The Sanitation Scribes

Water Hackathon

2011-10-21T17:06:00.002+05:30

'WaterHackathon' to Find Technology Solutions to Global Water Challenges

WASHINGTON, October 20, 2011 - Computer programmers, designers, and other information technology specialists convened by the World Bank Group and technology partners at NASA, Google, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Yahoo! will compete for 48 hours in cities around the world this weekend to develop new application software, or apps, that solve water and sanitation challenges in developing countries.

Water is essential to sustain life and economic development, yet the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation remains daunting.

- 2.6 billion people lack access to sanitation

- Nearly one billion live without access to safe drinking water

Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the worlds single largest cause of illness, responsible for two million deaths a year thats four people every minute most of them children. More children die of diarrhea than of AIDs, malaria, and TB combined.

The first ever global WaterHackathon follows the model set by Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), a partnership among these same organizations, in which subject matter experts and local stakeholders submit problem definitions which are then tackled by volunteer software developers who use the latest technology tools to create innovative solutions. The first RHoK event in November 2009 gave rise to applications such as Im Ok! and Tweak the Tweet, which were used in emergency response operations following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

The sustainable management of water resources has also acquired a new urgency in the face of a global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, increased food demands, and increased hydrological variability caused by climate change.

- Irrigation produces around half of the world's food and accounts for about three quarters of water withdrawals worldwide.

- Water scarcity will affect at least 30% of the world's population in 2050.

- Climate change exacerbates flood and drought challenges as it makes water resources harder to manage, and increases risk and uncertainty.

WaterHackathon will take place simultaneously in nine locations, including, among others, Bangalore, Lagos, Lima, Nairobi, and Washington, DC.

The general public is invited to follow the event live on Twitter at #waterhack.

Water is at the heart of some of the world's most pressing development challenges. At the intersection of technology and consumer-related data, we are seeing new opportunities to create and effectively use non-traditional solutions. Are we really taking full advantage of now-ubiquitous mobile phones, mobile internet access, and social media tools to transform inclusion, citizen participation, and transparency in water management and services? Are we using open data to full practical advantage? It is in search of such non-traditional solutions that the World Bank is launching the WaterHackathon," said Jose Luis Irigoyen, World Bank Director for Transport, Water, and Information and Communication Technologies.

"WaterHackathon represents a natural intersection of two focus areas of NASA's Open Government Initiative - open data and open source," said Nicholas Skytland, Program Manager of NASA's Open Government Initiative. "This collaborative project enables us to provide data resources to the water sector and the developer community as they create applications that address some of the world's most urgent water crises."

"HP is committed to applying our technology, expertise, and dedicated volunteers to support and contribute to the prosperity of people and communities around the world," said Marlon Evans, Office of Global Social Innovation, Hewlett-Packard Company. "We are proud to partner with the World Bank and Random Hacks of Kindness in their efforts to solve todays water problems."

"Microsoft is delighted to see the growth and continuation of the Random Hacks of Kindness model," said Patrick Svenburg, Director of Developer & Platform Evangelism at Microsoft. "The chance to bring together subject matter experts around water and sanitation with software developers from all around the world is a unique opportunity to create open solutions that will directly affect the quality of life of people, perhaps even safe lives."

"We are very excited to see the Water Hackathon taking off as one of the first Random Hacks of Kindness Community Events," said Christiaan Adams, a Developer Advocate with Google.org's Crisis Response Team.

Among the speakers at WaterHackathon is Jeff Martin, founder and CEO of Tribal Brands and Tribal Technologies, which created the first intelligent database behind mobile applications that predicts consumer behaviors and interactions. "Today, far more of the world's population has access to a cell signal than safe drinking water," he said. "What we need now is a marriage of digital convergence to solve this problem - where mobile phones and apps help bridge this incomprehensible gap in a way desktop computers never did."

Contacts:

In Washington: Karolina Ordon, +1 (202) 458-5971, kordon@worldbank.org

Christopher Walsh, (202) 473-4594, cwalsh@worldbank.org;

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

For more information, please visit: www.WaterHackathon.org

Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldbank

Be updated via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wspworldbank

For our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watersanitation

2011-10-11T07:16:00.001+05:30

“King of Bollywood” Shahrukh Khan puts his star-power behind life-saving sanitation and hygiene work

First major movie star to talk about importance of toilets for dignity and health

Mumbai, 10 October 2011 – Shahrukh Khan, one of the world’s most popular and much-loved Bollywood personalities, is making the fight for the right to safe sanitation and good hygiene his own. The announcement was made last night at the start of the Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene, an international conference taking place this week in Mumbai.

“I am very happy to be an advocate for these important issues, because I believe in every human being’s right to live with dignity,” Shahrukh Khan said. “It is shameful and tragic that every 30 seconds a child dies from preventable diarrhoea -- that’s two unnecessary child deaths per minute, almost 3,000 a day or 1 million young lives wasted each year.”

Mr. Khan said he dreams of an India and a world where poor and vulnerable people don’t have to squat in the street or in the bushes to meet Nature’s call. “It’s really quite simple. Toilets for all will make India and the world a healthier and cleaner place, particularly for poor women, girls and others at the margins of our societies,” Mr. Khan said, adding “Sanitation for all does not require huge sums of money or breakthrough scientific discoveries. Political commitment at the highest level, the need to create awareness, and meet the demand for sanitation, are all challenging issues, but doable.”

Jon Lane, executive director for the UN-hosted Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), which asked Mr. Khan to serve in the role of ambassador, says the actor’s support for the issues is greatly welcomed. “Mr. Khan is highly regarded by billions of people in South Asia and Africa, where most of the people without good sanitation and hygiene services live,” Mr. Lane said. “By extending his support to water, sanitation and hygiene issues, Mr. Khan will give a huge impetus to moving the agenda forward of ensuring there is a toilet in every home and proper hand-washing practices are followed by all in the region.”

In the coming months, Mr. Khan will advocate with the public about the impact toilets and proper handwashing on their lives by highlighting the strong linkages it has on their health and the environment around them including their ground water sources. (Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMWnoH2Mxc8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uz4THb8PFA to view his first public service announcements.)

Experts meeting in Mumbai
Some 500 activists, business leaders, health professionals, governmental officials and others from 70 countries are attending the first-ever Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene (www.wsscc-global-forum.org) in Mumbai. Arranged 9-14 October by the Geneva-based WSSCC and the Governments of India and Maharashtra, the Forum aims to highlight how to save millions of lives through handwashing, how to build educational opportunities for teenage girls through separate latrines, and how to “invest in waste” through biogas-generating toilets and other entrepreneurial innovation.

Of the 2.6 billion people living without safe and clean toilets, roughly a third live in South Asia, a third in sub-Saharan Africa and a third in China. These people are unable to fulfil their daily needs with safety, convenience and dignity. There are good reasons to turn this situation around, including evidence that points to the negative economic impacts of poor sanitation.

“Poor sanitation is costing developing countries between 3 and 7% of GDP,” said Anna Tibaijuka, chair of WSSCC. “Improved access to toilets has the potential to reduce healthcare costs, improve productivity, increase earnings from tourism and promote greater educational attainment, especially among girls. When a school has separate toilets for girls, with doors that lock, their attendance rates improve, especially once they reach menstruation.”

About the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) mission is to ensure sustainable sanitation, better hygiene and safe drinking water for all people. Good sanitation and hygiene lead to economic and social development, yielding health, productivity, educational and environmental benefits. WSSCC manages the Global Sanitation Fund, facilitates coordination at national, regional and global levels, supports professional development, and advocates on behalf of the 2.6 billion people without a clean, safe toilet to use. WSSCC is hosted by UNOPS, supports coalitions in more than 30 countries, and has members around the world.

Rural sanitation: Bill Gates Foundation team visits Mandi

2011-07-25T10:33:00.000+05:30

Express news service
Posted: Oct 24, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST

Shimla, October 23 Mandi’s success in the community-led rural sanitation drive has started attracting international agencies, who are offering to replicate the experiment in other countries, besides Indian states. More than 150 gram panchayats in the district have already attained status of ODF (open defecation free ) - one of the basic pre-requisite of total sanitation.The district has set a target of becoming completely ODF by August 2008, perhaps the first in northern India.

Yesterday, a 10-member team from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA, visited two gram panchayats of Mandal and Barsu in Balh Block to see how the community has collectively made a change in their living standards.The team was accompanied by officials of the World Bank, whose water and sanitation programme (WSP) is also actively associated with the drive.

Paitty Stonesifer, the foundation’s CEO, led the team and met local community leaders and members of mahila mandals to share their experiences. “What actually impressed the foundation’s CEO was the fact that the campaign is completely led by the community and involves no element of subsidy or funding,” said Subhasish Panda, Mandi’s Deputy Commissioner.

Though the foundation, which works on health issues, has earlier also visited Orissa and Maharashtra, this is the first time the CEO headed for Himachal Pradesh. Some of the local natural water sources maintained by the villagers were also visited by the team leader.

Next, a team of Pakistan’s media professionals is also reaching Shimla to collect first-hand experience on working of the rural sanitation campaign in the district. Narkanda block in Shimla with 16 panchayats has also recently become ODF. In all, 360 gram panchayats have already become ODF in the state, barring districts of Kangra, Una and Hamirpur, where the campaign has not yet taken up well.

Strikingly, Kinnaur district in the state’s tribal belt has shown change faster than even some of the bigger districts like Kangra. Now, Bilaspur, Shimla and Solan districts are also witnessing a change, says Director, Rural Development and Panchayats, Rakesh Kaushal.

“Our focus is to see a collective behaviour change in the rural community. Once that’s achieved, the people will start realising the advantages,” he feels.

In Solan, the district plan prescribes for regular monitoring of the water quality in and around the panchayats that have become ODF.

“This is a very good test to monitor community behavior and also prevent re-occurrence of diseases like diarrhoea and gastroenteritis,” said Deepak Shanan, principal secretary, IPH. Shanan says the department is already working on a plan to introduce internal water quality monitoring system for drinking water supply schemes in the state.

2011-05-20T13:13:00.000+05:30

Sanitary napkins for rural girls from August

Aarti Dhar

Napkins will be sold at subsidised price of Rs. 6 per pack

Ensuring better menstrual health and hygiene

Safe disposal of napkins at community level

NEW DELHI: The Centre's ambitious and much-awaited scheme of making available subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years in rural India will be operational by August.

As part of promotion of menstrual hygiene, the napkins will be sold to girls at a cost of Rs.6 for a pack of six - Re. 1 per piece - in the village by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA).

This scheme is aimed at ensuring that adolescent girls in rural areas have adequate knowledge and information about menstrual hygiene and the use of napkins. The girls will be provided a pack of six napkins under the National Rural Health Mission's brand ‘Freedays.'

Use to increase

In the first phase, the scheme will cover 25 per cent of the population — 1.5 crore girls in 152 districts of 20 States. It is expected that with availability of sanitary napkins at the village level, their use will increase. Easy access and convenient pricing are the strategies adopted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for increasing usage of safe and hygienic practices during menstruation.

The ASHA will get an incentive of Re. 1 on sale of each pack, besides a free pack of napkins every month.

Evidence suggests that lack of access to menstrual hygiene (which includes sanitary napkins, toilets in schools, availability of water, privacy and safe disposal) could contribute to local infections including Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI). Studies have shown that RTIs are closely inter-related with poor menstrual hygiene and pose grave threats to women's lives, livelihood, and education. Services for the prevention and treatment of RTI/Sexually Transmitted Infections are integral part of the Reproductive Child Health II Programme (RCH II).

Clouded by taboos

In India, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions for women as well as adolescent girls. Limited access to safe sanitary products and facilities is believed to be one of the reasons for constrained school attendance, high dropout rates and ill-health due to infection.

With specific reference to ensuring better menstrual health and hygiene for adolescent girls, the government is launching this scheme as part of the Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health (ARSH) in the RCH II.

Self-help groups involved

The sanitary napkins will be manufactured and supplied by the Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL) and self-help groups. Tamil Nadu, Haryana and West Bengal will depend totally on self-help groups for the supply of the napkins.

Uniform price

The Mission Steering Group — the highest decision-making body of the NRHM — had approved the proposal for supplying the napkins at a highly subsidised cost of Re.1 a pack of five to the girls below poverty line while the rest would have to pay Rs.5 a pack. However, the price has been made uniform for all girls now.

For safe disposal of the napkins at the community level, deep-pit burial or burning are the options being considered. Due environmental clearance has to be obtained from the States for this. Installing incinerators in schools that can be manually operated is another option which is being explored.

2011-03-19T11:38:00.000+05:30

Announcement

Water for Life Best Practices Award 2011

Winners of first award edition will be announced and celebrated at World Water Day 2011

UNITED NATIONS, Zaragoza, Spain: As part of the World Water Day celebrations, two outstanding programmes will be receiving on 22nd of March 2011 the “Water for Life” Best Practices Award in two categories:

* Category 1 - Best water management practices

·Category 2 - Best Participatory, Communication, Awareness-raising and Education Practices

The winners will be awarded their prize during the “Water for Life” Best Practices Award Ceremony in Zaragoza, Spain, with live connection to the main United Nations World Water Day event in Cape Town, South Africa.

The annual prize aims to highlight those organisations or individuals displaying outstanding merit and achieving particularly effective results in the field of water management or in raising awareness in water issues.

The first Award edition 2011 focuses on urban water, reflecting the theme of the 2011 World Water Day. The “Water for Life” Best Practices Award is organized by the United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” 2005-2015, which implements the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), and the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).

2011-02-11T12:48:00.000+05:30

In 2010, The World’s Longest Toilet Queue mobilized over 100,000 campaigners in 80 countries to make a stand for sanitation and water for all people, everywhere. Thanks if you were part of this meaningful global event. This year we invite you not to stand… but to walk: From 19-22 March 2011, the World Walks for Water, will YOU too?

Millions of people are forced to walk 6 km every day just to collect water for their basic needs. Billions have no safe place to go to the toilet. The World Walks for Water, a campaign coordinated by the End Water Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, WASH United and WSSCC, aims to raise awareness of this crisis and demands governments to prioritize water and sanitation for all. The walks on World Water Day won't fundraise, but instead apply political pressure for change as organizers are encouraged to invite local or national politicians to their events, and to lobby them while they attend.

The campaign is gaining momentum, with walks registered in 25 countries already. Ways for YOU to support The World Walks for Water are numerous:

* Organize a walk in your country and register it here. Your walk should be 6 km in length (either 6 km in total or broken into smaller walks that together make 6 km).

* If you won’t organize your own walk, check out the online map to find a walk happening near you. Get in touch with the organizer to support it and work together.

* Join the online walk (takes only a minute!) and encourage your contacts to join it as well.

* Promote the campaign to your networks and encourage them to use it as a vehicle for national advocacy on sanitation, water and health.

To organize a walk in your country, kindly see Your Guide to The World Walks for Water attached to this email. The guide contains, amongst other useful information, walk tips and a checklist for your walk. For further information and a range of online materials (toolkits, press release templates, posters and policy info sheets by country), please visit www.worldwalksforwater.org.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Maja Frei, maja.frei@wsscc.org.

2011-02-10T19:16:00.001+05:30

Why public toilets get clogged

The best-designed plans for the building and maintenance of public toilets in India seem to come undone. But the argument that the pay-per-use model popularised by Sulabh is the only workable one is superficial and unrealistic in a country where millions are denied their right to basic services like clean water and sanitation, says Kalpana Sharma

On November 19, the front page of a leading Mumbai daily ran an advertisement that announced that it was World Toilet Day. The ad was blatantly selling a toilet-cleaning agent manufactured by a leading multinational company. Interesting, nonetheless, that an organisation calling itself the ‘World Toilet Organisation’ should have decided to choose November 19, the birthday of Indira Gandhi, as a day to remember toilets.

What we should be remembering on that day is the absence of toilets in large parts of India. Our record on sanitation is still well below par for a country that believes it has already arrived on the world stage as an economic power. While some strides have been made in rural sanitation through campaigns like the Nirmal Gram Abhiyan, the urban situation remains problematic.

With liberalisation has come the belief that many social services like providing sanitation and water can be delivered through public-private partnerships, and that the onus for these services need not be borne by the government alone. The private sector has discovered that there might even be profits in this sector. And NGOs working on sanitation have realised that they can intervene in the design and delivery of sanitation services.

For Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the inventor of the Sulabh Shauchalaya, profit was not the motive that led him to devise the simple “twin-pit pour-flush toilet” that brought about a minor revolution in the availability of toilet facilities in many parts of India. Dr Pathak began in Bihar in the early-1970s, and now heads an organisation that has spread to other countries. Indeed, ‘Sulabh’ has almost become a generic term for a particular kind of toilet.

While the Sulabh model has been greatly applauded and has generated substantial revenue for the organisation, not everyone is sold on the idea. Yet, even if there is disagreement on the details, the pay-per-use idea introduced by Dr Pathak has caught on.

Every city has tried variations on this theme. The main issue here is how a toilet block can pay for itself so that its operations and maintenance costs can be covered. On paper, this seems workable. Municipalities give the land for such public toilets, including where Sulabhs are built, free, and more often than not, even water and electricity are free or heavily subsidised. While the Sulabh model does not need to be linked to the sewerage network, as it uses septic tanks, similar toilet blocks in other cities, particularly larger ones, are connected to the main sewer lines.

So if Sulabh continues to make profits out of its toilets, how is it that other such efforts have not worked quite as well?

One reason Sulabh makes profits is because its toilet blocks are usually built in areas with a heavy footfall such as train stations or bus stations or important city junctions. The toilets are heavily used and generate considerable daily revenue. It is estimated that they can cover their construction costs in less than a year. This surplus can then cross-subsidise toilets built in slums where people cannot pay as much and the use is not so heavy.

There should have been similar success stories to report in cities where the private sector was initially invited to participate in providing public toilets. But the outcome has been mixed.

Take Bangalore for instance. The Karnataka government set up the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) in 2000 to help garner private involvement in transforming the city. Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys founder Narayan Murthy, offered Rs 8 crore from her personal funds to construct 100 public toilets in Bangalore. The toilets blocks were called Nirmala toilets and followed Sulabh’s pay-per-use model. The Corporation would provide the land free; electricity and water too would be free or subsidised. Private companies were contracted to build, run and operate the toilets and hand them over to the municipality after a fixed number of years.

The location of the toilets included public places, such as major out-station bus stops, and also slums where the charges would be Rs 20 per family per month rather than pay-per-use.

In the initial stages, 27 Nirmala toilets were built with this money at a cost of roughly Rs 10 lakh per toilet block. However, even as the toilets were being built, it was evident that operations and maintenance would be a challenge.

In the following four or five years, the Bangalore Corporation constructed another 50-60 Nirmala toilets. But according to someone involved with the initial concept, the real problem arose when the Corporation decided to drop the user charges and make the toilets free.

Within a short time, the inevitable happened. Operators running the toilets lost interest as profits fell. Little was invested in keeping the toilets clean and carrying out timely repairs. As a result, dozens of such toilet blocks are now reportedly virtually unusable.

The Corporation has tried to hand over operations and maintenance to private companies again. But in the interim there has been no real evaluation of why the effort failed and what can be learnt from it. There is no system in place, for instance, for third-party inspection of the toilet blocks. Without regular scrutiny, it is inevitable that standards will slip.

Some argue that if the Corporation had allowed private contractors to continue running the toilets by collecting user fees, the public would have been better served. The profits from such a venture are now well established, as is evident from the Sulabh experience. The revenue is virtually tax-free as it is a cash transaction. And ultimately, both the entrepreneur and user benefit. For women, in particular, who have minimal access to safe, clean toilet facilities in most cities, even paying is better than having no toilet at all.

There is, however, a class angle. Those with money have secure housing and therefore do not need to worry about public toilets. They can walk with confidence into hotels or shopping malls when they are out, and otherwise have toilets in their homes. For the poor living in informal housing without individual toilets, public toilets are a necessity. If, on top of that, they have to pay each time they use it, the burden becomes heavy.

Even if one concludes from the Bangalore experience, and similar ones in other cities, that it is best to keep public facilities on a pay-per-use basis, what do you do about slums where the only toilets available are communal ones usually built by the municipality? The ratio of people to toilets in many slums can be as high as 1:2,500 per toilet seat.

User charges in slum toilets -- Rs 20 per family per month -- are clearly not going to generate adequate revenue to cover operations and maintenance. Hence, here, either a cross-subsidy or a direct subsidy is unavoidable.

In cities like Mumbai and Pune, the municipality has roped in NGOs working with the urban poor to design, construct and maintain public toilets in slum areas. The funds for these projects are with the municipality, usually lying unused. The private part of the partnership is therefore not in funds, but in execution. Here again the story has been a mixed one.

In Pune, for instance, an enthusiastic municipal commissioner encouraged several NGOs, including Shelter Associates and SPARC (Society for Area Resource Centres) to bid for contracts to construct toilets. At first, the outcome was encouraging as these groups consulted communities where the toilets would be built, discussed the design and the location, and encouraged people from the community to be part of the construction process.

These consultations spawned several design innovations. For instance, children would continue to defecate in the open even where a toilet was available because the toilet pan was too wide for the child to straddle. As a result, mothers would let their children defecate just outside the toilet block making the approach to the toilet filthy. The groups decided to design a separate children’s toilet.

In some slums in Mumbai, where SPARC undertook the work, a community centre was built on top of the toilet block. And the caretaker and his family lived in a room above the block. This ensured that it was kept clean.

But even these enthusiastic interventions have not been trouble-free. Some of the problems had to do with the system that operates on the ground. For instance, even if a municipal corporation allows NGOs to bid for the construction of toilets, control of the money lies in the hands of petty bureaucrats. An honest and efficient man at the top does not eliminate the need to grease the palms of middlemen. So, getting funds in time to continue construction, and meeting deadlines, is the first big hurdle that many NGOs face.

The other issue is the NGOs’ approach to these contracts; they see them as not just a way of meeting a community need but also of building capacity within the community to carry out such tasks in the future. But in the process of encouraging community-based contractors, there is always the risk of inexperience leading to basic construction flaws that show up within a few years of construction.

Ultimately, it is the issue of operations and maintenance that seems to clog even the best-designed toilets. Community management of slum toilets has had its share of problems. In some cases where the group is cohesive and has been engaged in other issues such as savings, for instance, management is better. In others, where a group has been formed to manage the toilet, the results have not been entirely satisfactory. In several places, toilets have been taken over by the local thug or moneylender who charges whatever he pleases and virtually makes the toilet his adda.

The story of public and community toilets in India can be told in several theses and books. In each city, the experiences are specific to the politics and needs of that place. But there are also common experiences from which lessons can be drawn for the future.

It would be easy to conclude that just as there is no free lunch, there should be no free toilet facility. That is a superficial and unrealistic conclusion in the Indian context where millions are denied their right to basic services like clean water and sanitation. Ultimately, the only solution to the toilet crisis is the provision of secure housing in which sanitation is an integral part. But until that can be achieved (and currently it seems an almost insurmountable problem), facilities for the poor will have to be subsidised so that they may be spared the indignity that accompanies the lack of sanitation.

Infochange News & Features, November 2010

Poor sanitation cost India $54 bn

2011-02-02T22:05:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: Inadequate sanitation cost India almost $54 billion or 6.4% of the country’s GDP in 2006. Over 70% of this economic impact or about $38.5 billion was health-related with diarrhoea followed by acute lower respiratory infections accounting for 12% of the health-related impacts.

These estimates are from ‘‘ The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation in India’’, a new report released on Monday by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a global partnership administered by the World Bank .

Christopher Juan Costain, WSP regional leader for South Asia pointed out that the report helped to quantify the economic losses to India due to inadequate sanitation and also showed that children and poor households bore the brunt of poor sanitation.

More than three-fourth of the premature mortality-related economic losses are due to deaths and diseases in children younger than five. Diarrhoea among these children accounts for over 47% of the total health-related impact, that is nearly $18 billion dollars.

The report estimates that in rural areas, where 50% of households are said to have access to improved sanitation, there are almost 575 million people defecating in the open. Similarly, in urban areas where 60-70 % of the households are said to have access to sanitation, 54 million people defecate in the open and over 60% of the waste water is discharged untreated.

This has led to huge public health costs, besides causing 450,000 deaths. It has led to an estimated 575 million cases of diarrhoea, and 350,000 deaths from diarrhoea alone, in the under-five age group.
It is the poorest who bear the greatest cost due to inadequate sanitation.

The poorest fifth of the urban population bears the highest per capita economic impact of Rs 1,699, much more than the national average per capita loss due to inadequate sanitation, which is Rs 961. Among rural households too, the poorest fifth bears the highest per capita loss in the rural area at over Rs 1,000.

‘‘ And these are hugely underestimated estimates because we have excluded mortality impacts,’’ Costain says. The report admitted that many economic impacts like other diseases influenced by hygiene and sanitation and the impacts on pregnant women, low birthweight and long-term health had not been covered.

Health impacts, accounting for the bulk of the economic impacts, are followed by the economic losses due to the time spent in obtaining piped water and sanitation facilities , about $15 billion, and about $0.26 billion of potential tourism revenue lost due to India’s reputation for poor sanitation, the report says.

2010-12-29T17:11:00.000+05:30

S R Sankaran: Champion of the safai karmacharis

By Mari Marcel Thekaekara

S R Sankaran, who died recently, transformed the lives of countless people. As a civil servant he worked for the poor, bonded labourers and dalits, and as mentor to the Safai Karmachari Andolan he saw the number of women manually cleaning excreta decline from 13 lakh to 3 lakh.

This is a column with a difference. It focuses on how one incredible man, S R Sankaran, an IAS officer, transformed the lives of countless others. Not by being heroic, but by simply doing his job. In effect it’s what all IAS officers are mandated to do, rather ought to do! Merely by doing what a civil servant is paid to do, and doing it well, Sankaran has moved mountains.

Eulogies have been written about ’Sankarangaru’, as he is respectfully called. Really moving ones too. I cannot claim to have known him for decades, as have others, but his passing left me with a sense of great loss, as though a much-loved family member or friend had died. I heard about his passing in a brutally casual manner.

Sankarangaru’s brother had died and I thought I should call him to condole his loss. I asked Bejawada Wilson, leader of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, almost a son to Sankaran, for a contact number. Wilson’s face was ravaged; I wondered if he was ill or merely exhausted. He said: ”He’s gone, Mari. Our Sankarangaru has left us.”

I shook my head in disbelief, the words refusing to sink in. ”What are you saying? I heard his brother had died. I wanted to phone him,” I said. ”He had a massive heart attack. We couldn’t save him,” Wilson replied.

Thousands of people like me went into shock as news of their beloved Sankarangaru’s passing spread through the country. They came flocking to his home in Andhra Pradesh on October 7, 2010, to follow this much-loved man till the very end. It was a bitter blow to everyone. Why should such a good person be taken from us before his time? Why did all of us feel such a sense of loss? It was because Sankarangaru was one of those human beings who brought hope to us. Who restored our faith in humanity when events around conspired to shatter it. This was a man who was diminutive, simple, quiet and soft-spoken. There are people around us who are colourful and charismatic, larger than life. He was neither. He would never stand out in a crowd. You would barely notice him, and he wanted it that way. He dismissed the trappings of power, the retinue of servants, the pomp and paraphernalia of the office of the IAS, and camped in dalit bastis, adivasi hamlets. He ate the barest minimum, simple vegetarian fare, and lived frugally, in sparsely furnished quarters, donating most of his income to educating dalits, adivasis and other poor students.

But this was not Sankarangaru’s claim to fame.

As his reputation spread, he became iconic because of his commitment to fighting injustice and poverty. He dedicated his IAS career to making the government work for the poor. He focused his formidable intellect on exposing injustice at every level and in ensuring all government programmes meant for the poor reached them. He worked ceaselessly to this end, and he created waves because he upset the status quo. Oppressors in villages, the owners of bonded labourers, exploitative landlords and the like, generally have relatives in high places, in the corridors of power, both in the IAS and police and other government circles. So justice rarely prevails.

Sankarangaru was not fazed. He fought fearlessly to improve the status of dalits in Andhra Pradesh. In 1976, at the Andhra Pradesh State Harijan Conference, he managed, with sensitive, like-minded IAS officers and ministers, to convert recommendations into government orders. Protection of dalits and adivasis under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, improvement and expansion of reservations, assignment and distribution of land to the landless, under the Land Reforms Act, integrated development under varous government schemes, removal of indebtedness, releasing bonded labourers, women’s issues, housing, conversion to other religions -- the list goes on. Sankarangaru turned these into practical, do-able government programmes and actions.

Some change was possible. Sankaran became secretary, social welfare, and soon mere words were translated into action plans.

His determination to rid the state of bonded labour when Indira Gandhi’s 20-point programme came into force with the Abolition of Bonded Labour Act 1976, earned him many enemies. Politicians who had bonded labour in their employ, and their powerful feudal landlord votebanks, opposed the abolition vociferously.

In his second tenure as principal secretary, Sankaran took up the issue of bonded labour again. He went from district to district holding meetings in villages, sitting on the ground with dalits and telling them that they had the right to be free, urging them to break out of bondage, and promising them government support. This enraged Andhra Pradesh’s feudal landlords who complained to the chief minister. At a cabinet meeting, Sankaran was publicly rebuked by the chief minister who asked him if it was true that he was going to the villages urging bonded labourers to revolt. The soft-spoken Sankaran replied that it was indeed true and that he believed that it was his duty and the duty of the government to do so. The outraged chief minister shouted that there was no place for subversives in his government. In an even softer voice, Sankaran declared: ”I believe this is true. I have no desire to work in such a government.” He left the room with an air of quiet dignity and self-confidence, while the entire cabinet gawked. Sankaran proceeded on long leave.

The story became the stuff of legend. The Marxist chief minister of Tripura, Nripen Chakravarthy, himself the epitome of integrity, invited Sankaran to work with him as chief secretary of Tripura. For six years, these two fearless, incredible men worked together. Few places on earth have had the privilege of such a team. No government in India ever benefitted from such an administration. Both men were scrupulously honest, decent and fearlessly dedicated to fighting injustice. Both were deeply committed, frugal men, bachelors, abhorred consumerism, detached from normal worldly interests, concerned only with improving the life of the poor in their care. It was an ideal partnership.

Sankaran’s abiding sorrow was that his 2004 negotiations for the end of violence in Naxal areas did not bear fruit. His stature and integrity were such that he was in the unique position where both government and the Naxals trusted him. He condemned the violence of the state as well as that of the Naxals, equally. But he saw that the Naxal violence, though counter-productive and untenable, was a result of tremendous injustice and exploitation in rural areas. The breakdown of talks left him heartbroken, but he continued to help people who were under threat of extermination because of false accusations against them.

Sankaran spent the last decade of his life working for one of the most exploited groups in the country, the safai karmacharis, people at the absolute bottom of the caste ladder, despised even by other dalits. The women are forced, even after 63 years of independence, to clean human shit with their bare hands, a broom and a piece of tin. And often, to carry baskets or containers of waste on their heads or hips. The men plunge into blocked sewers to unblock them. One person dies doing this work every day, in India.

Sankaran was guide and mentor to the Safai Karmachari Andolan. In his decade of involvement with the SKA, he had the satisfaction of seeing the numbers of women cleaning excreta decline from 13 lakhs to 3 lakhs, thanks to the SKA. This group of mainly young people from the balmiki community went from village to village, basti to basti, exhorting people to throw down their brooms, for the sake of the dignity of future generations, their children and grandchildren. The SKA is completing a task that Gandhiji began but did not finish.

Sankaran brought his knowledge and expertise to the campaign. Years of getting government to work paid off, as he drafted countless petitions and memoranda, wrote to IAS officers, and penetrated the inner workings of government for his beloved balmikis. He inspired and gave courage and direction to the movement. It was a bitter pill for everyone involved that he died months before the campaign came to a close.

His passing has left an enormous void in many hearts. What can one say of such a man. Shakespeare comes to mind. But while the world might say, ”This was a man”, to the thousands who wept at his funeral, words were not necessary.

Sankaran had no biological children. But the inheritance of integrity, compassion, commitment and passion for dignity and justice for the most downtrodden in this country will live on in the hearts of all those who knew him and recognised what he stood for. We hope his actions will inspire generations of IAS officers to go out and do likewise. That would be the most fitting tribute to this incredible man.

Infochange News & Features, December 2010

2010-12-23T16:34:00.001+05:30

WaterAid in West Africa and WSSCC have formed a partnership to support a regional network of journalists across West Africa with a view to increasing citizens' voice in WASH and ensuring region-wide impact on influencing. The regional network brings together members of existing national networks from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Togo and Senegal as well as journalists from Niger and Liberia, who are in the process of forming networks in their own countries.

There is a common recognition that campaigning and raising awareness are vital to increasing access to water and sanitation across West Africa. The media is a key platform for bringing these issues to the attention of decision makers, and informing people in order to raise their voices. The news agenda across the region is typically focused on politics and there has been limited coverage of water and sanitation issues. The knock-on effect of this is a lack of attention at a political level, low demand from citizens and a lack of knowledge among media organizations and journalists.

The partnership will support the journalists with access to sector information, analysis, case studies and building network capacity. It will grant seed funding for the initial three years, with a view to the network becoming financially independent and sourcing funding from outside the partnership. The network is expected to become an open and collaborative regional resource for gathering and sharing information on WASH.

In a three-day meeting earlier this month in Bamako, Mali, the journalists from the nine countries and representatives from WaterAid, WSSCC, WASH United and Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting discussed the experiences of the journalists so far and their vision for the regional network. It was agreed that the regional network will act as a platform to share knowledge and experience between journalists, work together at key moments for maximum campaigning impact, amplify the voices of the poor, support national networks and project WASH issues at the regional, continental and international level. The network's official vision is to become `The media network for informed actions on WASH in West Africa'. The network's committee members are from Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Senegal, and they will spearhead the plans to focus on AfricaSan in July 2011 in Rwanda.

For more information please contact:
Tatiana Fedotova – WSSCC tatiana.fedotova@wsscc.org
Apollos Nwafor – WaterAid West Africa apollosnwafor@wateraid.org

Better sanitation could save 2 million lives a year

2010-11-19T19:30:00.000+05:30

Better sanitation could save 2 million lives a year

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:03pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly 20 percent of the world's population still defecates in the open, and action to improve hygiene, sanitation and water supply could prevent more than 2 million child deaths a year, health experts said Monday.

In a series of studies on sanitation published as a cholera epidemic claims hundreds of live in Haiti, public health researchers from the United States and Europe found that this year 2.6 billion people across the world do not have access to even a basic toilet.

Unsafe sanitation and drinking water, together with poor hygiene, account for at least 7 percent of disease across the world, they said, as well as nearly 20 percent of all child deaths in the world.

Despite this, progress in improving safe water supplies and sanitation has been "painfully slow" in many developing countries, they said. They urged international donors, United Nations agencies, developing country governments and health workers to act now to reduce this "devastating disease burden."

Poor sewerage and sanitation can spread dangerous infections like viral hepatitis and cholera, an acute disease transmitted in contaminated water that causes watery diarrhea and severe dehydration and can kill within hours if not treated.

More than 900 people have died of cholera in Haiti -- which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in January -- in an outbreak which experts believe was worsened by flooding caused by Hurricane Tomas this month.

The United Nations forecasts up to 200,000 Haitians could contract the infection as the outbreak extends across the country and says $163.9 million in aid is needed over the next year to fight it.

In the studies, published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal, researchers said that of the 2.6 billion people who have no access to decent sanitation, two-thirds live in Asia and sub-Sahara Africa.

It also found huge regional disparities in sanitation coverage. While 99 percent of people in industrialized countries have access to good sanitation, in developing countries only 53 percent have it. Within developing countries, urban sanitation coverage is 71 percent while in rural areas it is 39 percent.

"Globally, around 2.4 million deaths could be prevented annually if everyone practiced appropriate hygiene and had good, reliable sanitation and drinking water," said Sandy Cairncross of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who led one of the studies. "These deaths are mostly of children in developing countries from diarrhoea and subsequent malnutrition, and from other diseases attributable to malnutrition."

A World Health Organization (WHO) report published in May found the world was on track to achieve a globally agreed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on access to safe drinking water, but more needed to be done to improve levels of sanitation.

The MDG targets call for the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015 from levels in 2000.

Paul Hunter of Britain's University of East Anglia, who led one of the PLoS studies said more research was needed to see which intervention measures could improve sanitation and health.

"But ... action must not wait for the outcomes of such research," he wrote. "We know enough now about the importance of improved water supply, sanitation, and hygiene ... to consider universal access to these services to be an urgent imperative."

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

2010-10-18T11:38:00.002+05:30

Have you washed up?

Schools should insist that children wash hands to prevent infections

Marianne de Nazareth

Hand washing helps to contain the spread of infection. Washing of hands is a ritual most of us should be particular about in India before eating a meal. That's because we eat with our fingers. We tend to be careless when in a hurry and what's worse is we use unclean hands to feed others, especially children.

October 15 has been dedicated to Hand-washing Day across the world. Global Hand-washing Day aims at motivating children to imitate and spread proper hand-washing practices, and turn them into little “hand-washing ambassadors”. It follows that if the child is taught correctly, they will in turn teach the next generation. Studies also suggest that hand-washing promotion in schools can play a role in reducing absenteeism among primary school children.

Reduce diarrhoea

There is a simple explanation for that — hand-washing with soap has been cited as one of the most cost-effective interventions to prevent diarrhoeal related deaths and disease. A review of several studies by the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), shows that hand-washing in institutions such as primary schools and daycare centres reduce the incidence of diarrhoea by an average of 30 per cent. Rates of hand-washing around the world are low. Observed rates of hand-washing with soap at critical moments – before handling food and after using the toilet - range from zero per cent to 34 per cent. “More than 1.5 million children under five die each year as a result of diarrhoea — it is the second most common cause of child deaths worldwide. Hand-washing with soap can save lives by reducing diarrhoea rates by more than 40 per cent,” explains David Trouba, the Programme Officer, WSSCC.

“Hand washing is quintessential in preventing transmission of infections. In the hospital, washing hands as doctors and nurses move from one patient to the next has reduced the spread of contagious diseases. It has also brought down the numbers of infections contracted by healthcare personnel. It is therefore an important means of bringing down respiratory and skin infections. We should remember to wash hands before each meal and also after we touch any object or person capable of transmitting infection. The method of hand washing whereby each finger and inter-digital space is washed thoroughly has to be mastered by all”, adds Jyothi a doctor from St John's Medical College and Hospital.

“On Hand-washing Day we appealed for a change in routine at two critical times in a day – hand washing with soap before eating and after defecation. The practice of hand washing is a behavioural change issue and hence ‘Hand washing Day' tries to bring this into focus every year world-wide,” says Deepinder Kapur of WSSCC.

Our schools should insist on spreading the concept of regular hand washing among their children. By teaching children to be clean, we can help save many young lives and prevent expensive unnecessary hospital treatment.
ends

2010-10-15T14:21:00.002+05:30

Sensex aur shauchalaya

By Patralekha Chatterjee

We can thank Commonwealth Games organising committee general-secretary Lalit Bhanot for placing toilets firmly in the collective consciousness of this nation. “Their (Western) standard of hygiene and cleanliness could be different from ours so there is nothing to be ashamed about it”, Mr Bhanot wondered aloud at a press conference. Ever since those famous words, there is no escape from the toilet story in the Commonwealth Games Village.

The photos of paan-stained washbasins and bathroom floors, combined with dog poo-smeared bedsheets, have gone viral on the Internet as “toiletgate” takes over the conversations of an anguished middle class in the country.

The Sensex may have hit the magical 20,000 mark but disconcertingly, for many of us, the world at large is suddenly more concerned that more people in India have access to mobile phones than to basic sanitation.

Is the toilet a template for the state of a nation or civilisation?
“The toilet is part of the history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the growth of civilisation”, says Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, sociologist, toilet czar and the man who started the low-cost Indian toilet system, the globally-acclaimed Sulabh Shauchalaya model.

Contemporary literature also offers useful takeaways. In a cheeky aside, Isadora Wing, the brilliant, hilarious and outrageous heroine of American writer Erica Jong’s 1973 bestseller Fear of Flying, teases us with the history of the world through its toilets — the British toilet as the last refuge of colonialism where “for one brief moment (as you flush), Britannia rules the waves again”. German toilets observe class distinctions — rough brown paper for a third class railway carriage and white paper called Spezial Krepp in the first class, Jong’s young heroine observes. Isadora links Italian art to the swift way Italian toilets run, is foxed by French philosophy and the Gallic approach to merde (excreta) and is awe-struck by the aesthetics of the Japanese toilet — toilet basin recessed in the floor, flower arrangement behind, inspiring thoughts of Zen.

And Indian toilets? Well, well… One must remember this was the good-old or bad-old Seventies, depending on your politics. India was not an emerging power and Jong’s adventurous but Euro-centric heroine did not have the Indian toilet experience.
What would Jong say if she took a toilet tour of India today after listening to Mr Bhanot’s wise words?

The recent flood of toilet jokes makes us squirm since we are the targets but blunderbuss Mr Bhanot has also touched a raw nerve.

The riveting rise of the Sensex and the “cash and clout” image of India in the world is our outerwear where we sport a designer brand. The sanitation story is more like dirty inner wear which we don’t like to either talk about or change.

Middle-class Indians typically would not have paan-stained washbasins at home. And there is a fortune to be made out of tapping the bathroom vanity of young, rising India. But how many times have you seen the driver and the passenger in the Honda City ahead of you open the car door and spit out the remnants of a paan or chewing tobacco on the road? In my neighbourhood market — in a posh south Delhi enclave — there are spas, but few spittoons; garbage lies in front of stores peddling grand designs in urban living. What irks middle-class India is not that filth and squalor exist but that they are being showcased by a prying media, denting India’s image as an emerging power.

India’s Millenium Development Goals Report (2009) notes that the proportion of Indian households having no sanitation facility has declined from about 70 per cent in 1992-93 (24 per cent urban and 87 per cent rural) to about 51 per cent in 2007-08 (19 per cent urban and 66 per cent rural). But despite recent progress, access to improved sanitation remains far lower in India compared to many other countries with similar or even lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Bangladesh, Mauritania, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam — all with a lower GDP per capita than India — are just a few of the countries that have achieved higher access to improved sanitation, says the Asian Development Bank.

India is among a handful of countries where open defecation persists. Through its Total Sanitation Campaign, the government has sanctioned projects for construction of what babudom calls individual household sanitary latrines in all of India’s rural districts. But a lot more action and oversight is needed on the ground to meet the national goal of eradicating open defecation by 2012.

Non-governmental organisations’ surveys suggest that many among those who have access to individual, community or shared toilets do not use the structure as a toilet. The reasons for non-use of toilets — poor/unfinished installations, no super structure and lack of behavioural change.

As in everything else in India, how and where you excrete is a matter of who you are and your position in the socio-economic pecking order. It comes as no surprise to learn that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have lower access to toilets than upper castes.

Sociologists argue that this grim picture is not just about poverty. It has to do with the deeply-ingrained caste structure in India and notions of purity and pollution embedded in our psyche. First, children of so-called upper castes grow up hearing that cleaning garbage is the job of someone else, and that someone else is still often referred to by names that would put you in jail if uttered in public. Second, in an overcrowded country like India, far too many people also believe keeping your home clean is all you can do. What happens beyond is none of your concern — it is someone else’s job to keep the public places clean, someone who is still considered an untouchable deep down despite laws prohibiting untouchability.

Money alone will not change such a mindset. Without the collective will for change, Sensex will soar even as we trail behind poorer countries in basic sanitation. The India that shocks and agitates, however, also offers inspiration. Many tribal communities can teach us a thing or two about cleanliness. Mr Pathak built the first Sulabh public toilet in Bihar, his home state, in 1974. Now, almost 8,000 such toilets have been built and are maintained across the country. Sulabh toilet complexes also exist in Bhutan and Afghanisthan, and over the next five years Mr Pathak plans to implement the model in 50 other countries.

Patralekha Chatterjee writes on development issues in India and emerging economies and can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com

2010-10-01T15:41:00.003+05:30

*** Media Advisory ***

Global Handwashing Day

Lathering up: October 15 – More than just a Day

WHAT: Over 80 countries and at least 200 million children, parents, teachers, celebrities and citizens are soaping up for the third annual Global Handwashing Day. Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective and affordable health interventions known to man. Visit http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/

On October 15, 2009, 15,115 people washed hands at an event at Nehru Stadium, Chennai, India, and achieved the Guinness World Record for `most people washing hands at one location'. On the same day, 52,970 people washed hands in different places in Bangladesh, attaining the Guinness World Record for `most people washing hands at multiple locations'.

WHEN: October 15, 2010

WHO: Global Handwashing Day is endorsed by a wide array of governments, UN agencies, international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, private companies and individuals worldwide and is an initiative of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap.

WHERE: In over 80 countries on five continents, Global Handwashing Day events will take place in tens of thousands of schools, community centers, and public spaces. Some programs planned include:

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are seeking to set a Guinness World Record for handwashing;

*
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will launch her nation's hygiene promotion campaign with a hand-washing event.
*
Madagascar is supporting youth radio reporters to incite people to wash their hands on the air.
*
Yemen is planning a mass media campaign involving television, radio and the press to reach children and their families.

WHY: Each year, diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections are responsible for the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under the age of five. Washing hands with soap and water especially at the critical times – after using the toilet and before handling food – helps reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by more than 40 percent, yet the behaviour is seldom practiced and difficult to promote. Global Handwashing Day aims to transform handwashing from an abstract idea to an automatic behavior.

Attention broadcasters: For handwashing b-roll and PSAs, visit: http://weshare.unicef.org/pickup?key=S8cf8f010-4b81-42f5-8339-5aa78cfc0cd9

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/globalhandwashingday

For further information, please contact:

Emily Meehan, UNICEF New York, Tel: 1212 326 7224 emeehan@unicef.org
Katie Carroll, Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing Tel: 202-884-8551 kcarroll@aed.org
Dave Trouba, Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) Geneva Tel: +41 22 560 81 78 Email: david.trouba@wsscc.org

2010-09-29T19:30:00.000+05:30

Poor sanitation breeds disease and exploitation in Kenya's slums

The chronic lack of clean water and proper sanitation leads to social as well as health problems, adding to residents' misery

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* By IRIN, part of the Guardian Development Network
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 September 2010 17.05 BST
* Article history

kenya slums Kenya's slums are a breeding ground for disease and exploitation Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

Poor sanitation, lack of water and related disease outbreaks are making the lives of the residents of the sprawling Korogocho slums in Nairobi even harder.

"The lack of water and improper waste disposal are a big threat to our lives due to the risk of water-borne diseases," Nancy Wangari, a community health worker and village elder in Korogocho, told IRIN. "The threat of typhoid, cholera and other diseases from poor sanitation is real."

Although some pay-toilets have been set up, the cost remains prohibitive, forcing residents to dispose of excreta in plastic bags (so-called flying toilets), which litter the area. In the past few days, a broken sewer line running from the neighbouring Kariobangi estate has been emptying its effluence into the slum, choking the already narrow pathways between rows of houses.

The scene in Korogocho is replicated elsewhere in Kenya, where rapid urbanisation has meant more informal structures with little or no water and sanitation services are springing up. According to the 2009 census, an estimated one in five Kenyans uses the bush as a toilet – access to piped water covers only 38.4% of the urban population and 13.4% of rural residents.

While the "water and sanitation challenges themselves are formidable… their impact on other social, political, and epidemiological systems is equally significant", notes a recent Humanitarian Futures Group (HFG) report, Urban Catastrophes: The Wat/San Dimension, which examines how water and sanitation stress drives other humanitarian crises in slums.

"As with any valuable good, the provision of clean water and sanitation facilities in slums is an attractive target for corruption, greed, collusion and exploitation," it states. "Solutions must therefore focus on understanding local social networks."

Korogocho resident Maurice Omondi said water vendors make a killing out of residents' misery. "I pay two shillings (about 15p) per 20-litre jerry can but with the rampant water shortages, it may cost between five and 10 shillings for the same in the neighbouring estates," Omondi told IRIN.

Countless communities are exposed to their own and others' faeces. Water vendor Peter Macharia* told IRIN he had diverted the main water line running through the slum to his homestead.

"My business is now threatened as the National Water and Sewerage Company is demanding we install meters on all supplies to our homes," Macharia said as he collected money from queuing women and children. The lack of land tenure may, however, make it difficult to ensure consistent water payments.

According to the HFG report, many urban environments have enough water in absolute terms to provide for residents' needs. The challenge is how to equitably manage and distribute it.

In Kenya, slum infrastructure has remained inadequate as it is not government policy to support development in what are considered illegal informal settlements. Residents tamper with electricity and water connections, often resulting in clashes as security personnel are deployed to stop the connections.

According to experts, slum conditions may make the settlements a breeding ground for tomorrow's pathogens. Health problems such as malnutrition, diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid fever are already common, especially when water is mixed with industrial and sewage effluent.

"General cleanliness in the slums is not good at all. Even as we try our best to keep our individual compounds clean, some people litter our compounds with flying toilets," Korogocho resident Miriam Wangari said.

Progress towards halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015 has been slow, say experts.

"At present, there are 2.6 billion people living without safe sanitation, which means countless communities where people are exposed to their own and others' faeces. Excreta is then transmitted between people by flies or fingers and also finds its way into water sources, resulting in a public health crisis," says a Water Aid report entitled Ignored, The Biggest Child Killer. In Africa, diarrhoea kills almost one in five children before their fifth birthday, it says.

Low-tech waste removal systems such as mobile toilets, bucket removal and dry composting toilets are among measures recommended in slums. In Korogocho, private individuals use handcarts with large drums to manually empty sludge from pit latrines at a fee. This is often done at night and the contents sometimes end up in the Nairobi River.

With Kenya's population projected to grow by up to 1 million people a year, existing water and sanitation facilities will be stretched further.

"The lack of resources and consequent inability to address the increasing demands on water and sanitation systems throughout the urban and peri-urban areas will not only threaten the viability of cities and towns as a whole, but could transform even relatively viable urban areas into slums," warned the HFG report.

* Not his real name

2010-09-10T07:23:00.002+05:30

Results of the WASH Media Awards 2010

WASH Media Awards 2010

Please see video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjc-a3-aO2M

ends

2010-09-08T09:15:00.001+05:30

H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented a prestigious prize to a project on biodegradation of Polystyrene

Canadian Teenagers Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong Wins 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize

Stockholm (2010-09-07) – The 14th annual international competition for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize concluded this evening. The winners, Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong from Canada were handed the prize by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony at the World Water Week in Stockholm. Their research on biodegradation of the plastic Polystyrene won them the prize.

Photos, video and press kit available at: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/media

“Every year more and more chemical debris is introduced in the environment and water bodies around the world. Research has shown these chemicals can release toxics into the water, they can be harmful for the environment, and deadly to life in water. Much of the debris in the world’s waterways are plastics which is used for fast food containers, disposable cups, and packing material for example. To date, there is no natural solution to safely take care of these harmful plastics. The winning project created a novel approach to break-down these plastics using micro-organisms and enzymes that are cost effective, and readily available. This method could greatly reduce the amount of plastics that end up in the world’s waters,” said the International Jury in its citation.

“Expanded Polystyrine (EPS) is a great threat to the environment since it contributes to the spread of toxins such as styrene and bisphenol A into our waters. We hope that our method will be widely used and consequently increase the water quality in the world,” said the winners after receiving the prize.

The international Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition brings together the world’s brightest young scientists to encourage their continued interest in water and the environment. Each year, thousands of participants in over 30 countries join national competitions for the chance to represent their nation at the international final held during the World Water Week in Stockholm, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The international winner receives a USD 5,000 award and a prize sculpture. As a result of the competitions, thousands of young people around the world become interested in water.

“We believe the Stockholm Junior Water Prize has the power to transform our industry by engaging students—the next generation of water leaders —to address critical water issues,” said Gretchen McClain, president of ITT’s Fluid and Motion Control group. “As water pollution and scarcity continue to threaten areas around the globe, the innovative research that this competition generates year after year gives us confidence that we can rise above future global water challenges.”

Excellence Diploma to China
A Diploma of Excellence was given to Ms. Yingxin Li, Mr. Zhaonan Yang and Ms. Wanling Chen from China for their project “Novel Soil Remedation Technology for South China”
The international Jury said “their project neatly addresses the theme of this year’s World Water Week: The water quality challenge. The team of extremely enthusiastic and dedicated students worked both in the field and in the laboratory for a long time. Their effort resulted in an exceptional report dealing with several crucial water quality-related problems including fertiliser loss, recycling of waste, and the improvement of soil fertility. The technique developed by the students holds great promise to help solve some of today’s most pressing problems within the agricultural sector.”

PRESS INFORMATION
For more information and interview requests, contact:
Ms. Britt-Louise Andersson, SIWI, +46 8 522 139 72, britt-louise.andersson@siwi.org
Ms. Anna Norén, SIWI, +46 76 129 26 90, anna.noren@siwi.org

About the Stockholm Junior Water Prize
The competition is open to young people between 15-20 years of age, who have conducted water-related projects focusing on local, regional, national or global topics of environmental, scientific, social or technological importance. As a result of the competitions, thousands of young people around the world develop personal interests, undertake academic study, and often pursue careers in the water or environmental fields. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is the Patron of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. The winner receives an award of USD 5,000 and a handmade blue crystal sculpture. The Stockholm International Water Institute administers the competition, which is sponsored globally by ITT Corporation. The official suppliers for the competition are Infobahn, Halebop, Hertz, People Travel Group and Trosa Tryckeri. http://www.siwi.org/stockholmjuniorwaterprize

About the World Water Week in Stockholm
The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together 2500 experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions. www.worldwaterweek.org

About Stockholm International Water Institute
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is a policy institute that contributes to international efforts to combat the world's escalating water crisis. SIWI develops and promotes future-oriented and knowledge–integrated policies, towards sustainable use of the world’s water resources leading to sustainable development and poverty eradication. www.siwi.org

2010-09-08T07:35:00.003+05:30

World Water Week opens in Stockholm

By Mohammad Ghazal

STOCKHOLM - Water experts from across the globe convened in Stockholm Monday at the opening session of the World Water Week 2010 with calls for addressing “pressing” global water issues and ensuring clean water access and safe sanitation to people.

Over 2,500 leading experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from over 130 countries along with 200 organisations are participating in the event taking place at the Stockholm International Fairs premises.

During the event, held under the theme: “Responding to Global Changes: The Water Quality Challenge”, participants will look into a number of issues, including food security, climate change, the right to water access and sanitation, urbanisation, water governance, and the strategic water concerns of businesses.

Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute which organises the meeting annually, said in his opening address that water quality will be the main topic to be discussed in addition to other related issues.

Stressing the high importance of preserving the adequate quality of water and ensuring adequate sanitation and personal hygiene, Berntell said: “Bad water kills more people than malaria, AIDS and wars combined.”

“In 2009, over 50 countries still reported cholera to the World Health Organisation (WHO), something we will hear more about later. Two-hundred million people are infected with schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia. Every year 1.8 million people die from diarrhoeal disease attributable to unsafe water or poor sanitation and hygiene, mostly children under five,” he added.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, freshwater ecosystems have degraded more than any other ecosystem, including tropical rainforests. Several studies indicate that more than 40 per cent of fish species and amphibians are threatened with extinction, he said.

“Polluted freshwater ends up in the oceans, causing serious damage to many coastal areas and fisheries, thereby constituting a major challenge to ocean and coastal resource management,” he said.

In her speech at the opening session, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson said: “A great deal has happened since World Water Week was launched 20 years ago.”

“Today, almost two billion more people have access to safe drinking water compared with 20 years ago, and around 1.5 billion more people have access to sanitation. The provision of safe water has actually outperformed global population growth and given more than eight million people, roughly the population of Sweden, access to safe water every month - for 20 years!” she said.

In seminars held during the day, experts underlined the importance of addressing global water challenges, including water scarcity, pollution and equity, with calls for focusing on providing people with access to sanitation and clean water, a matter they said reflects positively on the overall development of each country.

“Lack of sanitation has a cost on the country’s gross domestic product as due to lack of sanitation in a certain country, this country will lose in being able to attract tourists and in spending more on health. Not having sanitation has also an impact on the environment and there is a cost for that,” Jaehyang So, manager of the Water and Sanitation Programme, which is a multi-donor partnership administered by the World Bank to support poor people in obtaining affordable, safe and sustainable access to wate? and sanitation, said in one of the seminars.

According to Berntell, a supporting statement will be completed by the end of the week to be later presented to the high-level plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in the United Nations that will take place in New York on September 20-22.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of both the World Water Week and the Stockholm Water Prize.

A majority of the previous Stockholm Water Prize laureates are present in Stockholm in observance of the jubilee to share their solutions to future water challenges at a special laureates’ seminar later during the week in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

This year’s World Water Week in Stockholm, which is the first European Green Capital, will run through September 11.

2010-09-03T14:48:00.001+05:30

The Four R’s of Education

As hundreds of millions of children across the world head back to school this fall, and you prepare your back-to-school stories, something critical will be missing for more than half of those children. It’s not teachers or text books or even desks. It’s toilets.

Which means each year, 272 million school days are lost to absenteeism caused by diarrhea; in some areas, over 40% of diarrhea cases result from transmission in schools, rather than homes. Over half the world’s schools lack toilets and a place for children to wash their hands; 50% lack safe drinking water. It doesn’t matter how good the education is -- if children are forced to miss school.

That’s why this October, a coalition of nearly 30 organizations, including UNICEF, will organize a series of events in Washington DC to demand that the US Government, the World Bank, and others involved in the education of children across the globe, no longer forget the crucial 4th R: the Restroom. No future school should ever be built without safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, nor should any student be resigned to the disease and indignity of a school without a restroom. That 4th R makes a monumental difference to education:

· In one school in Ghana , Mohammed Yahaya, a teacher, proclaimed, “I’ve been teaching here for eight years. Before the borehole well we had 46 students now we have close to 400 students!”

· In Bangladesh and Tanzania , studies show school attendance increases 15 % and 12% respectively, when water is available within a 15-minute walk compared to one hour or more.

· In Alwar District , India , the school sanitation program increased girls’ enrollment by one third, leading to a 25 % improvement in academic performance for both boys and girls.

The impact is lifelong and also affects the next generation. Women who have been to school are less likely to die during childbirth and each additional year of education is estimated to prevent two maternal deaths for every 1,000 women.

We invite you to begin your back-to-school reporting in advance of the October events. We can help you identify programs that are tackling this issue and improving lives. We can direct you to WASH and education experts to interview about this issue. We can connect you to US organizations, teachers and students that are directly involved with solving this problem through service learning programs ( US schools matched to developing country schools). The coalition has a global network of on-the-ground partners that will help you meet the students, teachers and parents affected by this issue so you can hear their stories directly.
ends

2010-09-02T22:06:00.001+05:30

For the Magical Wash Tour at the World Water Week at Stockholm in September, please check this link:

Magical Wash Tour

2010-09-02T07:32:00.003+05:30

Dig Toilets, Not Graves

4,000 children die, every day

That’s three children every minute of every day. They die because they don’t have proper toilets, so many have to defecate wherever they can. Faeces contaminates everything they touch, eat and drink, causing deadly diarrhoeal diseases.
The solution is so simple

We can stop the suffering by digging safe pit toilets. The technology needed is as simple as a spade. The training and equipment are no more complicated. And pit toilets last for years, saving lives day after day. So your gift will keep on working.

To sign the petition, please log on to
Sign our petition now and help us change lives

ends

2010-08-31T09:06:00.001+05:30

Manipur state recorded poorest performer of total sanitation campaign

Imphal, August 30 2010: The Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) Manipur, which has been singled out as the poorest performer among the states of the country in implementing "Total Sanitation Campaign", one of the flagship programmes of the Centre, is being run single handedly by a director.

The CCD Unit set up five years back in 2005 with the sole purpose of implementing the "Total Sanitation Programme", a flagship programme of the Union government.

Manipur was singled out as the poorest performer of the total Sanitation Campaign among the other states of the country with only 9000 individual household latrines (IHHL) completed out of six lakh targeted under the scheme till the end of fiscal year 2009-10, an official source said.

Observing the poor performance, the state was motivated by Plan Approval Committee (PAC) of the Department of Drinking Water Supply of Union Ministry of Rural Development by suggesting exposure visits of its officials to West Bengal and Sikkim where the scheme were successfully implemented.

The state Community and Capacity Development (CCDU) unit, which was set up under the aegis of the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, has been in operation since 2005 in the state.

It has been set up for the purpose of implementing the "Total Sanitation programme" in the state.

The importance of this programme cannot be overlooked as it is one of the flagship programme of the Union government.

The staffing pattern of CCDU has been designated by the Government of India.

The Plan Approval Committee in its meeting held on April 23, 2009 at New Delhi accorded approval to the staff pattern proposed by the Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) 2009-10 of CCDU, Manipur and also approved to the filling up of staff on deputation and contract basis, official sources said.

The approved staff pattern includes appointment of a Director with monthly emolument of Rs 35,000, State Coordinator with the same emolument and an Accountant (Cashier) with a monthly emolument of 30,000 on deputation and engagement of three Consultants, two Data Entry Operators, one Peon, and one Security Guard on contract basis.

Despite the fact that the approval was given one year and a half back, at present only the post of Director has been filled on deputation by L Swamikanta Singh, a Senior Engineer level officer from the PHED Department, and he has been single handedly running CCDU since his appointment on December 1, 2008 .

The hitherto unmoved government has started moving with the placing of a proposal for filling up the required staff of the CCDU as per approved pattern,an official source said.
ends

2010-08-27T19:35:00.001+05:30

World Water Council Offers Support to Pakistani Flood Victims

In response to the tragic flood disaster in Pakistan, the World Water Council has offered its full support to the Pakistani authorities for relief and reconstruction efforts.

Marseille, Friday 27 August 2010 - In a letter to the Minister of Water and Power in Pakistan, Raja Pervez Ashraft, the President of the World Water Council, Loïc Fauchon, expressed his deepest sympathies for the victims of the worst flooding in the country's history. Offering to assist the Pakistani authorities, he pledged the full support of the Council and its members. Says Loïc Fauchon: "The World Water Council stands ready to work closely with the Pakistani government and the international community to support relief and reconstruction efforts."

The humanitarian catastrophe leaves a fifth of Pakistan under water, and millions of people struggling without proper shelter, food and clean water. Speaking at a news conference after touring the affected areas, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon described the situation as "heart wrenching": "I have visited the scenes of many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this". Many fear the outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea will threaten the lives of those millions that just survived the flood peaks. The recent UN donor conference confirmed that over $460 million of aid will be needed for immediate relief and further pledges are required to mobilise this amount.

The immediate hazards in the aftermath of a natural disaster are often of the same nature: lack of potable water, disruptions in water supplies and sewage systems, food shortages, infectious disease outbreaks and lack of shelter. Major concerns exist that the devastation to farmland and irrigation systems will mean that large numbers of Pakistani farmers will not be able to produce a crop during this year and next, severely undermining the food-security situation in the country. Rapidly reconstructing large parts of the water and sanitation infrastructure to resume adequate water supplies to cities and farms will be key to avoiding a lasting drama. The World Water Council therefore calls upon the international community to mobilise additional funds to help in the reconstruction of the devastated infrastructure.

The World Water Council stands ready to assist Pakistan in the relief and reconstruction efforts through mobilising the knowledge and expertise from its 400 member organisations. As in the past, World Water Council members are engaged in sending relief goods and teams of engineers and relief specialist. In his letter to Minister Ashraft, Mr. Fauchon vowed the World Water Council to support Pakistan in the weeks and months to come.

details at
www.worldwatercouncil.org
www.watermediacenter.org

2010-08-23T22:28:00.001+05:30

Baseline Data to Guide Handwashing Intervention in Peru

A new technical paper from the World-Bank administered Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) found that only half of care-givers in 3,526 households in rural Peru wash hands with soap at times of fecal contact, and that 10 percent of children under five presented diarrhea symptoms in the previous 48 hours - although on average 55 percent of caregivers did not seek medical advice. An average of 20 percent of households surveyed had no sanitation facilities of any type.

WSP is testing approaches to learn what works to create and sustain handwashing with soap behavior change. To establish the causal effect of project interventions on specific health and welfare measures, the project is conducting an impact evaluation (IE) using a randomized-controlled experimental design. The study, Scaling Up Handwashing Behavior: Findings from the Impact Evaluation Baseline Survey in Peru by Sebastian Galiani and Alexandra Orsola-Vidal,includes pre-intervention (baseline), concurrent (longitudinal), and post-intervention (endline) surveys administered by WSP-contracted firms in each project country (Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, and Vietnam).

"This study offers new, relevant data that will help us determine the health impacts of these hygiene interventions and shed some light on the role of behavior change," said Bertha Briceno, senior impact evaluation specialist for the project.

For more information, visit this feature story, contact Bertha Briceno, wsp@worldbank.org , or visit www.wsp.org/scalinguphandwashing.

Download Full Document: http://www.wsp.org/wsp/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP_PeruBaselineStudy_HWWS.pdf

2010-08-23T09:01:00.001+05:30

Climate Change Debate Rises with Pakistan Floods

By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 16, 2010 (IPS) - "If this is not God’s wrath, what is?" 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada said of the massive floods in Pakistan that have swept away his life earnings.

Speaking to IPS from Madyan city in Swat district in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Zada might pin the blame for Pakistan’s worst floods in 80 years on forces beyond humankind, but environment experts are debating whether they are linked to a much more earthly phenomenon – climate change.

Three weeks after unusually heavy rains began to pour on Jul. 12 – some areas received up to 300 millimetres in a 36-hour period – Pakistan’s floods have affected 14 million people and killed 1,600, apart from damaging huge swathes of agricultural land, the mainstay of the economy.

The government, international humanitarian agencies and local charities continue to grapple with the disaster, which first hit the north-western part of this South Asian country and is now affecting the Punjab and Sindh provinces. The United Nations has appealed for 459 million U.S. dollars, of which 175 million dollars has been pledged.

Against this backdrop, experts have been trying to make sense of recent instances of extreme weather phenomena. Apart from the floods here, floods in China killed more than 1,100 people, and drought, a heat wave and wildfires hit Russia, in signs that seem consistent with the warming of the planet due to enormous amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

"Global warming results in catastrophic weather events. The recent floods are a result of climate change, undoubtedly," insisted Simi Kamal, a geographer and water specialist.

"Above-normal temperatures in the Indian Ocean give rise to increased precipitation. And in the north of Pakistan, when moisture-riddled wind currents collide with the mountains and are pushed up into cooler altitudes, moisture is released in the form of cloud bursts," added Khalid Rashid, a mathematician and physicist who studies changes in global weather patterns. "This is what seems to have happened this year."

Others are cautious about making categorical conclusions about links to climate change, but agree that weather patterns have been changing, becoming more extreme and more unpredictable.

"Climate scientists cannot be certain whether the current floods are an extreme weather event of the current climate pattern or a change in it," said Ayub Qutub, an Islamabad-based specialist on water management.

Even R K Pachauri, chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says it would be scientifically incorrect to link any single set of events with human-induced climate change. But he agrees that there is enough evidence to show an increase in the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts and extreme precipitation events worldwide.

In fact, he told IPS: "The floods of the kind that hit Pakistan may become more frequent and more intense in the future in this and other parts of the world."

Danish Mustafa, a Pakistani water specialist who teaches geography at the King’s College in London, acknowledges that "rather unusual" monsoon patterns from the Arabian Sea are becoming more frequent.

Ejaz Ahmad, deputy director of the World Wildlife Fund Pakistan, links weather changes to "change in land use patterns, heavy deforestation in the northern part of Pakistan and the conflicts" rather than to climate change. Still, he agrees that there have been more "weird" weather events of late.

"Pakistan experienced a dry spell last March with hardly any rainfall and wheat production was seriously damaged. Then it rained in areas which do not come under the monsoon range such as Gilgit-Baltistan, Broghil,. Similarly, the frequency of cyclones has also increased," Ahmad explained. "A year ago we received the Yemyin cyclone and then this year we had the Phet cyclone. In the past, we would experience cyclones (only) in decades."

Kamala adds that rising temperatures help hasten the melting of water sources like the Himalayas, north of Pakistan, that are the world’s third largest repository of snow and ice. "Our region (South Asia) is among the climate change hotspots, and floods and droughts had been predicted by international experts," he pointed out.

Originating in the Tibetan plateau, the Himalayas also feeds the Indus River basin after turning south from India. The river, now swollen because of the floods, runs along Pakistan’s entire length before discharging into the Arabian Sea, a journey of some 3,180 kilometres.

"Global warming is going much faster, causing catastrophic weather events," explained Kamal. "I’m not sure if this can be stopped now. I’m not even sure if we can adapt to the change as quickly."

Already, Kamal says, Pakistan’s lack of preparedness has added to the toll of the floods. The Indus basin has always been prone to floods, prompting her to to ask: "Why are we always taken by surprise? Why don’t we build scenarios, and based on them plan ahead for floods?"

But Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Islamabad, says some preparations were put in place by the Pakistani government or "the toll would have been much higher."

Still, there are lessons to be learned. "We need the telemetric system on the Indus rivers to function that also need to be extended to monitor flood waves in real time," suggestsed Mustafa. "The local-level capacity will have to be strengthened to be the first line of defence in providing flood protection and then relief. The distant central government cannot do it." (END)

2010-08-22T10:23:00.002+05:30

INDUSFLOOD RELIEF

Himal Southasian fund collection drive in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank Nepal. The floods raging through Pakistan at the moment have affected more people
than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the 2006 Asian tsunami, and the 2010 Haiti
earthquake combined.

Himal Southasian and Standard Chartered Bank Nepal have set up a fund in
Kathmandu for people from Southasia and elsewhere seeking to support the
ongoing relief efforts in Pakistan . Please avail this facility to send money
to the victims of flood along the Indus. No administrative charges will be
applied to your support; every paisa will be transferred to trusted
organisations in Pakistan for the benefit of the flood victims.

Please send support to:*
Account title: IndusFlood Relief – Himal Southasian/SCB Nepal
Bank: Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd.
Branches Accepting Deposit: Any Branches of SCB Nepal network
SWIFT CODE: SCBLNPKA

(Credit card payments may be made straight to the accounts below at any of the
branches of Standard Chartered Bank in Nepal .)

Account number for Rupees (from India and Nepal): 01-1859293-02
Account number for USD (from elsewhere): 01-1859293-51

Please refer to the Indus Flood Relief page on www.himalmag.com for details.

2010-08-21T07:31:00.001+05:30

Protesting Dalits smear themselves with human excreta

Savanur (Haveri dist), July 20, DHNS

What can be said of a system that forces a community to inflict upon themselves the lowest form of humiliation, just so they are allowed to live in their own homes?

A basic right, taken for granted with no second thoughts for many, is a struggle for the Bhangi community in Savanur. The community members went as far as pouring human excreta over themselves, so that their voices are heard and as a sign of protest against those trying to evict them from their homes.

Reason

For the past 70 years, four families of the Bhangi community, who work as night soil workers, have been living in huts built on land belonging to the Savanur Town Municipal Council (TMC).

At a meeting some time ago, the TMC decided to evict the families and build a commercial complex in its place. Ever since, the TMC has employed various devious ways to force the families out of their homes.

Starting with an oral directive, the TMC has resorted to cutting water connection to the families, dumping waste in front of their homes, barging into their homes, insulting their women and threatening them.

The community members, who are treated as the lowest among the dalits, submitted an appeal to the sub-divisional officer in January against their eviction and have ever since submitted numerous appeals to the government over the past seven months.

Finding no sympathisers in the system for their cause, the community members finally resorted to this extreme form of protest on Tuesday.

The families submitted an appeal to the Assistant Commissioner on Monday demanding
temporary water connection. But they were asked to pay the TMC Rs 2,000 for each connection.

Helpless, the community members took out a mock funeral from their homes in Kamala Bangadi to the TMC on Tuesday. At the TMC, three members of the community poured human excreta over themselves and begged for water to clean themselves.

Officials apathy

As if this was not heart-wrenching enough, none of the officials at the Town Municipal Council came forward to receive their appeal.

A verbal duel ensued between TMC officials and Dalit Sangarsha Samithi activists. TMC Executive Officer H N Bajakkanavar defended the TMC, saying they never tried to evict the Bhangis, but added that TMC would provide houses for them under various housing schemes.

He also said only illegal water connections were cut off. However, the DSS pointed out that several illegal water connections in the town were untouched and only those feeding Bhangis were cut off. “This is harassment against a community that is still treated like untouchables,” they said.

When no official accepted the appeal from the Bhangis, the latter cleaned the toilets in the TMC premises.

They then went to the Revenue Department and submitted their appeal to Tahsildar Prashanth Nalavar.
ends

2010-08-21T00:30:00.002+05:30

Minds in the Toilet

There's a sewage crisis, so hold your nose and think hard.
By Johann HariPosted Monday, Oct. 20, 2008, at 6:39 AM ET

Read exclusive excerpts from Rose George's The Big Necessity on Slate.

Every day, you handle the deadliest substance on earth. It is a weapon of mass destruction festering beneath your fingernails. In the past 10 years, it has killed more people than all the wars since Adolf Hitler rolled into one; in the next four hours, it will kill the equivalent of two jumbo jets full of kids. It is not anthrax or plutonium or uranium. Its name is shit—and we are in the middle of a shit storm. In the West, our ways of discreetly whisking this weapon away are in danger of breaking down, and one-quarter of humanity hasn't ever used a functioning toilet yet.

The story of civilization has been the story of separating you from your waste. British investigative journalist Rose George's stunning—and nauseating—new book opens by explaining that a single gram of feces can contain "ten million viruses, one million bacteria, one thousand parasite cysts, and one hundred worm eggs." Accidentally ingesting this cocktail causes 80 percent of all the sickness on earth.

I once had a small taste of the problem. A few years ago, I was trudging up a hill in Caracas, Venezuela—through a vast barrio cobbled together from tin and mud and leftover plastic—when I saw a plastic bag filled with feces hurtling toward me. It splattered all over my chest and into my mouth. This wasn't an attack on a gringo intruder. In many of the slums that scar South America, there are no sewers, so the only way to dispose of your excrement is to squat over a bag and throw. It's called the "helicopter toilet."

Today, 2.6 billion people live like this: "Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket or box. Nothing," George explains. In an epic work of reportage—taking her from the sewers of London to the shores of Africa to the bowels of China—George investigates the slow road away from this shit-smeared existence.

Her journey opens by tramping down at midnight into the place where that road began—the sewers of London. This city beneath the city can be deadly: Stinking clouds of hydrogen sulphide—the "sewer gas" that forms when sewage decomposes—will suffocate you if you get caught in them. Before these tunnels were built, London had "on-site sanitation." This is a polite way of saying people shat in a covered-up, set-aside space, and their feces were collected and sold to farmers as manure.

But in the early 19th century, London's population rapidly doubled, and the city's buildup of excrement became unsustainable. The cost of having your private cesspool emptied spiked to a shilling, twice the average workers' daily wage. So, people took to emptying their cesspools into the Thames, which soon ran brown. By 1848 cholera outbreaks were killing 14,000 people a year, and then came the "Great Stink" of 1858. London reeked so badly people were vomiting in the streets. The drapes of the House of Commons were soaked with chloride in a (failed) attempt to disguise the stench.

At last, the order came to find a better way—and one of Rose George's heroes entered history. Joseph Bazalgette was the chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and along with Hamburg's municipality, he pioneered the great life-saving urban sewers of our time. "His sewers have saved more lives than any other public works," George notes with pride.

But there is a catch. Much as we want to flush and forget, the excrement does not disappear. Ninety percent of the world's sewage ends up untreated in oceans, rivers, and lakes. The costs of Joseph Bazaglette's invention—at the other end of the pipe—are now becoming inescapable. Much of our sewage is pumped, barely treated, into the oceans, where vast dead zones are emerging, killed by our germs. The rest infests water closer to home. For example, in 1993, an outbreak of shit-borne cryptosporidium in Milwaukee killed 400 people and made 400,000 sick. It turned out the city was pumping its "treated" sewage—actually treated for only some toxins, not others—into Lake Michigan and then slurping its drinking water out the other end.

In her search for answers to what to do with our swill, George lyrically dives into the toilet bowl, sloshing about like Gene Kelly singin' in the rain. "Of all the people of the world, the Chinese are probably most at home with their excrement," she explains. They defecate openly, chatting away with their friends in toilets with no dividers. Perhaps for this reason, the Chinese have been more creative than anyone else with their crap. Since the 1930s, they have been turning it into electricity.

ends

2010-08-19T22:44:00.000+05:30

PRESS RELEASE

Coordinated action worked for H1N1: time for the same approach to diarrhoea

Geneva 19 August 2010 - A week after the World Health Organization announced the welcome news that the H1N1 flu has ended its pandemic phase, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) reminds the world's decision-makers that deaths from diarrhoea remain extremely high[1]. These deaths are closely linked to inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices [2], and are mainly among children under 5 years old in the world's poorest countries.

WSSCC will take this reminder to two major global gatherings next month, an international meeting of leading water experts in Stockholm and the UN Summit of world leaders called for by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly.

"H1N1 was rightly seen as a threat to global health, and coordinated international attention has been successful in reducing the risk. Significant levels of resources, both time and money, were directed to addressing the issue. There was also considerable public debate, including extended coverage in the media," said Jon Lane, WSSCC's Executive Director.

"By these standards, diarrhoea has been neglected. The H1N1 virus has killed at least 18,300[3] people to date. During the same time, diarrhoea has killed about 2 million people. We would love to be able to announce that we are overcoming the threat of diarrhoea, but sadly, that is not the case. Yet we know that some simple measures, including access to toilets and hand washing at key moments, could make a huge difference. It's time the international community put significant time and money into this issue, and treated it with the urgency it deserves."

The same groups who took part in the successful response to the H1N1 pandemic have a role to play in addressing diarrhoea: global health decision makers, the UN system, donors, national governments, civil society, and the media. The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council has members in 160 countries representing each of these constituencies and seeks to raise awareness about the contributions that good sanitation and hygiene can make to health, wealth, and dignity. WSSCC also works in other global initiatives that advance the cause of sanitation, hygiene, and water supply for all people[4].

Note to editors

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is a global multi-stakeholder partnership and membership organisation that works to save lives and improve livelihoods. It does so by enhancing collaboration among sector agencies and professionals who are working to improve access for the 2.6 billion people without safe sanitation and the 884 million people without clean drinking water. Through its work, WSSCC contributes to the broader goals of poverty eradication, health and environmental improvement, gender equality and long-term social and economic development. WSSCC has coalitions in 35 countries, members in more than 160 countries, and a Geneva-based Secretariat hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Visit www.wsscc.org for more information.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] More than 1.8 million people per year , according to the latest WHO global burden of disease figures for low-income countries.

[2] According to WHO and UNICEF, around 2.6 people worldwide lack access to basic sanitation and more than 800 million people do not have access to safe drinking water.

[3] Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 111

[4] For example, WSSCC is a key partner in Sanitation and Water for All, a new global initiative that held its first major public event in April 2010: a High Level Meeting of Ministers of Finance that was organized in Washington D.C, USA, at the time of the World Bank Spring meetings.

ends

2010-08-19T09:01:00.000+05:30

Arsenic-free water for rural India

Source: WaterLink International

High levels of arsenic in the groundwater in areas of northeast India and Bangladesh are a recognised public health problem. However, the Isolux Technologies Division of MEL Chemicals, Inc. teamed up with an Indian engineering firm in 2009 to supply 39 arsenic treatment systems customised to the requirements of rural Indian villages.

Water supply in rural northeast areas of India and neighbouring Bangladesh is usually a single source of water for each village. Rural villagers, often lacking electric power, rely on this common village well as their only source of drinking water. If this well has a high level of arsenic, the entire village suffers. Instances of disease related to long-term arsenic exposure are relatively common.

For many years, the typical village water source was surface water (generally a lake or river). The waterborne diseases typical of untreated surface water were common. In the 1970s and 1980s, with funding from a number of international aid groups, millions of tube wells (typically of the order 100 feet deep) were drilled to provide what was thought to be a clean water source for rural villagers. Unfortunately for the villagers, in many cases one type of illness was simply traded for another. By the 1990s, it was recognised that the aquifer underlying most of northeast areas of India and neighbouring Bangladesh is high in naturally occurring arsenic. Arsenic levels in excess of 100 ppb are relatively common. The result is that millions of people in this area now exhibit the symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning: skin lesions, neurological disorders and cancers.

Governmental agencies and various aid groups have struggled to find an adequate solution to the problem for years. Drilling deeper wells (of about 1000 feet) will avoid the arsenic contaminated aquifer, but this is too expensive and time-consuming to be a universal solution. Most of the treatment technologies common in the US are not applicable because of their relatively sophisticated control systems and occasional backwashing requirement.

The Isolux Technologies Division of MEL Chemicals, Inc. has developed Isolux technology for arsenic removal using its patented zirconium hydroxide media. MEL Chemicals, Inc. has been producing zirconium chemicals at its facility in Flemington, NJ for over 50 years. In combination with its British affiliate, MEL Chemicals, Ltd, it is the world's largest producer of zirconium chemicals. In addition to being NSF Standard 61 certified, Isolux technology has a number of advantages that make it a possible solution for rural villages in India: (1) it does not require backwashing or ‘fluffing' of the media bed; (2) it does not use any external controls; (3) all of its systems are designed around a cartridge replacement concept (cartridges can easily be replaced by an unskilled person in less than an hour); and (4) Isolux's 20-gpm unit which holds four arsenic removal cartridges appears to be an ideal size for most village wells.

In late 2008, the Indian State of Bihar awarded a contract to DNA Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd (an Indian engineering company) for arsenic treatment systems for a number of rural villages. DNA Infrastructure approached Isolux to provide their 20-gpm units for this project. Between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, a total of 39 rural villages in the Indian state of Bihar were provided with an arsenic-free drinking water source using Isolux technology combined with a solar-electric powered well pump.

Despite years of effort and many projects including that described here, the problem of arsenic contaminated groundwater in northeast India and Bangladesh remains one of the world's most severe public health crises. As a US company, MEL Chemicals has found that it is almost impossible to independently develop and implement projects in India or in most Asian countries. Differences in language, customs and business practices are very difficult to surmount, particularly when dealing with a relatively new technology such as arsenic adsorption. The key to success is to find a local partner such as DNA Infrastructure who can provide the bridge to successfully resolve the problem.
ends

2010-08-19T05:28:00.000+05:30

An appeal

Pakistan: adding insult to tragedy

The Flood affected communities are struggling for their survival. Their habitats have been destroyed, they have lost their livelihood. In such circumstances in the patriarchal societies adolescent girls do not get proper attention to fulfill their specific needs, they are ignored by the Humanitarian support programs and even local philanthropists as their needs are not taken as an important issue. Diarrhea and other water related diseases are very common, the water has become contaminated, access to safe sanitation lacks.

The young women and adolescent girls have little access to nutritious food. This program is focusing on these specific issues of young women. This program will supplement the ongoing support programs by UN agencies and other Support Programs in the area.

AWARE GIRS is membership Organization and it has membership from the flood affected areas. The members from the target area have asked the organization to work for addressing the specific needs of the young and adolescents women. AWARE GIRLS is young women led organization working for the rights and development of young women of the Province. The young women can feel the sufferings and problems of young women. AWARE GIRLS has already worked for Internally displaced Young women by providing them support KITS, raising voice for Gender Cluster, and developing Research Report for Mainstreaming Gender in Humanitarian work in the North Western Pakistan.

In the Gender neutral relief, rehabilitation efforts the specific needs of Adolescents Girls are ignored such that the use of unhygienic cloth for sanitary purpose during menses period may cause of spread of further diseases among the affected population. The young women have a little access to the relief and support provided by the Relief organizations because of patriarchal culture.
There is an urgent need to move from gender blindness to gender sensitivity in helping the victims of this disaster. it is imperative to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the disaster management programs so that the relief efforts are able to properly address Young women’s needs such that;

* Fulfilling women specific requirements, such as sanitary pads /towels and clean white cloth and underwear,

· Providing Contraceptives, blankets and clothes,

· Toiletries: toilet rolls, soaps, shampoo, Towels,

· Nutritional supplements (multi vitamins, iron etc)

· Clean drinking water

· Ware cleaning tablets

We have developed a KIT fulfilling these specific needs of young women. One KIT Costs 30 USD. We are Generating resources to approach 5,000 Young women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and fulfil their needs.

Gulalai Ismail
Chairperson
AWARE GIRLS
aware_girls@yahoo.com
www.awaregirls.webs.com

2010-08-09T06:54:00.000+05:30

Officials of five districts put on alert

Sunday, August 08, 2010

By Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has reportedly put district administrations of Kashmore, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Sukkur and Dadu on alert to keep a watchful eye on the raging flood at Guddu which may cause a breach near the Ghauspur embankment anytime.

“We have asked DCOs from Kashmore to Dadu to put the officials concerned on alert to deal with any situation efficiently. It may be the worst situation,” said a PDMA spokesman.

According to the PDMA official, the water level at Taunsa was 950,000 cusecs which will remain the same in the next three days. “The next three days are very crucial and may cause devastation in Sindh,” he said.

Mohammed Younus Marri from Kashmore told The News that presently three main towns — Old Ghauspur, New Ghauspur and Karampur — and the adjoining villages were under threat and the inhabitants were being evacuated on a war-footing. He said that in case of a breach, Kandhkot and parts of Shikarpur district might be affected by the flood.

He said that continuous rain has affected the evacuation process and relief work in Kashmore and Ghotki districts and other areas.

Government officials claimed that minor leakages in the embankments were understandable because the floodwater has touched the muddy walls after a period of 15 years.

Ishaque Meerani, who was monitoring rescue activities in Kashmore, said that the rising water pressure at the Torhi Bungalow embankment near Kandhkot caused a minor breach, which was being plugged. He said that while he was travelling from Guddu to Torhi Bungalow embankment, he saw hundreds of families crying for food, as they had received nothing so far from the government or any other side. The people, who had ration with them while for safe places, have now gone out of the food stock.

He said that though majority of people from katcha area in Kashmore district had been shifted to safe places, still a small number of people were there, who were reluctant to leave the area.

The News received reports from different areas that owing to the flow of 100,000 cusec at Guddu crossing and rising level in Sukkur barrage, katcha areas of Dadu, Jamshoro and Matiari districts came under water on Saturday morning. Standing crops on hundreds of acres in katcha area and the river bed have been inundated by the flood water. Local people said that due to illegal encroachments on land along the embankments, its bunds have weakened.

The government functionaries have also started to plug leakages in the embankments in Matiari and Jamshoro districts.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Irrigation Drainage Authority (Sida) Flood Information Cell figure released on Saturday said that at Guddu downstream water level was 102,2145 cusec, Sukkur 926,035 cusec and at Kotri downstream 132,660 cusec.
ends

2010-08-03T17:36:00.000+05:30

No flood, rain worries for Benazir Basti residents

Tuesday, August 03, 2010
By Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

Standing in front of her beautiful house in the newly developed Behen Benazir Basti in the village of Bachal Jam Jokhio, Benazirabad (Nawabshah) district, 50-year-old Mai Aakulzadi told The News that she was lucky to have got the house, which saved her from floods this monsoon.

Mai Aakulzadi was among the lucky ones to have escaped the floods which have demolished a number of makeshift homes and left many people homeless in low-lying areas. “The heavy rains always destroyed our abodes in the past and we had to rebuild them on our own,” she said. “Life was harder then,” she reminisced, adding that those days now seem to be over for them.

Mai enjoyed the monsoon rains after a long time, realising that she lives in a house that is not vulnerable to flood and, by extension, devastation. “Previously, our houses were never able to survive heavy downpours,” she said. “Even during light showers, the roofs of the houses would begin to leak and we, fearing the roofs would cave in, had to live in ordinary shelters in the open.”

Like Mai, all the beneficiaries of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell (SBBHC), in Benazirabad district, are equally pleased with living in secure houses in monsoon, said Ismail Zardari, Project Manager, Research and Development Foundation (RDF), which is implementing the low-cost housing project.

These houses have two bedrooms, a veranda, an open courtyard, a kitchen and a toilet. The PPP-led government has identified deserving women, who are being given the low-cost houses in three districts where the scheme is operational i.e. Benazirabad, Tando Allahyar and Hyderabad.

The RDF is currently working on 1,700 houses in 48 villages of the three districts; 1,100 in Benazirabad and 300 each in Tando Allahyar and Hyderabad. Building one such house costs between Rs2,25000 to Rs2,42000, depending on the requirements and expenditures of the area.

“The fact that most of beneficiaries have not been troubled by the rains this year has immensely encouraged the project management,” Ismail said.

Ziaul Islam, director of the SBBHC, claimed that they have not received a single complaint regarding any technical fault in the newly-built houses. However, he said, the rains have affected the pace of building more houses. The possession of as many as 10,000 houses, of which 6000 houses are almost complete, would be handed over to the deserving persons by the end of this year.

“We have planned a strategy to keep handing over the possession of the houses to the deserving people through EDO revenue and other relevant officials as soon as work on a small number of the houses is completed rather than waiting for all the houses to complete and then giving them to the people at once,” he said.

Meanwhile, Benazirabad Revenue EDO Rashid Zardari, who monitors the project in the district, said that work on 400 houses has been completed. The EDO hoped that new houses would bring improvement such people’s lives.

RDF Executive Director Masood Mahesar said that they have taken the suggestions of the beneficiaries while constructing the houses to avoid any possible technical fault. Male members of beneficiary families are working together with the technical staff and have contributed a lot in the building process, he said. Mahesar felt that it was an important aspect of the project.

ends

2010-08-01T14:07:00.000+05:30

Upcountry floods bring hope for tail-enders

Sunday, August 01, 2010
Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

Heavy rains and floods which wreaked havoc in upper areas of the country, have brought hope for those living in tail-end areas, who derive their livelihood from the Indus at Jamshoro, downstream Kotri, as water flow downstream Kotri crossed more than 90,000 cusecs on Friday.

Kotri gauge station operators reveal that the water flow has been increasing with the passage of each day since the beginning of monsoon in the upper parts of the country.

Last year, the water flow could not cross 80,000 cusecs downstream Kotri and the flow remained only for 15 days. However, the flow has already crossed the maximum flow level of last year and more water is expected as the high flood in the Indus is likely to reach Jamshoro within a few days, the station operators said.

One elderly man, Allah Jurio, said that it was a joy to see such high level of water in the Indus after several months. He said that shrimps are coming to upstream after the River water falls in to the sea in Thatta district. Some youths sitting at the river bank were using traditional trolling ropes to catch fish who claimed that they were catching enough fish for their use. Hardly one week earlier, the youths said, the water released downstream Kotri was 5,000 cusec and it is increasing after every day. Moreover, officials say that this year the river may receive heavy flood and inundate more katcha area.

The capacity of the Jamshoro Bridge is 750,000 cusecs, but during the devastating floods in 1956 the water passed under the bridge was measured 950,000 cusecs. Moreover, in 1996 when 500,000 cusecs streamed under the bridge, that was the last time when water flew downstream Kotri in such a large quantity. After that water flow had been less and this, as many local activists and NGOs believe, caused depletion of natural resources and forest and created livelihood issues for people relying on fishing, cultivation and livestock grazing.

Meanwhile, communities living in the Indus Delta region, at lakes, wetlands and famous Ramsar sites are getting more water through their natural feeding canals. The Manchar Lake in Dadu district a wide area of which had dried and fishermen had to migrate due to this is also receiving 5,000 cusec water only from the River Indus

One Ayoub Mallah from Phulail Villager at Baqar Lake, Sanghar District, told The News that the lake has received sufficient water and rains have recharged wells, water ponds and flooded grazing fields near the sandy mountains. The rain water has created hope for the local herdsmen.

The traditional lake, which is called the Chotiari Reservoir now, had touched dead level few months back. However, locals say that the lake is now receiving water through Nara canal and other natural feeding resources after heavy downpours.

Moreover, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) activists in the Indus Delta celebrated the arrival of water by throwing rose petals. They expressed hope that water would help sustain their lives and sources of livelihood. A PFF spokesman said that according to information they received from people living near several water bodies in the province the fishermen, farmers and herdsmen have rejoiced after the increase of water in the Indus.

The farmers are preparing their harvesting tools, fishermen their fishing nets and shepherds heading their herds towards grazing fields.

2010-08-01T14:04:00.000+05:30

Scheme for low-cost sanitary napkins to rural girls approved

By Aarti Dhar

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday approved a scheme for providing highly subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the rural areas to promote menstrual hygiene. The scheme, to be launched in 150 districts across the country in the first phase, will cost Rs.150 crore for the current financial year.

Approved by the Mission Steering Group – the highest decision-making body – of the National Rural Health Mission, at its sixth meeting here, the scheme envisages covering 1.5-crore girls in the age group of 10-19 years every month. Of this, the approximate number of APL girls is 105 lakh while that of the BPL category is 45 lakh. The napkins will be supplied to the below poverty line (BPL) girls at a nominal cost of Re.1 per pack of six while those girls living above poverty line (APL) will have to pay Rs.5 per pack.

Limited access

In India, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions for women as well as adolescent girls. Limited access to safe sanitary products and facilities is believed to be one of the reasons for constrained school attendance, high dropout rates and ill health due to infection.

Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan and Puducherry have already taken similar initiatives to promote menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls.

The 150 districts identified in the first phase include 30 from the four southern States, Maharashtra and Gujarat and 120 from northern, central and the north-eastern States. In the first year, the Centre will procure the napkins and supply these to the States that will in turn send these to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in the districts for distribution on a monthly basis or to the schools which will become distribution points for students.

As an incentive, ASHA will get one pack free every month in addition to Rs.50 per meeting she holds on a Sunday for creating awareness regarding menstrual hygiene among girls. Subsequently, States can choose to involve self-help groups for manufacturing and marketing sanitary napkins. At least 50 districts with a strong network of SHGs will be involved in the manufacture of napkins in the first phase itself. The ASHAs will procure sanitary napkins from the sub-centre for which she will be given Rs.300 from the untied fund. Each month, ASHA will replenish the imprest fund with the amount collected through the sale of napkins.

Safe disposal

For safe disposal of the napkins at the community level, deep-pit burial or burning are the options being considered. Due environmental clearance has to be obtained from the States for this. Installing incinerators in schools that can be manually operated is another option. Consultations are on with the Ministry of Environment and Forests for use of environment-friendly raw material and disposal mechanism.

States have been given the option of leveraging funds for incinerators through the Total Sanitation Campaign of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The scheme will be expanded to other districts after the outcome of the first phase is evaluated. In that case, the States will be asked to contribute 15 per cent of the cost. The scheme can also be transferred to the Ministries of Women and Child Development and Rural Development at a later stage for self-financing and self-sustaining that will reduce the budgetary support.

2010-07-30T21:44:00.000+05:30

Statement from Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council

An important milestone on the long road to access to water for all

The UN General Assembly has declared water and sanitation as a human right.

Personally, I welcome the vote of this resolution. It represents a significative step forward towards the right of each citizen of the world to have access to quality water.

For almost ten years, our Council has been campaigning in favour of the right to water as an essential element of human dignity. This right is an essential brick in the wall we want to build against ignorance, injustice, poverty, and thirst.

Without doubt, one should not limit to expressing the right. Obviously we have to clarify everyone’s obligations, starting with the States, but also those of the local communities, and all those in charge of water competence.

This is the next step. This is all the things our Council has been asking for - “drinking water before cell phones”, “taps before guns” - , in the previous World Water Fora in Kyoto in 2003, in Mexico-City in 2006, and in Istanbul in 2009.

Every child, every woman, every man on earth is entitled to water and sanitation. This is the right to water. Our duty is to say when, how, where, and how. Our duty is to implement practical measures. This is the job France, Marseille and the World Water Council have taken on in order to make this Forum, in Marseille, in 2012, the “Forum of solutions”.

Let us etch the right to water in the Constitutions, define minimal water allocations for the most deprived persons, impose the compulsory creation of water supply points and of sanitary facilities in each school, everywhere in the world. It is through hundreds, and thousands of solutions for water, that the right to water will become reality.

2010-07-27T05:59:00.000+05:30

New Database Details Over 60 Enabling Technologies for Handwashing

An enabling technology is an external or environmental factor that influences an individual's opportunity to perform a behavior, regardless of their ability and motivation to act. Often overlooked in the design of handwashing initiatives, enabling technologies have been shown to facilitate handwashing behavior in several studies.

The World Bank-administered Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) developed a database to provide practitioners with information on the various types of enabling technologies, including purpose, benefits, key product features and specifications, pictures or illustrations, and contacts for further information.

Washing hands with soap at critical times - after contact with feces and before handling food - could reduce diarrheal rates by up to 47 percent (Curtis and Cairncross, 2003). However, rates of handwashing with soap remain low throughout the developing world and large-scale promotion of handwashing behavior change is a challenge.

For more information on enabling technologies, click here, contact Jacqueline Devine, wsp@worldbank.org , or visit www.wsp.org/scalinguphandwashing.

[The links mentioned above are listed here for technology compatability: Handwashing Database: www.wsp.org/scalinguphandwashing/enablingtechnologies/ , More info. on enabling technologies www.wsp.org/index.cfm?page=page_disp&pid=22074 ]

The Water and Sanitation Program is a multi-donor partnership administered by the World Bank to support poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services.

www.wsp.org wsp@worldbank.org

2010-07-19T17:51:00.000+05:30

Inhuman work. Early deaths.

TERESA REHMAN on the plight of migrant Dalits who clean biomedical waste in the Northeast

HE IS one of the privileged few who works with a mask and a pair of gloves. He is posted in the Orthopaedic Operation Theatre at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), a premier referral centre in the Northeast. “I will tell you under what circumstances we work but I will never reveal my name. After all, I have to keep my job. I have been working as a daily-wager for the past 17 years and am yet to be made permanent.”

His father had emigrated to Assam at a very young age from Sardar Seher village in Churu district of Rajasthan and started working in the GMCH since the time of its founding. His father and his brother, both in the same profession, died young due to various ailments. “I am lucky as I handle fresh waste products. Not everyone is as fortunate. We have to handle many grimy biomedical and human wastes, which are sometimes three to four days old, without any safety gear. Therefore, we are prone to infections and our life-span is short,” he adds.

He cites the example of Om Prakash Valmiki, a senior safai karamchari of GMCH who is responsible for handling the dirtiest jobs, including the disposal of dead bodies, body parts and foetuses. Barely able to walk, Valmiki says, “We have to officially wait for three days for the legal guardians to claim any body. If they don’t turn up, we dispose the body. Of course, the stench has taken a toll on my health. I have lost my appetite and can hardly eat nowadays.”

There are allegations that these workers die early since they consume alcohol. SK Pawar, state president of the Rashtriya Safai Mazdoor Congress argues, “Do you think a sane person can do such a dirty job, that too without taking any precautions?” With not even a deep freeze or a proper morgue, the dead bodies are dumped in a room. After a few days, when five to six bodies accumulate, they are disposed. Foetuses and other body parts are piled into plastic drums for a few days and then buried.

Pawar adds, “In most cases, worms eat into these human parts and our safai karamcharis have to handle them with bare hands. Needles prick their hands; they suffer and die of undiagnosed infections. The life of a safai karamchari is very cheap.” In the last five years, there have been 12 deaths in the workers colony in the 35-40 year age group.

Their home, the GMCH colony in Ananda Nagar, wears a deserted look during the day as all the inmates including women and children go and perform “private jobs” — cleaning lavatories and other janitorial jobs at private homes — a source of extra income. One has to step over a dirty drain to climb the stairs leading to their hillside
colony.

As young, unemployed boys stand in the paan shop, a stench emanates from the entire colony inhabited by Dalit migrant workers from Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and even parts of South India who came and settled in various parts of the Northeast since the pre-independence days. Of late, the inmates of this colony have been living without electricity or water — the supply of both have been cut off due to non-payment of bills by the hospital authorities.

Pawar points out that the safai karamcharis in the Northeast are more backward compared to the rest of the country as they lack social consciousness. Most of the children drop out of schools as teachers do not pay them any attention. He cites the example of the Harijan Sishu Vidyalaya at the GMCH colony which a few years ago switched from Hindi to Assamese medium forcing the children of safai karamcharis to drop out.

The safai karamcharis comprise around 10 lakh people, and nearly six lakh are in government service. Yet they do not even get Permanent Resident Certificates though their names figure in the voters list. “They ask for 30 to 40- year-old land patta which none of us possesses. People feel if we settle down at some place we will spoil the environment. We have no place to go after retirement. We don’t belong anywhere, we cannot even go back to our native lands as we have nothing there,” says Pawar.

Meanwhile, there’s a new trend in GMCH where even these jobs are allotted to the locals, who in turn sub-contract the same. The person appointed to the job enjoys all the benefits but does not do the work. He pays about Rs 500 to a safai karamchari to do the job. And young boys like Babloo Valmiki, a school dropout, cannot even hope to inherit his father’s government job after his retirement or premature death. “I do private jobs, cleaning lavatories,” he says. As Pawar see it: “We live in the present as we have no future.”

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 50, Dated Dec 29, 2007

2010-07-16T22:29:00.000+05:30

Men banned from (some) toilets

Feb 24th 2010, 15:17 by A.B. | LONDON

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is to introduce women-only toilets on some of its international routes from March 1st. Men will only be allowed to use these toilets in certain situations:

– When required for safety reasons, just prior to the seat belt sign being turned on during take-off and landing.
– When a passenger is not feeling well and a personal emergency requires such use.
– When there are very few female passengers and the women-only designation has been lifted for the flight.

Not wishing to overstate the importance of this story, Gulliver would still point out that ANA is effectively enshrining in its aircraft infrastructure the idea that men are the messier sex—at least when it comes to toilet habits. And he can't quite work out whether that's sexist, funny or both.
ends

2010-07-09T13:34:00.000+05:30

Water Honored at Shanghai World Expo

Shanghai, China – “Better water makes for better cities” declared Mr Fauchon, President of the World Water Council speaking at the Shanghai Expo 2010 on Friday. Mr Fauchon was addressing a flag-raising ceremony to mark ‘Water Honor Day’ and the official opening of the World Water Pavilion, a joint initiative between the WWC and the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources.

Council President Mr Loic Fauchon hailed the strong ties between China and the World Water Council, describing them as a model for relations with other countries, and noted that China was not just working with the Council but was now a full part of the Council. “Water will be our common concern” in coming years, he said. Speaking at the same Ceremony, the Chinese Vice Minister for Water Resources Hu Siyi, described the World Water Council as the most important international platform working on water policy issues and noted that the Council had been the first NGO to agree to exhibit at the Shanghai Expo.

Visited by over 3,000 people a day – including a significant number of young people – the World Water Pavilion at Expo 2010 helps the wider public to understand global water challenges and provides insights into water’s importance to societies and economies. The Pavilion raises particular awareness on urban water and sanitation challenges, and a dedicated Kids’ Corner helps children to imagine their own ‘water futures’.

The World Water Pavilion presents some of the World Water Council’s own initiatives, including the Istanbul Water Consensus, which encourages local authorities from around the world to improve water and sanitation delivery and to address urgent challenges such as wastewater management and climate adaptation. To date, more than 600 cities from around the world have signed the IWC and will report back on the progress made at the 6th World Water Forum to be held in Marseille, France in 2012. At the Flag-raising Ceremony Mr Fauchon noted that the time “for easy water” was over. The world needed “new solutions”, he stated, and encouraged China to share its enormous capacity for solutions to water and sanitation challenges. “Come with us on our journey to provide access to water for all”, he said.

The world’s urban population grew from 220 million to 2,8 billion during the 20th century. The next few decades will witness even sharper urban growth. In Africa and Asia, the urban population is expected to double between 2000 and 2030. By 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up an estimated 81% of all urban inhabitants. Supplying urban populations with clean water and ensuring the effective treatment and disposal of waste-water remained an enormous current and future challenge.

The World Water Pavilion will be open every day at Expo 2010 until the end of October.

2010-07-09T13:23:00.000+05:30

Delhi to get country's first waste-to-power plant

26 Jun 2010, 1524 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: Delhi is set to get the country's first commercial waste-to-power plant of 16 MW capacity that will convert one third of Capital's garbage into much-needed electricity for six lakh homes.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today laid the foundation of the Timarpur-Okhla Municipal Solid Waste Management Project, which will initially generate 16 MW of power by using nearly 2000 tonnes of municipal solid waste produced in the city.
The clean energy plant established by Jindal Ecopolis with an investment of Rs 200 crore is expected to be operational in 12 to 16 months and, according to the company, it is the first of its kind in the country.

In terms of scale, this plant will be in the top 10 in the world. The largest such waste-to-power plant is in Paris which processes 5,000 tonnes of waste per day.
Delhi currently generates an average waste 8,000 tonnes of solid waste daily and the plant in Okhla aims to process one-third of the waste, which will be provided by the MCD and NDMC free of cost. "Though initially we will process nearly 2000 tonnes of waste, but we will later be in a position to process as much as 4,000 tonnes," said Indresh Batra, Managing Director, Jindal SAW Ltd.

The initiative targets to bring electricity to more than 600,000 homes in India. Dikshit said plans are afoot for a similar venture in Ghazipur.

Asked about a failed attempt in the 1990's to set up a waste management plant in Timarpur, Dikshit said that involved importing of technology that subsequently did not suit the needs of the waste here. "That project was initiated over a decade back, with technology imported from a European country. But the calorific value of waste produced here was different from that in Europe and the plant turned out to be a mistake," she said.

The Chief Minister added that this time adequate home work has been done. The project, a public-private partnership with the government of Delhi, is also registered with the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (IUNFCCC) for earning carbon credits.

Dikshit said her government also aims to close the existing coal-based electricity plant once supplies from Bhiwani and Jhajjar started coming in. "Ten years down the line, this project will be a showcase for all cities of the country," said Batra.
The plant will process the waste from the area, feed it into its boilers and generate valuable power, even as the remains of the waste will be rendered neutral before being fed out to the environment.
ends

2010-07-09T13:16:00.001+05:30

Entries invited for 2010 Environmental Media Awards

Journalists reporting on environmental issues are invited to submit entries to the 2010 Media Awards, co-funded by Thomson Reuters Foundation, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the COMplus Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development. The deadline for entries is 31 July 2010.

The worldwide competition is designed to raise global awareness of environmental and sustainable development issues by encouraging the highest standards in environmental reporting. Six regional winners each receive a cash prize of USD $500 while the global winner will be awarded USD $5000 and a travel grant to attend the award ceremony which will be held in Nagoya, Japan in October this year, at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The six regions are Latin America, North America (including the Caribbean and Oceania), Europe, Asia (including the Middle East), English-speaking Africa, and French-speaking Africa. Each candidate may submit one article only, which must have been published between 11 June 2008 and 31 July 2010. Entries can be in any language but if it is other than English, French or Spanish, a translation must also be supplied. The contest is aimed at journalists working in print and online media and winners will be selected by a panel of environmental and media experts.

Since the launch of the competition in 1998, the work of at least 50 reporters has received recognition, with previous winners coming from countries as diverse as Argentina and Burkina Faso, Canada and China, Macedonia and Togo - and more than a dozen others.

Entry forms and further information can be found on the IUCN website.

2010-07-09T11:03:00.000+05:30

Post-rain situation in coastal areas

Poor sanitation system wreaks havoc as low-lying localities inundated

Friday, July 09, 2010
By our correspondent

Karachi

The poor sanitation system in coastal localities has wreaked havoc in the low-lying areas of Keamari and Bin Qasim towns in the aftermath of the recent monsoon showers.

The situation has exposed the claims of local government institutions and the provincial authorities of having cleared chocked sewerage lines. Moreover, streets were flooded by rain water, while residents in many areas complained of receiving contaminated water.

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) spokesperson on Thursday said they have collected information which reveals that in Keamari and Bin Qasim Towns, low-lying areas are flooded with chocked sewerage lines.

He said that despite complaints against the recently-built waterway flowing near Rehri from mountainous areas, the provincial and city government could not pay heed to improve it further. The storm waterway was carrying rainwater and sewerage into the sea smoothly, but the authorities built it without seeking prior consents of the locals.

As a result, the waterway could not receive rain water flow from nearby coastal villages. During the recent showers, area people broke the drainage wall from different areas to build makeshift outlet for rain water, which caused problem for the people of Rehri, because now they receive water flowing from upper parts.

Meanwhile, water shortage is still affecting the people living in coastal localities. Hundreds of fishing vessels can still be witnessed anchored along the local jetties because of a ban on fishing.

In this situation they can not afford to buy water for domestic use. Protest by residents of different neighbourhoods are reportedly being held on a daily basis, but, till yet, nobody from the authorities has come to listen to their grievances.
ends

2010-07-01T12:56:00.000+05:30

Opening up defecation

Although millions of rural and urban Indians do not have decent sanitation and thousands die from diarrhoea, the issue is like an abandoned terrain that nobody wants to tread on. TERESA REHMAN speaks of an initiative to draw attention to this sensitive issue.

Posted Thursday, Jun 24 17:52:19, 2010

“Where is your toilet?” A more polished version can be, “Where is your restroom?” I have learnt to consciously ask this question to almost everyone, including militants in camps whom I have met on my reporting assignments. The instant reaction is of embarrassment. Issues like open defecation, menstruation and sanitary pads, toilets, waste disposal are considered very private, something not to be discussed in public and definitely not with a journalist.

Sanitation is a taboo topic, even in everyday discourse. It is like an abandoned terrain, nobody wants to tread on. For a journalist like me reporting on a wide-range of issues from conflict, politics and society, talking about this issue seemed trivial and intrusive as well. But, I have picked up the nuances of this prohibited topic from the South Asia Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) which was held in the capital of India, New Delhi, in 2008. I could get a bird's eye view of the different water related issues at the World Water Forum at Istanbul, Turkey in 2009.

The United Nations had declared the year 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation in conjunction with the Water for Life Decade. Worldwide there are roughly 2.6 billion people who do not have access to basic sanitation. The goal of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation is to help raise awareness of this crisis and hopefully accelerate progress towards reaching the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) and cutting the number of people without access to basic sanitation in half by the year 2015.

The Economic Impact of Sanitation in Indonesia, a report issued by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of the World Bank, shows that in 2006 negative impacts of poor sanitation cost the country an estimated $6.3 billion, or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. Though the World Bank has significantly increased its lending for sanitation and wastewater projects since 2002, sanitation remains a challenge for the poor already grappling with the effects of global food and energy prices, conflict and natural disasters.

Water and sanitation continue to be big issues despite prolonged official and community level efforts at improving coverage. Only one of three Indians has access to improved sanitation facilities (including improved latrines). The lack of toilet facilities in many areas also presents a major health risk and open defecation is rampant even in urban areas of India. It was estimated in 2002 by the World Health Organisation that around 700,000 Indians die each year from diarrhoea.

The conference was an eye-opener in many ways. Though I am not a health reporter, I noted that sanitation was present in a veiled form in many of the social issues that I wrote about. For instance, on one of my assignments to report on the use of pesticides in a few tea estates in Assam, a state in northeast India, I found out that many tea garden labourers were dying of tuberculosis. In fact, many families had fallen prey to the disease. It was a shocker for me as tuberculosis is a curable disease. As I probed further, it became apparent that lack of hygiene and sanitation were the main perpetrators. I did not realise that I was doing a sanitation story.

On the brighter side, during a visit to a village in Kurukshetra in Haryana, a state in North India, I observed that low-cost toilets had eliminated the need for open defecation. It was a big relief for women in villages who used to wait till the evening or early morning to answer the call of nature. It made me think of women in the villages near my hometown who have silently endured all this. Till I attended the conference I had never thought about sanitation as a major issue which was worth writing about.

The state of Assam is flood-prone and my maid, who comes early every morning, told me a harrowing tale of how they defecate during floods. They make a makeshift boat out of a banana stem and wade through the waters to look for a dry spot to defecate. In case it gets dark it becomes all the more difficult for a widow like her who doesn't have a man to row her makeshift ‘boat'. Very often they encounter water snakes and leeches. She told me that during the rainy season, some of them even starve themselves so that they do not have to go out to defecate. And for those who suffer from diarrhoea, a common occurrence during floods, life becomes a living hell.

I report from a region which is conflict-torn. I cover the seven northeastern states of the Indian Union which find space in the national media only when there is a major disaster or violence. Talking about sanitation issues here seems out of place. Apart from that I have realised over the years that journalists tend to become arrogant with age and feel that issues like sanitation are the preserve of ‘development' or ‘environment' journalists.

Such compelling stories and the sidelining of a basic issue made me want to launch an initiative that could make a difference. Post SACOSAN, I decided to set up a listserv called ‘The Sanitation Scribes' to share news and information with a dedicated group of journalists interested in this issue. There were no costs involved, all it needed was patience.

The response to ‘The Sanitation Scribes' has been encouraging. One member from Pakistan regularly updates us on sanitation issues in his country. Now we are a team of journalists across South Asia who share information. While inducting new members I make sure the person is aware of the issue. Those who are unaware are initiated by being made to realize that it is an issue which is fundamental to all human beings.

Some of our members have never written about sanitation issues but patiently read our mails. We even have business journalists as members and I encourage them ponder over and write about the economics of sanitation. ‘The Sanitation Scribes' is a humble effort to bridge the gap between mainstream and marginalised issues in media and to multiply the breed of ‘Sanitation Journalists'.

(Teresa Rehman is a journalist based in Northeast India. She blogs at http://thesanitationscribes.blogspot.com )

Story in Urdu by Shabina Faraz, Pakistan

2010-06-23T22:37:00.001+05:30

2010-06-23T11:12:00.000+05:30

A novel method to shame the shameless in Tripura

Written by Teresa Rehman

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

A hilarious cartoon put up in a village square of a family found defecating in the complete with the names and addresses of the offenders. Well, this scenario is the reality for people in Tripura’s S.N. Colony Gram Panchayat. This novel method to shame people who s(p)oiled the village surroundings was part of a resolution passed in 2004 by the panchayat in S. N. Colony village in Jirania Rural Development Block in West Tripura district, 18 km from Agartala. The panchayat’s order worked and this village with 670 households was free from open defecation and was also awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar in 2005.

The brainchild of the then village headman Bijay Karmakar, the panchayat both amused and alarmed the villagers. It worked as nobody wanted to be caught and shamed in front of the entire village. “As part of the Total Sanitation campaign (TSC), we provided squatting plates to every family so that they did need to relieve themselves in the open. We then conducted an intensive campaign through public meetings and door-to-door meetings. But, I think the resolution to put up the poster was the real clincher,” Karmakar told Tehelka.

The authorities implementing the TSC were also bemused by this interesting step taken by the villagers which could, they felt, also strike the right emotional chord. Deepak Das, Additional Chief Engineer, Drinking Water and Sanitation department, Tripura feels that this campaign should also be replicated in other villages in Tripura. “People in Tripura were used to defecating in bore-hole latrines. Though it is open, at least it is in one fixed place. We are now trying to tell them about modern toilets,” says Das.

Convincing the masses in Tripura has not been difficult because the TSC is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the broader goal of eradicating open defecation. The TSC is a part of reform principles initiated in 1999 when the Central Rural Sanitation Programme was restructured, making it demand-driven and people centred.

The main goal of the Government of India is to eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2010. To give a fillip to this endeavour, the Government has launched the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) to recognize and give cash rewards to fully-covered PRIs and those individuals and institutions who have contributed significantly towards ensuring full sanitation coverage in their areas of operation. To put the spotlight on sanitation the UN General Assembly declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. The goal is to raise awareness and to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to reduce by half the 2.6 billion people without access to basic sanitation by 2015.

Talking about sanitation is a tricky affair. The fact that sanitation is a broad issue with implications for a variety of development areas was also stressed in the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation, recently held in Delhi. Chris Heymans, Regional Team Leader of the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank stated that there was a need to usher in a behavioural change among people which would not be possible by merely pumping in money and resources. Innovative and compelling techniques were called for. The Conference reiterated the need for local people to feel a sense of participation and also to not feel repulsed or intimidated by any plan.

This tiny village in Tripura is spearheading the campaign in a witty, innovative and effective manner. The state, with 1039 village panchayats has won 113 NGPs till date. The panchayat of S.N. Nagar, a Nirmal Gram Puraskar awardee has also been trying to impart lessons on health and hygiene to the villagers during satsangs in the local temple. “Almost everyone here comes for evening satsang or community prayer. We use this opportunity to create awareness among the people and tell them that defecating in the open causes diseases,” adds Karmakar.

The villagers have vigilance committees to keep an eye on people breaking the panchayat’s order. But this is one vigilance committee that does not have to work too hard. The “public caricature” resolution passed by the village panchayat at S.N. Nagar village has worked wonders: No poster of someone guilty of soiling the village surroundings and endangering public health has ever had to put up in the village square.

ends

2010-06-20T19:53:00.000+05:30

Staging Change

Government officials in Assam take to plays to raise awareness of the need for sanitation

TERESA REHMAN

A typical village school scene. The class-monitor checks the nails and teeth of his classmates. Just then the teacher walks in and takes stock of things. The teacher reprimands Jadu, a student, for failing to meet the cleanliness standards, and is sent home. A little later, Jadu’s mother storms in and questions the teacher. She says, “My son has not been keeping well for several days. I have had to consult several witch-doctors.”

A social worker who was passing by hears the commotion and stops at the school. And naturally inquisitive, school children ask the social workers various questions on sanitation and he answers them. The social worker asks Jadu’s mother whether she has a toilet at home. Jadu’s mother replies, “We don’t need a toilet. It’s the government’s job to build it for us. If they can provide Rs 1200 subsidy for the toilet costing Rs 1500, why can’t they spare the extra Rs 300? We would rather relieve ourselves in the bamboo grove in the backyard.”

The social worker then explains that the Rs 300 is to be paid by the beneficiary so that she feels a sense of responsibility towards the maintenance of the toilet. He cites the example of public toilets near the bus stand where nobody needs to keep it clean. “No wonder, in such unhygienic conditions, your son keeps falling sick,” he tells Jadu’s mother.

Interestingly, the social worker in the play titled Natak Nohoi (This is not a play) is Robin Chandra Das, an assistant executive engineer with the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Assam. Das has put together this innovative play, which has no written script and keeps changing from the place in which it is staged.

“We have few other staff members who assist me in staging the play. And in any locality, we often go hunting for local talent a few hours before the play is actually staged. We urge the women and children to participate in the play and once it is over, we hold an interactive session on sanitation. The humour in the play manages to strike the right emotional chord,” says Das.

The play is part of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation. TSC, as a part of reform principles, was initiated in 1999 when Central Rural Sanitation Programme was restructured making it demand-driven and people-centered.

And the response has been tremendous. H.A. Ahmed, Executive Engineer, PHED, Biswanath Chariali division of Sonitpur district in Assam is enthused at the participation of his officials. Ahmed says, “Sometimes we also involve the local cultural troupes of the area. And people throng to see the plays which manage to carry the message of sanitation to the masses in a more effective manner.” The play uses anecdotes like how even a cat covers its faeces but, we, human beings defecate in the open and spread infections.

The play also incorporates local dialects and even a few Assamese songs with the sanitation theme keeping the audience hooked. Another scene has a mother walking in with a boy who plays truant. The mother complains, “Earlier he used to skip school complaining of stomachache. But now that I have built a toilet at home with my savings, he cannot play around with the same excuse. Today, I heard something move. I thought that our neighbours had come out to defecate in the open but, instead, I saw my son perched on a tree near the bamboo grove.” She then explains to Jadu’s mother on the benefits of having a toilet at home and how it helps keep flies away.

In Assam, the PHED is responsible for ensuring safe hygiene through Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) as well as providing safe drinking water to all the schools located in rural areas. The play was conceptualised by the PHED officials as part of the Sanitation Week being organised in the state this year. The year 2008 has been declared the International Year of Sanitation which aims to address these challenges by raising awareness of the benefits of good hygiene and by helping to break the taboos about speaking out for changes in behaviour.

The School Sanitation and Hygiene Education, widely known as SSHE, is a comprehensive programme to ensure child-friendly water supply, toilet and hand washing facilities in the schools and promote behavioral change by hygiene education. The importance of SSHE was emphasised at the Third South Asia Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) held in Delhi from 16-21 November.

At present, the SSHE is implemented under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) and given special thrust by following the proven route of teacher-children-family-community where child is a change-agent playing an effective role on sustained basis to spread the message of improved sanitary and healthy practices.

The main goal of the GOI is to eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2010. To give fillip to this endeavour, GOI has launched Nirmal Gram Puraskar to recognise the efforts in terms of cash awards for fully covered PRI (Panchayat Raj Instituitions), and those individuals and institutions who have contributed significantly in ensuring total sanitary practices in their area of operation.

In the past two years, Assam has bagged eighteen Nirmal Gram Puraskars. Nareswar Kakati, Secretary, PHED, Assam told TEHELKA, “Our main target is to initiate behavioural change in the people using innovative means, paying special attention to whether they belong to the hilly terrain or the plains” The play is a small step in this direction but the sanitation campaign in Assam still has a long way to go.

ends