OVERVIEW

The United States Agency for International Development is partnering with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support the Afghan government and civil society to increase access to safe drinking water and community sanitation facilities, and improve hygiene practices in households, schools, and health facilities. The program will improve the lives of at least 525,000 Afghans in 75,000 vulnerable and disadvantaged households in 16 selected rural Afghan provinces.

Only 42 percent of Afghans have access to safe drinking water. Moreover, only 27 percent of the rural population has access to sanitation facilities, resulting in exposure to water-borne pathogens that cause diarrheal disease and claims the lives of an estimated 85,000 Afghan children under the age of 5 every year.

ACTIVITIES

• Increase access to safe drinking water services and assist communities to maintain new wells and small piped systems.
• Support health workers to adopt guidelines to improve hygienic practices in health facilities
• Educate local non-governmental organizations, government health workers, and community groups to improve knowledge of hygiene and good hygiene practices in communities in 16 provinces.

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Increased access to safe drinking water for at least 525,000 people (in about 75,000 households across 1,000 rural communities) by the end of 2019
• Private enterprises or associations are sustainably operating, maintaining, and managing small-scale rural community water supply systems in the 1,000 communities
• Reliable and low maintenance  solar-powered water pumps and gravity-fed water systems being used in communities in place of traditional hand pumps
• Improved hygiene practices in at least 50 health centers across the 16 provinces.
• Private restroom facilities for girls and expanded access to safe drinking water for children in about 200 primary schools or community-based learning centers