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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
$41 Million Public-Private Partnership to Provide Clean Water in West Africa
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov
(202) 712-43202002-097
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2002Contact: USAID Press Office
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Steven M. Hilton, president of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (based in Los Angeles) today announced a nearly $41 million public-private partnership to provide potable water and sanitation to rural villages in Ghana, Mali and Niger, West Africa.
The announcement came on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (August 26-September 4, 2002) in Johannesburg, South Africa), where access to clean water is a major item on the agenda. The Hilton Foundation West Africa Water Initiative is modeled after a 12-year Ghana rural water project administered and managed by World Vision and financed in part by the foundation.
The Hilton Foundation is committing nearly $18 million over seven years to expand safe water development to Ghana's two neighboring countries; USAID is providing $4.4 million; and World Vision will provide more than $16 million. Other partners' contributions will bring the total to $40.7 million. Participating organizations include: UNICEF; WaterAid; the Lions Clubs International Foundation; Desert Research Institute; Winrock International; the Cornell University's International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development; and the World Chlorine Council.
By 2008, the partners expect to have provided Ghana, Mali and Niger with a minimum of 825 new water boreholes, 100 alternative water resources and 9,000 more latrines, reaching more than one-half million people. In addition, thousands of adults, children and teachers will have been instructed in safe hygiene and sanitation practices.
Three of the partners commented on the significance of this initiative: Andrew Natsios said, "A reliable supply of safe water, along with adequate sanitation and hygiene, are on the front line in the combat against water-related disease and death. Food security is also directly linked to having access to water, for irrigation, or sustaining fish populations that are an important source of protein. The health of ecosystems, upon which all life depends, requires sustainable sources of clean water. USAID, along with the Hilton Foundation and the partners assembled, will help people in three Africa countries provide, for themselves, safe water and improved sanitation, in the context of an integrated water management system."
Steven Hilton added: "Our board chose water and sanitation as a foundation priority many years ago, as we felt it was where we could have maximum impact on the most lives for the monies invested. Where there is no clean water and sanitation, millions of children die each year, and millions of people become blind unnecessarily and suffer debilitating diseases. In 2000 alone, 1.3 million children under five in developing countries died from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. For these reasons, the foundation is also funding the work of The Carter Center, Helen Keller Worldwide and World Vision to eliminate water-borne diseases in these three West African and other countries."
World Vision Senior Vice President for International Programs, Bruce Wilkinson, who worked 15 years in West Africa, said: "World Vision's water project in Ghana, now in its 12th year, has brought clean water to nearly half a million people. We'll now be able to expand that work, as well as move into Mali and Niger, where people are in desperate need of clean water. Millions of people in these three countries suffer from easily-prevented water-related diseases, including guinea worm, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness), and trachoma (the world's leading cause of preventable blindness)."
USAID and many of the partners in the West Africa Water Initiative will hold a special briefing on this new water initiative at Johannesburg on August 29. Natsios, Hilton and Wilkinson joined in making a plea for other donors at the World Summit to commit to a worldwide effort to make safe water available to every person on the planet.
Each of the partners in the Hilton Foundation Water Initiative bring particular strengths in clean water development, including hygiene and sanitation interventions:
- USAID - will help strengthen the integrated water resources management orientation of the initiative through support to livelihoods and income generation, policy and enabling environment, gender mainstreaming, and hydrologic information management in both rural and peri-urban settings.
- World Vision - will be responsible through its regional water and sanitation technical team in Ghana for the installation and management of all Hilton-funded borehole interventions, modeled on its 12-year Ghana Rural Water Project.
- UNICEF - will support the capacity building of rural water supply programs at the national and sub-national levels and will introduce school sanitation and hygiene education programs in Ghana, Mali and Niger.
- Desert Research Institute (Nevada) - will train technicians in all three countries in the science of locating water, and analyzing hydro-geologic data and water quality.
- Winrock International (Arkansas) - will field test and introduce micro-irrigation systems among small farmers in Ghana.
- WaterAid (United Kingdom) - will improve water resources for the urban poor in Bamako, Mali, where fewer than 40% have access to running water, and hopes to assist in providing rural sanitation facilities in Ghana.
- Cornell University's International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (New York) - will continue environmental conservation and land use planning program in Ghana.
- Lions Clubs International Foundation - will carry out yearly month-long campaigns on trachoma (blindness infection) prevention and control in Mali and Niger.
- World Chlorine Council - in conjunction with the Vinyl Institute, is donating PVC pipe for wells, chlorine for water disinfection and educational materials on sanitation and hygiene.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that nearly 1.2 billion people (20% of the world's population) lack access to clean drinking water, and that twice that number, 2.4 billion, lack access to adequate sanitation services. WHO also estimates there are about 250 million cases of water-related diseases annually and more than five million deaths annually from unsafe drinking water and unclean domestic environments.
USAID is the government agency providing U.S. economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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Last Updated on: December 30, 2008 |
