South Africa: call to cancel US$ 82 million sanitation contract

A parliamentary committee wants to cancel a 550 million Rand (US$ 81.7 million) rural sanitation contract with an NGO for its failure to deliver services on time. The ministers of Public Works and of Human Settlements want to give the NGO, Independent Development Trust, a second chance.

The parliament’s human settlements portfolio committee wants to cancel the second and third phases of the Trust’s contract to build pit and flushing toilets in 25 rural municipalities. The Independent Development Trust was to have completed the first phase of its three-year contract, worth 100 million Rand (US$ 14.8 million) in April 2011, but it only spent 46 million Rand ((US$ 6.8 million) on 8368 pit toilets – a third of which were delivered after the deadline.

The committee plans to table a report in parliament calling for Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde to cancel the rest of the contract. Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale pleaded with the committee to give the development trust more time and not to hand the contract over to the private sector.

However, MPs told Sexwale that they had been trying for 10 months to get the trust to deliver and tender documents indicated that it had no experience in sanitation and should not have been given the contract..

Source: Anna Majavu, Times Live, 27 Jun 2011

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

Eritrea: community-led sanitation brings great promise, UNICEF

Encouraging communities to work to improve their health and hygiene means empowering people with the right messages and the means to improve their sanitation systems. In Eritrea, the remote Emberemi village is located in the midst of a powdery pulp of sand. On a typical homestead there are a few houses, a little kraal with cows tethered to wooden posts, and on the corner is a toilet, also constructed of local shrubs. Harsh living conditions don’t trouble the villagers, but were noticeable to a visiting team from UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, who arrived to monitor the community-led total sanitation strategy (CLTS).

A project with promise

CLTS is a revolutionary low-cost approach to rural sanitation where communities are facilitated to assess their own sanitation situation, analyze and take action to stop open defecation and build their own latrines without any subsidy and using locally available materials. In 2010, the Ministry of Health, with the support of UNICEF, plans to enable the 60,000 households countrywide to stop open defecation. According to the latest estimates, only five per cent of Eritrea’s population has access to improved sanitation facilities. The CLTS project bears great promise and could position the country towards achieving the MDG target on sanitation.

Better toilets, better hygiene

The household of villager Amna Abdela Mussa, age 45, was the first to be visited. She paused from her laundry to welcome the team and show them her toilet. “I heard the message from Ministry of Health on the importance of sanitation and I took it upon myself to construct my own toilet,” she said. The toilet also serves as a bathroom and has two off-site pits. On one side is the toilet and on the other side is the seat for bathing and a pit for dirty water. To ensure good hygiene, a small jerry can is positioned at the door. It is tied to a wooden post, with a rope extending from its mouth to a small peg on the ground. The idea behind this is that one does not have to touch the jerry can, but on stepping on the rope, it automatically tilts the jerry can downwards to enable hand washing. A bar of soap is positioned next to it. Ms. Mussa is just one of the many Eritreans who have enthusiastically embraced the CLTS. In 2008, one village was declared and certified to be open defecation free (ODF). In 2009, a momentous community mobilization initiative geared towards collective behaviour change to give up open defecation and take up safe hygiene practices took off, with a total of 11,000 households having stopped open defecation and 11 villages now ODF.

Partnerships for shared success

The momentum gained in sanitation has been made possible through funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. According to UNICEF’s Chief of Water and Sanitation in Eritrea David Proudfoot, this partnership is key and progress depends very much on sustained funding for the project. “If we are to sustain results and build on the momentum, this funding must continue, it will position Eritrea on the path to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation,” Mr. Proudfoot said. It is estimated that approximately 448,000 Eritrean households in rural areas need to build and use their own toilet in order to meet the MDG target by 2015. One of the pioneers of the CLTS, Dr. Kamal Kar believes that this target is very much achievable. “Eritrea has great potential to serve as an example to the world given the commitment of the government,” Dr. Kar said.

Source: UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/eritrea_52289.html, 31 Dec 2009

Burkina Faso: call for proposals for rural household sanitation

EuropeAid has launched a Euro 10 million call for proposals (in French only) for rural household sanitation projects in Burkina Faso covering the following types of activity

• rural household latrine construction
• animation / hygiene awareness
• training staff of regional departments and local communities in household sanitation
• support to municipalities in developing their Municipal Development Plan (DCP) for water and sanitation
• training of artisans / masons in household latrine production

Title: Composante ”assainissement familial eaux usées/excréta en milieu rural”
Reference: EuropeAid/129736/C/ACT/BF

Grant size: minimum Euro 1,5 million, max. Euro 2.5 million
Required cofinancing: min 50% and max 90% of total eligible costs
Project duration: 3-4 years

For full information and to apply go the EuropeAid’s Call for Proposals page, click on Search by reference and fill in 129736

Please note: do not send applications or requests for more information to this blog

Ghana: journalist wins international award for water and sanitation campaign

Raphael Ahenu receiving his award from Terry Waite

A Ghanaian journalist and human rights campaigner has won a British award for his water and sanitation campaign. Raphael Ahenu received a 2009 SMK Campaigner Award in the international category on 17 September 2009.

Mr. Ahenu is campaigning for clean water and sanitation facilities to be provided to 100 communities, schools and hospitals in the Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti regions of Ghana by 2015. Through radio talk shows and other publicity methods he mobilises rural communities to demand their rights to such facilities. Mr. Ahenu plans to advocate at the local level and lobby central government so that water and sanitation facilities are provided to rural communities in both these regions.

The Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) is a charity set up in 2005 to connect, inform and support campaigners. The winners of the annual SMK awards receive support, advise and training to further develop their campaigns.

Mr. Ahenu is CEO of African Media Aid (AFRIMA) based in Sunyani. He offcially launched his “Access to Clean Water and Sanitation” campaign on 25 September 2009 at Odumase in the Sunyani West District of the Brong-Ahafo Region. Ay the launch, he announced that from next year AFRIMA and Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF) would be presenting Sanitation and Hygiene Awards to recognise outstanding achievements in this area by organisations, individuals and communities in Ghana.

See a short interview with Raphael, speaking just after he received his award from humanitarian and former envoy for the Church of England Terry Waite.

Source: SMK, 17 Sep 2009 ; Michael Boateng, The Chronicle / allAfrica.com, 25 Sep 2009

Rwanda: country to achieve MDG water & sanitation goals by 2012

Kigali — Rwanda will by the year 2012 have reduced by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, State Minister Dr. Albert Butare said.

The target which is under the UN Millennium Development Goal 7 of ensuring environmental sustainability, is meant to be achieved by 2015.

The target under MDG 7 is to halve the percentage of people without access to safe water.

Currently, the country’s population with access to safe drinking water is estimated to be at 73 percent and government expects to increase the percentage figure by more than 80 percent by 2012. Only about 45 percent Rwandans have access to hygienic sanitation facilities.

Butare said that the MDG, water and sanitation is in the priorities in the five year plan of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy to be attained by 2012.

In water supply and sanitation, EDPRS plans to raise rural water supply coverage to 85 percent by 2012, while in sanitation coverage for rural household shall increase from 38 percent to 65 percent by 2012.

It’s said that, the proportion of schools with latrines complying with health norms shall rise from 10 to 80 percent.

Butare said this during the signing of a grant agreement worth $25m, a second phase of the National Program of Water Supply and Sanitation in Rural (PNEAR).

The grant provided by African Development Bank (ADB) and will be spent in rural communities providing water and sanitation services was signed last Friday at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) premises.

The grant will ensure the sustainable access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation which is in line with the MDGs and Vision 2020 through the EDPRS.

“As you know (PNEAR), has been identified in order to contribute to the achievement of MDGs and to the achievement of the vision 2020 objectives,” Finance Minister James Musoni said.

Butare noted that big achievements that have been registered in different districts across the country.

He cited Rwamagana district as an example which has already registered 85 percent.

Butare hailed different development partners like Japanese, Belgium cooperation and ADB who have contributed to the county’s efforts to achieve of 100 percent coverage by 2020.

Source: Gertrude Majyambere, New Times / allAfrica.com, 14 Sep 2009

Uganda, Kamuli District: sanitation campaign succeeds in raising latrine coverage

The pit-latrine coverage in Kamuli district has increased from 46% to 76% in the past two years, the district health department [Alex Mulindwa] said [...] Mulindwa said they launched a campaign to encourage people to construct pit-latrines in 2006.

He added that they used radios and patrols to mobilise the residents. The campaign was funded by the water department. Mulindwa said at the beginning of the campaign, some villages had no pit-latrines and residents would relieve themselves in the bushes.

“Bulungu village in Namwendwa sub-county had no pit-latrine and the residents had turned anthills into latrines,” Mulindwa noted. The district health educator, David Mbadhwe, said the district council passed a resolution under which a punishment of six months jail term was imposed on those who did not have pit-latrines. Mulindwa said they targeted having pit-latrine coverage of 90% by 2010.

Source: Tom Gwebayanga, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 18 May 2009

Namiba, Hardap Region – bucket toilets are No More in Aranos

WINDHOEK – The village of Aranos in the Hardap Region no longer has the bucket toilet system, unlike other village councils like Gibeon in the same region.

The last of the bucket toilet system was phased out in 1995 and was replaced by the pumping or slopping system, whereby each house has its own drain.

According to the chief executive officer of the village, Niklaas !Goraseb, all residents that built their houses through the build-together programme were able to build a toilet.

The informal settlements at the town have the Ecological Sanitation System, also known as the EcoSan system, or dry toilets, which do not use water.

!Goraseb said 40 EcoSan toilets were already built for the informal township, while 40 more are earmarked for building.

The CEO however said the village would be better off if it had the flowing sewerage system whereby the sewerage goes straight to a central sewerage pond and thus phase out the sewerage collection by trucks.

“Although the pumping system is better than the old bucket system, it is also costly as the trucks have to be replaced or maintained every three years,” !Goraseb said.

According to !Goraseb, the tanks carrying the sewerage are damaged by the urine in the sewerage and thus have to be replaced often, which is a costly exercise.

He said installing the flowing system would be very costly for the small village. A feasibility study by one engineering company gave a quote of N$12,5 million.

“We sent the quotation to the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development last month already and are waiting to hear from his office,” he said.

Another plan that the village has is to build a dam, so that it has its own water and does not depend too much on NamWater for water.

Aranos is inhabited by around 7 000 people of whom 60 percent are unemployed.

!Goraseb noted that some of the inhabitants depend on casual work on neighbouring farms.

The village has five schools, a hospital, police station, a court, an agricultural and veterinary office, Pep Stores, Nampost and an Agra store.

Source: New Era, 19 May 2009

Sierra Leone: Villagers build latrines for better hygiene and child survival

Mahmud Konneh recently finished building a latrine in his village, Tilorma, in the Kenema District of eastern Sierra Leone. It is one of 30 new latrines that have been constructed by Tilorma villagers under the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach.

© UNICEF Sierra Leone/2008/Davies

[...] This sanitation initiative is being supported by UNICEF and the UK Department for International Development, in collaboration with the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and non-governmental partners.

Since the January 2008 introduction of CLTS in Sierra Leone, 103 villages have stopped practicing open defecation. As a result, the participating communities are cleaner, more hygienic and less likely to suffer from outbreaks of diarrhoea.

Source: Issa Davies, UNICEF, 28 Oct 2008