Water & sanitation
In many developing countries large parts of the population have no regular access to improved drinking water. This situation is all the more blatant in rural areas.
In developing countries close to 76% of rural populations and close to 94% of urban populations have access to drinking water. The disparities are even larger for sanitation. For instance, only 39% of people living in rural areas have access to improved sanitation facilities as opposed to 71% of people living in cities. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that is making slowest progress, with drinking water coverage at 58% and sanitation coverage at 31%.
The consequences are significant, because access to water and sanitation services remains closely related to the fight against poverty and the quality of life in general. Indeed, access to water and sanitation reduces the risks of diseases, and access to drinking water reduces the workload, especially for women and children, who very often do water chores.
The international community has committed to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015 (7th MDG).
Water supply and small-scale sanitation and BTC
Water and sanitation in Belgian development cooperation means (drinking) water supply, sewers and waste water treatment, the construction of toilets, waste management, dredging operations, integrated water management, awareness raising about hygiene, training of actors in the sector and institutional support.
Belgian cooperation has a long tradition in the field of hydraulics, namely in Morocco and Senegal, where it has been active in this sector for decades. Belgian support mainly concentrates on rural areas and urban peripheries with a “semi-urban” or “semi-rural” character.
Most of BTC interventions are financed by Belgium but there are also other donors who count on BTC for the execution of water projects. For instance, the water programmes in Rwanda, DR Congo and Tanzania are funded jointly by Belgium and EuropeAid (ACP-EU Water Facility). The programme in DR Congo is also funded by DFID and AFD.
The main challenges
To improve access to drinking water, the main challenge of the interventions is in ensuring the continuity of water service delivery. Whereas the installation of equipment is relatively simple, ensuring long-term service delivery remains delicate, especially in rural areas and outside cities, where the organisation of basic services is difficult and often more expensive.
To ensure continuity of services, optimal organisation of all actors concerned is essential. In general, strong training of water point managers is planned. At the same time, it is important that solutions are adapted to the needs and capacities of the users – both of men and women – and that the users learn to respect good hygienic practices and that they pay for the access to drinking water. The continuous search for technical solutions adapted to the context, in combination with the human side, capacity development, the institutional dialogue and the protection of the environment, makes supply of drinking water a complex and ever evolving sector, which, therefore, stands for much more than drilling wells and installing pipelines.
Case studies
Better sanitation for a healthy environment
Belgium and the European Commission are co-funding a Water and Sanitation Programme which is rehabilitating rundown water networks in the Southern Province of Rwanda. As part of that programme, more than 1,000 ecological latrines will be built in 80 schools for more than 70,000 pupils.
Key actors for the water sector
When talking about water in Senegal, the Associations of Well Users (ASUFOR) are major decision-making bodies. In rural settings, the ASUFORs manage the production and distribution of water as well as the maintenance of installations and equipment. Women, who are the first users of water, have little say in these decision-making bodies. Ami Colle Mbodj is the president of the ASUFOR of Ouadiour in Fatick.
Teka Maji, community-owned water company in Dar es Salaam
The Community Water Supply and Sanitation project financed by Tanzania, Belgium and the European Union, aims at providing clean, safe and reliable water supply and sanitation facilities in the unplanned settlements of Dar es Salaam.
Much more than just a bridge…
Léocadie Sognon and Eugène Koukou are neighbours. They live in the city of Natitingou, in the north of Benin. Their neighbourhood is isolated because of the river. Before 2010, there was only a pedestrian bridge, which was built on the initiative of Eugène, to link this neighbourhood to the town centre and to other neighbourhoods. When the water was high, it was too dangerous to use the bridge; so, inhabitants could not leave their neighbourhood and get to Natitingou with its markets, schools, businesses, hospital and town hall…
The water is running in Kampala
Hajati Aisha Kyakuwa is 40 years old and has 5 children. She lives in Katwe I parish in Kampala, a slum area in the Ugandan capital. The slums face many problems, a major one being regular flooding after heavy rainfall.
I’ll take my water prepaid !
The Kampala Integrated Environmental Planning and Management Project (KIEMP) aims to improve the quality of life for the residents of the slums of Kampala. One very important aspect is access to affordable clean water. The solution that the project has adopted from another development organisation is brilliant in its simplicity: a prepaid water meter.
Lud'eco, a game to improve hygiene practices and environmental management
LUD'ECO! is a new tool to raise awareness and foster action to protect the environment and the ecosystems of the region but also to improve hygiene practices of youth and indirectly, their relatives. From January 2011 onward, LUD'ECO! will be distributed in the project intervention zone and near other bodies of water of South Benin.
Paving and sanitation in Bujumbura
Since their streets were paved, the inhabitants of two central neighbourhoods of the Burundi capital have witnessed and been involved in a clear transformation of their environment and of their quality of life.
Sanitation Kinshasa
Those who know Kinshasa know that the city that used to be called “Kin la belle” has reached such a dire state that it deserves the nickname of “Kin the dump”. Nevertheless, it is impressive to see how public services have recently tried to clean this city and give it back certain decency.
From open sewerage to green zone
People need to get the chance to improve their living conditions themselves. That is the best guarantee for success on the long term. And it seems to work well in Vietnam.
