ABIDJAN (PAMACC News) - African governments will be forced to come up with rural based water and sanitation projects with clear infrastructure for management and maintenance, if they have to benefit from the African Development Dervelopment Bank’s kitty for rural water supply.
Speaking at the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) forum in Abidjan, Sering Jallow of the African Development Bank expressed concerns that many leaders in African countries usually prioritise projects that are politically beneficial, thus, ignoring important projects that would benefit people on the ground.
“Countries always come with proposals for urban water and sanitation projects because such projects are more visible, hence, politically rewarding,” he told the water and sanitation forum.
The bank runs a project known as Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI), which supports rural water and sanitation projects and programs with funding for investment operations, strengthening of sector processes and systems, as well as through advocacy and knowledge building.
According to the latest report, the Bank among other development partners disbursed a total of 35.5 million Euros through RWSSI to support water and sanitation projects in Uganda, Sudan, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leon by 2015.
However, the bank now insists on projects that can be sustained for a longer period.
“There is need for policies, but also, there is need for adequate capacity for implementation and management with involvement of rural communities and the private sector,” said Jallow.
He pointed out that poor management of water and water resources especially in rural areas often leads to fragility. And such fragilities, he said, are always an impediment to development. “There is clear evidence that countries that had conflicts did not achieve the millennium development goals,” he told the water and sanitation forum.
Alexander Bakalian, World Bank Sector Manager for Urban Development and Services in the Africa Region pointed out that there was need to professionalise water access services in rural communities.
He observed that many governments prefer investing in urban areas where there are many engineers, but are reluctant to take similar investments to rural areas fearing lack of expertise.
“We need to understand that poor people live in rural areas. So if we have to address poverty, we must focus on rural communities,” he said.
The RWSN forum brings together over 500 people from different sectors to share ideas, learn from each other’s experiences so as to make water available to all, at least by 2030.
ABIDJAN (PAMACC News) - African governments will be forced to come up with rural based water and sanitation projects with clear infrastructure for management and maintenance, if they have to benefit from the African Development Dervelopment Bank’s kitty for rural water supply.
Speaking at the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) forum in Abidjan, Sering Jallow of the African Development Bank expressed concerns that many leaders in African countries usually prioritise projects that are politically beneficial, thus, ignoring important projects that would benefit people on the ground.
“Countries always come with proposals for urban water and sanitation projects because such projects are more visible, hence, politically rewarding,” he told the water and sanitation forum.
The bank runs a project known as Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI), which supports rural water and sanitation projects and programs with funding for investment operations, strengthening of sector processes and systems, as well as through advocacy and knowledge building.
According to the latest report, the Bank among other development partners disbursed a total of 35.5 million Euros through RWSSI to support water and sanitation projects in Uganda, Sudan, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leon by 2015.
However, the bank now insists on projects that can be sustained for a longer period.
“There is need for policies, but also, there is need for adequate capacity for implementation and management with involvement of rural communities and the private sector,” said Jallow.
He pointed out that poor management of water and water resources especially in rural areas often leads to fragility. And such fragilities, he said, are always an impediment to development. “There is clear evidence that countries that had conflicts did not achieve the millennium development goals,” he told the water and sanitation forum.
Alexander Bakalian, World Bank Sector Manager for Urban Development and Services in the Africa Region pointed out that there was need to professionalise water access services in rural communities.
He observed that many governments prefer investing in urban areas where there are many engineers, but are reluctant to take similar investments to rural areas fearing lack of expertise.
“We need to understand that poor people live in rural areas. So if we have to address poverty, we must focus on rural communities,” he said.
The RWSN forum brings together over 500 people from different sectors to share ideas, learn from each other’s experiences so as to make water available to all, at least by 2030.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Over 360,000 women are set to benefit from an energy enterprise subsidy in seven counties in Kenya.
The three year Energy and Advocacy for Gender in Kenya (AGEK) project by Practical Action targets women in Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Siaya, Nyeri, Murang’a and Kakamega counties.
Practical Action programme manager, Lydia Muchiri, says the project aims to empower women economically by linking them to the charcoal briquettes and cookstoves value chain.
“The plan is to support women in energy enterprises as a way of mainstreaming gender into the energy sector,” says Muchiri.
According to a study by the organization, women are excluded from energy projects, and are not equipped with appropriate technical training, as well as financing.
Yet, Kenya has committed to reach the 80 per cent target for energy generation through renewables, argues Muchiri.
However, she says, this can be achieved by tapping local energy sources such as charcoal briquette production and establishing energy generating mini grids.
“Women can be able to make decisions on energy access if they are empowered,” says Muchiri. “This can help them establish small business and raise their profile as future entrepreneurs.”
Practical Action project officer, Jacqueline Kimeu, says access to modern clean energy solutions can help women access credit lines to invest in micro enterprises.
This can also reduce pressure on Kenya’s forests where over 80 percent of Kenya’s households rely on energy for domestic use.
The project also aims to ensure that implementation of Kenya’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) integrates gender objectives in the process.
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (PAMACC News) - Dr Kerstin Danert is a rural water supply specialist focusing on developing in-country capacity with respect to operation and maintenance, cost-effective borehole drilling, technology adoption and sector performance monitoring, and the, and heads the secretariat of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN).
In an exclusive interview with ISAIAH ESIPISU of PAMACC News Agency, she discusses the achievements attained so far, the lessons learned, and the bottlenecks towards availing water to the rural poor, as the 7th RWSN conference goes down in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Here are the excerpts:
What is this conference all about?
The forum is a chance to have people from different sectors including local and national governments, nongovernmental organisations, the private sector and community representatives to meet face to face, to exchange knowledge and share experiences.
The forum in particular is very important, because it is looking ahead towards sustainable development goals, and of cause for water. The idea is to have water for all by 2030. And given the fact that that 80% of people without water live in rural areas, we cannot meet this goal without giving attention to the rural people. So the conference is focusing on how we can get water to everyone. Yet no single organisation can do that alone, whether it is a bank, a government, or even a UN organ. It is not possible. So the whole philosophy of developing this conference is to have everybody to work together.
What have been the major challenges to the campaign for water for all?
There has been progress, because there are more people with access to safe drinking water than before. But the main challenge has been reaching out to people living in very remote areas, the very poor people, how to make the marginalised communities with very little means have access to safe drinking water.
Again, there has been a lot of focus on the Millennium Development Goals especially in the past five years to get the services running. But the challenge is maintaining the systems. For example, we can get pipes running, but maintaining these services for years is a big challenge.
And if you look at the contributions coming in through this conference compared to before, there is much enthusiasm on management and sustainability. So people and organisations are thinking more on how to have the systems to continue to work, and this is a positive change.
We need to focus more on professionalism, because if the systems aren’t built well, there is no way they can be maintained.
Another problem is that documentation of what is being done is very weak. That is one of the reasons we are having this forum, to encourage organisations to document what they are doing. We need countries to understand what is being invested, what technologies are working and where.
What lessons have we learned so far?
One of the lessons learned is that we cannot do things in a hurry. You need planning to get things done well. Just running before you can walk is a problem. We need sufficient skills in place to construct and manage. Without that, we cannot achieve sustainable water supply services.
In terms of technology, we are also seeing a bigger variety of water harvesting techniques, we have seen alternative technologies also growing, where people are investing and improving their own services. However, this is only possible to those who can afford.
It’s also important to note that one of the big issues is that since 1990s, there has been very little progress in rural water supplies in Africa. I do not know why, but this is an issue that should be addressed urgently.
Another key lesson is that we cannot think about water supplies, without thinking of water resources. They are totally connected. We need to understand the water resource, we need to measure it whether it is ground water, runoff water or water from anywhere.
What next after the conference?
As a network, we are just but a facilitator. You can’t tell people exactly what to do. You can help them find solutions. Each country and each organization has to adapt to the local context that is acceptable to the local people.
All documentations coming out of this conference will be available online. We also want to see if some of the contributions can be simplified and put together for the better understanding of a masses.
We also want to learn from everybody, and learn from the media representatives on how we can take some of these messages out to the communities.
What I hope to see is people working together. This forum should be a catalyst for engagement.
Who are present in this forum?
We have directors from governments, we have NGOs, we have civil society representatives, we have the private sector, we have the media and we have representatives from communities. What we have done is to bring together major global players in rural water supplies together, to discuss, to challenge each other and to come up with solutions.
All we want is to have people participate as equals so that they can challenge each other without the hierarchy. If we want to reach the solution for water for all, then we cannot afford to cheat each other.
