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Improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Tanzania

In Tanzania's rural communities, water is often contaminated when collected from ponds and other open sources. Limited access to potable water, combined with open defecation, makes children and adults more vulnerable to diarrhoea and water-borne diseases. Plan, through its Water and Sanitation priority project, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children and their families.

Why water, sanitation & hygiene is a priority

Many rural communities in Tanzania have limited access to protected or reliable water supplies. In Kisarawe most of the district's population of 95,000 collect their water from springs, shallow traditional wells and open ponds that can be muddy and also used by animals. In some places, families have to allocate significant amounts of their household budget to purchase water, leaving less money for food, heath care and school fees.

Open defecation also occurs in some villages. While most of the rural population has access to and uses toilet facilities (usually pit latrines), the facilities often lack covers to prevent flies from spreading disease. Limited access to protected water supplies combined with poor sanitation and hygiene practices have the potential to negatively impact the health of children and adults.

What is being done

Plan aims to continue helping more communities in Kisarawe district to achieve increased access to protected water and improved sanitation. Over the next three years, Plan and its local partners will work with rural communities to improve access to protected water sources that will benefit over 20,000 people in nine villages.

Community-run water management committees will oversee maintenance and repairs of water systems funded by a small fee collected from community members. This will help ensure sustainability long after Plan has moved on.

A Community-Led Total Sanitation approach will also be initiated in 55 villages benefiting around 70,000 people. This approach motivates community members to take action once they realise the health consequences of open defecation.

What has been achieved so far

In 2005, Plan embarked on a three-year water and sanitation project in Kisarawe district. This first phase of the project provided approximately 10,000 people with improved access to protected water supplies via six bores with hand pumps, nine rainwater harvesting systems and a dam. Hygiene education was also conducted in schools. The second three-year phase of the project commenced in April 2009.

 

What needs to be done this year?

In FY2010, Plan in Australia will support Plan Tanzania, local partners and communities in Kisarawe to:

• Conduct feasibility studies to ensure that water supply technologies and approaches identified through community consultation will meet the long-term needs of communities.

• Identify and train community members and others to enable them to 'trigger' the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach.

• Start the process of installing water supply systems. Over the next three years, the project aims to provide a dam, five boreholes and three water distribution systems in nine villages.

• Work with twelve schools to begin constructing water supply systems, latrines and hand- washing facilities.

• Commence training of nine community water management committees in the operation and maintenance of water systems.

Funding opportunity

In FY2010, Plan in Australia needed to raise $55,000 from the Australian public. This project is now fully funded, thank you!

About Plan

Plan is one of the oldest and largest children's development organisations in the world. We work with communities in 50 developing countries and raise funds to support our work in 21 countries like Australia. By actively involving children, and working at a grassroots level with no religious or political agenda, we unite and inspire people around the globe to transform the world for children.