The Small Water Enterprise Alliance has launched the Sustainable Enterprises for Water and Health (SEWAH) program with the support of USAID and Honeywell to help strengthen urban water access in India.
The USAID Water and Sanitation (WASH) project works to build the capacity and increase the number of people with access to basic drinking water services. The WASH project targets 5 cholera-prone communes in Haiti (Cap-Haitien, Croix-des-Bouquets, Mirebalais, Jeremie and Les Cayes) and recognizes that the rapid pace of urbanization requires increasing attention to urban services and utilities, particularly in dense peri-urban settlements, secondary cities and towns, which are often served by informal providers that are introduced in the video.
Improving WASH Evidence-Based Decision-Making (IWED) is a program under Water for Africa through Leadership and Institutional Support (WALIS) that supports demand-driven initiatives identified by selected national WASH focal agencies in sub-Saharan Africa to foster better WASH policies, strategies, and decision-making.
In Africa, it is estimated that over half of the urban population lives in informal settlements, sometimes referred to as “slums.” Most informal settlements do not have access to basic city services such as piped water, sewer systems, or waste collection. Kibera, a large informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, is not connected to the municipal water system. Residents in Kibera purchase water at kiosks often supplied by unregulated networks of rubber hoses and tubing that run along the ground and in open gutters.
While schools are primarily centers for students' learning, they also serve as foundations for development, including social and economic safety nets, in their communities. For example, in the United States and many other countries, school feeding programs help to ensure that students from all social and economic backgrounds are well nourished, which improves those students' school attendance, academic performance, and long-term opportunities for successful livelihoods.
The wait for water sometimes felt endless. “When the water point, pump, and generator faced difficulty, it took a long time to fix,” recalls Feleke Abera, a resident of Wita, a rural kebele (village) in south-central Ethiopia. “Sometimes it took up to three months.”
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority PDMA has rehabilitated 44 water projects in Buner and Swat districts. These projects were sponsored by USAID and handed over to relevant department after completion.
View and filter USAID activities & projects with a safe drinking water focus.
Check out USAID Water's overview of safe drinking water.
Access to safe drinking water is one of the cornerstones of public health; however, more than 660 million people around the world still lack access to a dependable drinking water supply. USAID helps partner countries reach the poor and assist the underserved in gaining first-time or improved access to basic drinking water services, laying the foundation for a healthier and more water-secure future one neighborhood and community at a time.
World Water Day is observed annually on March 22 to raise awareness about the vital importance of water to everything from public health and youth education to economic development and gender equality.
