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

Liberia: extra US$ 450 million needed to rebuild water and sanitation sector

Liberia will need to bridge a US$ 450 million funding gap to achieve the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) targets that it set for itself in 2017.

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.

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

Mozambique: former water officials arrested for corruption

Mozambique’s anti-corruption agency GCCC has arrested the former director and financial administrator of the central regional office of the government’s Water Supply Investments and Assets Fund (FIPAG).

José Duarte and Henriques Leonardo were expelled from FIPAG in mid-2011, but it apparently took over a year to compile the case against them.

Duarte is accused of creating a private water supply company, Recta, which competed with FIPAG to supply water to ships in Beira port.

The activities of Duarte and Leonardo are said to have caused FIPAG losses of 37 million meticais [US$ 1.23 million].

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is supporting Cowater Consultores Lda. to develop an appropriate anti-corruption strategy and plan with the Direcção Nacional de Águas (DNA) in Mozambique [1].

In April 2012, the government decreed that FIPAG would outsource water distribution to the private sector and restrict its activities financing and managing water assets [2].

[1] Developing a water anti-corruption strategy in Mozambique, IRC, 29 Nov 2011

[2] Mozambique: government relaunches water supply privatisation, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique / allAfrica.com, 04 Apr 2012

Related websites:

• FIPAG – Fundo de Investimento e Património de Abastecimento de Água
• Water Integrity Network
• IRC – Transparency and Accountability

Source:

• Mozambique: Former Water Supply Officials Arrested, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique/allAfrica.com, 02 Nov 2012
• Diário de Moçambique, Gabinete de Combate à Corrupção prende ex-directores regional e financeiro do FIPAG, @Verdade, 01 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

Africa: EU-funded water and sanitation projects not sustainable say auditors

The majority of the water and sanitation projects funded by the European Union (EU) in six African countries are not sustainable says the EU’s spending watchdog. The European Commission (EC) maintains that most of the audited projects were approved before it had implemented quality control reforms.

ECA Member David Bostock presenting Special Report no 13/2012. Photo: European Union

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) reviewed 23 projects in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. The projects represent an investment of over 400 million euro of which the EU provided 219 million euro. Total EU spending on water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa between 2001 and 2010 amounts to over 1 billion euro.

In their report [1], the auditors warn that the majority of projects will not be sustainable unless non-tariff revenue is ensured and institutional weaknesses are addressed. Less than half of the projects examined delivered results meeting the beneficiaries’ needs.

Help a local journalist examine the sustainability of a water and sanitation project in Benin

Lake Nokoué, Benin. Photo: Pacôme Tomètissi

Journalist Pacôme Tomètissi wants to revisit the fishing communities of Lake Nokoué in Benin to examine the sustainability of a 5 million euro EU-funded water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project. You can support his endeavour via the crowdfunding new website Spot.Us.

In 2010 Pacôme wrote a story about WASH initiatives that were helping to stop pollution of the scenic lake. Poor sanitation was threatening the health and livelihoods of the fishing communities.

The main WASH initiative is the “Citizens together in solidarity for water on Nokoué project”. French NGO Emmaus International launched the project in 2006 in two villages of Sô-Ava district (pop. 76,000). Now the EU is funding the second phase of the community-based project (2011-2015), which aims to provide WASH services to the remaining seven villages. Besides building water and sanitation systems, the project will run a hygiene promotion campaign and train local stakeholders.

If Pacôme can raise enough funds via Spot.Us, he can go to Sô-Ava to report on the sustainability of the Lake Nokoué WASH project.

Spot.Us is a nonprofit platform that fundraises for independent reporting projects. It is part of American Public Media and the Public Insight Network.

Go to http://spot.us/pitches/1411-les-porteurs-deau and leave a comment, become an editor or fund the story!

You can find a description of the Lake Nokoué project on the Emmaus International web site and see a the short video “Nokoué: the Water Companions“.

Ethiopia: rush to achieve to water and sanitation for all by 2015

The Ethiopian government has set itself an ambitious target of achieving 98.5% water coverage and 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2015. But how realistic is this target?

Currently only 54% of Ethiopia’s 83 million people has access to an improved water source and 60 per cent to sanitation, while there is a big disparity between rural and urban coverage [1]. Some 14% of under-5 childhood deaths in 2010 was caused by diarrhoea [2].

Ethiopia estimates it will need US$ 3 billion to reach universal water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) coverage, of which US$ 1.5 billion has been pledged by the government and donors [3]. Recent commitments include a US$ 150 million World Bank loan for the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project (UWSSP) [4] and a US$ 100 Chinese loan for water supply in Addis Ababa, announced in November 2011 [5].

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

 

Uganda: government setting up Hand Pump Mechanics Associations in all rural districts

Forming associations for hand pump mechanics in Uganda has enhanced the services they provide and ultimately improved functionality, a new study [1] shows.   One such association in Kabong district succeeded in improving functionality of water sources from 20% in 2006 to 96% in 2010.

A 2011 study on the effectiveness of community-managed rural water systems revealed that just 53% were fully functional. With a coverage rate of 65% this implies that  only  about a third of the rural population of Uganda has reliable access to safe drinking water.

Hand Pump Mechanics Associations (HPMAs) have been in existence in Uganda for several years but were under-performing, partly because they were not formalised. In 2007, SNV  Netherlands Development Organisation developed guidelines to improve HPMA performance.

Now the government, through the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), and its development partners have decided to set up HPMAs in all districts in Uganda. They have set a target to set up hand pump mechanics /scheme attendants associations in 80% of the districts in FY 2011/12, and operationalise them in at least 30% of districts by FY 2012/13 [2].

Members of the Lira District Hand Pump Mechanics Association undergo refresher training, January 2012. Photo: IRC/Triple-S

While the Ministry and its partners are now rolling out awareness raising and capacity building programmes for  HPMAs, several concerns have been raised. One is about their legal status. The Functionality Working Group, which was set up by the MWE,  recommends that HPMAs first register as Community Based Organisations (CBOs) as required by the Ministry but that they would also need to allowed to undertake commercial activities to ensure their sustainability.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre/Sustainable Services as Scale (Triple‐S) is supporting the secretariat of Functionality Working Group.

[1] IRC and SNV, 2012. Hand Pump Mechanics Associations : improving rural water service delivery. (Triple-S briefing note). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre/Sustainable Services as Scale (Triple‐S). Available at: <http://bit.ly/KTkKzH>

[2] MWE, 2011. Water and environment sector : the third Joint Government of Uganda –Development Partners Sector Review 2011 : agreed minutes : 11th – 13th October 2011, Kampala. Kampala, Uganda: Ministry of Water and Environment. Available at: <http://bit.ly/KTldlw>

Related news: Uganda: associations of pump mechanics help improve functioning of handpumps, E-Source, 14 Dec 2010

Related web sites:

• Uganda – Ministry of Water and Environment
• IRC – Uganda Triple-S initiative
• RWSN – Sustainable Rural Water Supplies

Source: Hand Pump Mechanics Associations: actualising the dream, IRC-Triple-S/Water Services that Last/, May 2012