Africa round-up

Water and sanitation in Africa

Near Kagoro, Nyanza Province, Kenya, a woman fills yellow water containers with stream water for a building site

KENYA

Boosting access to water and sanitation

During a recent visit to France, the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, signed finance agreements for the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project (LVWATSAN), which aims to improve access to water and sanitation in Kisumu.

This paves the way for the implementation of the LVWATSAN, which is financed with a €20 million (R372 million) concessional loan from Agence Française de Développement (AFD), a €35 million (R651 million) concessional loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a €5 million (R93 million) grant from the EU. The Government of Kenya will also provide counterpart financing to the project amounting to €10 million (R186 million).

The project will expand the water and sanitation distribution network in Kisumu, including to informal settlements, and expand water supply to the satellite towns of Ahero and Maseno. There will also be a component for water quality monitoring for Lake Victoria, aimed at protecting this shared regional water resource and ensuring a more efficient water treatment process.

In Kenya’s third largest city, Kisumu, the close proximity of Lake Victoria does not automatically ensure access to clean water for the 800 000 residents. The lake currently experiences significant levels of pollution owing to the inadequacy of sanitation infrastructure.

The city’s water and sanitation network will now benefit from significant extension thanks to this new financing from the AFD, EIB and EU, and thus help cover the population’s needs until 2030.

“We are happy that, with the signing of this agreement, over 30 000 households will benefit from improved sanitation and more than 15 000 households will benefit from additional connection to the water supply grid,” says Simon Mordue, ambassador for the EU to Kenya.

KENYA

9.4 million Kenyans drink from contaminated water sources

This is according to the WHO and Unicef WASH joint monitoring programme report (2019), which found that only 59% of Kenyans have access to basic water services and only 29% have access to sanitary services.

Rapid urbanisation has pushed poor urban dwellers to the slums, where there is no water or sanitation, and overcrowding exacerbates the already hazardous health conditions. Water pathogens are a huge health problem in Kenya, and its people are unprotected against sporadic epidemics such as cholera and parasitic worms.

The rate of exposure is extremely high because the water is not only contaminated at basins and pumps where it is collected, but the containers used to store water are often previously used to store oil, fertiliser or wastes – further contaminating the water.

When people can’t access safe water sources at an affordable rate, either because the facility is broken or the water tariffs are too high, the coping strategies are often catastrophic. Most people in rural areas will end up using unsafe water sources like surface ponds when it rains. In urban contexts, when the government fails to assure the delivery of safe water at affordable rates, the poor end up accessing water from unregulated informal vendors and cartels that provide it at extortionary prices.

Simon Thomas, an international consultant and board member of Megapipes Solutions, believes that building and maintaining water infrastructure is key: “We will succeed in improving the health of the nation by giving Kenyans access to water and sanitation. This can only be done by infrastructure construction.”

MOZAMBIQUE

Communities devastated by Eloise

On 23 January, Cyclone Eloise hit Mozambique – bringing powerful winds, torrential rain and severe flooding.

The storm damaged and destroyed farmland, vital infrastructure and thousands of homes. Some roads in central Mozambique are now impassable, hindering access to some villages and hampering efforts to bring much-needed assistance.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of hectares of crops have been flooded, which could impact the next harvest in April. In addition, the potential outbreak of waterborne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera is a major worry, especially among affected and displaced children.

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 176 000 people – including up to 90 000 children – have been affected, with several thousand displaced.

UGANDA

New water treatment plant in Katosi

The new National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) water treatment plant, which is under construction in Katosi, Mukono district, Uganda, is expected to boost water supply in at least three districts by the end of March.

According to Dr Silver Mugisha, managing director, NWSC, the demand for water from the wider public is bigger than what NWSC is presently supplying: “A total of 300 million litres of water are needed to satisfy the demand, yet right now NWSC is providing 240 million litres.” He believes that Transebel, a consultancy from Germany, and French contractor Sogea Sotem will complete the works on time.