The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on 28 November announced that it is launching a four-year programme to support market-based approaches to improve access to sanitation and encourage improved hygiene practices in selected small towns in northern Mozambique.

Known as "Small Towns Sanitation (STS)", this project will be implemented in partnership with Mozambican government entities, including the National Directorate of Water and Sanitation (DNAAS) and the Agency for Water and Sanitation Infrastructure (AIAS).

A press release from the US embassy states that STS "will also promote women's leadership roles and business development in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector".

The release notes that in Mozambique, water and sanitation-related diseases contribute to high levels of child stunting, cholera epidemics and chronic diarrhoea outbreaks, and the high child mortality rate where more than 46 new-borns out of every 1,000 do not survive.

"In small towns, especially in Nampula and Zambezia provinces", it continues, "only about 20 per cent of residents have access to water infrastructure, mostly hand pumps and most residents do not have access to plumbing nor access to information on healthy hygiene behaviours".

The STS project will support activities budgeted at US$14.4 million and be implemented by the global health organisation Population Services International, in coordination with other USAID WASH programmes.

This project, the release adds, is part of USAID's plan to improve Mozambicans' access to WASH services. STS "will help increase availability of WASH infrastructure, national and local actors' technical capacity to ensure sustainable services and cost recovery, as well as financing mechanisms that encourage local entrepreneurs in this sector".