11th Symposium on Hydraulics and Water Resources of Portuguese Language Countries (SILUSBA), 27-30 May 2013, Maputo, Mozambique

Organised by: APRH – Associação Portuguesa dos Recursos Hídricos, ABRH – Associação Brasileira de Recursos Hídricos, ACRH – Associação Cabo-Verdiana de Recursos Hídricos. AQUASHARE – Associação Moçambicana dos Profissionais de Água and DNA - Departamento de Água e Saneamento

The main themes of the SILUSBA (Simpósio de Hidráulica e Recursos Hídricos dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) are:

• Water and sanitation for the poor
• Water and international cooperation
• Water and economic development
• Water and education
• Water governance for a sustainable water business.
• Water resources management, incl. climate change,
• Hydraulics and hydrology research
• Water and the environment

During the symposium, the Netherlands-supported Mozambique Water Platform (PLAMA) and Wetskills Innovation Challenge will be launched.

Website: http://silusba2.wordpress.com/

Burkina Faso creates new ministry for water and sanitation

Mamounata Belem/Ouédraogo. Photo: LeFaso.net

Sector stakeholders were delighted when the new government of Burkina Faso announced the creation of the Ministère de l’Eau, des Aménagements Hydrauliques et de l’Assainissement (Ministry of Water, Hydraulic Planning and Sanitation) in January 2013 [1]. Mrs. Mamounata Belem/Ouédraogo, who heads the new ministry, has a challenging job ahead.

According to news site LeFaso.et [2], currently only 1% of the rural population has access to sanitation, while the coverage rate at the national level is 3% (these figures are lower than the 2012  WHO/UNICEF-JMP estimates: 6% and 17%, respectively [3]). It will be impossible for Burkina Faso to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation targets of 54% coverage for rural sanitation and 57% for urban sanitation in 2015. Even access to safe water, which has a much higher coverage rate, is still way below the targeted level.

[1] Gouvernement du Burkina Faso: La composition du gouvernement Luc Adolphe Tiao II, 4 Jan 2013.  Available at: www.gouvernement.gov.bf/spip.php?article1134

[2] Grégoire B. Bazie, Un ministère plein pour l’eau et l’assainissement : une option judicieuse et pleine de sens, LeFaso.net, 08 Jan 2013

[3] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2012. Estimates for the use of improved sanitation facilities : Burkina Faso.  Available at: washurl.net/dbp8gc

Related news: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre opens its second office in Africa, IRC, 02 Oct 2012

Related web sites:

• SWA – Burkina Faso country profile 2012
• WASHWatch.org – Burkina Faso

Africa: AMCOW gets US$ 2 million Gates grant to build national sanitation capacities

The African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) has been awarded a US$ 2 million grant [1] from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help countries build capacities for sanitation policy development, monitoring and advocacy.

AMCOW will use the 3-year grant for:

• technical guidance and training to four fragile counties to develop and adopt national sanitation and hygiene policies and plans
• organising the 4th AfricaSan conference and awards to boost implementation of the AfricaSan Action Plan and eThekwini ministerial commitments [2]
• country support in using the African mechanism for water and sanitation monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

“Across the globe, about 2.6 billion do not have access to safe sanitation. Africa accounts for almost 40 percent of these figures.” said Bai Mass Taal, AMCOW Executive Secretary.

AMCOW is an initiative of African Ministers responsible for water and a Specialized Technical Committee on water and sanitation for the African Union.

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched [3] its Reinvent the Toilet initiative at AfricaSan 3 in Kigali, Rwanda.

[1] Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Oct 2012

[2] WSP, 2008. The eThekwini declaration and AfricaSan action plan. Nairobi, Kenya: Water and Sanitation Program – African Region.
Available at: <www.wsp.org/UserFiles/file/eThekwiniAfricaSan.pdf>

[3] Reinventing the toilet: Gates Foundation launches new sanitation strategy and grants, Sanitation Updates, 19 Jul 2011

Source: AMCOW, 18 Dec 2012

Ethiopia: controversial dam puts Nile Basin collaboration on hold

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Photo: Salini Costruttori

Egypt fears a significant reduction in its share of water from the Nile when the  Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is completed in 2015. Ethiopia says its neighbour’s share of water is not in danger. An international panel of experts is due to deliver a report on the dam’s impact in May 2013.

A new book [1] published by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food suggests there is enough water in the Nile for all 10 countries it flows through, as long as sound pro-poor water management policies are implemented.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will become Africa’s largest hydroelectric project, turning Ethiopia, with the help of Chinese funding, into a major regional exporter of electricity. A 2010 Wikileaks report revealed that Egypt and Sudan were taking drastic precautions to protect their share of Nile waters.  The two countries were building an airbase in Sudan to launch attacks on Ethiopian dams should negotiations over water rights fail.

While Egypt and Sudan are members of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) partnership, they have refused to sign the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) drafted in 2010. Both countries are reluctant to give up their rights to the bulk of the Nile’s water that they were awarded in colonial treaties.

[1] Bekele, S., Smakhtin, V., Molden, D. and Peden, D. (eds.), 2012. The Nile River Basin: Water, agriculture, governance and livelihoods. UK: Routledge. Order online:  www.routledge.com/books/details/9781849712835

Related web sites:

• Wikipedia – Nile Basin Initiative | Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
• IWMI Nile Basin and East Africa sub-regional office
• International Rivers - Ethiopia’s Dam Boom

Source:

• Water: Enough in the Nile to share, little to waste, IRIN, 16 Nov 2012
• Hannah Waddilove, Cross-border resource management: How do the Nile countries fare?, This is Africa, 15 Nov 2012

Rwanda, Kigali: more connections to sewerage system planned

Kigali Eco-Toilet. Photo: Eugene Dusingizumuremyi / SuSanA

The capital city of Rwanda has turned a delay in funding into an opportunity to revise its plans so that more areas get connected to a new centralised sewerage system. Construction of a US$ 70 million wastewater treatment plant in Giti Cyinyoni, Nyarugenge District, was due to start in 2012 but has been delayed by one year.

The lack of a centralised sewage system in Kigali (pop. 1 million) has been forcing real estate developers to provide onsite sewerage systems for new housing units. Schools, hospitals and other public buildings are already required by law to have their own sewerage systems. In future all these onsite systems will be connected to the new centralised system.

In 2008, according to a survey, 80% of the people in Kigali still used pit latrines [1]. These have proved to be not only hard to maintain, but also expensive to manage in the long run. That’s why the city council recently passed a bylaw that instructs developers to install flush toilets connected to septic tanks.

[1] Hohne, A., 2011. State and drivers of change of Kigali’s sanitation : a demand perspective : paper presented at the East Africa practioners workshop on pro-poor urban sanitation and hygiene, Laico Umbano Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda, March 29th – 31st 2011 . [online] The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Available at: <http://www.irc.nl/page/64586>

Related website: Kigali City – Water and Sanitation Programmes

Source:

• Susan Babijja, City Council reviews sewage management plan, New Times, 26 Oct 2012
• Rwanda: Kigali sewage system delayed by funds, Rwanda Express /  allAfrica.com, 14 Jun 2012
• Eric Didier Karinganire, Sewage in Kigali still an issue of concern, Rwanda Focus, 09 Apr 2012

Zimbabwe: sanitation and human rights advocate Nomathemba Neseni dies

Nomathemba Neseni in June 2011 at a SuSanA side event. Photo: Flickr/SuSanA

“Sanitation is a passion, not a job,” said Noma Neseni last year at the Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India. “I became a human rights commissioner because of toilets. What is gender equality or poverty alleviation when we are forced to defecate in the open?”

Ms. Nomathemba (Noma) Neseni, the Director of the Institute of Water and Sanitation Development (IWSD) and Human Rights Commissioner in Zimbabwe passed away on 30 August after a short illness.

She took over the leadership of IWSD in mid-2007, after working for a number of years as Deputy Director. Ms. Neseni had extensive experience in the water and sanitation (WASH) sector, ranging from project planning to gender mainstreaming. She wrote a book [1] on WASH financing, which was published in May this year.

At IWSD, Deputy Director Mr. Lovemore Mujuru has taken up the post of Acting Executive Director.

Ms. Neseni served for many years as the National Coordinator for Zimbabwe for the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), and more recently she was elected as a member of the WSSCC Steering Committee.

IWSD has been an IRC partner for many years, most recently in the ZimWASH project [2]. In 2009 Noma Neseni wrote an article [3] in IRC’s Source Bulletin about how the decline in Zimbabwe’s sanitation services eventually led to the 2008 cholera outbreak, the deadliest in Africa for 15 years.

[1] Neseni, N, 2012. Financing of WASH in a declining economic environment: financing of WASH for sustainability. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.  http://washurl.net/dou0ka>

[2] IRC - ZimWASH

[3] Noma Neseni, Sanitation perspectives in the new Zimbabwe. E-Source, May 2009

Source: WSSCC, 30 Aug 2012 ; The Herald / allAfrica.com, 01 Sep 2012

Policy review of the Dutch contribution to drinking water and sanitation (1990-2011) includes Benin, Mozambique and Tanzania

A policy review [1] of Dutch aid during 1990 to 2011 to improve drinking water and sanitation services in developing countries found that while millions of peole have gained access, the impact on health and sustainability was limited.

The main focus of the review is on the period from 2004 when aid was directed at supporting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the world’s population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

The review is primarily based on:

• a study of Dutch policy and its execution;
• impact evaluation studies of drinking water and sanitation programmes in Benin [2], Egypt, Yemen, Mozambique [3] and Tanzania [4].

The policy review was supported by a reference group which included Dr. Christine Sijbesma of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

South Africa: new coal-fired power stations will cause water crisis, warns Greenpeace

From Greenpeace Africa’s infographic “Poisoned Power”

Greenpeace warns that new coal-fired power stations and coal mines will lead to a water crisis in South Africa. It calls on the government to quit coal and embrace the country’s renewable energy potential.

National utility Eskom is building two new mega power stations in Medupi and Kusile. Eskom estimates that their new dry-cooled plants will only use about a tenth of the water that conventional wet-cooled power stations require [1]. Even so, the Kusile plant will still use 173 per cent more water per unit of electricity than windpower says Greenpeace.

Greenpeace fears water that water will get diverted away from agricultural and residential use to meet the needs of new mines. Mining will have a “drastic effect on wetlands and water systems”, Greenpeace adds.

South Africa is projected to experience a 17% gap between water supply and demand by 2030. “The impact of new coal-fired power stations on a future water crisis hasn’t been adequately taken into account”, says Melita Steele, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Africa.

The World Bank Inspection Panel came to a similar conclusion when it reviewed the US$ 3.75 bank billion loan for Eslom’s Medupi plant [2]. It said the World Bank ”did not fully consider the impacts and risks of water supply alternatives to other local water users” [3].

[1] Londiwe Buthelezi, Eskom to cut water use by 260bn litres, IOL, 25 Jun 2012

[2] Lisa Friedman, Auditors find World Bank skipped policy steps in approving huge South African coal plant, E$E News, 02 Dec 2011

[3] Inspection Panel Investigation Report South Africa : Eskom Investment Support Project (EISP), 2012. Available at: <washurl.net/7xsunk>

Related Greenpeace Africa reports:

• Groenewald, Y., 2012. Coal’s hidden water cost to South Africa. Available at: <washurl.net/712ke9>
• Steele, M., Schulz, N. and Musana,F. (eds), 2012. The Eskom factor : power politics and the electricity sector in South Africa. Available at: <washurl.net/164zzq>

Related web sites:

• Eskom
• Greenpeace – Poisoned Power [infographic] | The Advanced Energy [R]evolution

Source:

• Greenpeace: Eskom and SA government responsible for threatening water crisis, Greenpeace, 25 Jun 2012
• Melita Steele, The hidden water cost of South Africa’s coal addiction, Greenpeace blog, 25 Jun 2012

 

Africa: UN-Water survey shows improved government performance in water resource management

A new study covering 40 African countries shows that they are making good progress with integrated approaches to water resources management.

Over 75 per cent of the member countries of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) are implementing national water laws and nearly half (44 per cent) are executing national plans for integrated water resources management in line with the Africa Water Vision for 2025 according to a new study [1]. The study is based on global survey co-ordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on behalf of UN-Water, which will be released at Rio+20. [2]

The report found that 18 of the 40 countries polled have integrated water resource management (IWRM) plans under implementation. A similar study conducted in 2008 found that 5 countries, out of the 16 that responded to the survey, had IWRM plans or were in the process of developing them.

While several countries reported that improved water resources management has direct social and economic benefits, the report asserts that better documentation and indicators could increase government commitment and financing for water.

Improved coordination, institutional capacity and financing are needed to ensure food and energy security, as well as access to safe drinking water and sanitation to a growing population. The report warns that climate change will increase flooding, droughts and pollution, which are the greatest physical threats to Africa’s water resources.

[1] McMullen, C. (ed.), 2012. 2012 Status report on the application of integrated approaches to water resources management in Africa. Abuja: African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). viii, 88 p. : 20 boxes, 53 fig., 4 tab. Available at: <http://bit.ly/KcwqMb>. Accessed 15 May 2012

[2] UN-Water, 04 May 2012

Related web sites:

• African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)
• UN-Water @ Rio+10
• EU Water Initiative (EUWI) – Africa Working Group (AWG)

Source: AMCOW, 14 May 2012

Liberia: dirty little secret – the loo that saves lives

Villagers in Nyonken, Liberia, collect water from the river for cooking, washing and drinking, even though they know human waste from villages upstream may have contaminated it. Photo: Aubrey Wade / Guardian

Diarrhoea kills more children than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined – and its main cause is food and water contaminated with human waste. Liberia’s president is trying to change all that, writes Rose George in The Guardian.

The author of the sanitation best seller “The Big Necessity” gets to interview to Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, ” the only serving head of state to have written in a major newspaper about the need for toilets”.

Sirleaf took a while to understand the place of good sanitation. Like countless Liberians, she grew up on the family farm, where the only toilet was the bush. “It came naturally,” she says, when I double-check that the president has just admitted to open defecation – or, as Liberians say, doing poo-poo in the bush. “That was what it was.”

Like the six out of seven Liberians who still do the same thing, or the 2.6 billion worldwide who have no toilet, Sirleaf didn’t see what was wrong with it. All that forest: what harm can a little poo-poo do? Now she knows better. She knows that diarrhoea – caused largely by people ingesting water or food contaminated by human waste – kills more children worldwide than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

[...]

Only when she looked into why so many Liberian women were dying in childbirth, and why children were dying of something as banal as the squits, did she realise “there is a relationship with water and sanitation. I needed to understand why that was so, and partly it’s because people don’t have access to clean water. That was an eye-opener for us.”

Rose George asks Sirleaf why sanitation, compared to water supply, is receiving so little attention from both donors and communities. The Liberian president answers:

“People say they want health clinics,” she says, “but they don’t ask for sanitation. They say their children get malaria or dysentery, but they don’t ask for sanitation. We have to bring to their consciousness that sanitation is linked to health.”

Read the full Guardian article published on 3 February 2012.