Water and Sanitation

The sources of water in the District include pipe borne, dug out wells, boreholes, ponds.streams and rivers. Pipe borne is percent in eight of the nine zones. Sonkwaa area council is the zone which does not have. The capital and surrounding communities depend on hand and foot dug wells whiles those communities close to River Amisa (Ochi) use it as an alternative. As noted during the survey many of these water bodies are polluted along the banks by indiscriminate defecation, dumping of refuse and chemical water pollution through washing making it unsafe for domestic use.

A common problem observed in all the area councils is the indiscriminate refuse disposal. As noted area this is often close to the main or alternative water sources namely rivers, streams, and ponds posing a health threat. Since there are inadequate KVIPs and household latrines in all the communities most even in some zonal capitals, improper defecation was another health problem of the district.For example, there is no functional public toilet in Sonkwaa and Abaasa. Mando, which is a zones with relatively better social infrastructure provision, even experience this same problem because there is only one functional (10-Seater) toilet for the whole capital and only 10% of households with latrines.

These major problems even in the zonal capitals clearly define the state of affairs in the remotest communities. There is a need for the promotion of a general cleanliness in the all the communities to reduce the incidence of cholera as reported in the district. The figures reveal that the health condition of the people in the district is not in anyway being improved. The number of cases reported over the past five years have steadily been increasing, averaging 24,853 cases a year. Malaria is still the leading cause of morbidity averaging 59% of the total cases yearly followed by skin diseases. The phenomenon is not different at national level and even in Africa as malaria has been identified as one of the major causes of sickness and death.