Sanitation and hygiene

Pretoria, South Africa -The African Water Facility announced on Monday, February 16, 2015, that it is providing a €1.2-million grant to help improve school sanitation facilities in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Over 100,000 students will directly benefit from this project, which will also create business opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as employment for local youth.

What’s the future of sanitation in Africa? The sector has been sluggish at reaching the objectives set out by the Millennium Development Goals, disappointing even the most optimistic advocates. Should all hopes go “down the drain”? Not yet, according to Ousseynou Guene, sanitation specialist for the African Water Facility (AWF). His experience working on AWF sanitation projects have allowed him to witness changes in the sector, thanks to the emergence of innovative ideas that challenge the status quo in sanitation project designs.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The African Water Facility (AWF) announced on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 that it is providing a €1.2-million grant to the Government of Ethiopia to improve sanitation and faecal waste management in Arba Minch. The project will benefit over 21,000 people who will have access to improved toilet facilities. It will also boost local agriculture through the provision of new and affordable fertiliser.  

(In French only) Abidjan - La Facilité africaine de l’eau (FAE) a annoncé, le 13 juillet 2015, l’approbation d’un don de 1,9 million d’euros au gouvernement de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), destiné à l’amélioration des services d’eau potable et d’assainissement à Kinshasa et à l’extension des services d’approvisionnent vers Kinshasa-Ouest, au profit de plus de 3,5 millions d’habitants.

(In French only) La Facilité africaine de l’eau vient d’approuver un don de 1,8 million d’euros en faveur de Madagascar pour doter huit villes de plans d’assainissement. L’objectif du projet est de renforcer le développement économique et social de ces villes grâce à des programmes d’actions pour la gestion intégrée des eaux pluviales, des excreta, des eaux usées et des déchets solides. Les zones concernées (Toliara, Taolagnaro, Antsirabe, Toamasina, Nosy-Be, Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga et Antsiranana) regroupent 1,6 million d’habitants.

The vision over the entire water cycle, as well as the reconsideration of the way water is used and waste water reused to address the growing urban water management challenges in Africa, is the motivation for the next capacity building event being organized by the African Water Facility (AWF) in collaboration with the Global Water Partnership (GWP) in Abidjan, from 25^th to 28^th January 2016.

The implementation of an Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) Masterplan will help Marondera city of Zimbabwe reach universal access to drinking water and sanitation by 2025. The design of Marondera’s IUWM masterplan is supported by a EUR 2 million grant from the African Water Facility (AWF) with a view to ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation services for the region’s population.

The African Water Facility (AWF) grants 1.3 million Euros to Cameroon to finance a study on the mobilization and use of rainwater in the northern part of the country. The project will address the concerns of two million inhabitants of the region: food security, employment, increased revenue, effects of climate change…

The African Water Facility (AWF) held a three-day event from September 28 to 30, 2016 to launch the Improved Sanitation Value Chain (ISVC) project, which aims to serve the urban poor in Arba Minch Town, one of the major cities of Southern Ethiopia. The AWF €1.5-million grant to the ISVC project will contribute toimprove sanitation and faecal waste management for more than 21,000 Arba Minch citizens while boosting the local businesses and agricultural production with the provision of eco-friendly and affordable fertilisers.

Efforts in Africa in the sanitation sector thoselast 30 years have not had a significant impact on the population's access rate to sanitation in urban areas, which remains at around 40% only. Many strategies are deployed in recent years by various international institutions to give another turn to the sector through the introduction of innovations in technology, sector structuring, financing and management mechanisms with the involvement of the private sector and public-private partnership.