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LIBERIA: No relief as most Monrovians go without toilets

With just one in 25 Liberians having access to a toilet, most use the nearest bush or beach, unwittingly committing what the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) calls “the riskiest sanitation practice”. Liberia’s 3.5 million people share just 19,690 toilets, according to a government water and sanitation sector assessment from October 2008, and fewer than one in three Liberians have access to safe drinking water, according to the head of Liberia’s Water and Sewer Corporation, Hun-Bu Tulay. “Open...

GHANA: Dodging faeces on the beaches

On a hot afternoon at Jamestown beach, once considered to be one of Accra’s most famous beaches, 25-year-old Francis Cudjoe and his three friends squat in the open air while in conversation. They are defecating in full view on the beach, and they are not alone. Off in the distance, one can spot many more residents dropping their pants, squatting and freeing their bowels. Shortly after they leave, ocean waves wash away their waste. With four million people without access to a toilet and 4.5...

Mother commits infanticide

One Isatou Fatty was, yesterday, paraded before the Brikama Magistrates Court, for allegedly dumping her newborn in a toilet pit, after giving birth at Farato Village.   The young mother, believed to be in her twenties, was said to have committed this nefarious act in April, this year. However, Ms Fatty pleaded not guilty when the charge sheet was read to her. Narrating the facts before the court, police detective, First Class 1065 Gibril Colley, attached to the Kanifing Estate Serious Crime...

Judgement in infanticide trial

Senior Magistrate Kumba Sillah-Camara ofthe Bundung Magistrates Court has convicted and sentenced one Binta Jatta, to atwo-year jail term with hard labour without any option of a fine. Ms Jatta is guilty of dumping her newbornbaby girl into a toilet pit on May 17 at Fajikunda, Kanifing Municipality. Binta Jatta had pleaded guilty to thecharge levelled against her. However, in her plea for mitigation, she beggedthe court to exercise mercy. In her judgment, the presiding magistrate,Kumba...

Mozambique: GPOBA Supports Water Services for Poor Households in Five Cities

The World Bank, acting as an administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), today signed a grant agreement with Mozambique’s Water Supply Assets and Investment Fund (FIPAG) for US$6 million to increase piped-water access for poor households living in five cities: Beira, Maputo, Nampula, Pemba, and Quelimane.  Under this grant, private service providers operating under lease contracts from FIPAG will connect an estimated 468,000 poor people to piped water supply through...

Malawi Receives US$25 Million Additional Financing For Water and Sanitation

The Government of Malawi and the International Development Association (IDA) today signed a US$25 million grant to improve water supply and sanitation services in towns, market centres and rural areas of Malawi. The funding builds on an already operational US$50 million Second National Water Development Project (NWDP II) financed by IDA that commenced in 2007. The new funding is from the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF), which is a multi-donor trust fund that seeks to scale up funding for...

NIGERIA: Worst cholera outbreak in years in Benue State

At least 35 people have died of cholera in the capital of Benue State, Madurdi, and the town of Oturkpo. Both areas have a history of cholera outbreaks but the latest toll is far higher than in previous years. The cases occurred in areas where conditions are known to be particularly unhygienic and where residents lack clean water. The quality of Makurdi’s water supply is unreliable and taps often run dry, forcing many residents to drink straight from the nearby Benue River. At least 25 of...

BURKINA FASO: Flush with new funds for wat/san

Donors announced in March that they will invest US $1.2 billion into Burkina Faso’s water sector, to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the number of people in the world who lack access to safe drinking water by 2015. “So far, the water and sanitation sector [in Burkina Faso] has been neglected,” Salif Diallo the minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries told IRIN, “but now we have realised it is time to act.” Up to 5.7 million Burkinabes have no access to...

Teenage Mother Caught After Dumping Baby

As baby dumping once again threatens to rear its ugly head, The Point has gathered from dependable sources that a 15-year-old girl of Wellingara village in Kombo North was last Thursday reportedly caught in an attempt to kill her newly-born baby. According to the sources, the 15-year-old girl (name withheld) reportedly threw her newly-born baby in a toilet on 1st November shortly after giving birth to it. Sources say the girl’s move was in a desperate attempt to get rid of the baby. According...

CHAD: 100 toilets per 25,000 people spells health crisis in east

A health crisis is looming in the southern part of eastern Chad, where roughly 100,000 poorly-nourished displaced people are living in close proximity with too few latrines. The rainy season is coming so it is a race against time to build enough latrines to avoid serious outbreaks of disease, Daniel Augstburger, senior emergency officer for the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs told IRIN on Wednesday. Of the 12 major sites for the displaced, the worst is Habile next to the town of Koukou...