FAO & IFAD: Water for the Rural Poor

The joint FAO/IFAD report Water and the Rural Poor: Interventions for Improving Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa has just been published. Sanitation is mentioned a few times and the report does say that “improvements in water supply alone are unlikely to have positive health impacts unless sanitation practices are also improved. Optimal intervention programmes include improvements in water volume, water quality, and sanitation practices” (page 57), but nowhere in the report is there mention of any specific sanitation system(s). I thought this was a bit odd, especially given the success of Arborloos in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and IFAD’s enthusiasm for agroforestry (see blog 1 and blog 2 of 6 April), so at least a Box on Arborloos would have been helpful. Time, I think, for these good agencies to wake up to Arborloos!