ACTION PLAN: Eradication of Diarrhoeal Disease in the Limpopo Basin through Health Related Catchment Development
Context Diarrhoeal disease accounts for a high proportion of the preventable deaths and illness in the Limpopo basin. The social impact translates to diarrhoea diseases causing the death of 20,000 people p.a. in the region. It also affects morbidity rates, loss of work, training etc. The economic impact translates to direct health cost SA Rand 3bn/ yr while indirect health as well as opportunity costs amount to SA Rand 20bn/yr. Children are particularly vulnerable to the combined effects of substandard water quality, insufficient sanitation and poor hygiene. Reduced diarrhoeal disease will lead to reduced morbidity, less loss of work, training, direct and indirect health cost reductions. Cleaning up faecal and other waste pollution of water in the river basin will improve water quality and create a virtuous spiral of improved health.
Action Plan Goals · Develop and implement health‑related interventions to eradicate diarrhoeal disease for the entire target river basin to such an extent that the reduced levels should at least be those of developed‑world incidence.
Methodology To enhance existing regional, national and community level catchment development activities, we propose to use a vehicle we refer to as health‑related catchment development. This implies that the health‑focus of Diarrhoea Disease Eradication (DDE) is infused to enhance existing water resource (catchment) management processes and structures (e.g. water quality and sanitation improvement initiatives etc.), and where these do not exist, to stimulate such initiatives through DDE. Initial participatory forums will be set up at the primary level (entire basin, 9 million. inhabitants) to identify quaternary catchments to pilot DDE initiatives as case studies. Following this approach, participatory development actions, aimed at DDE, will be initiated at the family / household level and sustained by active CBO involvement. Based on the successes achieved a model will be developed that can be applied to all communities in the Limpopo basin. The processes in the model will be multiplied upwards through the catchment scales creating a South-to-South exchange through development and sustaining of a regional civil society forum. While involvement of stakeholders at each level is a crucial aspect of this Action Plan, the activities at the quaternary level will be largely CBO driven, based on community sized related to the scale of the catchment (i.e. 10,000 people at the quaternary catchment unit).
Project outline (Table 1 provides details)
Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Systems and proposal to be developed.
Knowledge Management Before: Group for Environmental Monitoring (GEM) does background surveys After: share information regionally and globally
Funding 1st 0bjective: £300,000 GEMS over 3 years 2nd Objective: Multiply by 5 for total project Possible funding sources: European Union (unit on Water & Sanitation): £300,000 over 3 years ‑ multiply by 5 for total project Source from Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, and at local level: sanitation subsidies in SA.
Table 1: Action Plan
Partners for the Action Plan: Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG), Group for Environmental Monitoring (GEM), Mvula Trust, Umgeni Water, University of Bloemfontein, University of Pretoria
Potential Partners: SADC Water Sector, Department of Water and Health in each country at primary catchment level; NAWISA. Partners in second phase include 20 NGOs at primary level (lead organisations: South Africa: Group for Environmental Monitoring; Zimbabwe: ZERO; Mozambique: Liviningo; Botswana: Kalahari Conservation Society). |
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