The sewage system in Fallujah, a city about 60 km west of Baghad, is still not working. Fallujah’s residents depend on underground septic tanks that are leaking waste onto their streets from where it eventually goes to the Euphrates, a main source of drink water for Fallujah as well as for other downstream cities.
As a result many people have been affected by diarrhoea, tuberculosis, typhoid and other communicable diseases, affirmed Abdul-Sattar Kadhum al-Nawaf, director of the Fallujah general hospital. He said, “I not have specific numbers, but 10-15 percent of patients at the hospital had water or sewage-related diseases”.
After the invasion to IRAK the US started to build a sewage treatment plant that now after withdraw of the American forces will be handed over to a local contractor. The US has promised to provide the necessary funding for its completion but the fact is that since 2004 until 2010 not a single house is connected to the system, according to IRIN.
Sheikh Hameed al-Alwan, head of Fallujah local council said that even if the handing over were successful “unfortunately the plant will work only partially as its backbone, which is the main pipeline that sends all the waste to the main processing unit, will not be constructed because of the lack of funds.”
Other experts affirm that the Fallujah plant is only one of many others abandoned around the country.
related news: U.S. Army Engineers Bring Sewage System to Fallujah, Iraq, American.gov, 13 August 2009.
The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has approved a grant for US$5 million for a scheme to expand access to water supply for poor households living in peri-urban areas of Yemen that are not currently served by the water network.
Around 210,000 people are expected to benefit from the scheme, including 38,000 people in the first phase of the project which will target low-income neighborhoods in Sana’a City, Ibb City, Dham-ar Governorate, and Hajah Governorate.
Only 56 percent of the urban population has access to piped water and many poor households living in peri-urban areas have to buy water from private tanker operators, who typically charge ten times more than the price of piped water from public suppliers. As part of its reform of the water sector, the Government has created Local Water and Wastewater Corporations and introduced policies to increase coverage for the poor, but many peri-urban areas still lack access to improved water services and the local corporations are unable to meet all the demands. Partnerships with the local private sector are now being explored to address the service gap.
Under the GPOBA scheme, private operators will be selected competitively, based on the lowest subsidy needed. The output-based approach will transfer operational and financial risk to the private operators by disbursing subsidies only after the agreed outputs have been delivered and verified. These outputs include building or rehabilitating water supply systems (wells, pumps, and storage), installing domestic connections, and delivering water supply for a period of three months. The beneficiary households will only have to pay 50 percent of the connection fee and will have an option to pay part of the amount in installments.
The Project Management Unit of the urban component of the multi-donor Water Sector Support Program, which is supported by the governments of Yemen, the Netherlands, and Germany, and the World Bank, will coordinate the tender process and manage the GPOBA funds.
GPOBA is drawing on funds from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) for this project. The scheme is also leveraging US$9.1 million from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and US$2 million from the Government of Yemen.
The Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) is a global partnership program established in 2003 and administered by the World Bank. GPOBA’s portfolio includes 29 OBA subsidy schemes for a total of US$114.3 million in funding.
Key decision-makers from Yemeni ministries and water sector organisations as well as donors met in Taiz from 24-26 August 2008 to discuss the draft NWSSIP update prepared by sub-sector groups on Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (UWSS and RWSS), Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Irrigation and Institutional Development.
Regarding, IWRM it became clear that the decentralisation of water management needs to be speeded up. National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) branches need to be established and developed and Water User Associations (WUA) empowered. It was decided to address cross-cutting issues such as gender and conflict sensitivity also. Acknowledgement and registration of water rights was seen as an important precondition for an equitable rural-urban water transfer.
The Urban Water Supply and Sanitation (UWSS) discussion focused on how to involve the private sector to increase coverage and reduce operational costs.
Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), the sector with the highest absorptive capacity, is challenged by sector coordination and planning processes. It was decided that a rural water strategy as well as clear coverage figures should be incorporated into the NWSSIP update.
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It was concluded that institutional assessments need to be made in all the water sector organisations in order to identify capacity development needs.
Germany is one of the donors supporting Yemen’s water sector.
The Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation – Water Sector Program is now entering the final year of its first phase (ending in June 2009). Recently GTZ Head Office carried out an Program Progress Review (PPR) and Independent Evaluation (IE) to assess the performance of the program in terms: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact. In addition, harmonisation and alignment were assessed, and challenges and recommendations for the up-coming Phase II of the Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation – Water Sector Program, scheduled to start in July 2009, were highlighted.
“The program is on track and performing well. It is very likely that the objectives will be achieved,” the missions stated. [...] Water sector reform, decentralisation of urban water supply and sanitation – including targeting the poor through special tariffs and connection fees – and decentralisation of the National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) via regional NWRA branches and water basin committees are just some of the concrete outcomes of the program’s work.
Challenges still remain with regard to knowledge transfer to the Ministry of Water and Environment. In addition, gender issues will need more attention in future.
The GTZ Yemeni-German Water Sector Program and the Swiss Video-lab Jetzt.bewegte bilder have produced an animated awareness video on water scarcity for Yemen’s National Water Resources Authority (NWRA). NWRA came up with Rowyan – an cheery animated raindrop to promote public awareness seen in this clip. He also has a wife called Rowyana with curling eyelashes, handbag and full-length black robe.
Mrs Sondes Kamoun has been appointed as Director General of the Tunisian Office of Planning and Hydraulic Balance. She succeed to Fethi Lebdi. Mrs Kamoun has been for several years the coordinator of EMWIS National Focal Point for Tunisia.
In the framework of the GIZ AGIRE programme, a wokshop held on 9 and 10 May brought together 35 representatives from Morocan water basin agencies, Ministry water department, consultancy companies and EMWIS. After extensive sessions dedicated to sharing of knowledge on past and ongoing developments, the participants outlined an action plan to support informat […]
