Ghana: government urged to reject donor influence on water delivery

Mr Edem Asimah, Chairman of the Select Committee on Water and Sanitation, [has] urged government to determine its own water delivery systems for the people and not allow donors to impose their conditions on us.

He said over the years various governments had failed to stop donors from imposing conditionalities on the water sector and this had negatively affected the quality of water delivery in the country.

Mr Asimah, who is the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, was speaking at a stakeholder seminar organized by CONIWAS in collaboration with Water Aid, Ghana on [...] “The right to water and sanitation in Ghana: A national action plan for implementation”.

[...]

Mr Ben Arthur, Executive Secretary of CONIWAS, said even though Ghanaians have the right to demand for water and sanitation services from state institutions it should not be misinterpreted that the services should be free.

He said every right exercised by the people came with a lot of responsibilities, which Ghanaians must not gloss-over.

He said the government had a responsibility to [...] protect people who could not afford the water [and]
to ensure that people have access to good drinking water and at reasonable prices.

[T]he Coalition had already presented a memorandum for the adoption of the rights to water and sanitation to the Constitutional Review Committee.

Source: GNA, 28 Jul 2011

Ghana: Final Phase of Guinea Worm Eradication Entered

On Thursday, after 23 years of hard work and a major setback, Ghana finally declared victory over Guinea worm.

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has called on volunteers and co-ordinators of the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme to be extra vigilant in ensuring that guinea worm did not resurface as the country entered the final phase of the eradication of the disease.

Read the full stories in Times Live, 28 July 2011 and GNA/Ghana, 28 July 2011

Africa: Continent Could Turn a Corner in the Sanitation Crisis

Africa could finally be turning a corner in the sanitation crisis, say civil society groups, ANEW and FAN, NGO WaterAid, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and the End Water Poverty Campaign.

Read more

Source:  Public Agenda / allAfrica.com, 25 July 2011

Africa: More Than One Billion People Still Without Access to Safe Drinking Water

Twenty years after the UN launched the Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, and 10 years into the MDGs, the news from a global think tank this week, that more than one billion people still live without access to safe drinking water, health care, and other essentials of daily life doesn’t really make headlines or frighten anyone in Africa.

Read more

Source: Ako Amadi, Next, 27 July 2011,

Rwanda: Local NGO Wins Continental Sanitation Award

During the third Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Conference (AfricaSan 3) the Rwanda Environment Care (REC), a local NGO that provides a variety of sanitary facilities across the country, scooped the Utilities Award in Africa for its efforts to improve sanitation and hygiene. Announcing the Utilities Award, the head of Unilever, Dr. Myriam Sindibe said that REC was awarded for raising the bar on service delivery of sanitation services. Others awarded include the Mayor of Ouagadougou, who received the local government award for formulating and implementing clear policies on sanitation that have contributed to large-scale improvement in sanitation and hygiene. Prof. Sandy Cairncross received the AMCOW roll of honour for his outstanding lifetime contribution in advancing the sanitation and hygiene agenda in Africa. Kenya won a hand washing award for the private public partnerships that saw the country win the Guinness World Record for the most number of people washing their hands at the same time at a single location on October 15, 2010. The WASH United received the media award for their sustained coverage of sanitation and hygiene issues have provided high visibility in the media space and contributed to raising the profile of sanitation and hygiene on the continent.

Source: Edwin Musoni, The New Times / allAfrica.com, 23 July 2011 ; Claire Wanja, KBC News, 21 July 2011

 

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SaniFaso: a learning sanitation project in Burkina Faso

The SaniFaso project aims to eradicate open defecation in 12 partnering communes (the lowest level of administrative division) in Burkina Faso.

The four-year rural sanitation project, which started in December 2010, will  construct 16,000 latrines, train local masons and carry out hygiene promotion campaigns.

The European Commission is co-funding this 3 million Euro project. The implementing agencies are the French NGO Eau-Vive, in association with WaterAid Burkina Faso, Helvetas, GIZ/PEA and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

During AfricaSan 3 conference in July 2011, SaniFaso released a project video explaining why and how it is a learning project.

For more about SaniFaso see

• an article IRC’s role in the project at www.irc.nl/page/62023
• a Powerpoint presentation and a project profile (both in French)

Ethiopia, Oromiya Region: great trek for water

For many people, access to water is a mere turn of the tap away; for Abdha Aso, a 20-year-old mother of five, it involves a four-hour round trip to a muddy pond. Only a year ago, she could reach a nearby stream in 20 minutes but it has since dried up.

The rains, which usually fall twice a year – between October and November and February and May – in the Borena zone in southern Ethiopia failed last year and this.

IRIN accompanied Abdha on one of her daily journeys. Read the full story

Ethiopian officials said they were concerned about the quality of water being consumed by the people in the pastoral areas and have provided village officials with water purification chemicals. But resources are limited and not all villages would have had access. During the peak of the drought the government deployed 210 water trucks in Oromiya.

But the escalating price of trucking water, rapidly shrinking water sources and poor roads have affected services, said the government in its Revised Humanitarian Requirements Document.

In the first half of 2011, about 50 cases of acute watery diarrhoea were reported in parts of Oromiya, according to the document. Concerns about a major outbreak because of inadequate supplies of safe water and poor hygiene remain.

Source: IRIN, 29 Jul 2011

AfricaSan 3: civil society demands African governments “walk the talk on sanitation”

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are calling on African leaders and international governments to take urgent action on the continent’s critical sanitation situation. The call was issued on the eve of AfricaSan 3, the only Africa-wide conference on sanitation, which is taking place from 19-21 July 2011 in Kigali, Rwanda.

“Despite our collective efforts, since the last AfricaSan 2.1 million children under-five have died of diarrhea caused by poor sanitation, water and hygiene in Africa,” said civil society leader Doreen Wandera Kabasindi from Uganda.

“We are striving to bring an end to these preventable deaths and this huge suffering so we call on our governments to take urgent action.”

In consultation with over 230 African CSOs, INGO WaterAid, Freshwater Action Network (FAN), the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the End Water Poverty campaign, they are demanding that their governments and development partners to:

• Develop clear financial plans to ensure that 0.5% of GDP is spent on sanitation, as per the eThekwini Declaration, and that these funds are targeted to those most in need
• Work together to support the global Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership to ensure high-level coordination of funds, targets and practises.
• Work transparently so their progress can be monitored and assessed, especially in relation to the implementation of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Read the full statement

Eastern Africa drought: seven million people in need of WASH services

Seven million people, including over 700,000 refugees are in need of waster, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services according to a United Nations report of 15 July 2011.

The drought affecting Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti is being called the worst in 50 years. UN agencies have asked for US$ 1.6 billion to pay for essential programmes in the Horn of Africa, but have only received half that amount so far.

Water trucking is still needed in the driest areas as natural water points failed to refill sufficiently. Two million people have been given better access to safe drinking water so far in 2011.

Paradoxically, some areas in Ethiopia and Somalia are expected to receive above-normal rainfall in the June to September period. This is likely to increase the risk of flooding and subsequent outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

South Sudan: Community Led Total Sanitation project in Lologo South

In September 2010, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded, Management Sciences for Health (MSH)-led Sudan Health Transformation Project, Phase 2 (SHTP II) piloted a 3-month Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) project to determine the most effective strategies to increase sanitary defecation methods in Southern Sudan. CLTS motivates or “triggers” communities’ desire for change and influences them to create “open defecation –free” sites, through the construction and utilization of latrines.

In Lologo South, a residential community just south of Juba, thousands of new houses, fences, and animal carrels are in various states of construction.  And importantly, thanks to MSH, there are also latrines.

Read more

Source: Mary Burket, Management Sciences for Health / allAfrica.com, 5 July 2011