Water, sanitation and hygiene

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Key results

Key results

 

Water, sanitation and hygiene

With much of Sudan's child mortality rates linked to waterborne diseases, the result of limited access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene practices, UNICEF is contributing to massive improvements in both physical supply of facilities, and improved understanding of household hygiene, as part of the broader Sudan Accelerated Child Survival Initiative.

By the year 2012, UNICEF in Sudan will have strengthened the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, achieving key results that include::

• Provision of clean water to more than 2.5 million people for the first time.
• Ensuring access to adequate sanitation for an additional 860,000 people.
• Reaching 10 million people with information on hygiene practices.
• The complete eradication of Guinea Worm.

  "Hygiene education is important because through it people protect themselves from diseases.

  Nasrin, age 10, Gedaref.

Key strategies to achieve these results include:

Water and sanitation supply

UNICEF supports the rehabilitation, maintenance and construction of water and sanitation facilities, especially in rural communities and those with high numbers of returnees coming home after the civil war. Schools and health centres are also key focus areas for improvements in water and sanitation, to ensure a holistic approach to tackling disease and illness in communities.

© UNICEF Sudan/Georgina Cranston

A group of children read information materials on safe water use as part of a UNICEF-supported hygiene promotion programme in Gedaref State

Hygiene promotion

In addition to physical improvements in the water and sanitation sector, UNICEF also supports improvements in personal and household hygiene, through the provision of hygiene messages via structured community mobilization – such as household level visits by health promoters – and the mass media. UNICEF also supports the training of local hygiene promoters and social mobilizers to improve the effectiveness of awareness-raising programmes.

Policy, systems and capacity development

UNICEF also works with government partners to develop new standards, operational and training manuals, and monitoring systems, as well as supporting the establishment of revised policies on water resource management, and on domestic water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

Sudan suffers from severe annual flooding during the rainy season, and UNICEF supports the pre-positioning of vital emergency supplies such as chlorine and water-testing kits, as well as jerry cans and water tankers, at the state level to ensure rapid response to water-related crises. UNICEF also helps build emergency response capacity across all levels of government.