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Mozambique is a fertile country in south east Africa.
Still recovering from a civil war that raged from 1977
to 1992.
The legacy of war and the country's vulnerability to floods, droughts and
earthquakes
creates serious challenges to development.
Over 23 million people live here and life expectancy is just 49 years.
Extreme poverty remains widespread with low life expectancy and a high child mortality rate.
The government estimates that over half of the population does not have safe
water to drink
and only 17% of people have access to sanitation.
Diarrhoeal diseases cause around 10% of deaths of children under
the age of 5.
We began working in Mozambique in 1995.
Our work has focussed on collaborating with government departments to implement the
national water policy in a way that ensures that poorest people benefit from
affordable and long lasting projects.
To date, we have helped more than half a million people access clean water and almost
220,000 to safe sanitation.
We work in the rural Niassa and Zambezia provinces and have urban programmes in
the capital Maputo and Quelimane.
To ensure the longevity of our projects, we have promoted simple and sustainable
technologies that communities can set up, operate and maintain themselves.
This has included the introduction of rope pumps which can be built locally
from readily available materials.
And also composting latrines that mix human waste with soil and ash to make
compost.
These have helped improve both sanitation and crop yields.
In Maputo we have been involved with the successful introduction of water kiosks.
Where communities can buy water connected to the city's mains supply at reasonable prices.
Looking to the future,
we will continue to support local governments to plan, co-ordinate and
implement projects; effectively bringing safe water and safe sanitation to more of
Mozambique's poorest people.
We will also increase monitoring to ensure that whole communities benefit from
their projects including the most vulnerable and marginalised people.