Water For Justice

African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation

African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) held its annual conference in Lesotho in October. The aim of the conference was for members to learn and share experience on advocacy on water governance, right based approach to water, sanitation and citizens engagement in policy formulation and decision making. Theme of the conference was ‘Celebrating our stories”

About 21 African English and French speaking countries attended the conference.

The delegation took a study tour to Ha-Ntsi Nazareth where they interacted with the community and learnt about the advocacy methods used by Transformation Resource Center through the Water and Justice Programme when that community was denied compensation.

The community was affected by the digging of crush stone (quarry) which was used for the construction of the road to Mohale.

Even though most of the houses were affected by multiple blasts, the community was at first denied compensation and later promised that only house 5 meters away from the quarry would be compensated.

However, through the help of the Water for Justice Programme all affected people were duly compensated.

The members were also taken to Ha-Abia where people affected by the Mohale Dam were resettled at. This community suffered for more than 12 years while they were being denied their communal compensations.

ANEW is a regional body of African Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) actively involved in the field of sustainable water management, water supply and sanitation.

ANEW is committed to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on water and sanitation and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) targets on water.