water quality

Brief

Kenya Integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (KIWASH) Project Mid-Term Evaluation: Overview and Key Findings

USAID/Kenya and East Africa (USAID/KEA) launched the  Kenya Integrated Water Sanitation and Hygiene Program (KIWASH) project in October 2015, a $51 million five-year activity implemented by a consortium led by DAI. KIWASH was designed to institutionalize catalytic models of sustainable service delivery for accelerated expansion of water and sanitation services and to improve complementary hygiene behaviors.

Fact Sheet

USEPA West Africa Drinking Water Laboratory Capacity Program

With increasing rates of population growth and urbanization, infrastructure in African cities, such as water delivery systems and wastewater systems, can be overwhelmed. Poor governance, chronic underinvestment and a lack of skilled staff make it difficult for urban water utilities to provide safe drinking water to consumers. However, experience suggests that strong leadership and institutions, coupled with preventative risk-based management approaches and sustained capacity-building efforts, are critical to improving the quality of drinking water services in African cities.

Annual Report Story

Collaborating to Improve Drinking Water in Haiti

Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and flooding have complicated efforts to repair, expand, and sustain access to safe water and sanitation. The low levels of water and sanitation services and poor hygiene practices contributed substantially to the severity and rapid spread of the cholera epidemic in 2010. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 further compromised the fragile WASH sector in affected areas.

Project

Pakistan Safe Drinking Water and Hygiene Promotion Project

USAID implemented the Pakistan Safe Drinking Water and Hygiene Promotion Project (PSDW-HPP) as part of its goal to improve basic health services for the Pakistani population. The four-year project (2006–2010) was designed to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of the Government of Pakistan's Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) program by conducting complementary hygiene and sanitation promotion programs, community mobilization initiatives, and diverse capacity-building activities.

Article

Ukraine Increases Efforts to Monitor Forest and Water Health

An estimated 25 percent of Ukraine’s drinking water originates from watersheds. Nearly the entire population of western Ukraine depend on drinking water from mountain forests. The forests which house these watersheds play a key role in regulating water flow, protecting water quality for mountain communities and downstream users, and promoting resilience to floods and droughts. However, these areas are at risk due to increasing timber harvests and other land-use activities in the region.

Article

Enhancing Media Coverage of Water Issues in Africa and the Middle East

With funding from the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has trained nearly 30 journalists from the Nile Basin and across the Middle East on a variety of water issues. The trainings built capacity among journalists who often do not have the resources to focus on a single topical issue, such as water. This project represented whole-of-government thinking resulting in an U.S. government interagency project that impacts millions of people by bringing them reliable news and information about water issues. 

Article

Community-Based Efforts to Contain Trash and Protect Waterways

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked with Panama, Jamaica, and Peru, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and Peace Corps, to reduce their land-based sources of trash pollution in waterways. EPA’s Trash Free Waters (TFW) approach is a stakeholder-based strategy to reduce land-based sources of marine litter through better management of trash pollution in inland waterways and coastal waters. These practices focus on community-based efforts that prevent and reduce trash in waterways and, ultimately, the oceans.