South Asia - General
Asia-Pacific: water summit focuses on water governance, climate change and knowledge management
15 Jan 08
Leaders from over 36 countries met at the 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Beppu, Japan from 3-4 December 2007. In their “Message from Beppu” participants re-affirmed their commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for water supply and sanitation
Asia: cautious optimism about water future in ADB-commissioned report
04 Dec 07
The 2007 Asia Water Development Outlook (AWDO) is cautiously optimistic about the region’s water future. If a crisis occurs this will be due to inadequate or inappropriate water governance, and not physical scarcity of water. The AWDO introduces the Index of Drinking Water Adequacy (IDWA).
South Asia: regional workshop adopts declaration on transparency in the water sector
20 Nov 07
A three-day regional workshop on transparency in the water sector, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during 3-5 November 2007, has called for the effective control of corruption.
Asia-Pacific: Millennium Development Goals update
06 Nov 07
In the Asia-Pacific region the average drinking water coverage is 76 per cent in rural areas, which is higher than in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region as a whole is on track for this indicator largely because of rapid progress in India which has reached 83 per cent.
Asia: sanitation must get top priority, says ADB
21 Sep 07
Many Asian countries face huge financial costs to clean up the environment because of a lack of investment in sanitation. The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) has launched a call to action “Dignity, Disease and Dollars”, focusing on better facilities, disease prevention and financial viability of sanitation services.
Asia: Head of States should understand the importance of water
10 Sep 07
"Water covers all aspects of human activities. Therefore the water is not only the problem of Water Ministers"".
Asia: ADB, UN body make joint statement to help Asia's poor get better access to water, sanitation
12 Jun 07
In an effort to improve access to clean water and adequate sanitation for the poor, the Asian Development Bank and the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation issued a joint statement on 1 June to collaborate in promoting the efficient management of Asia’s water resources and bolstering investments in safe and sustainable sanitation.
South Asia: regional strategic planning for mainstreaming gender in IWRM
01 Jun 07
As part of its regionalisation strategy, the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) is organising regional strategic planning workshops on gender mainstreaming. The first GWA South Asia Regional Workshop, held in January 2007 in Kathmandu, Nepal, focussed on building a collective Vision and Action Plan for strategising gender mainstreaming in integrated water resource management (IWRM) in the region.
South Asia: Lifebuoy sells handwashing along with bars of soap
01 Jun 07
Unilever sells 2.6 billion bars of Lifebuoy soap every year across Asia and Africa and is the market leader in every Asian country where it is sold. It stimulates sales by training women in remote villages to become distributors and uses social marketing to promote hygiene education.
Asia: key issues in development of water and sanitation infrastructure, ADB findings
27 Apr 07
A new report provides an overview of general trends in the Asian Development Bank’s infrastructure operations in the Asia and Pacific region and compiles infrastructure statistics. In 2004, only 81% of the region’s total population had access to improved water source, only about 45%, or 1.5 billion people, had access to improved sanitation.
