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.
The goal of the Tanzania Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Program (iWASH) was to support sustainable, market-driven water supply, sanitation, and hygiene services to improve health and increase economic resiliency of the poor within an integrated water resource management framework. Performance was reported measured against the following intermediate results:
This impact assessment is the result of a qualitative review of the impact of the Tanzania Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (iWASH) Program based on a selection of case studies collected in two of the recipient villages. It forms part of the documentation initiative of the iWASH Program.
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).
Kenya’s five major forest “water towers”—Mau Forest Complex, Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Cherangany Hills, and Mt. Elgon—provide an estimated 75 percent of the country’s water resources and are central to Kenya’s economic and social well-being. Water towers are forested, high elevation landscapes from which most of the country’s major rivers (e.g., Tana, Mara, and Ewaso Ng’iro) originate.
In western Nepal, pollution, fishing with electric current, explosive devices, and other destructive practices threaten the biodiversity of the country's great rivers and the generations-old cultural traditions of fishing communities. But the tide is turning in some of these communities, where those who once contributed to the problem are increasingly becoming part of the solution.
Clean water and safe sanitation are key stepping stones on the journey to self-reliance. Throughout the year and around the globe, USAID partners with households, civic leaders, businesses, and governments to improve water and sanitation access for entire communities — laying the foundation for a healthier and more water-secure future. On March 22, travel around the world in celebration of World Water Day in this photo essay and see how USAID harnesses the transformative power of clean water to change lives, revitalize neighborhoods, and make sure no one is left behind.
In many respects, Ethiopia’s lowlands represent the final frontier for the country’s ambitious plans to improve WASH coverage through its One WASH National Program. These harsh, arid lands are home to predominantly pastoral communities that roam with their livestock in search of water and grazing lands. Adding to these challenges are the pressures of regular droughts, depleted groundwater tables, and a lack of institutional capacity on the human and data side.
Around the world, competition for water resources is growing. Population growth and shifting rainfall patterns mean far more demand for increasingly unreliable sources. Meanwhile, too many well-intentioned water supply systems sit unused because communities are not prepared to manage or maintain them. Even those water schemes that remain functional struggle to equitably allocate water resources, and many small-scale users who live far from water sources have been left out.
