Water

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are crucial building blocks for development. They improve the quality of life and health, advance education, reduce poverty and malnutrition, increase child and maternal survival, drive economic growth and contribute to gender equality and dignity. PRA proved that water is considered in all pilot areas as a major problem. SEMA provides advisory and supervisory services for the construction of different types of water supply systems such as wells, boreholes, and rainwater harvesting systems. This includes water surveys, planning, designing and construction of groundwater sources for domestic and productive purposes. The Organization uses innovative approach in executing WASH projects to needy communities. SEMA has a well-functioning training program for the establishment of Water User Groups at the community level which has a true feeling of ownership to cater to the maintenance and operation of WASH facilities.

 

SEMA has been worked with different partners through WASH/SWASH program had gained experience on Multiple Water Use Services. Rural households typically need and use water for livestock, irrigation, home gardens, or other local uses. Formal domestic water services often fail to address these different water needs in an integrated way, and typically focus on either single-use domestic (e.g drinking) or productive services (e.g. irrigation).

 

SEMA is now currently working on provision of water supply services that incorporate both domestic and productive uses in their design and delivery constitute the core of multiple-use water services. Inherent in these services is the participatory planning of all stakeholders to avoid conflicts over allocations to different purposes or users.

 

Investing in multiple-use water services at an early stage will enable users to reap short-and long-term benefits, such as better health, food security, savings in time and costs, higher productivity and income, all of which contribute to poverty alleviation.

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Water Resource Management

​SEMA in collaboration with Basin offices had implemented Community Based Water Resources Management at sub-catchment level. The aim of the intervention is to improve the water resources management practices in a sustainable manner through a community-based approach, by ensuring community engagement in very below level possible.  The main intervention includes carrying out feedback meetings to different stakeholders and Participatory Project Design. SEMA facilitates the formation and train sub Catchment Facilitation Team/District Facilitation Team and supports of Water User association to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

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Environmental Sanitation

In order to ensure long-lasting health benefits brought by improved water supply, environmental sanitation is part and parcel of domestic water supply. SEMA supports the designing and construction of household and institutional latrines where SEMA promotes different types of sanitary facilities suitable for rural areas. It also provides health, hygiene, and sanitation education to the community.

 

SEMA cheap in from council strategic plan and work hand in hand with community members to address community needs. However, in project design SEMA work in collaboration with local administration (District councils) in the designing of interventions and plan implementations as well as monitoring and evaluation process. It also implements the project jointly by District Staff who play a leading role and Local community who are beneficiaries.

 

SEMA also trains village animator’s hygiene friends who promote hygiene and sanitation and Masons on improved latrine construction. It uses sanitation social marketing tools and community participatory approaches with special focus on the neediest and excluded such as people with disabilities, children, elderly, and vulnerable poor. Participatory methods that make beneficiaries become major players in the project activities and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project. SEMA provides services in terms of capacity building, auditing, financial and market information to beneficiaries and the community at large. Efforts to ensure that the community owns the projects are made to sustain the long-term results/impact of the project.

 

As a strategy to improve livelihood, sanitation artisans and field animators are always mobilized and capacitated to establish a saving and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) that can help Artisan access capital in running a latrine construction business. The establishment of SACCOS promotes saving culture to sanitation artisans whereby ten percent of the proceeds from latrine constructions are be deposited to SACCOS. The SACCOS also acts as a rural financial institution to offer financial services such as micro-credits, payment transfer and savings to animators, sanitation artisans and beneficiaries in general. As a financial services provider, SACCOS improve the livelihood of its beneficiaries even after the project has phased out.

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Education and Training on Health

Sanitation and HIV/AIDS in relation to the supply of reliable, clean and safe water to community owned resources.

 

SEMA trains community members and volunteers in the basic HIV/AIDS, hygiene messages and assists them in working plans for health education in the community. Also SEMA is implementing Comprehensive and Sustainable Clinical and Community HIV/AIDS Services through home based care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

 

SEMA field team trains the Community Own Resource Persons (CORPS) on hygiene education & HIV/AIDS content, methods and materials. The volunteers will conduct educational sessions with women groups, make home visits, organize hygiene-related community action (e.g. cleaning around water points) and demonstrate through their own day-to-day behaviour on the new hygienic practices. Working as a team and with the support of the WATSAN Committee gives the volunteers the confidence and credibility needed to call community meetings, organize community action, and make household visits. They use participatory techniques emphasizing learning through doing, discussions, peer group interactions, demonstration and visual reinforcement.

 

Villagers are encouraged to identify and analyze health problems and look for their own solutions and ways to meet these goals. Training materials, principally flipchart, booklets and picture stories will be provided by SEMA.

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SWASH Programme

School Water supply, sanitation and hygiene play a key role in schools. Schools that do not have such services present a number of risks to pupils, including risk of contracting diseases associated with poor sanitation, lost school days due to illness or for girls while menstruating, contributing to poor pupils' school performance and increase household economic burden.

 

SEMA in collaboration with LGAs with support from different donors had been implementing School water, Hygiene and Sanitation Project to improve WASH services in primary schools. The projects had helped to improve access to WASH services to most vulnerable primary schools.

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Urban water supply and Solid Waste Management Project

SEMA is implementing up a program of work on waste and water resources management which aims to support semi-urban communities to manage risks and threats to their water supplies and solid waste disposal. The main goal of this intervention is to capacitate Water and Sanitation authorities in emerging rural towns to have a formal solid waste management-collection system managed by them, improve management capability and increase revenue collections from water use and enhance integrated water resource management to catchment areas. The intervention's goal is to ensure access to clean and safe water to urban areas.