WASH News Southern Africa
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
South Africa: Cape Residents, Unions Slam City Water Device
16 Jul 09
Concerns are being raised about the ongoing roll-out of tens of thousands of water management devices in Cape Town, which the City says conserves water, but which some residents complain are often faulty and lead to their water supply being cut off.Almost 31,000 devices – which critics argue are targeted mainly at poor households – [...]
South Africa: non-compliant plumbing components
15 Jul 09
In South Africa, 47 percent of plumbing components do not comply with national regulations due to the uncontrolled import and sale of non-compliant fittings, according to a University of Johannesburg researcher.Kaluka Paul Lobanga, a multidisciplinary engineer at the university, found that another factor contributing to the problem is the skills shortage and lack of knowledge [...]
Angola: US$ 120 million for rural water supply
30 Jun 09
The Angolan government in Luanda announced that it would invest the equivalent of $120 million US in rural water distribution projects under the “Water for All” program. [In 2008], Water Secretary Luis Filipe da Silva declared potable water service in the country’s provincial capitals, including Lubango, Ondjiva, and Namibe, another top priority.Source: AngolaPress / allAfrica.com [...]
Zimbabwe: why sanitation is the forgotten sister
15 Jun 09
As part of the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, Zimbabwe developed a national strategy for sanitation, launched in February 2008. Just five months later, a cholera outbreak that was to claim over 4,000 lives began.One of the strategy’s key proposals was to call for expanded resources for sanitation including public-private partnerships to expand access [...]
South Africa: wastewater is a resource
15 Jun 09
South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government. [According to] the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [...] water shortage is a genuine threat [...]
Namibia: Keetmanshoop water cuts punishment for loan defaults
15 Jun 09
Punishing residents for not servicing home loans, the Keetmanshoop Town Council on Monday [08 June 2009] shut off water supply to almost 100 Build Together Programme (BTP) houses at the town. Angry BTP house owners in the town’s Tseiblaagte residential area claim not to have been given sufficient notice before the cut-offs.“Despite my water bill [...]
Zimbabwe, Harare: WHO provides water treatment chemicals
15 Jun 09
Harare City Council [has] received water treatment chemicals worth US$450 000 from the World Health Organisation with the UN agency pledging to attend to Harare’s water and sewer infrastructure. The chemicals , [which] are enough to treat water for a month [...] were bought with funds provided by the African Development Bank. The AfDB has [...]
South Africa: mining and water safety do not mix
15 Jun 09
Every day 300 million litres of water laced with sulphuric acid and heavy metals, known as acid mine drainage (AMD), bubbles to the surface around South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg.New legislation, along with improved treatment plants to be built, aims to partly address the decades-old problem by incorporating new thinking on both AMD and mining, [...]
South Africa: Rotavirus vaccination programme delayed
15 Jun 09
South Africa’s introduction of a rotavirus vaccine will be launched at the earliest on 1 August 2009, after a three-month delay in its registration by the Medicines Control Council (MCC). About four-fifths of rotavirus infections occur in Africa and Asia; it is the leading cause of severe, dehydrating diarrhoea in children younger than five years, [...]
Zimbabwe: cholera is not going away anytime soon
15 Jun 09
Zimbabwe’s cholera caseload is expected to top the 100,000 mark [...] amid warnings by aid agencies that although the disease is subsiding, it has not been eradicated and could flare up again. “The epidemic has entrenched itself as Africa’s worst outbreak in more than 15 years,” killing more than 4,300 people* and infecting 98,309* since [...]
