essential service hubs as Connaught Hospital, Princess Christian Hospital and local food markets in the heart of Freetown, experience acute water shortage”. .
“Those employed go to work with containers trying to fetch water. People who can afford it have installed water tanks, and for a bargain they could get regular water supply from fire trucks operated by employees of the nation’s Fire Force Brigade. It is not uncommon for duels between employees of Guma Water Company and Fire Force workers to spark up fracas or infrequent death may result”.
“[T]he digging of water wells is taking place in various communities around the country with support from some elected leaders. From Wilberforce on the west, onto Kissy Road in the east, wells are popping up all around Freetown, mostly in densely populated areas”.
A unique and telling case study is ‘Mojabi Cave Well’ at New England Ville built about 50 years ago, that now services some 6,000 people. [...] Youths in this area have [formed] the ‘Water of Life’ organisation [to collect] donations from residents and well-wishers to fund the refurbishing of the well that had become a death trap”.
“On 18 April 2009,17 year-old Aminata Kamara, a student of Wallace Johnson Memorial School, went to the only well in the area to fetch water for domestic use. [...] While she was collecting water, a huge boulder rolled down and crushed her, killing her. [...] On the hilltop, trees were being cut down to erect new buildings or for use as fire wood. Soil erosion or landslide could have caused the stone to fall down”.
“Atkins consulting firm of the UK, assisted by other local partners including Oxfam and a local engineering firm 3BMD, studied the water and sanitation problems in Freetown [and stressed that] the Orugu Dam is the only lasting solution to the water crisis in the city”.
“Douglas Hunt, another Atkins consultant, appealed to the government to halt all developmental activities within the catchments perimeter. On the sanitation problem, Jonathan Parkinson and others solicited the government to reintroduce rigid laws on health and sanitation”.
“The minister of lands, country planning and the environment, Dr. Dennis Sandy, while addressing a session of Parliament recently said, ‘I’m willing and ready to expose with evidence to substantiate my point that some parliamentarians in the Western Area are indeed involved in illegal land transactions.’
Source: Roland Bankole Marke, Pambazuka News, 18 June 2009
Posted in Sierra Leone, Water supply
Tagged Freetown, urban water supply, water shortage
Sanitation-related diseases accounted for about GH¢8.6 million [US$ 5.8 million] of money spent in the treatment of diseases reported to health facilities in the Upper West Region [in 2008] and thereby strained the finances of the various Mutual Health Insurance schemes. Out of this amount about GH¢7,427,351 [US$ 5 million] was spent on patients on admission while GH¢1,254,117 [US$ 0.85 million] took care of out patients. These diseases are malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea.
Alhaji Abu Yahaya, Chairman of the Upper West Regional Health Committee who disclosed this at Wa on [13 June 2009] said during the period, 208,309 patients reported at these facilities with malaria while 29,494 patients and 10,537 patients suffered from acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea respectively.
Speaking when he presided at the closing session of a one-week course for Sanitation Guards drawn from the Wa Municipality, Wa East, Wa West and Sissala East Districts, he noted that these diseases were 90% preventable if the people changed their behaviour and attitude to sanitation. He called on the government to invest heavily in sanitation in order to arrest the huge money that was constantly expended on medical care and the man-hours lost as a result of diseases that could be prevented.
Mr. Emmanuel Volsuri, Regional Operations Supervisor of Zoom Lion Ghana Limited said 90 Sanitation Guards had so far been trained in the region and provided with the necessary logistics and bicycles and uniform to enhance their work. He said Zoom Lion organized the training programme to impart in the participants the relevant skills and knowledge to carry their duties effectively. The Guards are expected to assist Environmental Health Officers in hygiene education and promotion, premise inspection, dissemination of sanitary information, supervision and monitoring of sanitation services.
Waste collection bicycle. Zoomlion Ghana Ltd.
Source: GNA, Ghana Business News, 14 Jun 2009
Improved water supply and sanitation services are key priorities of Uganda’s Poverty Eradication Action Plan. Statistics show there is a lot of work to be done. Latrine coverage stands at 62% nationally, and 79% of these latrines lack hand-washing facilities. In schools, there is an average of 69 students per latrine.
Sanitation and hygiene are not priorities at district level. Limited funding (budgets for sanitation lag far behind those for water supply), the low profile and priority of sanitation and hygiene and the division of responsibilities and funding among departments that have other key priorities hamper progress.
[...]
Conditions vary substantially across Uganda’s 80 districts, and official coverage statistics do not reflect the condition or use of latrines. Outbreaks of faecal-related diseases such as cholera continue to occur. To address these issues in districts with particularly poor sanitation, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and the Network for Water and Sanitation (Netwas Uganda) launched the Learning for Policy and Practice in Sanitation and Hygiene (LeaPPS) programme. The programme has been implemented in the districts of Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Arua and Koboko. LeaPPS brings together groups of people who work in hygiene and sanitation improvement, which includes politicians, local government staff, community members, donors, researchers and private sector providers.
Read more: Carmen da Silva Wells, Patience Turyareeba and Brecht Mommen, Source Bulletin, May 2009
As part of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, Zimbabwe developed a national strategy for sanitation, launched in February 2008. Just five months later, a cholera outbreak that was to claim over 4,000 lives began.
One of the strategy’s key proposals was to call for expanded resources for sanitation including public-private partnerships to expand access to proper toilets across the country. The task force included representation from key ministries such as health, water development, and finance, as well as civic organisations like Plan International, World Vision and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), for which Ms. Noma Neseni is the water, sanitation and health coordinator in Zimbabwe.
Neseni told IPS reporter Busani Bafana why she viewed the task force’s work as less than a disaster. Read excerpts from the interview, published on 11 June here.
See also the article by Noma Neseni, “Sanitation perspectives in the new Zimbabwe”, published in the May issue of Source Bulletin here.
Water for daily use [in Rahaita, one of the most southerly villages on Eritrea's Red Sea coast] is pumped out of wells by diesel-powered generators, but Eritrea imports all its fuel, making diesel an expensive option. A few years ago the government helped the village set up a solar-powered generator, “But there are days when the clouds cover the sun,” said [village administrator Doran Ali] Osman.
More help is at hand. Rahaita is one of seven villages in the region covered by the Eritrea Wind Energy Application pilot project – funded by the Global Environment Facility and the UN Development Programme – and will be electrified by the end of 2009.
A rapid assessment of water sources by the government’s Water Resource Department found that 58 percent of households in rural areas have access to safe drinking water. Climate change projections by the Eritrean government [predict that] temperatures could soar by more than 4 degrees Celsius by 2050, [leading to] longer and more intense [droughts].
Rainfall is inadequate and underground resources are declining [and] becoming salty. [...] Almost 70 percent of the semi-arid land is affected by drought, including the highlands, which usually enjoy higher rainfall.
Villagers [are] planning communal gardens to grow and sell vegetables to supplement incomes.
Water is everything
“Water is everything to us,” said Mogos Weldeyohannes, Director General of the Department of Environment. “We spend more than half our budget on conserving water.” This could not be verified, as data are hard to come by in a country still recovering from a 30-year war of independence and later border conflicts with Ethiopia.
“[We] faced one of the worst droughts since independence [in 1993] last year [2008]. Crops failed. We are determined that rainwater has to be harvested to be used,” he said. [T]he capital, Asmara, [only gets] running water on three days out of every ten.
Eritrea has built scores of small dams in the past three decades and is planning 200 more, as well as diversion structures to harvest and store water. [...] Gahtelai, a village in the highlands in the Northern Red Sea Region, is harvesting water from fog: “fog collectors” [harvest] about 14 litres to 20 litres of water per square metre [...] every day and fed into a reservoir to irrigate vegetable gardens.
Source: IRIN, 15 Jun 2009
Posted in Eritrea, Water collection
Tagged drought, fog harvesting, small dams, water shortage
South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government. [According to] the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [...] water shortage is a genuine threat as 98 percent of the country’s water resources are already fully utilised. [...] WWF estimates that by the year 2025 South Africa will have a water deficit of 1.7 percent.
[...] One of the ways to protect and conserve water is to focus on the recycling of waste water, according to water experts gathered in Cape Town for a water seminar in May [2009]. The event was attended by water experts from Europe and South Africa and formed part of an economic and political mission of the Dutch governmental delegation comprising of minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders and deputy minister of Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk.
“We should change our mindsets about wastewater,” said Brendon Meulman, project manager at Landustrie, a Dutch company that specialises in wastewater management. “We should stop seeing it as waste and a burden, but rather as a resource”.
“Toilet water for instance, is rich in organic material,” he explained. “If the concentration of this so-called black water is high enough, you can create energy out of this organic material. You can also turn it into compost and fertiliser.”
[...] Apart from reducing the amount of wastewater and waste, the system does not require water to flush excrement. Similar systems are already in operation in South Africa, for instance in Durban were thousands of dry toilets have been installed. “We work with so-called vacuum toilets that are already used on cruise ships,” he told IPS. “”According to our calculations, a vacuum toilet saves 36 litres of water per person per day,” said Meulman. “That is over 25 percent of your daily total water consumption.”
According to Meulman, this technology is not applicable only in high-income countries. “We have developed a low tech version which is specifically meant to service informal settlements and squatter camps,” he explained. “It is a self-contained system that is not dependent on energy sources. It basically comprises of a container that is equipped with toilets and urinals, which are vandalism proof, hygienic and clean.”
[...] The chances of the vacuum toilet system solving South Africa’s water problems are slim, as government figures show that domestic consumption accounts for just 12 percent of all water used in South Africa. Industry, mining, and power generation together consume another 12.5 percent and agricultural irrigation accounts for around 52 percent the country’s water use.
[...] Koenders emphasised that it is not only toilet water that needs to be looked at. “The country’s water problems are further impacted by the fact that mines are contaminating rivers and other water bodies,” he told IPS.
[...] The problems mentioned by Koenders were key focal points of a 2008 report presented by South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator. The publication predicted serious problems with the country’s water supply, including radioactive pollution and waste dumping. It also suggested that wastewater from mines was seeping into the country’s groundwater.
The water and forestry department however, denied a looming water crisis. In a statement, forestry and water affairs minister Lindiwe Hendricks said that South Africa’s drinking water quality was rated among the best in the world. [...] “Indeed, due to mining and other human activities, the water quality is affected in some parts of the country,” Marius Keet, Director of Water Quality Management of Forestry and Water Affairs of the Gauteng province, said. “But it is not a crisis. It is a challenge, that needs to be addressed.”
Source: Miriam Mannak, IPS, 08 Jun 2009
Regional public health officer Charles Lodda of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) argues that sanitation and hygiene should be the priority for Janet Museveni, Uganda’s First Lady and new minister for Karamoja Affairs.
“A lot has been said about what she [Janet Museveni] can do for this most socio-economically marginalised region. One would propose electrification and the provision of a robust and efficient transport infrastructure as the pillars for developing Karamoja. However, as a public health professional working in this region, I beg to differ”.
“A baseline survey by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reveals that hygiene conditions of homesteads is appalling, with 61.1% households littered with faeces, while the latrine coverage stands at 0.3%. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) puts the figure at 9%, but I would attribute this to institutional latrines”.
“Knowledge on hand washing is lacking, with people knowing two critical hand washing events – before eating food and before preparing it. There is little knowledge of the other three critical and important events – after visiting the latrine or bush, after handling children’s faeces and before feeding infants. [...] The incidence of diarrhoea is at 46.5%”.
“Speaking during the participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation training of government extension staff by the IRC, the deputy resident district commissioner (RDC) expressed fears that poor sanitation had become the biggest threat in the region, next to insecurity”.
[...] “A boarding school in Kangole with 1,005 pupils has one five-stance latrine, never mind its condition. Considering the patchy nature of health facilities in the region, these children are sitting on a time bomb. Elsewhere, myths such as a Karimojong elder should “never mix” his feaces with those of an in-law still loom, thereby making the idea of owning a latrine so alien”.
“Eradication of poverty, hunger, child mortality, achievement of universal primary education, gender equality and empowerment of women are the key aspects of the millenium development goals. We can set a right environment for their attainment by streamlining sanitation in all aspects of development programmes to improve the sanitation ladder of the people of Karamoja”.
Source: Charles Rodda, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 09 Jun 2009
AllAfrica News: Water and Sanitation The Southern Africa Water Wire – INTER PRESS SERVICE
