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The
Impact of HIV/AIDS on Water and Sanitation
By Joseph Mutsigwa
HIV/Aids has become the most
devastating global epidemic the world has ever faced. Due to the HIV/Aids
epidemic, people's need for clean and sufficient water and sanitation has
become even more acute. We need water to curb the spread of diseases such
as cholera, typhoid, parasitic and other endemic diseases. HIV/Aids affects
the demand for accessible, reliable and affordable water and sanitation
services.
Access to water and sanitation
In view of the aforementioned
epidemics the need for adequate water and sanitation cannot be overemphasised.
According to the Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC), 26 000 people
in the main urban areas are connected to clean water while 900 000 are
not. Further, about 40% of the rural population in Swaziland do not have
a pit latrine at their home, so too is a borehole to secure clean water.
About 20 homesteads at
Engudzeni, 25 km east of the Mbulungwane Mountains in the south of Swaziland
within the Shiselweni region depend on this water source. |
They depend on local streams
shared with livestock exposing themselves to water borne diseases. Water
is readily needed to ease the household resources expended currently in
carrying water over long distances. This situation speaks volumes about
our water situation.
About 1 billion people, one
in three of over 6 |
billion people in the world are
without access to safe water and sanitation, and this number without access
is increasing. Further, each litre of polluted water contaminates clean
water in the river or lake that receives it.
Sustainability of Water
and Sanitation Systems
Residents from Msunduza
high-density suburb, 2kms east of Mbabane access clean water at certain
times of the as the taps are locked. The suburb is home to about 42 thousand
low income and unemployed people. |
Companies around the Matsapha
industrial sites are known to be discharging untreated effluent into the
Usushwana River causing a lot of pollution. As a result of the pollution,
communities and aquatic life, which sustains life on this vital resource,
have been severely affected. Water prices |
are an obstacle to access clean
water supply by poor communities. Further, HIV/Aids is threatening
the sustainability of water and sanitation projects in a number of ways.
In particular HIV/Aids:
-
Reduces the ability of water users
to pay water fees;
-
Reduces the ability of water users
to spend time and energy on management activities;
-
Erodes management capacities due
to loss of knowledge and skills (social capital);
-
Damages the ability of households
to participate in planning and decision-making, so risking the possibility
that their specific needs may not be taken into account.
HIV/Aids has been eliminating
breadwinners and productive people thereby compromising households’ ability
to pay water fees. Water is competing with medical bills and school fees.
In some situations this is resulting in people returning to unprotected
water sources. Water is a public good as well as a basic fundamental human
requirement. Whose duty is it then to provide poor communities with clean
water, health, and effective sanitation?
Millennium Development Goals
We would definitely be a proud
nation if we were recognised as a global sustainable development leader.
However, we are leading as far as HIV infection rate is concerned. This
is unsustainable and worrying. Swaziland has almost 40 percent HIV infection
rate as reported by a United Nations Special Envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa,
Mr. Stephen Lewis during a visit to Swaziland in March 2004.
Swaziland has beaten her southern
African counterpart, Botswana claiming the top position. A decade ago Swaziland
had 4 % infection rate (UN Aids Epidemic update 2003), which means that
the infection rate has risen by ten times in just one decade. This
is shocking and a great cause for concern.
The unprecedented scale and
seriousness of the pandemic has consequences for the viability of achieving
the Millennium Development Goals that are currently guiding developmental
efforts, both national and international. Swaziland committed herself to
halve the proportion of people, who are unable to reach or afford safe
drinking water by 2015. It would not do us any harm to hit the target and
be the world’s example by 2015. It is possible, however, this calls for
joint effort by all water stakeholders.
In view of the high and increasing
HIV/Aids prevalence in the country, it becomes critical that water sector
planners and decision makers assess, address and continuously monitor at
all levels the current and expected impact of HIV/Aids on the ability of
communities to finance and manage water supply and sanitation.
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