WASH News East Africa
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
Uganda: Kampala to Get Sh480 Million Sanitation Project
09 Jul 08
“THE Ministry of Water and Environment and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), have launched a public-private initiative to improve access to sanitation for the urban poor in Kampala.The project will be implemented in partnership with Crestanks and Poly Fibre, private companies that produce and distribute plastic toilets”.[...]“The two-year pilot phase of the project is estimated [...]
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa: living by the sewage canal
07 Jul 08
Sanitation in Ethiopia’s capital city leaves a lot to be desired - and it is the poor who are most vulnerable as a result.In a small shack made of iron sheets and pieces of clothing in the slums of Addis Ababa live the Alemu family - Abiy, Marasit Bishaw, and the couple’s three-year-old son and [...]
Kenya: scaling-up school hygiene and sanitation
07 Jul 08
After implementing the Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE) programme in rural Kenyan communities, AMREF has now started a project in the urban ‘slum’ settlement of Kibera, in Nairobi.With support from GlaxoSmithKline, AMREF works with local communities to implement PHASE, promoting good hygiene, sanitation and water practices. It does this through primary school children, because [...]
Uganda - Prisons Run Out of Latrines
07 Jul 08
Hygienic conditions in prisons countrywide have reached a very worrisome state, Prison Service authorities told Parliament yesterday.Uganda Prisons Service officials led by the Accounting Officer, Mr Simon Kimono, said inmates now ease themselves in buckets and in some prisons they use polythene bags.“Due to over congestion in prisons, everything has run down,” Mr Kimono said. [...]
Uganda - 80% slum dwellers lack pit-latrines
07 Jul 08
CLOSE to 80% of slum dwellers in Kampala lack access to toilets, a study conducted by ActionAid International has said.The study that was carried out in Kawempe division attributed the problem to inadequate funding by the Government to the water and sanitation sectors.“It is rather unfortunate that in this era, 79% of the slum dwellers [...]
Kenya: Acute diarrhoea reported in western region
04 Jul 08
At least 34 cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have been reported in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru in the western region, a senior health official has said.[...]The cases were attributed to the contamination of a spring in the Mbaruk area in the district.Intervention measures included supplying the residents with clean water, a ban [...]
Somalia: four employees of Italian water NGO kidnapped
03 Jul 08
Somali gunmen have kidnapped five local aid workers, four of whom, including team leader Fadumo Hajiyow, work for the Italian NGO Water For Life (WFL) on 30 June 2008. The fifth victim was identified as an agronomist with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).WFL founder, Elio Sommavilla, said two of the kidnapped Somalis had [...]
Chad: Water and Wood Shortages Worsen for Refugees
02 Jul 08
Every morning soon after sunrise, Fatne Abdaraman walks a short distance across the Iridimi refugee camp in eastern Chad hauling a twenty-litre plastic jug. She lines it up along with other women’s containers at the water distribution point, then awaits her turn to draw her daily allotment of one of Central Africa’s scarcest resources, one [...]
Tanzania: Children’s Perceptions of Education and Their Role in Society
01 Jul 08
Children in Tanzania are were well aware of the contradiction between a curriculum that teaches the importance of clean water and good nutrition and what they actually receive at school. This is one of the conclusions from a participatory research involving a survey of 512 children aged from 7 to 14 years from ten regions [...]
ThinkTank Initiative: First Call for Expressions of Interest for East and West Africa
29 Jun 08
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) invites applications for the ThinkTank Initiative from independent organisations from East and West Africa that are committed to using research to inform and influence social and economic policy. The Initiative will provide multi-year funding to promising think tanks, and will work with successful applicants to improve their organizational performance.The [...]
