On the occasion of the world water week, the community Project for clean drinking water and hygiene in the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) growing regions in rural Mozambique has been successfully completed. It was implemented at the initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF), founding organization of CmiA, together with German retailer OTTO, CARE International, the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) with funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as the cotton company Plexus. At the end of the project, Dr. Michael Otto, founder of AbTF, and other CmiA partners traveled to Mozambique to at-tend the ceremonial handover.
Since 2015, the CmiA-partners CARE, DEG, OTTO and Plexus have teamed up to support improved water, sanitation, and hygiene provision for the rural population in the Cotton made in Africa growing regions of Mozambique. The partners invested a total of €300,000 to enable more than 50,000 people in 20 villages to have access to fresh drinking water for the first time. They also benefited from hygiene measures as a basic requirement for improved living conditions. Tina Stridde, Managing Director of the Foundation, was delighted with the results: “The community project secures the population’s access to a basic human need in rural Africa: clean drinking water supply and hygienic living conditions. Experiencing the joy and enthusiasm of the village inhabitants here in Mozambique and seeing their commitment to their boreholes lays the foundation for a prosperous project that will sustain for the benefit of the village communities.” “The most impressive moment for me is to come to a village and to see that the village inhabitants have changed their behavior; that they are using their latrine, that they are getting clean water from a borehole that will last for 20 to 30 years”, adds Nic Dexter, Project Manager at CARE Mozambique.
By mid-2016, 10 boreholes were repaired, 10 boreholes built, and sanitary facilities at 15 village schools have been constructed from which more than 5,000 pupils can profit. Prior to this, more than 30,000 people took part in awareness-raising measures to promote health issues in 20 different villages of the cotton cultivation region Cabo Delgado in Mozambique. They learned about the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation provision as well as how to build and maintain sanitary facilities themselves, thereby securing the sustainability of the project even after completion. First successes of the project have already been achieved: Diarrhoeal diseases that occur mainly through contaminated drinking water and causes malnutrition problems especially for young children could have been reduced from 46% at the begin-ning of the project to 10% at the end of the project. A total of 20 convening committees set up specifically for this purpose will also ensure the sustainable use of the boreholes and latrines that have been put in place and act as a point of interface to the rural village population. 50% of its group members are women.
To find out more about the project and the story behind have a look at the video interview with Dr. Michael Otto and the video interview with the WASH project representatives.
CARE
CARE International is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and delivering lifesaving assistance in emergencies. In Mozambique, CARE is working alongside people in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the country to enable people to get the resources they need to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty. Access to clean drinking water is one of life’s most basic needs, and CARE is working with its partners to ensure that the most vulnerable, especially the women and girls, gain access to clean water and adopt good hygiene and sanitation practices. CARE also works to build the capacity of local people to manage their resources in sustainable ways, training local committees to maintain and service the water points that are built. These efforts, together with work done to promote sustainable agriculture, improve nutrition among mothers and young children, and better manage the natural resources on which so many lives depend, are leading to improvements in the lives of the people and part-ners with whom CARE works. http://care.org.mz
OTTO
As part of the Otto Group, OTTO is one of the most successful e-commerce companies and the largest online retailer in Germany for fashion and lifestyle for the end customer. We generate approximately 90 percent of our overall turnover via otto.de and other specialist online shops. You can find all you need to know on the subject of “OTTO and Sustainability” here.