Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

The Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs aim at durably reducing the prevalence of waterborne diseases:

• by improving both the quality and the quantity of water available, by promoting household water chlorination, and by improving basic sanitation through simple infrastructures that are adapted to local capabilities;
• by also raising awareness about hygiene, which often has an equivalent impact (halving diarrheas-related child mortality);
• by systematically developing accompanying measures that are aimed at the sustainable management of water points, by involving users, institutions, public or private operators if they exist, through partnership agreements;
• by setting up local and stand-alone networks of operators that are able to maintain or repair water points and can therefore guarantee a continuous access to drinking water to rural families, at low cost;

On the ground, this means:

• Building spring catchment and gravity fed systems, digging of wells and boreholes;
• Promoting the treatment of household water, combined with the development of a supply chain for chlorine;
• Providing training on hygiene and sanitation, as well as providing support and advice on the construction of latrines;
• Setting up and training water point committees and unions of users to sustainably manage the infrastructures;
• Promoting maintenance measures that are the most efficient and best suited to the context:
  • creating networks of hand pumps mechanics and partners shops that resell spare parts (sometimes on a large scale, as is the case in Malawi);
  • developing public or community services able to diagnose problems and providing support and advice on the operation and maintenance of the water points (‘Federations’ in Ethiopia, ‘Technical communal services’ in Madagascar)
  • ensuring the management, monitoring and maintenance of the facilities by professional non-profit management agents (local NGOs Soakoja and Tehyna in Madagascar);
• Strengthening of the ties with local authorities and sector line Ministries.