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.

Burkina Faso: Inadequate hygiene conditions put thousands at risk

International humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger | ACF International has mounted an emergency response after the heaviest rainfall in almost a century destroyed major parts of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, affecting more than 150,000 people. 50,000 people have sought refuge in dozens of temporary shelter sites throughout the capital.

On 1st September [2009], more than 10 inches of rainfall dropped in a 12-hour period, flooding 50% of the capital and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. The displaced have sought refuge at 88 temporary sites across the capital, each sheltering between 200 and 1500 people. The authorities are concerned about the inappropriate water and sanitation facilities at the temporary shelter sites and worsening hygiene conditions.

Working closely with the authorities and other humanitarian actors on the ground, Action Against Hunger is launching an emergency response to assist 6,000 people affected by the flooding by improving hygiene conditions in 12 temporary shelters with funding from the City of Paris and the French Foreign Ministry. Action Against Hunger plans to put in place sanitation systems to provide basic hygiene standards. 150 latrines as well as washing areas and showers will be constructed and hygiene kits will be distributed to the displaced. Action Against Hunger will also monitor the water and sanitation situation to ensure that a minimum of 15 litres of safe water per person per day is available in line with international minimum standards in disaster response.

The torrential rainfall in Burkina Faso was the worst since 1914. Existing systems are not adapted to deal with an emergency of this proportion. The situation also is precarious in neighbouring countries where torrential rainfall and flooding have affected 600,000 people.

Source: ACF International, 10 Sep 2009

Senegal, Dakar: slum uses garbage to stay dry

In Médina Gounass neighborhood of Guédiawaye, a slum on the outskirts of Dakar, people use garbage “to shore up their flood-prone houses and streets”. “Garbage, packed down tight and then covered with a thin layer of sand, is used to raise the floors of houses that flood regularly in the brief but intense summer rainy season, and it is packed into the dusty streets that otherwise become canals. The water lingers for months in the low-lying terrain of this bone-dry country. Garbage is a surrogate building material, a critical filler to deal with the stagnant water — cheap, instantly accessible and never diminishing. The plastic-laden spillover from these foul-smelling deliveries pokes up through the sandy lots, covers the ground between the crumbling cinder-block houses, becomes grazing ground for goats, playground for barefoot, runny-nosed children and breeding ground for swarms of flies. Disease flourishes here, aid groups say: cholera, malaria, yellow fever and tuberculosis”.

[...] “In an upside-down world where garbage is sought for and dumped among homes, not removed, “people have no alternatives; they are left to themselves; they can only count on themselves,” said Joseph Gaï Ramaka, a leading Senegalese filmmaker, who made a documentary [see below] about an incomplete government effort, the Plan Jaxaay, to build modern housing for people in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Read more: Adam Nossiner, New York Times, 03 May 2009