WASH News Southern Africa
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
Zambia: Water committee prospers in Lusaka
26 Aug 10
Residents of Lusaka’s George Compound remember the bad old days in the early 1990s, when the area suffered ugly outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Poor management and maintenance caused the water infrastructure in the dense low-income settlement to collapse. People resorted …Continue reading →
Botswana: Acquiring a taste for recycled water
26 Aug 10
Many Batswana are quick to recoil at the mere mention of drinking treated wastewater. “As soon as I hear it is treated waste water, my mind will be flooded with the images of the waste water before being treated and …Continue reading →
Malawi: Local management the tonic for water woes
18 Aug 10
Hop over a seep of filthy sludge behind a bathroom screened with ragged sacks, turn past the toilet with battered cardboard walls, crab between mud-brick shanties roofed with rusty metal … There: emerge into a small, neat yard where a …Continue reading →
Zimbabwe: Questions raised over water treatment funding
11 Aug 10
The memories of Zimbabwe’s 2008-2009 cholera outbreak are fresh in the minds of everyone except the people who have the safety of the country’s water in their hands. Two years ago this month, a deadly cholera epidemic took hold in …Continue reading →
Namibia: Flying toilets’ days numbered
11 Aug 10
Members of the Tuahangana Housing Group (THG) dug trenches ahead of laying pipes for sewerage in their area over the weekend. The 250-member group from Greenwell Matongo in Katutura has collected over N$380 000 for the pipes, manhole covers and …Continue reading →
Mozambique: Over 13 million people will have access to clean water by 2014
10 Aug 10
The Mozambican Public Works and Housing Minister Cadmiel Muthemba, announced recently that over 13 million inhabitants would gain access to drinking water in the rural areas, and other four million in urban areas by 2014, reports the Thursday’s issue of …Continue reading →
South Africa: Sanitation for 3000 Lukhanji households
06 Aug 10
Lukhanji Municipality has been listed as one of two municipalities set to benefit from R3-million which has been allocated to wards the upliftment of rural household basic sanitation during the 2010/11 financial year. The allocation was made possible by the Human Settlements Department with Ngcobo municipality also a beneficiary. The announcement was made during a [...]
South Africa: Reduce demand for water, country warned
05 Aug 10
While South Africa (SA) faced water supply constraints and suffered from rainfall that was less than half the world average, it was not alone in having to manage water supply issues, experts said last week. Although SA faced a supply deficit of 6% by 2013 and 11% by 2019, it was 10 years too late [...]
Southern Africa: Realising trade in virtual water
03 Aug 10
The vegetables Omphemetse Monyi sells at the Francistown bus rank come from 400 kilometres away in South Africa. One approach to development might seek to replace her suppliers with local farmers, but Southern Africa’s water managers are considering the merits of reinforcing a regional trade in “virtual water”. Depending on the season, Monyi sells watermelons, [...]
Monitoring the Sanitation Status of African Cities
02 Aug 10
A discussion workshop entitled “Monitoring the Sanitation Status of African Cities”, supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), was held at the University of Surrey (UK) on 29th June 2010, to discuss the accuracy of current estimates of sanitation status in African cities, and how monitoring procedures might be improved. Participants [...]
