Introduction

Lack of clean water is among the main causes for waterborne diseases causing the worldwide death of five million people per year, mostly women and children. The Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation aim at reducing by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water supply and basic sanitation by the year 2015.

Clean water is scarce in Africa, particularly in the DR Congo, where only 26.1% of the population have access to clean water. Due to this and poor sanitary conditions, cholera has become endemic in the Kamango / Oicha Health Zone. In collaboration with PPSSP and LWF, the recent interventions by the Anglican Church in the field of water source construction combined with health education, construction of latrines and provision of hand-washing facilities have contributed to reducing the cholera outbreak episodes although other water-related diseases remain widespread.

The SODIS project therefore proposes to improve the health status of the population in the Kamango and Kasindi areas by increasing access to clean water for the population through the Solar Water Disinfection method combined with health education programmes. The project will contribute to reducing the incidence of diseases related to unsafe water and poor sanitation. The project foresees the supply of PET bottles in collaboration with the local community, training of Health Educators, and provision of health education services as well as water quality assessment.

Project Zone

Kamango and Kasindi areas in North Kivu Province

Implementation Strategy

The following strategies are being used:
o Raising the awareness of the community for the SODIS method
o Communication and Education for behaviour Change

Approaches

o A participatory approach is used to involve decision-makers in the implementation area and beneficiaries in the SODIS process: meetings are held with the Health Zone Officers, community and church leaders to introduce and promote SODIS. Promoters have been chosen within the community by church and local leaders.
o Women-to-women approach: as women are more effective in communicating the message to other women, 10 SODIS promoters (mostly women) have been selected.
o Child-to-child approach: as collecting water is an activity reserved to women and children in African culture, school children will be trained in SODIS use to allow them promote the method in the area.

Expected results/Achievements

The following outputs are expected:
o Improved access to clean water among the beneficiary population
o Improved hygiene and sanitation conditions among the beneficiary population
o Reduction of the incidence of waterborne diseases among the project beneficiaries

Lessons learnt

o Availability of PET bottles is both key and a challenge of the project
o Since SODIS is a new technology in the area, it is not yet easily understood by ordinary people