“GIVING poor people a say in water and sanitation services they receive and allowing alternative documentation to prove residence are some of the simple solutions that can bring sustainable water and sanitation services to hundreds of millions currently living without.”

This is one of the recommendations that was highlighted in a recent report released by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) on sustainable water and sanitation service delivery.

According to the latest statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 900 million people globally lack access to clean water, while 2.5 billion people have no access to improved sanitation, leading to millions of deaths every year.

Zambia is no exception from the grim global water and sanitation service shortcomings, and concerns have continually been raised that the country is unlikely to attain the millennium development goal (MDG) on sanitation by the targeted 2015.

The quality of water and sanitation service delivery in rural and peri-urban areas leaves much to be desired as wide discrepancies still existing in service delivery between the urban and rural areas.

Devolution Trust Fund (DTF) manager Sam Gong’a observes that the continued unsatisfactory water and sanitation service delivery is mainly as a result of low investments into the water development sector.

He said although there have been improvements in terms of increasing the population size accessing water related services, much more still needs to be done if any meaningful impact is to be felt.

Gong’a said there is need to step up investments into the water sector, as well as increase government funding to the sector.

“Although there been improvements in certain areas of water and sanitation services, there is need to do quite a lot more in terms of service provision to the poor urban and rural population. We do hope to attain the MDG on access to clean water by 2015 if we continue at the pace we’re moving,” he said.

However, Gong’a expressed doubt that the MDG on sanitation would be achieved, with 60 per cent of the urban population still lacking access to proper sanitation.

Gong’a said the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), through DTF, had embarked on a number of projects in 2009 aimed at improving water and sanitation service delivery across the country.

“Basically, we had about 10 projects which we embarked on this year, seven of which have been completed while we expect to complete the other three by next week (this week). We were unable to complete the remaining projects mainly due to land ownership problems at the sites we chose to develop,” he said.
Gong’a said the 10 projects have been carried out at a cost of K15 billion and would benefit about 20,000 residents.

He said an agreement was recently signed with the German Development Bank totalling three million euros (about K20 billion) which would assist in improving sanitation services.

Gong’a stressed that there was need for commercial utilities to use the availed funds prudently if the country was to improve its service delivery in the water and sanitation sector and realise its sector goals.

The point that water is life and sanitation is dignity cannot be overemphasised, hence the need to ensure that more people are covered in terms of water sector services.

NWASCO chairperson Dr Cosmas Musumali observed that low investments from year to year have continued to hinder efforts to cover a larger portion of the population.

Inadequate water and sanitation sector coverage has often been cited as a cause of under development in related areas of the economy.
For instance, most rural and peri-urban women and girls remain disadvantaged as they have to walk long distances in search of clean water.

This has resulted in most girl children being unable to access education facilities, or perform poorly in school if they do manage to enrol in school.
Lack of proper sanitation and clean water has also negatively affected the health sector, with many diarrhoeal related deaths occurring among children aged under five.

There is, therefore, need for policy makers and other stakeholders to collaborate with those affected to enhance the sector performance through increased funding and investments as we get into 2010.