Malawi
WASH Coalition building
The Malawi Coalition of WSSCC was officially established in early 2004, and has since been on an extensive membership drive, with some 80 new members registered so far. This includes government departments, international organisations, NGOs, and donor agencies.
Focus
The Malawi Branch aims to animate a network of individuals towards monitoring the progress Malawi is making towards reaching the MDGs on water supply and sanitation.
Activities, milestones and achievements
One activity with potentially far-stretching impact has been the rural ‘Improved Community Water Points’ inventory. This inventory looked at the positioning of water points and how many people had access, as well as at their sustained functionality. It was found that only 62% of the water points in Malawi were currently working, while almost half of those surveyed were less then five years old. This raised major concerns about maintenance, and called for more effort, greater coordination and better leadership. Through their membership of the Malawi WSSCC Branch, a number of government departments were involved in the inventory exercise, which has now become institutionalised.
