Sanitation and hygiene

Background: Malawi is one of the countries with the highest urbanisation rates. With a population of about 662,000 (2008), the city of Blantyre is the largest in Malawi. Between 1998 and 2008 the city experienced a population increase of about 32%1. The continued influx of people combined with decades of inadequate urban planning, has led to rapid spread of informal settlements with deplorable living conditions. The major problems include overcrowding, inadequate housing and lack of basic services, in particular water supply and sanitation.

July 2007 - The Government of Congo has received a €1.4 million to finance an institutional and technical analysis and prepare priority works for water supply, sanitation, storm water drainage and solid wastes management in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire to meet MDG 2015 and the African Water Vision targets.

Photo courtesy of Nasa

August 2007 - The Government of the Central African Republic has received a €1.4 million grant to support a water supply and sanitation study and priority investment project preparation for the 16 district capitals of RCA. The study will help diagnose the country’s water supply and sanitation access gaps to plan investment where most needed. The preparation of bankable projects is expected to help mobilise investments to finance water supply and sanitation projects in the 16 district capitals to improve the lives and living conditions of residents.

Photo courtesy of Nasa

December 2009 - The Center for Community Development (CCODE) received a €610,000 grant to improve the living conditions of a population of urban poor from the slums surrounding the City of Blantyre, Malawi, by facilitating access to water supply and sanitation in the form of a special revolving loan fund for water and sanitation investments for the urban poor; and to demonstrate and stimulate interest in the combination of water, sanitation and housing as an integrated approach to urban development in a context of rapid urbanization and the problems associated with urban slums.

January 2013 - The Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) received a € 1million grant to provide sanitation facilities for households, schools and the public or urban poor areas.  This intervention will promote principles of sanitation marketing, offer a pro-poor sanitation financing mechanism for accessing affordable and improved sanitation infrastructure; define a sustainable faecal sludge management and safe reuse strategy; and develop strategies, information, education and communication tools to promote sanitation demand and promote better sanitation practices.

January 2013 – The Monrovia City Corporation received a € 1.2 million grant to increase access to sustainable and affordable sanitation services with improved hygiene and livelihood for Monrovia’s urban poor. The specific objectives include increase access to safe, sustainable and affordable sanitation services; reduce the vulnerability of the urban poor populace to WASH related diseases caused by water contamination; implement an effective, efficient and sustainable fecal sludge management system with production of affordable fecal sludge fertilizer to increase food security.

April 2013 – The city of Sokodé received a € 1.1 million grant to promote access to latrines to all households of Sokodé, as well as for the sustainable management of fecal sludge. The grant will be used to increase the city’s capacity to manage the project’s various components including innovative technologies for storage, collection and transportation, treatment and recycling of sludge.

April 2013 – The Government of Senegal received a € 1.3 million grant to increase access to latrines for the poor, establish an affordable waste collection and transportation throughout the city, establish a private and / or community -driven waste treatment and reuse service, and to supply Casamance and the four main urban centers of the area with documents to seek funding for bankable projects. The project will help reduce CO2 emissions and improve the management of water resources to reduce water stress.

Photo courtesy of Nasa

May 2013 – The Training Research and Networking for Development (TREND) a local NGO, received a € 1.1 million grant to finance the construction of a waste treatment plant that can produce about 500 tons of fertilizer per year, and can generate about 580,000 kWh per year of electricity from the biogas produced from the process.

June 2009- The Government of Gabon received a €1,6 million grant to improve the quality of life in the river basins of Gué-Gué, Lowé-IAE and Terre Nouvelle by putting in place the necessary conditions for the realization of the storm water drainage facilities which in turn will help reduce incidences of waterborne diseases, flooding and poverty in general. Through this project, the Government will have the necessary documents for mobilizing the funds required to implement the infrastructure investments: feasibility study reports, detailed designs and tender documents.