People living in peri-urban areas of cities in the developing world have a large unmet need for improved water and sanitation services. This need currently is neither met by the existing commercial sector nor by government entities. This project offers attractive conditions to low-income families for micro-credits in order to facilitate access to improved water and sanitation services (toilets, etc.). Additionally, it provides customized advisory services and hygiene education to the families.
In many suburban areas of Bolivia, the only water available is delivered by tanker trucks. This water usually is highly contaminated and unsafe for human consumption. In more established suburban settlements, water distribution networks may exist, but poor families do not have the money for connecting to these networks. The lack of access to adequate water and sanitation services creates a massive health burden to the affected families and reiterates the vicious cycle of illness and poverty.
The project will provide micro-credit, technical advice and hygiene education to suburban dwellers in Cochabamba (Bolivia) in order to chose and invest in adequate water and sanitation solutions (water tanks, waterless toilets, etc.). The micro-credits themselves are provided by specialized micro-credit organizations. The donations received for this project will be used to promote the micro-credit and to provide advisory services and hygiene education to low-income families.
Improving water and sanitation services in suburban areas has many positive impacts on the target families: - Fewer cases of diarrhea, cholera and other waterborne diseases - Improved productivity of adults - improved school attendance of children. Through the hygiene education campaign included in this project, other diseases such as respiratory infections also can be reduced. This pilot project will benefit 100 families in a first phase and later may be extended to additional families.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
