Wateraid in Tanzania: The babies who die for want of clean water

Cherrill Hicks; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/11198148/Wateraid-in-Tanzania-The-babies-who-die-for-want-of-clean-water.html#disqus_thread

The author describes  the extent of water problems in Tanzania and its effects on the health of mothers and children.

Here are some important quotes: 

Aisha ( who lost a baby)

'' Aisha is convinced her baby’s fatal illness was caused by dirty water, dug from beneath a dried-up riverbed by relatives, and transported in jerrycans to the clinic’s delivery room for the birth''

 

''The same thing had happened at the births of her other children [three girls, aged eight, 13 and 16], when relatives fetched water from a nearby river''

 Health center nurse

 “Sometimes a woman goes into labour straight from the fields; she will need to wash but there will be no water in the clinic for a shower or bath.

 ''Skin and eye diseases are easily transmitted and there are high rates of infection among both mothers and their newborns, who commonly get either sepsis – a dangerous blood infection – or diarrhoea''

 “We only used unsafe water because we didn’t have any alternative,” 

 Wateraid actors

'' In 2000 you could drill for 50 m and find water; now you have to drill for 70m making boreholes more expensive, because the water table has gone down,” says Francis Mtitu, senior programme co ordinator for WaterAid Tanzania. “Even in rivers the water levels are going down''

 ''A poor quality infrastructure is at least partly to blame''.

 ''The good news is that Mlali Health Centre now has a brand new water tank''.

''Workmen are still busy on eight new toilets to the back of the clinic; they are still basic squat types, without a flush, but built to ensure wastewater is safely separated from the environment and with five designated for women only, as well as disabled-access''

''But providing a safe supply of water is not just a question of donating and building a tank. “You have to ensure that there is an infrastructure for it to be maintained,Dr Kabole had told me back in Dar, earlier in the trip. “This isn’t just about providing water for the poor. There has to be a mutual commitment – to continue it''

Conversation and observations at the Minstry of Health  

 ''He talks of the problems of water and sanitation, of the challenges posed by climate change, with heavy rains and flooding putting the water supply at risk of contamination''

'' Afterwards,I visit the ministry toilet, the usual squat with spray attached, to be used for rinsing off excreta. Astonishingly, in the Ministry of Health, when I go to wash my hands, no water comes out of the taps. But the design of these taps is unfamiliar, to say the least – and it is just possible that I don’t know how to use them''.

Mothers and children wait at a postnatal clinic held at the Mlali Health Centre, Tanzania Photo: Eliza Deacon