Reblogged from Learning for Change:

Make data and information flow

The last two weeks of April 2013 I went working closely with IRC colleagues on the ground. Also I worked with ‘les rapporteur groupes thématique’ from the water ministries. The overarching theme was ‘flux d’info AEPHA’. I went to Burkina Faso, Francophone West Africa. AEPHA = 'Approvisionnement en Eau Potable, Hygiène et Assainissement' = Water supply, Hygiene behavior and Sanitation.

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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/

Organised by

Theme: Mobilizing Resources and Governance of Water and Sanitation in Africa

Sub-Themes:

• Integrated Management of Water Resources and Climate Change
• Capacity Building for improved Water and Sanitation Services
• Advances in Water and Waste Water Treatment Technologies
• Pro Poor Water and Sanitation Services
• Financing Options for Water and Sanitation Services

Call for papers

Abstract deadline: 10 May 2013

Website: www.afwacongress2014.org (under development)

Robel Lambisso WASH Director (left) and MWA Chair at World Vision, Greig Jansen (right). Photo: newbusinessethiopia.com

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) and its partners have launched the Replenish Africa Initiative’s (RAIN) Multiple Use Water Improvements project in Ethiopia. This one-year project will benefit 73,400 rural citizens, including 22,000 school children living in seven rural woredas (districts) of three Ethiopian regions.  It will support water supply improvements and multiple uses of water (MUS); improve water access, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools, institutions, and households; and empower women through water-related entrepreneurship.

TCCAF is providing US$ 4 million to the project, which is being implemented in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (CNHF) and Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), WaterAid and World Vision. The project builds on the MWA’s  existing US$ 13 million CNHF programme that is being implemented in 25 woredas in 4 regions.

The TCCAF project can benefit from the related Multiple Use Services through Rainwater Harvesting (MUStRAIN) pilot project (2011-2013) in Dire Dawa. Funded through the Dutch Partners for Water programme, this project focuses on the exploitation of sand rivers for domestic, livestock and small-scale irrigation through integrated approaches that take account of multiple water needs. The Amsterdam-based RAIN Foundation is implementing this pilot project in partnership with the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, RiPPLE Ethiopia, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat (HCS) and other local  stakeholders.

The launch of the TCCAF RAIN Multiple Use Water Improvements project took place on  12 April 2013 in Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of IRC’s Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery symposium.

The  Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s 6-year RAIN programme (2010-2015) aims to provide at least 2 million Africans with access to clean water by 2015. The US$ 30 million that Coca-Cola has committed towards RAIN seems generous but amounts to just 0.75%  of  the company’s US$ 4 billion annual budget for marketing in 2013 and less than 7% of its US$ 440 million sponsorship deal with FIFA (2005-2012).

Related news:

• Counting how many Ethiopians lack decent water and sanitation, IRC, 08 Apr 2013
• Ethiopia: rush to achieve water and sanitation for all by 2015, E-Source, 24 Jul 2012

Related web sites:

• The Coca-Cola Foundation - Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN)
• Multiple Use water Services Group
• Millennium Water Alliance Program – Ethiopia
• IRC – Ethiopia country programme

Source: MWA, 12 Apr 2013 ; New Business Ethiopia, 13 Apr 2013

The recently completed National WASH Inventory has been a major initiative to better monitor the performance of the water and sanitation sector in Ethiopia. This involved survey of over 92,000 rural water supply schemes, over 1,600 small town systems, 50,000 schools and clinics and interviews with 12 million households. The costs amounted to more than 200 million Birr (about 12 million USD). For the first time, the National WASH Inventory provides a national baseline of all water and sanitation facilities using standard methods across all regions.

It is in the rural areas, with 82% of the population and fewer facilities than the cities, that the challenge is biggest. The results show that access to rural water supplies is close to the figures reported by the Central Statistical Agency and reported internationally by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme, the international reporting initiative tracking progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The new and improved figures show that the challenge of extending services is also bigger than previously recognized: the majority of rural Ethiopians (51%) still lack access to a safe water supply.

Now that a good baseline has been established, the monitoring challenge shifts to making the data available, using data in plans and policy making, and updating. This is all needed to underpin better service delivery, and to reach the unserved with more services says Tamene Hailu, National WASH Inventory Coordinator at the Ministry of Water and Energy. Updating is already underway in some regions.

These issues will all be the subject of a seminar on Monday 8 April, ‘National WASH Inventory: lessons learned and maximising value’, organised by the Ministry of Water and Energy, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and CCRDA-WSF. This event is part of a week of events in Addis Ababa bringing together international experts in water and sanitation monitoring. John Butterworth from the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre at The Hague says that ‘counting may seem less important than building new infrastructure, but the better data collected in the National WASH Inventory could be a force that drives a new spurt of growth in the sector. Put to use, the numbers could result in many millions of people getting new or better water supplies and sanitation facilities’.

The seminar on the National WASH Inventory precedes the international symposium “Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery” which is being held from 9-11 April and also takes place in the Addis Ababa Hilton.

Contacts:

• Tamene Hailu (National WASH Inventory Coordinator, MoWE) tamenehd@yahoo.com
• John Butterworth (IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre) butterworth@irc.nl
• Inge Klaassen (IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre) klaassen@irc.nl

Source: IRC, 5 April 2013

Malawian sanitation entrepreneur Martius using “The Gulper” to empty a pit latrine. Photo: Water for People

Providing toilets to the poorest may be “dear to the hearts of many non-profits, aid agencies and governments” but if you want to involve business you have to start with the better-off families first. So says business woman and sanitation entrepreneur Towera Jalakari who runs a pit emptying service in Blantyre, Malawi.

“We will get to Everyone in Blantyre one day, but the only way to make sure Blantyre actually solves its sanitation problems is to recognize that the market must function.  [...]  As we get better, as we scale city-wide, then costs will come down, services will improve, and pressure will build for all people to have a toilet.  We will get to the poorest, but they are not our first targets.  [...] If we rush too fast [...] then the poor will not have lasting services but rather a lot of useless toilets and nowhere to go to the bathroom.”

Malawi is one the countries in Water for People’s Sanitation as a Business program (2010-2014), which is funded by a US$ 5.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Water for People has contracted Tools for Enterprise & Education Consultants (TEECs) to support pit emptying businesses in Lilongwe and Blantyre.

The pits are emptied with Gulpers – portable desludging pumps which can negotiate the narrow streets and lanes in peri-urban areas. The sludge is transferred to drums and transported by pickup to a disposal site. Households in Malawi are willing to pay US$ 10-12 per drum, so with six drums on the pickup, a business could earn approximately US$ 60 per load. Water for People estimates that a business can generate a net annual profit (before interest and tax) of about 65% of the expenditure.

Up till now only 10 of 21 low-income areas in Blantyre and four out of 16 in Lilongwe have been reached by pit-emptying businesses.  To encourage more businesses to enter the market, TEECs is targeting owners of pickup trucks.

Water For People and Captiva Africa Ltd, Uganda, are developing a Business In Sanitation (BIS) marketing kit.

According to Water for People’s John Sauer, “the ideal sanitation market would see local businesses taking the primary role of providing ongoing sanitation services”.

So is the Sanitation as a Business model the key to achieving universal and sustainable access to sanitation? In virtually all countries with full coverage, sanitation delivery is a public service. If pit emptying  services become too lucrative, political capture (see the toilet wars in Ghana), may occur.

A second consideration is technology choice and the related costs. In some cases   alternative systems that greatly reduce or eliminate the need for pit emptying, like toilets with alternating pits (Fossa Alterna, Double VIP and Twin Pit Pour Flush) and simplified sewerage will be cheaper for users.

Related web sites:

• SuSanA – Working Group 9 –  WG 9 – Sanitation as a business and public awareness
• World Toilet Organization
• Sanitation Marketing Community of Practice

Related news:

• Business analysis of fecal sludge management, E-Source, 3 Dec 2012
• The business of the honey-suckers in Bengaluru (India), E-Source, 27 Sep 2012

Source:

• Ned Breslin, Sanitation as a Business in Malawi, Water for People,  7 Mar 2013
• John Sauer, Program Highlight: Sanitation as a Business in Malawi, Water for People, 9 Jan 2013 
• John Sauer, The Debating Chamber – Why markets – not NGOs – are key to solving the sanitation crisis, AlertNet, 18 Nov 2012

Liberia unveiled a five-year US$ 600 million investment plan to rebuild its WASH sector on 7 February 2013. The sector is still recovering from decades of civil war. However, only US$ 150 million of the required amount is covered by existing support from development partners. A large part of remaining US$ 450 million will need to come from user payments for urban WASH services.

The WASH Sector Investment Plan, developed with support from the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), outlines what is needed to achieve the targets set in the Agenda for Transformation (Liberia’s second Poverty Reduction Strategy). The basis for the plan is a digital map and inventory of more than 10,000 water points across the country. WSP conducted the inventory using Akvo FLOW, a mobile phone-based field survey tool [1].

More than half of the required funding is earmarked for improving urban WASH services, which includes a shift from shallow wells to urban piped water systems. Other funding priorities are rural WASH services; water and sanitation services in schools, clinics and public areas; and capacity building [2].

In 2010, an estimated 18% of the population had access to improved sanitation [3]. WSP estimates that Liberia loses US$ 17.5 million per year due to poor sanitation. This equals US$ 4.9 per person per year or 2.0% of the national gross domestic product (GDP) [4].

In January 2012, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf signed the Liberia WASH Compact, a product of the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership [5].

[1] Mark Tiele Westra, Using Akvo FLOW in Liberia, Akvo Blog, 16 Apr 2012

[2] Capacity development plan and Capacity development needs assessment, Liberia WASH Portal, Feb 2013

[3] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2012. Estimates for the use of improved sanitation facilities : Liberia.  Available at: washurl.net/1m6odi

[4] Sittoni, T. and Maina, S., 2012. Liberia loses USD17.5 million annually due to poor sanitation. (Economic impacts of poor sanitation in Africa). Washington, DC, USA, Water and Sanitation Program. Available at: washurl.net/7jai08

[5] Liberia: President Sirleaf finally signs WASH Compact, E-Source, 30 Mar 2012

Related web sites:

• Liberia WASH Portal: www.wash-liberia.org
• Sanitation and Water for All – Country Processes: www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/countryprocesses.html

Source: UN Country Team in Liberia, Reliefweb, 07 Feb 2013

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

In reality, only half of the villagers receive a basic level of service and half a limited if any service at all. The provision of a basic water service by a small network costs 9 times more in investment and 54 times more in operation and maintenance than a similar level of service provided by a handpump.

These are some of the findings in a new working paper by Dr Christelle Pezon from IRC’s WASHCost project, which describes the analytical framework and the methodological tools developed to cost rural water service levels.

Pezon, C., 2012. Evaluer le coût d’un service pérenne d’eau potable au Burkina Faso: méthodes et outils. (WASHCost document de travail ; n°5). The Hague, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Available at: www.washcost.info/page/2663

For more on WASHCost Burkina Faso see: www.washcost.info/page/475

Visit the WASHCost campaign page: campaign.washcost.info

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