Spend donor funds well-stakeholders

By Waryoba Yankami

Elias Chinamo , Assistant Director-environmental health and hygiene and sanitation services, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare

Sanitation and hygiene stakeholders in the country have called upon donors to persuade the government to formulate good policies and directions that would ensure donors’ funds reach the intended purposes successfully and on time.

External donors have chance to press the government on how the funds can be used to reach the target since the government has been delaying to complete projects even after getting the money on time.

This was said in Dar es Salaam last Wednesday during sanitation stakeholders’ workshop by Assistant Director, environmental health and hygiene and sanitation services, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Elias Chinamo During the discussion on water supply and sanitation collaborative council (WSSCC) engagement plan in Tanzania; sanitation policy was observed as a big challenge for meeting sanitation and hygiene’s needs, thus calling for the policy that would improve the sector.

Due to lack of access to safety water supply, sanitation and hygiene is the third most significant risk factor for poor health in developing countries with high mortality rates.

He mentioned diarrhea as a disease responsible for the deaths of 1.8 million people every year, 90 percent of whom are children under five.

He said clean and safe water reduce childhood diarrhea between 15 and 20 percent; while better hygiene through hand washing and safe food handling reduces by 35 percent. And safe dispersal of children’s faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40 per cent.

Chinamo said that in Tanzania statistics show that only 23 per cent of the rural population and 27 percent of the urban population have access to improved sanitation facilities; and only 25 per cent of the total population (urban and rural) have designated place for hand-washing with soap.

However, the schooling mapping exercise by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicates that only 2 per cent of schools hand-washing facilities have soap and only 10 per cent have water.

Tanzania’s economy loses 301bn/- approximately USD 206m. per annum due to poor sanitation whereby the figure is equivalent to loss of USD 5 per person every year.

WaterAid, head of Usafi programme, Marko Msambazi noted that World Bank, UNICEF, African Development Bank and other big financing institutions supporting the country in sanitations should question the government why many projects are not completed successfully.

This implies that 8 million urban dwellers and 26 million in rural Tanzania have no access to improved sanitation facilities. The access is the lowest in nomadic communities with sanitation access at less than 12 per cent.

Tanzania is one among the developing countries with the highest burden of diseases (BoD); at the same time it is understood that sanitation and hygiene is the key to sustainable livelihoods.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 70 per cent of diseases in Tanzania are water related; and it is estimated that these cost Tanzania close to USD 600 million annually. As such, without significant improvements in governance, health, healthcare systems, sanitation and hygiene, Tanzania faces the risk of overwhelming an already-fragile social service system and eroding future economic gains. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN