Pit latrine, Kampala Sanitation Master Plan,
UgandaFacilitating participation by a wide range of
organisations for the promotion of sanitation and health is Mott
MacDonald’s key role in a pioneering EDF-funded project in Papua
New Guinea. The ‘Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme’ aims
to satisfy these basic needs for rural populations, 80% of whom
have no current access. We are drawing on skills in stakeholder
consultation, identification of institutional roles and assisting
NGOs and community-based organisations to expand their operations
in rural areas.
This, and many of our other projects, is helping to chase the
MDG Target 10 (‘halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation’). But the
goal is still a long way off – worldwide, every day, nearly 6000
people, the vast majority children under five years old, die from
diarrhoea as a result of water and sanitation deficiencies.
We have both the contextual understanding and the practical
knowledge to advance this target – in Uganda, for example, we are
working in partnership with seven small town authorities – first in
community awareness raising, institutional strengthening and health
education and training – and, secondly, in construction design and
supervision, sourcing water from rivers, swamps and boreholes and
providing piped water supplies straight to the customer. Sanitation
includes new sewage treatment ponds, sewerage rehabilitation and
municipal and school sanitation facilities.
Investment in water and sanitation has a double impact on poverty –
first by satisfying basic needs (a prerequisite for survival like
food and shelter) and secondly, by raising human wellbeing and
productivity (eg increased enrolment of girls in school).
Read about our work around the world