Water-intensive Industries are Weakly Managed and Poor at Reporting

According to a new benchmarking study undertaken by CERES, UBS and Bloomberg, the majority of leading companies working in key water-intensive industries and sectors (particularly mining and beverage) are weakly managed and poor at reporting  on water-risks and performance. This is of particular concern for areas under water-stress. The study also analyses the extent of stakeholder engagement facilitated by the companies and their engagement in local watershed management. For more information and to download the report, visit: http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1200

Madagascar: first national Global Sanitation Fund programme launched

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) launched its first national Global Sanitation Fund programme on 22 March 2010, World Water Day, in Madagascar. Approximately US$ 5 million will be disbursed over the next five years to sub-grantees – community groups, non-governmental organisations, etc. – to implement projects and programmes that raise awareness and create demand locally for sanitation. The Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) will not be used directly or indirectly to fund or subsidise toilet construction schemes.

The WSSCC has recently appointed the international non-governmental organisation Medical Care Development International (MCDI) as the “executing agency” for the GSF in Madagascar.

Scope of work in Madagascar: hygiene education, demand creation and awareness-raising

In Madagascar, the GSF supports work programmes that concentrate on hygiene education, awareness raising and demand creation. In doing so, it aims to:

• Increase significantly the number of families, particularly the poorest, who have sustainable access to basic sanitation and adopt good hygiene practices,
• Engage institutional and private actors for the long term in promoting basic sanitation that is sustainable, affordable and culturally appropriate, and
• Spread proven and innovative approaches to sanitation and hygiene at a large scale.

The WSSCC established the GSF to boost expenditure on sanitation and hygiene in developing countries. On average, nationally run programmes will each receive US$ 1 million per year from the fund. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) hosts WSSCC, and the GSF is formally a United Nations Trust Fund. The Governments of Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have contributed to the GSF.

Madagascar is the first of seven countries selected for the first round of funding in 2010; the others are Burkina Faso, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal and Uganda.

Read more about the GSF programme in Madagascar.

Source: WSSCC, 22 Mar 2010

Africa: agreement reached to plan “Women for Water Decade”

UN-HABITAT hosted a meeting of women’s networks from 20-21 February 2010 to develop a strategy for a “Women for Water Decade” in Africa—a new platform for advocacy to promote women’s involvement in solving the region’s water and sanitation problems.

“We want to see women of Africa as agents of change as opposed to being victims,” said Mary Rusmbi, Chair of the meeting, and a steering committee member of the Women for Water Partnership. The Partnership is an alliance of women’s networks and development partners working on water and sanitation issues.

Women’s advocates identified a need for the Women for Water Decade as part of a new advocacy campaign to maintain focus on gender issues in the development of African water and sanitation programmes. Although the United Nations declared the “Decade on Water,” it will end in 2015, while it is predicted that millions of Africans will still have inadequate access to clean water and basic sanitation.

Lucia Kiwala, Chief of UN-HABITAT’s Gender Mainstreaming Unit, emphasized the importance of the campaign on women in slums, since more and more Africans are residing in unhygienic living conditions within poor urban areas. In sub-Saharan Africa, 62 per cent of the urban population live in slums.

“Although as we speak, most of the population in Africa is rural, the world is not standing still. Africa is the fastest urbanizing region.” About 40 per cent of the population currently live in urban areas, but at the current rate of urbanization, half of Africans will be living in town and cities by 2023.

Over the coming months, the Women for Water Partnership will continue to elaborate on plans for the Women for Water Decade.

Source: UN-HABITAT, 22 Feb 2010

2nd Eastern Africa Regional Sanitation Conference starts in Kampala

The second Eastern Africa Regional Sanitation Conference and Learning Forum opened in Kampala, Uganda, 2 March 2010, with calls for a more cohesive effort towards achieving regional and global sanitation targets.

In a key-note speech at the opening of the three-three day conference, Uganda’s Minister of Water and Environment, Hon. Maria Mutagamba, said a large proportion of the population in Africa still faces sanitation challenges only five years to the deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

The Conference, which was organised by the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) and its partners under the theme, Tracking Progress on the AfricaSan+5 Action Plan and other International Commitments, will provide a forum for countries within the Eastern Africa region to share progress and experiences on the implementation of the eThekwini declaration, Sharm el Sheikh and the declaration and commitments of the first East Africa Conference.

The eThekwini Action Plan, which was agreed upon during the second African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene in Durban, South Africa, articulates the critical actions to be further developed, funded and monitored by 2010 in order to put Africa ‘back on track’ to meet the sanitation MDGs.

Noting that only 37 percent of the 800 million people in Africa have access to adequate sanitation, Ms Mutagamba said there is a critical need for sector partners to focus their most critical activities towards addressing the urgent priorities at hand.

“The deadline for meeting the MDGs is fast approaching. The challenge that we face is how to take these innovations and experiences to a scale that is adequate and sustainable in order to respond to the African sanitation crisis,” she said.

Uganda’s Minister of Water and Environment, Hon. Maria Mutagamba. Photo: ANEW

“We need to place local authorities, now primarily responsible for sanitation in many countries in Africa, in the driver’s seat. However, adequate resources need to be transferred, capacity has to be strengthened and awareness has to be raised,” urged Ms Mutagamba.

The Executive Secretary of ANEW, Ms Jamillah Mwanjisi, noted that while the civil society organisations, donors and the various governments have over time come together to map out ways of addressing sanitation challenges, similar effort had not been put in the implementation of these plans.

The Conference has drawn participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, and will comprise of state, non-state and donor agencies in the water and sanitation sector.

The conference will produce a regional monitoring report detailing progress and recommendations on action taken and those still required for Eastern Africa countries on the various commitments on sanitation. It will also agree on key recommendations for the next international meetings, especially the African San meeting.

Follow conference updates on Twitter and see photos on Twitpic.

Read the conference documents:

• Concept note
• Draft Program
• Conference Briefing Note

Source: ANEW, 02 Mar 2010

Uganda, Katine: providing safe water, Amref

For three years the Guardian newspaper, in partnership with the Panos Institute and Barclays bank, has been tracking an Amref/Farm-Africa project to improve the lives of the 25,000 people in Katine sub-county in Uganda.

Water supply is one of the project interventions.

The Katine project is funded by donations from Guardian and Observer readers and Barclays. The Guardian has set up a multimedia project website that serves a dual purpose of transparency and awareness raising:

• to  show  how donations are being spent and what impact is being achieved
• to discuss and raise awareness about the wider issues of international development.

Below is an article by Amref’s water and sanitation officer, Leonard Kasule, describing issues around costs, technology choice, capacity building and sustainability of water supply in the Katine project.

People collecting water from a borehole in Katine. Photo: Guardian

Providing safe water in Katine

In any rural community, the most essential basic need is access to adequate safe water. In Katine the community has done whatever is within their means to address the water shortage, given the circumstances under which these people are currently living. They have dug open and shallow wells and protected them with logs. However, this does not necessarily mean that water from such sources is safe. Given the topography of the area, during the rainy season run-off water washes faeces into open wells and springs, rendering the water unsafe, especially for drinking.

The directorate of water development, (the arm of the Ministry of Water responsible for rural and urban water supply in Uganda) has set guidelines that any practitioner is supposed to follow before allocating a new water source. The guidelines refer to six critical requirements, which include a capital cost contribution by the community towards materials, which depends on the technology deemed most suitable to that area (for example, materials costs for boreholes would be around UShs 200,000, shallow wells UShs 90,000 and springs UShs 60,000 – around £66, £30 and £20 respectively); at least a 30% improvement in sanitation and hygiene in the area and an offer of land where the water source is to be drilled. The main problem is that the overall cost of putting up a safe water source, be it a borehole, shallow well, spring or even a gravity flow scheme, is very high and is not affordable by most communities in rural Uganda. The current cost of a borehole – materials and digging – is about £5,200. The willingness to pay for safe water is very high in Katine; this is demonstrated by the overwhelming response by the communities during the allocation of new water sources. But what they can afford is not enough, which is why Amref has had to meet the costs in the sub-county.

While there are different ways to provide adequate safe water in Uganda, a number of factors have to be taken into consideration before deciding which is suitable for a particular area. In the north-east region of Uganda, where Katine is found, the most suitable and sustainable option for safe water is digging deep boreholes. This is due to the fact that the topography and terrain is generally flat, semi-arid and characterised by short shrubs, with a very low water table, which means springs and shallow well technologies can be unreliable.

Technologies, such as gravity flow schemes and reliable springs, cannot be used to provide adequate safe water in this region. The other alternative would be rain water harvesting, but, as those who have been to this region will be aware, it is rare to find permanent housing, where iron roofs serve as catchments. (Amref has managed to install rain water harvesting tanks on some of the schools in Katine.) The few shallow wells that are non-seasonal are located along swamps, and the springs that are found in a few areas in this region are artesian in nature and, thus, seasonal.

Training

The people of Katine are very knowledgeable and enterprising. The trauma they have gone through over the past 20 years, from insurgency to cattle rustling by the Karimojong, has left them financially unstable and, therefore, unable to construct safe water sources or contribute adequate money or land towards them.

Villagers have the potential to become self-reliant in future if they can be equipped with the most relevant skills and knowledge on how best to address their problems. And this is the reason why Amref is putting a lot of emphasis on “software” (training) activities in its work in Katine.

A well designed borehole can last for more than 15 years, but, along the way, repairs and new parts will be needed to ensure effective performance. Water user committees are instituted before a water source is drilled or constructed. Amref has helped with the formation of these committees in Katine and trained them to monitor the water sources that we have constructed. Amref has also trained the committees to monitor sources created by the government and other organisations.

Committee members are selected from among the community. They are trained and equipped with relevant skills to effectively manage, operate and maintain the facilities. Issues, such as the enactment of by-laws governing effective water use, sanitation and hygiene improvement around the well compound, fencing with both a live fence (a hedge) and poles are addressed. Above all, the committees are responsible for collecting the user fees – a regular contribution from anyone using the source towards the operation and maintenance of the facility.

Community ownership of all the facilities that development projects and governments establish is the key to sustainable development. In Katine, I am glad to say that we are on the right track, for there is evidence of ownership, willingness to contribute towards operations and maintenance, and the ability of communities to plan and prioritise their needs. For example, the villagers who used the Omulai borehole, in Katine parish, were able to replace the chain when it wore out. As long as the finances of a community are improved, the community will be able to help itself. The government will not need to take over this aspect of the project, apart from committing itself towards addressing any gaps and other community demands and needs that will continue to come up after the project has wound up.

In Uganda today, the water sector is one of the best performing and well-funded sectors. There are about 60 water sources that serve the communities with relatively safe water in Katine sub-county. So far, the project has been able to construct eight new boreholes, five shallow wells and three springs and rehabilitated five springs and repaired three boreholes. The other water sources are those constructed by other development agencies and the government. The major problems in ensuring adequate provision of safe water are the continuous reliance on donor funding, high population growth and the costs of the operation and maintenance of the available facilities.”

See also: Richard M Kavuma, A partnership approach to improving water coverage in Katine, The Guardian, 17 Feb 2010

Source: Leonard Kasule, The Guardian, 01 Feb 2010

Senegal: World Bank approves US$55 million loan for Water and Sanitation Millennium Project (PEPAM)

The World Bank’ has approved a US$55 million credit to contribute to increased access to sustainable water and sanitation services in selected rural and urban areas of Senegal within the next five years.

This new financing for the Water and Sanitation Millennium Project (PEPAM) will improve access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation services for more than half a million people in rural areas and peri-urban poor fringe areas, according to World Bank Country Director Habib Fetini.

He also noted, “Senegal’s water and sanitation sector is one of the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa, as the country has already reached the MDG on urban water and has made decisive steps to reach the MDG on rural water.”

Regarding the institutional context in which the project will be implemented, Habib Fetini noted that “Senegal has a proven record in designing innovative reforms and policies in the water and sanitation sector.” He recalled that the reform of the urban water sector, with the establishment of an effective public-private partnership (PPP) “is considered a world-class model and has been replicated with success in several sub-Saharan countries.” This PPP is between the Government, a public asset holding (National Water Company of Senegal, or SONES) in charge of investments, and a private utility (Senegalese Water Utility or SDE) in charge of delivering services.

In order to maintain the “pace of success” in the sector, the Country Director hoped that “the preparation of the second generation reforms in view of end of the current lease contract by April 2011, should be conducted in a transparent manner and based on a shared analysis of all available options for the sustainable development of the sector, based on the principle of financial autonomy with socially acceptable tariffs.”

“This World Bank support will help facilitate access to services through programs for improving and extending water production and distribution systems and urban sanitation networks, by constructing social water and sanitation household connections, public standpipes and on-site sanitation facilities,” indicated Matar Fall, the Bank’s Task Team Leader.

The project will also consolidate the achievements of urban water reform, support reform of the rural water subsector, and strengthen capacities to deliver and manage water and sanitation services.

The credit, which includes a US$5 million contribution under the Crisis Response Window (CRW), will also promote the emergence of local Water Users Associations (ASUFOR) and of small private operators in rural areas, Fall said.

The World Bank has supported the preparation and implementation of the PEPAM since 2005 under the Long Term Water Sector Project, which closed in June 2009.

For more information, visit the Projects website and the PEPAM web site (in French).

Source: World Bank, 19 Feb 2010

Kenya, Nyanza Province: UN-HABITAT and Government of Italy join hands in schools’ sanitation

A partnership between UN-HABITAT and the Government of Italy will provide clean water and better sanitation facilities to over 15,000 pupils in Kenya through the construction of rainwater harvesting tanks and latrines.

Pupils at Maranda Primary School in Nyanza Province washing their hands at one of the hand-washing facilities constructed by Sustainable Aid in Africa. Photo: UN-HABITAT

The US$ 300,000 project, being implemented by Kenyan NGO Sustainable Aid in Africa (SANA), will also support the creation of School Health Clubs to promote best hygiene practices in the selected schools and host communities, with emphasis on hand washing with soap after using the latrines.

Multi-stakeholder forums in the project towns established under the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative have identified beneficiary schools based on criteria aimed at ensuring that thirty of the most deserving primary schools in the municipalities of Kisii, Homa Bay and Bondo are targeted by the project. This will improve the health status and learning environment for the highest possible number of pupils.

The project was launched at Bar Muofu Primary School in Bondo District, District Commissioner Mr. Salim Hohamud. The provincial administration will provide all the administrative support and coordination between all relevant ministries, as well as providing assistance in the monitoring and evaluation of the project at local level.

Noting that a better urban future is achievable by focusing on projects that improve the quality of life for children and the youth, Mr. Laban Onong’no the Chief Technical Adviser for the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative said the schools sanitation project was one of several projects being implemented by UN-HABITAT under the initiative. Other on-going projects for Bondo include rehabilitation and expansion of the water supply network for the town, a solid waste management project, training and capacity building for local artisans, support in urban planning, and the development of a comprehensive environmental sanitation and conservation strategy.

Since inception 10 years ago, Sustainable Aid in Africa (SANA) has mobilized over Kshs. 155 Million to support school based water, sanitation and hygiene education in Nyanza Region, benefiting over 58,000 pupils, and facilitated the establishment and training of 196 School Health Clubs in Nyanza Region. The organization is also implementing a project to provide microcredit for sanitation in the three municipalities through the support of UN-HABITAT that targets female-headed low-income households.

Promotion of proper use and maintenance of the installed facilities will be emphasized using loud hygiene messages placed strategically within the school compounds. Fliers, the use of talking walls, and social marketing techniques and sanitation campaigns by Village Resource Persons and School Health Clubs will be used to promote sanitation in the communities around the schools. Area based sanitation working group will be introduced to scale up sanitation coverage in the target communities.

Related web site: WASH in Schools

Source: UN-HABITAT, 02 Feb 2010

Ghana: keeping girls in school may be a matter of better sanitary protection

When boys and girls reach puberty, their bodies go through many physical changes. But for girls in Africa, the onset of menstruation can bring with it discrimination, unwanted sexual advances and the end of their education. Now a pilot study in Ghana says it doesn’t have to be that way.

The study says when free sanitary protection is provided to secondary school girls there is a sharp drop in absenteeism and increased participation in household chores and socializing.

Linda Scott

Oxford University Professor Linda Scott led the study, which involved more than 180 girls in four remote villages in Ghana. She says menstruation is often a taboo subject.

“I think it’s a combination of its links to sexuality and its links to bodily outputs. We don’t usually like to talk about bodily outputs or sexuality. And of course the fact that it affects females also has a tendency to make it more stigmatized, particularly in a developing nation context,” she says.

Cost and lack of availability are two reasons rural girls in poor countries go without sanitary protection.

Scott says, “It’s so much something that people take for granted. And even in the poor nations, people who would be middle class, and therefore government workers and NGO workers, they also would tend to take it for granted.” Also because it’s a taboo subject, it’s not something people talk about. So it tends to be invisible.

Perceptions change

What’s more, Professor Scott says girls are perceived differently once menstruation begins.

“Part of the problem is that the onset of menstruation in remote areas of Ghana is taken as signifying the coming of actual adulthood in a way that we don’t recognize it in the West. We don’t think of a 12 or 13-year-old girl as being marriageable or sexually available. But actually in this context it’s a signal that she’s both,” she says.

A girl without sanitary protection faces serious consequences.

“Her biggest problem is that if people know about this it’s not just an embarrassment and a laughing matter. It’s something that may actually put her in danger. And at this time also families often feel it’s time to withdraw their economic support for the girl to continue in school. So she suddenly starts having quite a bit less support for her continuing education,” she says.

Many of the girls, she says, simply get discouraged and drop out of school. But they face a physical risk as well.

“Sexual harassment and sexual predators are a big problem even for very young girls. Once they’re known to be sexually ready, from that perspective, they may be the victims of unwanted sexual advances. And unfortunately, very, very often it might come even from their teachers,” she says.

In the long-term

Scott says the long-term consequences are “huge.” While education for both boys and girls is critical for a nation’s development, ensuring girls remain in school can bring many benefits.

“There is quite a lot of data at this point to show that it has positive impact on economic development and productivity. But in particular, very quick impact on fertility rates, infant mortality, disease transmission, nutritional level and of course just generally improve the individual girl’s chances of having a happy and prosperous life,” she says.

The Oxford professor says government and NGO programs providing free sanitary protection could be a cost-effective way of ensuring girls’ education. But she says it would have to be done in such a way that is culturally sensitive. Also, she says communities need to be made aware of the importance of secondary education for girls.

Similar but longer studies are being considered for other African counties, as well as Muslim countries in Asia.

Audio: De Capua report on Oxford University study

Read more about the study:

Saïd Business School – Sanitary care in Ghana

Source: Voice of America, 01 Feb 2010 ; University of Oxford, 01 Feb 2010

Sanitary care in Ghana

Liberia, Montserrado County: 3 communities in Careysburg District achieve Total Sanitation status

Liberia: Three communities meet CLTS compliance

Three communities in Liberia have been declared open defecation free by the coordinating institutions of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) program. The areas according to Public Works release are Sackie Town, Gbokolleh Town and Frank Town, all in Careysburg District, Montserrado County. The Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach focuses on igniting a change in hygienic and sanitation behaviors rather than just constructing toilets. The initiation also hopes to see Liberian communities organize themselves in addressing their sanitation needs through collective movement, without subsidies from outside.

CLTS started in Liberia March 30, 2008 and its originated from India by Dr. Kamel Kar, the founder of the organization. The idea was transplanted in Liberia through the instrumentality of UNICEF and the government of Liberia. Since the inception of CLTS in Liberia, about ten (10) communities have been triggered in Todee and Careysburg Districts in Montserrado. CLTS hopes to achieve reduction in water related diseases, community driven in all development initiatives and reduction in environmental pollution.

There are more than fifteen communities in Liberia as a whole trying to obtain ODF status but at present, only three have met the requirements and are going to be certificated during the official launching of the program. The coordinating agencies of CLTS in Liberia are the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, UNICEF, SODES and FAAL.

Meanwhile, strategy developed for the Community Led Total Sanitation program will be launched on Saturday, January 23, 2010 in Gbokolleh Town, Careysburg District, Montserrado County. CLTS according to strategy developed hopes to declare 2010 as “National Year of Sanitation in Liberia.” The program is expected to caption the theme “from the bush to the toilet house-communities decide for themselves.”

Related web site: Community-led Total Sanitation

Source – The Liberian Times, 21 Jan 2010

Zambia, Kitwe: Kapoto residents refuse to drink treated water because ‘it can make them impotent’

Residents of Kapoto shanty compound where cholera has broken out in Kitwe have shocked the district administration after they refused to be drinking treated water allegedly for fear of becoming impotent.

ZANIS Kitwe reports that Kitwe District Commissioner Macdonald Mtine confirmed that the community in Kapoto compound was not taking free treated water which the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company was providing.

This is despite the outbreak of cholera in the area.

Mr. Mtine, who is also Kitwe District Epidemic Preparedness Committee chairman, said seven people from Kapoto have already been treated for cholera but surprisingly, the rest of the people in the area have continued to drink water from shallow wells located near pit latrines.

He said the people of the damp Kapoto compound should start using treated water from the Nkana Water Kiosks to enable health authorities to contain the cholera situation.

Mr. Mtine expressed worry at the traditional myth circulating in Kapota compound that treated water had certain particles that would make them impotent once they took it.

He said the continuous use of water from shallow wells located near pit latrines was dangerous and exposing the community to more water borne diseases.

He has since appealed to the community not to compromise their health and instead drink treated water.

Source: Lusaka Times, 20 Jan 2010