Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Program (WASH)

Thanks to your generous support of the Zambia Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program, we are excited to report that Makungwa Area Development Program (ADP) reached universal coverage in fiscal year 2014. This means that 95 percent of all people within the ADP have access to safe water within a 30-minute or less collection time. This accomplishment is significant in that it signals a shift in the way World Vision is providing clean water. We are now getting the job done by providing universal access in village after village, and ADP after ADP, until everyone in the areas in which we work has access to clean water that lasts.

In FY14, World Vision provided water to everyone in more than 400 villages in Zambia, serving more than twice the number of people reached in FY13. Two additional ADPs—Kapululwe and Twachiyanda—plan to reach universal coverage in FY15. This effort will continue in subsequent years until all Zambia ADPs attain full water supply coverage.

Examples of partnerships this fiscal year included:

• Society For Family Health provided liquid chlorine to treat water at the household level to make it safe to drink. Th is helped reduce diarrhea cases in communities that lack safe water sources.

• International Development Enterprise (IDE) helped introduce the Kit Yamoyo, a kit for first aid treatment of diarrhea at the household level. Community members can buy the kit from local retailers. World Vision worked with IDE to train communities on good hygiene benefi ts and practices (handwashing, dishwashing, food storage, and safe water transport and storage), sanitation benefi ts and technologies, and solid-waste management.

• People’s Action Forum, a member of the district WASH committee, helped World Vision train 16 communities in pump maintenance and repair and in reactivating user-fee contributions among community members.

THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF WASH

WASH provision is having a great impact in schools and health clinics. For example, after the rehabilitation and subsequent mechanization of boreholes around the Moyo community rural health center, which serves more than 7,000 people, diarrhea cases dropped 70 percent (from 1,200 cases in 2010 to 356 in 2014). This was a result of improved hygiene due to the availability of clean water.

In 2013, World Vision mechanized a borehole in Chovwe in the Musele ADP, which resulted in the following improvements:

• The health center registered an increase in the number of newborn deliveries, from 27 in FY12 to 156 in FY14—

which may be a result of having safe water available in the maternity ward.

• The number of people accessing healthcare services nearly doubled between 2013 and 2014.

• Household gardens in the area (such as the one at left) increased from two in FY13 to 19 in FY14, and income from vegetable sales increased tenfold from $63 to $683.

• Students missing school due to WASH-related illnesses decreased from 18 percent in 2013 to 7 percent in 2014.

• The water committee now has $1,079 in its fund, a good indication that the system can be maintained.

• After the mechanization, the Kalumbila mine rehabilitated the Chovwe clinic and installed a new sewer system. A new maternal and child health clinic is under construction, and a staff house has been built at the clinic.

Links:

• World Vision's Water Effect