Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Details for Mechanism ID: 5223
Country/Region: Zambia
Year: 2007
Main Partner: FHI 360
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: NGO
Funding Agency: USAID
Total Funding: $100,000

Funding for Care: Adult Care and Support (HBHC): $100,000

This activity links with the Zambia Prevention, Care, and Treatment Partnership (ZPCT) PMTCT (#8886), ART (#8885), CT (#8883), TB/HIV (#8888) activities and the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ). Through the initiation of the PlayPump Project, this activity will increase access to clean water in areas surrounding ZPCT-supported health facilities (to be selected in collaboration with GRZ) in Central, Copperbelt, and the more remote Luapula, Northern, and North-Western provinces. The exact number of pumps to be installed has yet to be determined.

Access to a safe water supply is vital for quality HIV/AIDS clinical service delivery. Data collected in 2000 reports that approximately 36% of the population in Africa did not have easy access to a safe water supply and about 40% did not have access to sanitary facilities. This access is even more marked in rural areas where only 50% have no easy access to safe water compared with 14% in urban areas. In addition, it is estimated that as much as 52% of the rural population lacks sanitation, compared with 20% in urban areas.

A PlayPump is a child's merry-go-round attached to a water pump that provides clean drinking water and public service messages to schools and communities in rural Africa. The maintenance of the pump is supported by the revenue generated through advertising on its storage tank collected from local and national corporations. More specifically, the PlayPump consists of a merry-go-round water pump, a raised storage tank, an easy-to-use faucet, and four billboards that carry social, health, and consumer product messages. The PlayPumps Project provides an innovative technology for water pumping, storage, and community messaging that is coupled with the efforts of other organizations to ensure sustainable access to safe water for vulnerable communities.

The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development will provide a combined $10 million to the PlayPump Project over 36 months, which will potentially leverage over $60 million in total funding from the Case Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, and a wide range of private-sector donors. This alliance will build on the success of PlayPumps International in South Africa through an immediate expansion to Eastern and Southern Africa starting with two countries in 2007: Tanzania and Zambia. Over the three years, the PlayPumps Alliance plans to reach 10 million people, in 10 African countries by the end of 2009, through the installation of 4,000 pumps. It is anticipated that the PlayPumps Project will deliver tangible near-term results in support of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005 and complement other US Government (USG) priorities, such as President Bush's African Education Initiative.

ZPCT-supported PlayPump activities will include: 1) location identification and support in pump installation for selected facilities (location and number to be determined); 2) development of a management system for the PlayPump Project, including identification of local and national businesses to generate income through advertising; 3) development of community support for the project and linkages to other USG HIV/AIDS, water, and sanitation health messages; and 4) monitoring of the impact of the PlayPump Project on access to safe water, quality of HIV/AIDS services, and community management capacity of this project.

In component one, identification of facilities, ZPCT will work with GRZ and PlayPumps International to identify rural and peri-urban health facilities without access to safe water in order to increase the quality of services at the health care facility and within the surrounding community. More specifically, ZPCT is expanding services down through the various levels of clinical services; this approach includes smaller district hospitals and health centers serving more isolated communities. Many of these lower level health facilities and surrounding communities have poor access to clean water, thereby compromising the quality of health care services. With GRZ, local community organizations, and health facility staff, ZPCT will assist PlayPumps International in conducting an assessment for the placement of the pumps, targeting these rural, underserved health care facilities and communities.

In component two, development of a management system, ZPCT will liaise with local and national business providers to obtain income generation through water tank advertising as well as to contribute to developing community water committees and training community

members and health care facility teams in safe water and hygiene practices. These committees will be trained during the initial installation of the PlayPump water system; PlayPumps International has found that this last element is critical in ensuring community responsibility for the maintenance of the PlayPump. For this reason, the Ministry of Health, District Health Management Teams, and representatives from the Hospital Boards will be included on the water committees to better ensure continued support for the Project.

In component three, community support and linkages to health education messaging, ZPCT will link with other USG partners, such as RAPIDS (#8945), Society for Family Health (#8925), Health Communication Partnership (#8905) and Catholic Relief Services/SUCCESS (#9181) to identify community groups who will access this innovative clean water technology and provide HIV/AIDS prevention, counseling and testing, and treatment and adherence information. Activities to be funded under this submission include support for coordinating site selection and, where appropriate, sub-grants to community based organizations, faith-based organizations, and neighborhood health committees to ensure community commitment and participation. An additional activity will build capacity health care facility staff to link PlayPumps with educational messaging regarding safe water practices and hygiene.

In the final component, monitoring and evaluation, the PlayPump Project will be assessed for increased knowledge of HIV/AIDS care and treatment practices, increased access to safe water, proper management of the PlayPump, and overall community participation/commitment to this activity.