WASH News East Africa
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
1st Ordinary Congress of the United Cities & Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), Accra, Ghana, 7-11 July 2008
22 Jun 08
Theme: Leadership for Local Governance, Development and the Delivery of MDGs in AfricaSub-themes include:Innovative practices in the provision of basic services at the local levelThe MDGs in AfricaOne of the Special Workshops will be on the UCLGA/WISA Water Programme.UCLGA and the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA), signed an MOU for a five year partnership [...]
Uganda: School sanitation and the dependency syndrome
20 Jun 08
Susan Karungi, Education Advisor for SNV Uganda, uses a school sanitation project to illustrate “how the dependency syndrome is crippling Uganda’s progress”.“Last year I witnessed proceedings of a joint session of a school management committee (SMC) and a parents-teacher association (PTA) aimed at formulating a work plan for the improvement of school sanitation”.“The leader of [...]
Tanzania: Norconsult exits country to avoid corruption
19 Jun 08
Norconsult, a prominent consultant firm in the Norwegian aid market, will no longer bid for contracts managed by local authorities in Tanzania due to widespread corruption.The findings of a new audit, revealing irregular payments to several projects, have made the company decide to close down its local subsidiary Norconsult Tanzania Ltd (NTZ), and to fire [...]
Cameroon: Clean water still major concern in Yaounde
13 Jun 08
Monday 9 June 2008, AfricaNewsMany neighbourhoods in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, still rely on water wells for consumption and other household related work. In many cases that water is not clean as wells are not protected and isolated from nearby waste disposal places, toilets, and domestic animals.Elisabeth Benkam, AfricaNews reporter in Yaounde, Cameroon, has posted [...]
Tanzania: Running Water Remains a Pipe Dream for Many
28 May 08
Less than a quarter of the four million people living in Tanzania’s financial capital have running water in their homes, city water authorities say. With poor areas typically amongst those lacking piped water, most impoverished city dwellers rely on private vendors to bring them supplies.As a consequence, low-income residents pay higher prices for the vital [...]
Africa Day 2008: “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation”
28 May 08
Africa Day, celebrated annually on 25 May, is the official day of the African Union (AU). This year, on the 45th anniversary of Africa Day, the theme is “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation”. In his official statement, Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the AU Commission said that Africa’s “Heads [...]
Sudan: Of rats, stars and climate change - Watermelons, conflict and climate change
16 May 08
Gereigikh was one of 17 villages in Sudan’s arid Northern Kordofan State whose residents were helped to adapt to climate change over a period of six years (1994-2000) in a project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).Farmers in this region have traditionally relied on rats and the position and brightness of certain stars in [...]
Sudan: People with HIV demand safe drinking water
16 May 08
For years, Lole Laila Lole, chairperson of an association for people living with HIV/AIDS in southern Sudan, had to drink, cook with, and bathe in the dirty, contaminated water he fetched from the River Nile. “There was no other way,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.Due to their weakened immune systems, people living with HIV are particularly susceptible [...]
Somalia: Hundreds displaced in fighting over water and pasture
16 May 08
Hundreds of families have been displaced in Somalia’s southwestern region of Gedo after two days of inter-clan fighting in which 13 people were killed and 24 wounded, according to locals.The fighting was triggered by revenge killings for the deaths, a year ago, of a Gaadsen man in Dulmuruh village over ownership of a salt mine. [...]
Kenya: World Bank to Launch Handwashing with Soap Campaign
16 May 08
A national hand-washing programme, Hand Washing With Soap (HWWS), funded by the World Bank and other donors has been unveiled to curb diseases like cholera and diarrhoeal infections.Speaking in Kisumu during a workshop attended by public health officers from various districts in Nyanza province, the country hand washing co-ordinator, Mr Rufus Eshuchi, said that most [...]
