Speaking to the press on 27 April 2011 Water Management Resources Authority Narok official Jared Anekeyah said “We need to move towards greener water and sanitation projects such as rainwater collection to keep pace with booming urban populations. We should encourage the harvesting of rain water and preserving natural systems such as forests and wetlands which could help to filter waste water that is not treated.”
Source: Kiplang’at Kirui, Nairobi Star / allAfrica.com, 28 April 2011
People across all walks of life have passionately appealed to the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, as a matter of urgency, not to renew the water management contract with Aqua Vitens Rand. According to them, the company has worsened the urban water situation in the country.
Aqua Vitens Rand, which has a five-year management contract and would expire in May this year, has not lived up to the expectations of the Ghanaian consumers.
Source: Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanaian Chronicle / allAfrica.com, 26 April 2011
On Friday April 8th, 2011 the Agency for Community Empowerment Participation and Transformation (ACEPT) organized a two-day intensive training in Henai town in Malen chiefdom, Pujehun district, for 30 traditional leaders assembled from towns and villages. The facilitators came from Pujehun District’s Health Management Team. The training, first of its kind, primarily focused on community-led total sanitation designed to step-up awareness and help provide the communities with tools to handle basic health problems within their localities. Giving an overview of the Project, National Coordinator, Earnest Alpha, said that at the close of the training the individual community will have appreciated the importance of having toilet facilities alongside the proper use of the acquired water wells which, he stated, are always monitored for the good use of the localities.
ACEPT, the National Coordinator said, has been implementing food for work under the sponsorship of United Nation World Food Programme during which vast plantations were brushed and rehabilitated for the first time after the protracted RUF rebel war, and that systematic awareness raising on the deadly HIV and AIDS was also embarked upon with the sponsorship of the United States Embassy which, he added, have equally been very successful. Earlier, both the Project Administrative Director, Allieu Jusu Kebbie and the Field Supervisor, Christopher Abu Baker Bangura, disclosed that UNICEF has approved a school sanitation and health education programme for three primary schools in Malen chiefdom, and that another 30 participants drawn from Galinas Perrie chiefdom were trained in Pujehun District to help carry out the all important aspect of learning to manage basic health activities in their towns and villages.
Source: Easmon Moiguah, AWOKO, 15 April 2011
GIZ and JICA have signed an agreement to collaborate in water and sanitation in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have agreed to plan, implement and evaluate their projects collectively in future. There are plans to extend the cooperation to other countries as well.
In Zambia, GIZ works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Zambia, providing advisory services to the government and urban water providers. JICA implements infrastructure and technical assistance projects, in both urban and rural areas. The two agencies have not set a time limit for their cooperation, but they have agreed biannual evaluations.
In Zambia, for instance, GIZ has cooperated with the government to develop a new concept for supplying water to slum areas, which concentrates on ‘water kiosks’ – public sales points connected to the mains water supply. These have so far opened the way to clean drinking water for more than 600,000 people. Now, assisted by GIZ, JICA will use this approach for wider application in other parts of the country. At the same time, GIZ will help spread the use of a maintenance system for rural water supplies, which was developed with Japanese support, to other regions of Zambia. This will benefit about 500,000 people.
Here GIZ and JICA are working together improve sanitation in schools and poor urban areas, and in climate adaptation measures for water supply.
In Kenya, both agencies are collaborating to reduce water losses in distribution networks, are helping promote more effective use of scarce water resources by the state.
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Source: GIZ, 07 Apr 2011
The dire sanitation systems available to the hundreds of thousands living in the Nairobi slum of Kibera, often called Africa’s biggest slum, has been well-documented. Less talked about is the challenge of household energy for the urban poor. The Katwekera Tosha Bio Centre, operated by the Umande Trust, goes well beyond solving sanitation problems; it is a model for green energy, a meeting place for locals, and turning a profit for its operators.
The Umande Trust is a rights-based agency which believes that modest resources, strategically invested in support of community-led initiatives, can significantly improve access to water and sanitation for all,” says Paul Muchire, the Trust’s communication manager. This mission statement has guided the Trust towards partnerships with community-based organisations to improve the living conditions of people in places like Kibera.
The Trust first set out to build toilets and bathrooms, but had a larger vision: TOSHA, “Total Sanitation and Hygiene Access”, was born. The centre has toilets and bathrooms on the ground floor – the toilets are connected to a bio-digester, with a dome-shaped holding tank in which biogas is produced. Raw human waste from the toilets flows in, and bacteria break it down, releasing methane gas which collects at the top of the domed tank. The gas is piped to collective stoves one floor up – and is usually sufficient for community members to cook on throughout the day. They pay a small fixed fee for using the stoves.
From a business perspective, the profits from these centres are also significant. Katwekera Tosha makes a monthly profit of between 350 and 650 dollars. This money benefits the residents who have registered with the community-based organisation.
Source: Portal to Africa.com, 29 March 2011
Posted in Kenya, On-site sanitation, Sustainable services
Tagged bio-centres, biogas, public toilets
AllAfrica News: Water and Sanitation The Southern Africa Water Wire – INTER PRESS SERVICE
