In the last decade, the City of Cape Town faced an unprecedented drought, culminating in 2018, when reservoirs fell to threateningly low levels that sparked predictions of “Day Zero”—the day when Cape Town would have to begin rationing water.
Our world is becoming more urban, and USAID is helping partner countries adapt to this rapid change. By 2030, 68 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities, with the majority of that growth happening in the developing world. The infrastructure of these cities, peri-urban areas, and market towns is under great strain as their populations grow.
The 1st IWA Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) specialist group conference is being hosted in Pretoria, South Africa, in partnership with the Water Research Commission and the University of Pretoria. The event responds to the challenges and needs of around 4 billion people requiring sanitation.
The aim of the conference is to provide stimulus for research and innovation for NSS and offgrid sanitation solutions, including fecal sludge management, build the technical and scientific base for NSS and to contribute to scientific knowledge and good practice learnings.
Southern Africa has significant biodiversity and natural resources, as well as a robust legal framework for natural resource management across borders. However, most countries in the region are water scarce or water stressed. National policies lack harmonization across countries and between sectors, and poor and vulnerable populations lack enough benefits and incentives for sustainable resource management.
From June 2012 to December 2017, the USAID-funded Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) contributed to significant advances in water management, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation across an area of Southern Africa as large as Sweden that is home to 18 million people.
From June 2012 to December 2017, the USAID-funded Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) contributed to significant advances in water management, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation across an area of Southern Africa as large as Sweden that is home to 18 million people.
This year’s Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities examines USAID programming through the lens of its new areas of focus and opportunity, takes a closer look at USAID’s support for partner countries on their journeys to self-reliance, and provides a country breakdown of WASH and water funding.
The objective of the Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) of USAID Southern Africa is to enhance the resilience of people and ecosystems in the Limpopo Basin Program (LRB) by strengthening the capacity of the Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), and its key stakeholders, to address issues of climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation within the context of trans-boundary integrated water resources management (IWRM).
Why would a major city choose to reform customer relationship management (CRM) in the face of a water crisis? What good could that possibly do when reservoirs are drying up and citizens are being told to dramatically reduce water use?
Most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is under pressure from increasing population growth, urbanization, and consumption, as well as poorly-planned infrastructure development. All these factors are negatively impacting the quality and availability of freshwater resources. By linking freshwater conservation and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) partners expect that reduced watershed degradation and pollution will help increase the health of watershed ecosystems and species.
