Additional information on Sanitation and Water for All, including partners, activities and governance can be found at: www.sanitationandwaterforall.org

Read the full press release [Sanitation and Water for All, 15 Nov 2011]

Past projects of IGRAC include a global reviews of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater, and the impact of the 2004 Asian tsunami on groundwater  resources.

Related web sites:

• International Groundwater Resource Assessment Centre (IGRAC)
• UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education

Source: UNESCO Water e-Newsletter, no. 258, 07 Nov 2011

Photo: Flickr/SuSANa

In October 2011 Darren Saywell left the International Water Association (IWA) to join Plan International USA as Director WASH/CLTS. For the past 7 years, Darren was Regional Group and Programmes Director at IWA, responsible for the association’s programmes and presence in low and middle income countries. Before that he worked for the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the Water, Engineering & Development Centre (WEDC) at Loughborough University, UK. Darren has a PhD in Low cost sanitatry engineering from Loughborough University.

Source: Linkedin

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf talking with journalist Rose George in April 2011. Photo: Shout-Africa

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is one of three women who were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Mrs Sirleaf became Africa’s first female elected head of state in 2005, following the end of Liberia’s 14-year civil war which left 250,000 people dead. She shares US$ 1.5 million prize money with Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.

In 2009, Ms Johnson-Sirleaf was appointed as the first Goodwill Ambassador for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa at the 2nd Africa Water Week that took place in Midrand, South Africa.

National stakeholders in Liberia are currently developing the Liberia Compact, under the framework developed by the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) initiative. President Johnson-Sirleaf received the draft compact at the end of a Joint Multi-donor Mission on sanitation and water that took place in Liberia from April 27-May 3, 2011.  Ahead of the mission Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf reaffirmed her government’s support to the WASH sector in an interview with journalist Rose George (author of the Big Necessity).

Mrs Sirleaf (72) will be competing with Winston Tubman in a presidential runoff election scheduled to be held on 8 November 2011.

Related web site: Sanitation and Water for All

Source: BBC News, 07 Oct 2011 ; Shout-Africa, 20 Apr 2011 ; WaterAid America, 17 Nov 2009

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 05 Aug 2011

The company, with its headquarters in Switzerland, has pledged to donate at least €30,000 each year to the projects for an initial period of three years.

Funding from Eden Springs will secure the provision of drinking water supply systems in three secondary schools in the Uru district of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, serving about 1,000 school children and a further 7,500 residents in the surrounding communities.

People help People – One World was founded by former Member of the German Parliament and has been working in Tanzania since 1985.

Web sites:

• Eden Springs - Social Water  Projects
• People help People – One World

Source: PRWeb, 08 Aug 2011

The Rwandan Minister of State for Energy and Water, Eng Collette Ruhamya, who is also the vice chair of the CREPA Ministerial Council, launched CREPA-Rwanda at an event in Kigali.

CREPA’s CEO Idrissa Doucoure said his organisation, which has its headquarters in Burkina Faso, plans to have a presence in all 54 African countries.

“Our plan for Rwanda is to focus on technology, researching for the key sector blockages and providing innovative and sustainable solutions to problems in the sanitation sector,” Doucoure said.

He added that he plans to provide training and capacity building for key stakeholders like NGOs, civil society, government officials, and local government authorities who provide sanitation services under the decentralised process.

Source: Edwin Musoni, New Times / allAfrica.com, 18 Jul 2011

Photo: WaterAid

Chief Executive Barbara Frost has been awarded a Doctor of Law by the University of Exeter in recognition of her work with WaterAid and other international development organisations including ActionAid, Save the Children and Action on Disability and Development.

Frost said:

This honour reflects the achievements of WaterAid as we work alongside some of the poorest communities in the world helping them to access safe water to drink, improved hygiene and decent sanitation as a first step out of poverty.

Ms Frost was also recently awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Cranfield University in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of international development.

Source: WaterAid, 05 Aug 2011

Thulisile Christina Manqele.

One of the first community water activists to take her struggle against water disconnections to the South African courts died in June 2011 at the age of 46.

In a combined obituary, Director of the Centre for Civil Society Patrick Bond looks at the legacy of Thulisile Christina Manqele and compares it with that of former water minister Kader Asmal who died at the same time.

In 2002, Thulisile Christina Manqele, an unemployed mother of seven children (of which three were adopted), took her case to the Durban High Court.

Manqele sought a declaratory order that the discontinuation of the water supply was unlawful and invalid, under the terms of the Water Services Act of 1997, as the disconnection had resulted in the applicant and her dependants being denied access to basic water services when she was unable to pay for the services.

Manqele, a domestic worker, was already a member of activist group the Durban Social Forum, when she became ill, lost her job and saw her debt to the municipality rise to US$ 1,300. Then her water was cut off. Her fellow activists helped Manqele illegally reconnect the pipes.

In March 2000, Manqele’s lawyers won an injunction against the city of Durban but in the end the high court rejected her claim. Nevertheless, faced with mass protests against thousands of water disconnections which were linked to a cholera outbreak, Durban stopped outright disconnections and introduced ‘flow limiters’ instead.

Mangele’s actions inspired protests in other parts of South Africa culminating in the case of 5 poor residents of Phiri township against the city of Johannesburg, which attracted international attention and went all the way up to constitutional court.

Source: Patrick Bond, South Africa: Two warriors die, alongside the right to water, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, 03 Jul 2011

Founding members of the network are:
ADRA, Arche Nova, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, AT-Verband, BORDA, German Toilet Organization, Ingenieure ohne Grenzen, Johanniter Auslandshilfe, Malteser International, Noah Foundation, Solidaritätsdienst International, WECF, Welthungerhilfe and World Vision Deutschland.

The WASH Network is currently being hosted by the German Toilet Organization.

Web site: German WASH Network

Source: German Toilet Organization, 24 Jun 2011