If Mauritius and Seychelles are excluded the figures
drop to 71 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.
The gains most countries have made recently in
provision of drinking water are already being eroded
according to the latest vulnerability assessments
carried out this year. This makes the impact of drought
especially severe, as many are forced to make use
of increasingly unsafe , frequently contaminated
water sources, both in rural and urban areas. Water
shortages and poor hygiene practices are already
having serious health effects on communities, with
an ever-increasing risk of epidemics. Five countries
have reported cholera incidence in 2016. As the dry
season continues in southern Africa countries, so
water availability is likely to deteriorate further.
Angola
Mozambique
DRC
Madagascar
Tanzania
Zambia
Swaziland
Zimbabwe
Lesotho
Malawi
Namibia
South Africa
Botswana
100
JMP 2015
VAC 2016
Mauritius
0
80
20
40
60
80
100
Source: UNICEF, WHO, SADC
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Access to safe drinking water
Seychelles
Access to potable water
90
increase in WASH needs.
Lesotho
Malawi
Moz.
Namibia Swaziland Zambia Zimbabwe
Source: UNICEF, WHO, SADC
Critical water shortages have impacted rural and
urban communities’ access to water and sanitation,
affecting nutrition, health and access to education.
Children are reported to be dropping out of school
and waking up in the middle of the night so that they
can find and collect clean water. Water shortages
are hitting children hardest; diarrhoea caused by
unclean water can kill small children quickly, while
repeated episodes of diarrhoea in children under
age 2 severely affects their growth, resulting in
stunting with significant long lasting effects on
cognitive development and general health and
growth. Hygiene practices such as hand washing are
negatively impacted by water shortages increasing
the disease risk. Many women and children are at
increased risk of various forms of gender-based
violence (GBV) directly related water shortages. In
the coming months, we can expect to see a further
WASH interventions to combat the effects of the
drought will aim at ensuring affected populations’
access to clean/safe water, sanitation and
improved hygiene in its own right; as well as
providing critical support to other sectors’ response
activities i.e. ensuring adequate WASH services
for nutrition; therapeutic feeding in health centres
and communities, and school feeding programmes
within the education sector. Health facilities are
the preventative and curative centres for affected
communities and hence they must have water
supply on a daily basis to ensure that those
affected at least have a place to receive treatment
for diarrhoea; and any other drought-related
illnesses. Global studies show that children are
community agents and therefore they can influence
the behaviour of the family due to the information
and practices instilled at school. It is paramount
to therefore ensure daily water supply to schools
and to conduct hygiene sensitisation and message
distribution using schools and clinics as community
gateways for hygiene communication.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Sector interventions will focus on immediate
lifesaving activities but also acknowledging that
most emergency WASH actions should have longerterm outcomes and so lead directly to recovery and
19