For Tanzanian women, water has the tremendous potential to transform lives. Women in Tanzania have a keen interest in water’s thoughtful management for their homes and farms, and they bear the burden of water retrieval. However, they are not yet fully included in community decision-making processes nor in water and sanitation business opportunities.
River basins in southern Africa, like river basins around the world, are under threat from increasing water use and shifting rainfall patterns, which are exaggerating flood and drought cycles and degrading water quality. It is hard enough for one country to adapt to these changing conditions, but most of the world’s water basins — 263 lake and river basins, covering almost half of the earth’s nonocean surface — cross national boundaries. To ensure that collaboration rather than competition wins out in basin management, neighboring countries need to work together.
Innovate 4 Water is being held on April 26-27 in Nairobi, Kenya. Organized by Waterpreneurs., the event brings together water & sanitation stakeholders who are contributing to the United Nations' SDG 6.
Why it Matters
Sound governance is essential to achieving water security. National governments must make water and sanitation issues a priority, while both national and local governments must create enabling environments that will improve drinking water and sanitation service delivery, improve water sector coordination, mobilize investment, and incentivize management of water resources.
On February 20, 2018, U.S. Ambassador to Senegal Tulinabo Mushingi spoke at the King Fahd Hotel in Dakar to mark the official launch of the USAID WASH-FIN project in the country.
This blog originally appeared on the UrbanLinks website.
According to the 2015 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 435 million Africans lacked basic drinking water service, and 736 million Africans lacked basic sanitation service.
In November 2017, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) took a concrete step toward its role in realizing available and sustainable water and sanitation for all. At the 15th Anniversary Celebration and Executive Committee meetings of AMCOW, ministers from African countries, development partners, and sector stakeholders gathered to review and pass the 2018–2030 Strategic Plan for AMCOW.
Challenges to improving rural sanitation in Cambodia remain immense. New efforts and approaches are needed to achieve the country’s long-term vision for improvements in the sanitation sector, which includes sustainable access to sanitation services for all Cambodians.
As part of the USAID Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) Learning Partnership, WaterSHED is supporting a locally led and owned approach to increase the sustainability of sanitation and hygiene services in rural Cambodia.
