Ethiopia: Multiple Use Water Improvements project launched

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

Counting how many Ethiopians lack decent water and sanitation

Addis Ababa – 8 April 2013. Providing universal access to water and sanitation, the goal of the Ethiopian Government, is a huge effort that is transforming lives and the economy. Behind efforts to improve service delivery – building new communal water systems, repairing broken pumps, encouraging households to improve their family wells and latrines – are monitoring systems, data and statistics. Reliable data are vital for investments to be made in the right places and the correct policy decisions are taken. Should limited public finance be directed to maintaining and repairing existing water supply systems, or to new construction, for example.

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.

Burkina Faso: costing rural water service levels

Based on national standards, the 7 boreholes and 3 standpipes in the village of Komsilga, Burkina Faso, are sufficient to supply water to 3,600 people. Since only 1,500 people live in the village, you might think that they had water in abundance.

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

4th Africa Water Week, 14-18 May 2012, Cairo, Egypt

Marking the 10th anniversary of the formation of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW), the 4th Africa Water Week will celebrate AMCOW’s achievements and reflect on opportunities for achieving water security and adequate sanitation in Africa. Over 1,000 participants are expected.

Organised by: African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission (AUC)

Hosted by: Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt (MWRI)

Main theme: “Water for Growth in Africa, AMCOW’s Journey @10”

Sub-themes / Lead Conveners:

• Water and Sanitation for Development / USAID – Further Advancing the Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI)
• Infrastructure for Growth and Climate Resilience Development / UN Water Africa, UNECA-African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) & African Union Commission (AUC)
• Private Sector Investment in Sanitation and Water / African Development Bank (AfDB)
• Water Governance and Financing / Global Water Partnership (GWP), African Development Bank (AfDB), EU Water Initiative – Africa Working Group (EUWI AWG)

Programme:

• 14 May – AMCOW General Assembly
• 15 May – AMCOW @ 10 celebrations
• 16-18 May – Technical Sessions on sub-themes (see above)

Under the sub-theme “Water and Sanitation for Development”, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA) will co-convene a session on “Monitoring For Action: Improving WASH Sector Performance and Sustainable Service Delivery” (17 May).

For more information visit: www.africawaterweek.com

New web resource on rural water supply highlights Ghana and Uganda – www.waterservicesthatlast.org

One out of three rural water supply systems in developing countries doesn’t function at all or performs far below its promised level. IRC’s Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) initiative has put together a web resource to help those involved in financing, planning or implementing rural water supply projects or providing services. The website brings together the latest thinking on creating water services that last, including results from Triple-S work in Ghana and Uganda. It covers key elements such as monitoring, financial planning, institutional models, and capacity building for service providers and local government. Here you’ll find tools, concepts, case studies, videos, cartoons, and more.

Web site: www.waterservicesthatlast.org

Southern Africa: winning the race – sanitation in rapidly-growing towns

This is a call for participants and contributors to an in-depth learning and sharing session on sanitation in rapidly-growing towns.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, together with UCLGA, WIN-SA and AusAid, are hosting a Learning and Sharing Workshop around this crucial topic in November 2011. The 2 day session, to be held near Johannesburg (in the week of 7 November), will explore proactive, tangible ways to deal with pressing sanitation issues in towns experiencing rapid growth in Southern Africa.

SADC participants (eligible countries in green here) are invited to apply to participate or contribute to the workshop – which discusses practical and pragmatic ways to seize the current ‘window of opportunity’ that exists in rapidly growing towns. The application deadline is 5 October 2011.

For more information and an application form go to: www.irc.nl/page/66412

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)

East Africa Practitioners Workshop on Pro poor Urban Sanitation and Hygiene, Kigali, Rwanda, 29-31 March 2011

This three-day workshop aims to identify proven good practices in the sanitation and hygiene sector, as well as drawing lessons from failures to enter into the policy dialogue. It focuses on urban sanitation with an emphasis on learning and innovation in the sector.

Organised by: UNICEF, GTZ, WSSCC, WaterAid and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.

Programme: the first two days of the workshop will focus on sharing and discussing proven good practices whilst the last day will be used for the discussion on key lessons learnt and follow up activities such as, the initiation of policy dialogues, advocacy messaging or linking with existing programmes.

Outputs: all papers will be published on the IRC web site. A short, select list of policy messages will be formulated for advocacy opportunities. Possible follow-up activities will be identified.

Deadline for abstracts for either a case study or photoessay: 10 December 2010

No registration fee

For full information go to www.irc.nl/page/39588 or download Second Announcement

Kenya, Nyanza: water and sanitation improvements at Atono school

The water and sanitation facilities at Atono school, especially the girls’ urinal, have attracted visitors from within Kenya and from Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and U.S.A. Photo: IRC/Ingeborg Krukkert

Mr Daniel Odhiambo is headmaster of the Atono School in Nyanza – one of only four schools in Kenya with urinals for girls. Netwas Kenya and IRC visited his school recently as part of a UNICEF Kenya study of 43 schools in four districts: Coast (Mombasa); Nyanza (Rachuonyo & Kisumu); Rift Valley (Kajiado); and North Eastern (Garissa). The aim of the study was to find out if the national Kenyan Ministry of Health standard ratio of 1 latrine to 25 girls and 1 toilet to 30 boys can be downgraded if the pupils also have access to urinals, and if so, what would be the new ratio.

This was a follow-up of 2004-2005 research on the enhancement of sanitation and hygiene for Kenya’s school children, carried out by IRC together with seven partner organisations in Kenya. That study showed that school toilet standards were not being met.

Africa: self-help sanitation for more than 2 million people

More than 2 million people and over 740 schools in Africa are getting improved sanitation.

In a new five-year programme, development organisation Plan International will expand its existing self-help sanitation programme in six African countries (Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi) and introduce it in two other countries (Ghana and Niger).

The programme aims to implement and promote the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach as it was originally intended: the community is triggered to act by itself towards its development by stopping open defecation and improving hygiene behaviour. There are no toilet subsidies and no financial rewards for eliminating open defecation. Plan and its local partners will carry out CLTS activities in 805 rural communities. Adapted versions of the approach will be used in 36 peri-urban communities and 742 schools.

Besides implementing sanitation projects, the programme will also engage the private sector. It will support local small or medium entrepreneurs to market the construction and maintenance of sanitation facilities.

Another programme element involves setting up national and international CLTS networks. National sanitation networks will not only coordinate programme activities but also lobby for sanitation policies to include CLTS and its adapted approaches in urban areas and schools. The results of the programme will be disseminated, including feed-back to the communities. The IDS website www.communityledtotalsanitation.org is instrumental in the dissemination to the wider audience.

The “Empowering self-help sanitation of rural and peri-urban communities and schools in Africa” project started in December 2009 and runs until December 2014. Plan Netherlands, in collaboration with Plan’s two regional African offices, is the programme’s lead agency. The two other programme partners are the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK and the IRC International Water and Sanitation based in The Netherlands. The total budget for the programme is € 8.4 million, half of which is provided as a grant by the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), one third are the estimated investments by the communities in their own development, and the remaining part comes via Plan Netherlands from fund raising activities by Dutch primary school children.

For more information read the programme’s executive summary

For more information on CLTS go to www.communityledsanitation.org

Contacts details:

• Plan Nederland, Martin Keijzer, e-mail: Martin.Keijzer@plannederland.nl, www.plannederland.nl
• IDS, Robert Chambers, e-mail: R.Chambers@ids.ac.uk and Petra Bongartz, email: P.Bongartz@ids.ac.uk, www.communityledtotalsanitation.org
• IRC, Marielle Snel, email, snel@irc.nl, www.irc.nl/sanitation