Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene November 2018 Vol.13 No.5 | Page 6

NEWS in brief
Around Africa
Namibia
Recycling Sewage to Tap Water in Windhoek Hits 50-
Year Milestone
Namibia capital city, Windhoek.
the City of Windhoek Head Office.
The City of Windhoek
and Wingoc will be
celebrate their 50th
anniversary of Direct
Reuse in Namibia, from
18 to 19 October, under
the theme ‘Direct
Potable Reclamation
With A Clean Bill’ at
Driven by continuous water scarcity and exceptional
challenges in terms of supply, the City took steps to
introduce purified sewage effluent into drinking water
system way back in 1968.
According to the CoW over the years, this unconventional
supply source has gone through various stages of refinery
and maintained as an important source of supply to the ever
growing city.
“50 years later, Windhoek is regarded as one of the world’s
leaders in Direct Potable Reclamation, (DRP) and remains
one of the only places in the world where this is practiced
on a significant scale and continuous basis to supply the
residents of the city with drinking water,” the City added.
The city fathers also explained that the event will offer a
review of the development of Direct Potable Reclamation
over this 50 years’ period successes and challenges along
the way and a special session will also focus on the current
development and future.
The celebratory event will be attended by global experts
from Australia, Europe and the USA, the City being one
of the world leaders in this industry are extremely excited
about this achievement and are looking forward to fruitful
deliberations
Nigeria
Nigeria ranks No. 2 in Open Defecation – Buhari
Angered by the rate at which Nigerians suffer from water
borne diseases, President Muhammadu Buhari, recently
declared a state of emergency on Water, Sanitation and
Hygienic sector, (WASH), just as he noted that the nation
has been ranked number two in open defecation globally.
“Our country now ranks No 2 in the global rating on Open
Defecation as about 25% of our population are practicing
open defecation”, he said.
Speaking during the inauguration of the National Action
6
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November 2018
Plan
for
Revitalization
of Water Supply,
Sanitation
and
Hygiene
(WASH) Sector
at State House
Conference
Centre,
the
special adviser to
Mr President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, quoted
Buhari as saying, “Access to piped water services which was
32% in 1990 has declined to 7% in 2015; access to improved
sanitation has also decreased from 38% in 1990 to 29% in
2015.
“Our country now ranks No 2 in the global rating on Open
Defecation as about 25% of our population are practicing
open defecation.
“WASH services at the rural areas are unsustainable as 46%
of all water schemes are non-functional, and the share of
our spending on WASH sector has been declining from
0.70% of the GDP in 1990 to about 0.27% in 2015 which
is far below the 0.70% at the West African regional level”.