Water and Sanitation
Limited access to drinking water – only 21% of the rural population has continuous access (four hours a day) to potable water. At the start of the project levels of faecal bacteria in the drinking water ranged from 50 to 260 times the acceptable levels.
61% rural water sources contaminated with faecal bacteria whilst one child a week dies from agrochemical poisons in their water supply.
83% rivers are contaminated, and only 2-3% of sewage or industrial and domestic waste water receives any kind of treatment before being dumped into the rivers.
Impact of climate change – farmers report that that their water sources including springs and wells are drying up whilst water salinity is increasing.
Poor sanitation facilities -12% (500 p.a.) of all deaths of children under five here are caused by diarrheal diseases. In the IPES target communities, 58% of families had unhygienic pit latrines whilst 13% had no latrine at all.
