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].

Sudan, Darfur: international conference launches US$ 1 billion appeal for water-for-peace projects

Sudan’s irrigation and water resources ministry and the United Nations launched a US$1-billion cash appeal on 27 June 2011 to help reverse the rapid decline in Darfur’s water supplies, seen as one the key drivers in the region’s conflict. The region has witnessed a demographic explosion in the past few decades combined with more frequent droughts.

Organisers of the Water for Sustainable Peace conference held in Khartoum from 27-28 June 2011, say the money they hope to raise will fund 65 different water-related projects, the bulk of which (59 per cent / US$ $636 million) will cover implementation of 20 major projects, over a six year period.

Photo: Darfur International Water Conference 2011

While two-thirds of the projects relate to water resources and WASH infrastructure, the remainder will promote conflict mitigation, sustainable livelihoods, peace-building and capacity-building.

The Sudanese government plans to contribute US$ 216 million to the projects, as part of a package for development in Darfur amounting to US$ 1.9 billion in the next four years.

Since the start of the conflict in Darfur in 2003, at least 300,000 people have killed and 1.9 million people have fled their homes. In 2011, fighting has displaced about 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.

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.

Kenya: plan to halve infant diarrhoea prevalence

Kenya has set its sights on halving the prevalence of infant diarrhoeal disease – which kills dozens of children daily – within five years, using new treatments and by boosting preventive measures.

Every Kenyan child under five has an average of three episodes of diarrhoea annually, according to the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey.

Hon Beth Mugo, EGH, MP

“With 86 children dying every day, diarrhoea is the third leading cause of death among under-fives in Kenya. It is unacceptable, but we can stop this!” said Beth Mugo, Minister for Public Health and Sanitation, at the 31 March 2010 launch in Nairobi of national policy guidelines.

The new guidelines, she said, complemented the government’s Child Survival and Development Strategy with a package of interventions based on using a new type of oral rehydration salts (ORS) containing lower concentrations of glucose and salt; zinc supplements to reduce the frequency of episodes; selective use of antibiotics; and encouraging prevention through breastfeeding.

“With exclusive breast feeding, vitamin A supplementation, strengthened routine childhood immunization, proper hygiene and access to improved water supplies, we can curb the number of deaths,”said David Okello, country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“We are also looking forward to solutions such as PATH’s rotavirus vaccines. With 730,000 doses distributed this year, we could really make a difference for all the children of Kenya,” said Annah Wamae, head of the Department of Child Health at the ministry.

According to the WHO, vaccination is the only preventive method for diarrhoeal disease cases caused by rotavirus, the most severe form of diarrhoea. In Kenya rotavirus causes 7,500 deaths each year.

At the launch, Sanjiv Kumar, the UN Children’s Fund Kenya (UNICEF) chief of health, announced a financial support package worth US$850,000 by the end of 2010. Aimed at control and management of diarrhoeal disease in Kenya, Kumar added that the focus of the funding was to scale up oral rehydration therapy to cover the whole country; train health staff in new enhanced diarrhoeal guidelines; and to support communication to promote appropriate household behaviours.

Calling for more resources from partners to implement child health programmes, Mugo said resources allocation would be increased to include training of health personnel on control and management of diarrhoeal diseases, strengthening of health systems and programmes aimed at empowering communities to control diarrhoeal diseases.

“The rate of exposure to diarrhoea and waterborne diseases in this country is extremely high because of the high fluoride content in groundwater and the poor wastewater treatment,” James Gesami, Assistant Minister for Public Health and Sanitation, told IRIN.

“In 2010, no single town in Kenya has a sustainable water supply,” he added. “We can’t do much about quantity, but when it comes to quality, the Ministry of Health is working together with USAID and other partners to set up a strategy that will include the protection of springs ready by 2015.”

Training parents

The new guidelines include training parents in home-based care to under-fives to help them recognize the symptoms of dehydration.

This follows the health ministry’s recognition that about 30 percent of children with diarrhoeal diseases are not getting any oral rehydration salts or fluids. Home therapy will include information about recommended fluid intake to prevent dehydration at the onset of diarrhoea as well as feeding, including breastfeeding, during and after diarrhoea.

“Together with our partners, we can save thousands of lives. A coordinated approach involving already proven prevention and treatment methods is the way to do it,” said Olivia Yambi from UNICEF.

Source: IRIN, 01 Apr 2010

Liberia, Montserrado County: 3 communities in Careysburg District achieve Total Sanitation status

Liberia: Three communities meet CLTS compliance

Three communities in Liberia have been declared open defecation free by the coordinating institutions of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) program. The areas according to Public Works release are Sackie Town, Gbokolleh Town and Frank Town, all in Careysburg District, Montserrado County. The Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach focuses on igniting a change in hygienic and sanitation behaviors rather than just constructing toilets. The initiation also hopes to see Liberian communities organize themselves in addressing their sanitation needs through collective movement, without subsidies from outside.

CLTS started in Liberia March 30, 2008 and its originated from India by Dr. Kamel Kar, the founder of the organization. The idea was transplanted in Liberia through the instrumentality of UNICEF and the government of Liberia. Since the inception of CLTS in Liberia, about ten (10) communities have been triggered in Todee and Careysburg Districts in Montserrado. CLTS hopes to achieve reduction in water related diseases, community driven in all development initiatives and reduction in environmental pollution.

There are more than fifteen communities in Liberia as a whole trying to obtain ODF status but at present, only three have met the requirements and are going to be certificated during the official launching of the program. The coordinating agencies of CLTS in Liberia are the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, UNICEF, SODES and FAAL.

Meanwhile, strategy developed for the Community Led Total Sanitation program will be launched on Saturday, January 23, 2010 in Gbokolleh Town, Careysburg District, Montserrado County. CLTS according to strategy developed hopes to declare 2010 as “National Year of Sanitation in Liberia.” The program is expected to caption the theme “from the bush to the toilet house-communities decide for themselves.”

Related web site: Community-led Total Sanitation

Source – The Liberian Times, 21 Jan 2010

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

Tanzania: Unicef, Govt launch national hygiene campaign

A national campaign to improve hygiene and sanitation in Tanzania was launched in Dar es Salaam on 3 November 2009.

It is the brainchild of Unicef and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The national toilet campaign is known as Fyatua choo ushinde (Kiswahili words literally meaning “Click a toilet and win”).

Speaking at the function, the Unicef representative, Dr Abdulai Tinograh, said it is designed to mobilize all Tanzanians to participate in a robust national campaign to improve hygiene and sanitation in the society.

He said Tanzania needs sweeping changes in approaches towards sanitation and significant investments. These would make it achieve the sanitation Millennium Development Goals target of reducing by half the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by 2015, he noted.

He said a recent study found out that many schools do not have enough latrines and less than ten per cent of them in eight districts have functioning hand washing facilities.

”We have discovered that 90 per cent of children in these districts and probably in most areas of Tanzania use toilets, but do not have anywhere to wash their hands. Hence, they go back to classrooms with dirty hands which may make them sick,” he said.

Dr Tinograh said because of lack of water in school latrines some schoolgirls decide to leave them since they experience problems, especially during their menstruation periods.

He further said that the severity of the situation is reflected in the fact that between 60 and 80 per cent of all hospital attendances are cases related to poor sanitation, hygiene and inadequate water supply.

With over 1.7 million incidents of diarrhoea occurring annually in Tanzania it is small wonder that it is the fourth leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children after malaria, anaemia and pneumonia, he said.

He noted that while the majority of Tanzanians have access to some type of toilets there is continual need to improve the quality of the facilities and especially promote widely the habit of washing hands using soap to prevent infections and the spread of diseases.

That was why the “Fyatua choo ushinde” was being launched under which there would be prizes presented to winners, he said.

He explained that during the campaign people will be required to send photographs of the kind of toilets available or being used in the community, old toilets, filthy ones and the cleanest or new toilets.

Launching the programme, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ms Blandina Nyoni, said 83 per cent of people living in rural areas and 98 per cent of those in urban areas have toilets but they are not in good conditions.

She said the Government clearly recognizes the importance of hygiene and sanitation. It has therefore set priority targets in the National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction to include 95 per cent of the population with access to basic sanitation by 2010.

Ms Blandina urged Tanzanians to properly use public toilets. She said some people have been misusing public toilets, thereby leading to the spread of sanitation- and hygiene-related diseases.

Source: Beldina Nyakeke, The Citizen, 04 Nov 2009

Netherlands increases support to African water/sanitation sector

THE Netherlands government has increased financial support to some African countries in the water and sanitation sector, following concerns that some of them may not attain the Millennium development goals (MDGS).

Netherlands ministry of foreign affairs senior advisor for water and sanitation, Dick Van Ginhoven, says US $ 150 million has so far been staked by his government to help accelerate efforts towards attainment of the MDGs in the water and sanitation sector.

Speaking in Choma at a stakeholders meeting for the Netherlands government review mission for water, sanitation and hygiene education at Crystal lodge, Van Ginhoven said the money would be channeled through UNICEF for programme implementation in identified African countries.

“We have put in place a 6 years programme in Africa through UNICEF covering Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Comoros, Rwanda and Sudan focusing on increasing access to safe drinking water and sanitation,” he said.

The meeting was also attended by chiefs Macha of Choma, Nkambo of Masaiti and chieftainess Shimukanami of Lufwanyama district.

With only eight years to go, he said the Dutch government is concerned over the progress of most countries towards the attainment of the MDGs.

Van Ginhoven said it was for this reason that respective governments and support agencies need to give extra support towards programmes aimed at achieving the MDGs.

“Governments and support agencies need to give an extra push, failure to which we won’t make it,” he said. “As for the Netherlands government, we are going to commit more support.”

He expressed happiness at progress in Zambia in the provision of water and sanitation.

“We have seen during our visit that there has been so much progress in Zambia. However, it will be interesting to note if the country will meet the MDGs considering that we only have 7 to 8 years,” he said.

The Netherlands government delegation also visited areas in chief Singani’s area where there has been tremendous progress in latrine construction as well as improved school sanitation.

And UNICEF expert on sanitation, Dr Peter Harvey told ZANIS in Choma that achievement of the MDGs would be highly dependent on the commitment of various donors and government to release needed funds for project implementation.

Dr Harvey said if donors like UNICEF, DANIDA, JICA, African development Bank and the Irish Aid fulfilled their financial commitment, more progress will be achieved in Zambia in meeting the set targets in water.

He however expressed concern at the tendering process through the ministry of local government which had been moving at a slow pace thereby affecting project implementation.

“The tendering process undertaken through the ministry of local government has in the past been too slow but we are hopeful that things will improve so that we keep the process moving,” said Dr Harvey.

He said if the programme on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) being implemented by UNICEF was adopted as a national programme, a lot of progress in increasing sanitation coverage would be achieved across the country.

CLTS which was first piloted in Choma district has so spread to Kazungula, Mazabuka and some copperbelt rural districts.

Speaking earlier CLTS national coordinator Leonard Mukosha told the Dutch government delegation since the introduction of the programme in Choma, more than 120,000 people had gained access to sanitation in less than a year.

He said the district had recorded a sharp increase in sanitation coverage from 23 percent to 95 percent.

Mukosha said out of the 817 village, 551 of them had so far become open defecation free as each household had construction latrines and were observing good hygiene practices.

He said the mass mobilization of the rural populace was due to the CLTS approach which embraced the crucial role of traditional and civic leaders in project implementation.

Source – Lusaka Times, 27 Sep 2009

Nigeria, Katsina: campaign against open defecation

Katsina State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) has this week launched a triggering of “disgust and shame” campaign to fifty five communities to fight indiscriminate and open defecation habits and scale up sanitation and hygiene delivery in the rural areas.

Executive Director of the agency, Abubakar Gege, who flagged off the program in selected communities in Bakori local government area of the state, said the campaign which covers nine selected local governments is aimed at sensitizing communities about the associated dangers of open defecation and the importance of household cleaning among others. Represented by the agency’s desk officer in collaboration with United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), Aminu Dayyabu Safana said the campaign being conducted with other non governmental organisations (NGOs) is geared towards the certification of those communities as open defecation free (ODF) by 2010, under the national year of sanitation action plan. Aminu Dayyabu said the triggering concept allow communities to take charge of their environment under the community led total sanitation (CLTS) to ensure total elimination of OD practices, full coverage of latrine usage, increased hygiene and sanitation activities and reduction of sanitation related diseases amongst communities.

He commended the state government for the creation of facilitating WASH departments in the local governments and ensuring adequate funding of the project while urging the communities to ensure household cleaning and hand washing at critical periods after defecation and before eating.

Source: Lawal Ibrahim, Daily Trust, 08 Sep 2009