Water, Sanitation & Hygiene programs are commonly referred to as WASH. World Vision’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene program in Zambia is referred to as ZWASH. Joyce Mweemba Sendoi, who oversees World Vision’s Sanitation and Hygiene programs in Zambia describes the current approach of the ZWASH program: “We are working for sustainability. We need to help the villages prepare so we ensure that the water, when they get it, complements everything. If we find that a community is not ready in terms of what we need before water arrives we won’t drill the borehole.”
World Vision requires the following of each family in a community before providing a community well:
- Latrine: Replaces the practice of open defecation and keeps human waste isolated.
- Garbage pit: Replaces the practice of scattering garbage around a community.
- Hand-washing station: Replaces hand-washing at distant water sources where germs can be passed around. This station is placed near toilets to ensure people wash their hands more often.
- Bathing shower: Replaces washing in community water sources and prevents the passing of germs to other bathers.
- Raised dish rack: Replaces the practice of drying dishes on the ground. The rack keeps dishes out of animals’ reach, and the sun sanitizes the items.
World Vision magnifies the impact of these elements with effective training programs. Using culturally sensitive, successful methods, the ZWASH team educates and trains villagers to train each other on how to build these elements AND why each element is important.
The 2012 WaterAfrica travel team was able to see many of these training programs in action and we got to speak with many community members who were carrying the WASH message to their neighbors. To demonstrate just how effective the training methods are, and how the sanitation and hygiene messages spread among villages, World Vision took our Travel Team to Hamasunse Village where we saw the WASH message had clearly taken hold even before the Village had been targeted by World Vision’s program.
The ZWASH program is effective, empowering and sustainable.
United Nations reports that for every $1 spent on clean water, $8 is saved over time through increased productivity and reduced costs. (UN Human Development Report 2006, p. 58)
Your donations are doing much more than providing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. They are changing the way the villagers see themselves. They now have the power and hope to improve their lives.
What are the Results?
1990: 22% of the people in rural Zambia had safe drinking water
2011: 50% of the people in rural Zambia had safe drinking water (WHO/UNICEF report, Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water, 2013 Update)
1990: 29% of the people in rural Zambia had good sanitation facilities
2011: 33% of the people rural Zambia had good sanitation facilities
Since 2006, WaterAfrica has provided over 28,000 Zambians with clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
From 2010 to 2014, World Vision (with WaterAfrica’s help) provided safe drinking water to 462,207 people in Zambia; World Vision expects to provide clean water to 700,000 thru 2016. (World Vision Annual Report, 2014)
WaterAfrica’s goal (with your help) is to provide an additional $1 million to ZWASH by 2020.
