WATER, SANITATION & INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. WATER, SANITATION & INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

2. Global Water and Sanitation coverage SANITATION COVERAGE: • 2.5 billion people (~ 38% world’s population) remain without improved sanitation facilities, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia • 1.2 billion people still practice open defecation (fields, bushes, bodies of water, other open areas, etc.) • Seven out of ten people without improved sanitation live in rural areas. DRINKING WATER COVERAGE: • < one billion people (~ 13% world’s population) remain without an improved drinking water source • Eight out of ten people without improved sources of drinking water in rural areas.

8. Consequence of inadequate water & sanitation services at the global level • Each year, some 1.5 million children die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor sanitation and dirty water, approx. > 4,000 deaths per day • Hundreds of millions suffer from various W&S related diseases that include diarrhoea, trachoma, intestinal parasites, and malaria; W&S related diseases are the single largest cause of sickness and death in the world and poor people are particularly affected. • Water collectors – mostly girls and women – spend several hours each day fetching water, often from unsafe sources. • Healthcare costs soar, countless school and workdays lost, communities efforts to escape from poverty made even more difficult. • Undermines other development efforts (e.g. the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic).

9. Health and development benefits of water supply and sanitation • Reduced burden of water and sanitation related diseases in poor & vulnerable communities (healthier people, reduced medical bills) • Time, distances travelled, and energy expended to obtain WSS services are reduced; people – especially girls and women – are better able to pursue productive such as farming, earning income, attending school, taking better care of family members, etc.

10. Economic benefits of water and sanitation services • Lack of WSS services have a global economic cost of approx. $38 billion per year; most of this can be attributable to poor sanitation (WHO, 2004) • Spending $1 on sanitation generates an average economic benefit of $9(WHO, 2004) • Helps to support broader poverty-fighting efforts (reducing child and mother mortality, protection of the environment, improving girls’ access to education, and many more…)

11. The International Community’s response: the UN MDGs • In 2000, Canada and the international community made a commitment to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 • The MDGs include the targets of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water & improved sanitation by 2015 • Achieving these 2015 targets will be an important step towards universal coverage.

12. Current status of the MDG water and sanitation targets • All developing regions have made progress in improving safe water coverage rates; indeed the MDG water target may be met at the global level by 2015 (~ 90% of global population covered) • In contrast, the MDG sanitation target is way off-track – at current rates of progress, the 2015 target will be missed by more than 700 million people • These numbers, however, mask significant discrepancies at the regional and country levels (e.g. W&S coverage rates in sub-Saharan Africa are among the worst globally)

13. Access to improved drinkingwater by region(WHO/UNICEF JMP 2002)

14. Access to improved sanitation by region(WHO/UNICEF JMP 2002)

15. WaterCan’s International Program • WaterCan focuses on East Africa: presently Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. • Two major programming streams – community-based and school-based WSSHE projects; urban & rural. • Local capacity building of local partners e.g. regional technical workshops, funding to attend practice-oriented W&S conferences, WaterCan Capacity Building Fund. • Promotion of ‘best-practices in programming; support advocacy/education initiatives.

16. WaterCan’s Integrated Approach The “three-legged stool” approach • Locally appropriate water systems • Simple yet effective sanitation facilities • Culturally appropriate hygiene education

17. Local partner organization regional training & annual review workshops

18. Rural Community Projects • Streams, ponds, and unprotected springs are commontraditional water sources in Eastern Africa – used for everything from drinking water to bathing to laundry and watering livestock. Rural children fetching unsafe water (Wakiso District, Uganda)

19. Rural Community Projects • WaterCan projects build local people’s capacity to undertake and maintain integrated clean water, basic sanitation and hygiene education initiatives. • In this photo, local masons are constructing concrete rings used to reinforce the walls of hand-dug wells. Meskan District, Ethiopia

20. Rural Water Supply • Hand-dug or drilled wells fitted with sturdy hand-pumps are common features of WaterCan’s rural projects. Women collecting water from wells (Meskan District, Ethiopia)

21. Rural Water Supply • The protection of natural springs is another common way by which WaterCan provides clean water to rural communities. Young boy fetching water from a protected spring (Wakiso District, Uganda) Local woman fetching water from a protected spring tap-stand (Kalu District, Ethiopia)

22. Training villagers to properly operate and maintain their water supply • To ensure the water systems are kept in good shape in the long-term, villagers are provided training in basic operation and maintenance skills. A villager demonstrating her hand-pump maintenance skills (Siaya District, Kenya)

23. Sanitation Promotion Household Latrines • By promoting the use of latrines alongside clean water and hygiene education initiatives, WaterCan projects can dramatically reduce water and sanitation related diseases in the community. Casting concrete slabs for household latrines (Wakiso District, Uganda)

24. Sanitation Promotion Household latrines • This household latrine with adjacent “tippy-tap” facility for hand-washing, constructed by a villager, is an example of a basic sanitation facility constructed using locally available materials. Meskan District, Ethiopia

25. Hygiene Education • Hygiene education materials and methods used in WaterCan projects are developed by indigenous partner organizations to ensure they will be culturally sensitive and appropriate. Local hygiene education materials (Siaya District, Kenya)

26. Hygiene Education Hygiene Education at home • Hygiene education helps to ensure that clean water is not contaminated at the source or after collection. • Here a woman demonstrates how she safely stores drinking water in her home. Wakiso District, Uganda

27. Hygiene Education • The construction and use of communal laundry washing facilities goes a long way to helping villagers adopt good personal hygiene practices as well as improve local environmental sanitation conditions. Laundry day! (Werebabo District, Ethiopia)

28. Hygiene Education Promotion of dish racks • Many villagers readily adopted the use of dish racks to keep plates, cooking and eating utensils clean after being exposed to basic hygiene education activities. Wakiso District, Uganda

29. Urban Community Projects • In informal or unplanned area of cities (slums), WaterCan provides residents access to clean water through approved connections to municipal waterworks. Community water-point (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) Community water tank (Nairobi, Kenya)

31. Urban Sanitation • Community sanitation facilities, such as the ones pictured here, play a large role in improving poor environmental sanitation conditions commonly found in informal settlements. Community latrine block (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) Residents with their community latrine block (Nairobi, Kenya)

33. WaterCan’s Clean Water for Schools Program • WHY? In Eastern Africa, various national governments have adopted free basic education policies in recognition of the importance of an education population to support local poverty reduction efforts. • As a result, the number of students who are now attending primary schools has increased dramatically. Primary school students (Bondo District, Kenya)

34. A rapidly growing school population in East Africa • In Kenya student enrollment increased by 1.3 million in only two years. • Over 90% of Kenya’s rural schools lack a source of safe water and do not have even the simplest sanitation facilities. • Sadly, already poor water and sanitation conditions at schools are made worse under a free education policy. Primary school students (Bondo District, Kenya)

35. Benefits of improving water and sanitation conditions in schools • Children and school staff less vulnerable to W&S related diseases • Encourages children, especially girls, to attend class ( reduced absenteeism) • Helps to improve students’ academic performance. • Educated children are better able to help their families and communities escape from poverty Students of Onyinyore Primary School (Siaya District, Kenya)

36. WaterCan Clean Water for Schools

37. WaterCan Clean Water for Schools

38. School Hygiene Education Hand-washing at critical times (such as after going to the toilet and before eating) is a key message communicated via school hygiene education efforts.

39. A final word… “We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic health care.” Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General

40. Clean Water and Sanitation for All!