WASH News Southern Africa
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
Zimbabwe: making strides to resuscitate the WASH sector
01 Jul 10
The establishment of a Rural Rehabilitation Task Force and a Hygiene and Sanitation Task Force is some one of the measures that Zimbabwe has taken to revive the WASH sector after a decade of decline. By late 90s the rural WASH sector showed an upwards growth in sector outputs in the areas of: Institutional arrangements [...]
Mozambique: Capacity of Maputo-Matola water system to double
01 Jul 10
Expansion of the water supply system in the cities of Maputo and Matola and the neighbouring town of Boane, will more than double the number of people benefiting from piped water from the current 670,000 to 1.5 million, according to Mozambique’s Minister of Public Works, Cadmiel Muthemba. Speaking on Wednesday at a session of his [...]
Botswana: Mayor blames Gaborone residents for pit latrine woes
30 Jun 10
Residents of Self-Help Housing Agency (SHHA) in Gaborone have been blamed for the clogging of machines used to empty pit latrines in their residences. “They are the ones who throw in hard objects like metals and blankets in the pit latrines which end up blocking the pipes and damaging the vacuum tankers as they vacuum [...]
Zambia: KCM hands over sanitation facility
25 Jun 10
Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) on Monday handed over water and sanitation facilities built at a cost of K170 million at George Mwelwa Basic School in Chingola. Chingola district commissioner Tobias Maliti said during the handover ceremony of the facilities that the amenities will ensure a favourable learning environment for staff and pupils. Mr Maliti said [...]
Mozambique: Population of Pessane complains of water shortage
25 Jun 10
The population of the locality of Pessane, in Maputo province, on Thursday took advantage of a visit by Veronica Macamo, chairperson of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to complain about shortages of clean drinking water. People who spoke at a rally in Pessane addressed by Macamo said that water shortages had been [...]
South Africa: World Cup – unaffordable extravagance – proper sewerage vs state-of-the-art stadiums
16 Jun 10
South African columnist Greta Steyn believes that the money spent on building stadiums for the 2010 Fifa World Cup could have been better spent on sanitation. She points to the open toilets in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, and the dismal state of the country’s sewerage systems. Open toilets The real meaning of the World Cup was [...]
Africa: WASH United introduces the World Toilet Cup game
10 Jun 10
Hamburger SV football player Jonathan Pitroipa played the “World Toilet Cup” game in his home country of Burkina Faso where he launched the WASH United campaign on 4 June 2010. First introduced in November 2009 during the second Africa Water Week in Johannesburg, South Africa, the “World Toilet Cup” game makes a symbolic effort at tackling [...]
Africa: self-help sanitation for more than 2 million people
01 Jun 10
More than 2 million people and over 740 schools in Africa are getting improved sanitation. In a new five-year programme, development organisation Plan International will expand its existing self-help sanitation programme in six African countries (Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi) and introduce it in two other countries (Ghana and Niger). The programme [...]
South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal: poor people’s movement draws government wrath
07 May 10
The rise of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a militant non-aligned shack dwellers movement in KwaZulu-Natal province, is being met with increasing hostility by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government. The movement has been at the forefront of frequent service delivery protests. In the first quarter of 2010, there were 54 such protests throughout South Africa, compared [...]
Blantyre Pursues Overhaul Of Water Infrastructure
28 Apr 10
Malawi’s Blantyre Water Board has issued an international tender for the supply and delivery of pipes, fittings and various repair equipment and materials for the ongoing Peri-Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Blantyre, which is being financed by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. The project entails overhauling Blantyre’s water infrastructure. The [...]
