With technical and financial assistance from UNICEF to government and non-governmental organizations, clean water supplies were provided, or re-established, for some 1.5 million people through the drilling of boreholes, installation of hand pumps, provision of water storage facilities and the repair of existing water supply systems.
Installation and repair of community and household latrines assured the provision and re-establishment of adequate sanitation to some 138,000 people in Sudan, while in the north of Sudan a focus on school health and hygiene saw more than 99,000 students and teachers provided with sanitation facilities, and 30,000 students and teachers provided with improved sources of water. In addition, latrines in more than 100 schools were repaired, benefiting over 40,000 students and teachers.
Hygiene promotion and education activities, including house to house visits, school-based education sessions and extensive radio campaigns, reached some 4.5 million people.
In response to the annual rainy season and subsequent flooding that affects Sudan, UNICEF supported the pre-positioning of chlorine supplies, soap and other water-related supplies in key hubs around the country.
These combined activities had a noted impact on both diarrhoeal disease outbreaks, and the incidence of Guinea Worm during 2008. There were only 335 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea/cholera reported in the northern states in 2008, compared with nearly 2,300 in 2007.
UNICEF supported the training of 232 government staff to equip them with the skills to undertake a major behavioural change study in the north of Sudan; the results of the study will help formulate an improved hygiene education programme in 2009. More than 4,000 people received training to enable them to undertake hygiene promotion activities in their communities.