Southern African network for sustainable sanitation launched

November 15, 2009

The Ecological Sanitation Research group (EcoSanRes) at Stockholm Environment Institute has launched its first Knowledge Node on Sustainable Sanitation for southern Africa during the second Africa Water Week. It is one of the ten planned regional nodes, the next one will be launched next week in Uganda. "Our aim is to train groups in sustainable sanitation and develop local capacity to respond to demand for information and training in the region, says Madeleine Fogde, EcoSanRes Capacity Development Manager." Other knowledge nodes will be established in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Water Research Commission (WRC) is managing the the secretariat of the Southern African knowledge node. The Water Information Network South Africa (WIN-SA) is implementing it. The Southern African Node will create a knowledge management hub for sustainable sanitation. The hub will facilitate and coordinate capacity and skills development, knowledge sharing and collaboration. It will furthermore assist individuals and organisations from different disciplines within the SADC to:

o Participate in sustainable sanitation activities and innovations;

o Document and share experiences on sustainable sanitation as generated by different stakeholders and;

o Develop and maintain a sanitation portal that facilitates e-collaboration amongst stakeholders in the region.

In Johannesburg the three partners launched a new quarterly magazine for Southern Africa "Sanitation Matters". The first issue Nov 2009 – Jan 2010 is very colourful. It carries an interesting story of Sanitation Learning Journey from a Namibian delegation to South Africa. They looked at various urine diversion toilets and other ecological sanitation technologies in various provinces in South Africa. The information will help feed Namibia's the sanitation strategy and its implementation, as called for by a cabinet decision to improve sanitation.

In another article on South Africa's Free Basic Sanitation Implementation Strategy the author says that the sanitation targets will not be met in 2010 as earlier planned. The new target is 2014.

For more information, contact Ditshego Kgopotso Magoro, Node Manager, e-mail Ditshegom@win-sa.org.za