Africa: Just Building a Million Latrines Won’t Solve Sanitation Crisis

The deadline for the world to meet its millennium development goals is now only four years away, yet in sub-Saharan Africa, there are still 570 million people without adequate sanitation.

Many technologies designed to solve the problems are parachuted. Some work, most don’t. The lesson should be simple: know the area, know the people.

It is only through talking and listening to the people on the ground that we will be able to make long-lasting and sustainable moves out of poverty. This is especially pertinent when trying to educate people about sanitation and hygiene and bringing about a change in behaviour.

Local knowledge is everything. WaterAid conducted its own research across west Africa into different ethnic groups’ attitudes to going to the toilet. The results go some way to explaining why simply building a latrine is only half the battle.

WaterAid is adapting an approach known as community-led total sanitation (CLTS) in west Africa. First conceived in Bangladesh, it is a concept that has been sweeping across south Asia with impressive results, and many are hoping that it can bring similar results to Africa. It is based on an understanding that the people themselves have the solutions and are best able to determine which interventions will enable them to attain a self-defined, collective destiny.

Instead of focusing on the supply and installation of sanitation hardware to communities, CLTS focuses on changing attitudes and behaviour through community mobilisation to stop open defecation, and to build and use latrines.

Participants have reported that they find the approach engaging, participatory and, most notably, empowering – putting them in control of their own destiny, in a context in which, more often than not, death by disease is accepted with fatalistic submission to the ‘will of God’ or the hex of an enemy or the local witch.

Empowering local communities – especially women – with information that allows them to make decisions pertaining to their health and wellbeing ensures that they “own” the desired change. It is they who can be credited for the health benefits of safe sanitation and hygiene practices. It is they who commit to the necessary behaviour change, they who hold themselves and their peers accountable. Here, help is not coming from outside, but from within – and people are in charge of their own destiny.

Source: Juanita During, The Ghanaian Journal, 27 January 2011

Cameroon: Innovation Produces Clean Water From Bacteria, Dirt

The Life and Water Development Group Cameroon (LWDGC), with help from Engineers Without Borders of the United States has invented a simple device and taught technicians how to construct and install bio-sand filters.

Pioneered in 2004 by Peter Njodzeka, LWDGC has set up a group of technicians that created the Bio-sand filter launched in 2010 at Nkuv village.

Njodzeka whose innovation was published on the Innovation that Changed the World Blog of the World Watch Institute said, “with a rather simple goal, I wanted to see the people in my area have clean water and we kept expanding. That’s how it started.”

Peter noted that while he was growing up in Nkuv, the small village in Cameroon where he was born, no one had clean water. “The water available for drinking was also used by livestock and wildlife, as well as for the whole village’s washing,” he said. At the village, at least one child would die from illness caused by the dirty water every year and most households reported having at least one sick family member in the past six months at any given time. “That’s how everyone lived when I was growing up. But when I left the village and came to Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, I saw that things were so different from my village and I wanted to change things to make them better.”

In 2008, Thirst Relief International USA partnered with LWDGC providing access to clean water with a very unlikely technique. They are using dirt and bacteria to make dirty water clean and have been bringing access to clean water to over six villages in addition to Nkuv, as well as providing wells and latrines for 23 schools, and providing education about hygiene and sanitation practices.

LWDGC and Thirst Relief International are building bio sand filters and are teaching households how to use and maintain them, greatly improving the cleanliness of drinking water and all but eliminating diseases caused by contaminated water.

Bio sand filters are built with the help of an iron mold. Concrete forms the base of the filter and its center is filled with layers of differently-sized, crushed rock. Two layers of gravel and then fine-grained sand create three levels through which water is poured over the course of three weeks. Slowly on the very top forms what is called a bio-layer. Once that final layer has formed, the filter removes 99 percent of the bacteria in water that passes through it and is ready to use.

The drinking water slowly filters through the layers of naturally formed bacteria and sand at a rate of about one litre per minute and comes out clean and ready for consumption from a pipe that is connected through the concrete from the bottom to the side top outlet of the filter. If properly maintained a bio-sand filter can be used for up to 12 months without the need for much maintenance.

When LWDGC partners with a community to provide the filters, the first thing the organisation does is hold a series workshops, teaching basic hygiene and sanitation such as hand washing and other measures to prevent the spread of disease.

Peter said the workshops are important because not everyone realises that there is a problem. “And then there is the task of convincing the community that dirt and bacteria are enough to actually clean their water. “No one believes us when we say that everything that will filter the water is already in the water,” continues Peter.

But once that lesson is learned, lives are changed forever. The bio-sand filters “really help the community” said Peter. “When we finish working with a community they always tell us that they don’t have the sickness like before. It’s helping and saving the lives of people.”

Source: Daily Independent / allAfrica.com, 26 January 2011

South Africa: eThekwini Water and Sanitation up for World Water Day challenge

As the world gears itself for the commemoration of the 18th World Water Day on Tuesday, 22 March 2011, eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) say they are on target with this year’s theme, Water for Cities: Responding to the challenge.

“In celebrating World Water Day we are pleased with the positive results our efforts in providing potable water to the city have yielded. It demonstrates our commitment to serving the City and meeting international standards on water governance. For us at EWS, responding to the water challenge in the City has not just been about bringing more water to the people but coordinating a strategic plan that reduces water loss and improves the quality of life too,” says EWS Head, Neil Macleod.

Macleod maintains that perseverance and cooperation have maintained EWS’s excellent track record in terms of service delivery and the highest figures for water sales in the City.

“Over the past months we have surveyed over 16 000 km of water pipes and repaired 28 000 leaks across the City as part of the Water Loss Reduction Program. In essence, a drop of water saved is a drop of water produced and the key to promoting water preservation begins with accurate accounting of its journey from source. Numerous water loss reduction activities have resulted in savings of over 40 megalitres of water per day being achieved”.

Macleod adds that reducing the pressure at which water is delivered to residential buildings as part of the Pressure Management Program has lowered operating costs and saved the City almost R50 million per annum. In addition to curbing excessive pressure, Macleod says that EWS anticipates the replacement of 21 000 water meters each year until every meter older than 20 years is replaced, to ensure more accurate readings.

He describes the R400 million Water and Sanitation Project which commenced in January 2009 and aims to provide access to running water and ablution facilities for residents of informal settlements throughout eThekwini, as a key project that improves the living conditions of almost 800 000 people in the City.

“The project is targeting settlements already identified by the municipal housing department for future formal housing development. In terms of meeting the challenge for water to the City, this project is invaluable. Like the Asbestos Cement (AC)pipe replacement project which was voted third in the category for innovation and sustainable construction at last year’s Construction World Awards, it is hoped that the Water and Sanitation Project will highlight EWS’s consistency. Prior to completion in June 2010, the AC Project worked all over the City , replacing 1600 kilometres of burst prone asbestos cement pipes with new modified polyvinyl chloride mPVC pipes,” says Macleod.

He includes the R1,2 billion Western Aqueduct Project currently awaiting the award for tender of Phase Two, as an equal contributor to the City’s commitment to bringing water to the people and ultimately meeting the Water to Cities challenge.

“The WA project will inject up to 400 million litres of water per day to the present consumption of the City which stands at 860 million litres per day. In addition, excess pressure contained in the pipeline will be converted into hydropower by building two electric generators along the pipeline route that will output a total of 10MW,” says Macleod.

According to Macleod, the WA project comprises of almost 74km of steel pipes welded together in 18m sections, of diameters ranging from 0.5m to 1.6m, laid from Umlaas Road to Ntuzuma within existing servitudes and road reserves.Phase One of the project will be commissioned by February this year.

Macleod concludes: “Being the most precious utility on earth, water is essential for life. This World Water Day we recommit to serve the people of our City and enhance their quality of life.”

Source: Publicity Update, 27 January 2011

Nigeria: UN urges clean-up following acute lead poisoning

Over 18,000 people have been affected and 200 children have reportedly died as a result of lead poisoning in northern Nigeria, says a new UN report. Written by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report calls on Nigerian authorities to prevent further lead poisoning in the area. It recommends taking greater measures to limit ore processing activities at sensitive sites, such as drinking water sources.

The report also calls for cleaning up polluted villages as soon as possible to ensure that children suffering from lead poisoning can return to their villages for recovery and follow-up care after receiving treatment.

Abnormally high rates of death and illness among children have been recorded since the beginning of 2010 in the areas of Bukkuyum and Anka in Zamfara State in northern Nigeria. Investigations by the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit revealed that the cause is acute lead poisoning from the processing of lead-rich ore for gold extraction taking place inside houses and compounds. Over 18,000 people have been affected and 200 children have reportedly died as a result of the poisoning.

The new report is based on the findings of a sampling and analysis mission requested by the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria in September 2010.

The mission tested for lead in water, soil and in the air.

The mission found that drinking water from wells did not meet World Health Organisation (WHO) and Nigerian standards (10 micrograms per liter) for lead limits, and in at least one case exceeded this limit more than tenfold. Water in ponds was often highly contaminated. However, no boreholes were found to have been contaminated, indicating that lead pollution most likely remains confined to areas where processing has taken place, and has not yet spread throughout the groundwater.

Download full report

Source: UNEP, 07 Jan 2011