Source South Asia 2007, issue 2

Published - 19 Nov 07

South Asia - General

Asia-Pacific: Millennium Development Goals update

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.

South Asia: regional workshop adopts declaration on transparency in the water sector

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.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

Every village, every locality, every neighbourhood, every town should have a rain water harvesting scheme. Panchayats must be actively engaged in ground water recharge and the renovation and maintenance of water bodies.

Sharadah, female manual scavenger, India

When I first went to do this job I was 21 years old. I was so overwhelmed by the stench and smell that I felt sick and fainted, falling in the gutter.

Ratna Begum, school drop-out, Bangladesh

I did not enjoy going to school. The school was like a cowshed.

Afghanistan: UNHCR signs agreement on drinking water, NATO builds village water system

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) have signed an agreement, worth US$ 1.06 million to provide safe drinking water for some 66,000 Afghan returnees from Pakistan, Iran as well as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). On a smaller scale, the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has constructed a pipeline bringing drinking water to over 15,000 villagers in Dahana Ghori District, Baghlan province.

Bangladesh: “Not Latrinization, SANITATION” campaign

“Not Latrinization, SANITATION” is the slogan of a new campaign, launched by the NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation for total sanitation in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, Dhaka / Chittagong : donors pledge US$ 800 million for water and sanitation

Five donors have agreed to give US$ 800 million in loans for drinking water and sanitation projects. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank and Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) will fund projects in Dhaka, and the governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea in Chittagong.

Bhutan, Thimphu: city introduces solid waste management act

From 1 December 2007, environment inspectors will fine those who are caught littering and illegally dumping solid waste in and around the capital Thimphu (pop. 100,000). This follows the introduction, a month earlier, of the Thimphu Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules and Regulations 2007. Urinating and defecating within city limits are also offences covered by the new act.

India: Second International Learning Exchange programme on WASH

Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has observed that around 1,000 children died of diarrhoea every day in India, an average toll of 41 every hour. Singh said this during his address at the second International Learning Exchange programme on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

India, Chattisgarh: women hold key to accepting toilets

Getting the people in Chattisgarh - a state with a population of 18 million people and carved out of the larger Madhya Pradesh only seven years ago - to switch to indoor toilet use, abandoning age-old practices and taboos, presented a major challenge for officials implementing the government's total sanitation campaign (TSC) in India.

India: aiming to end open-air defecation by 2012

"By 2012, India will be free of defecation in the open and will meet international commitments in this regard," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad said at the World Toilet summit in New Delhi at the end of October 2007.

India, Kolkatta: shallow wells could provide drinking water to 50,000 households

Civic authorities say that the quality of water from shallow wells is good enough to provide drinking water to over 50,000 households. This would be especially welcome for the people in new settlements in east Calcutta, Behala and Jadavpur, which are not connected to the piped-water network.

Maldives: WHO helps draft National Master Plan on Water and Sanitation

The World Health Organization is helping the Maldives government draft a National Master Plan on Water and Sanitation focussing on assessment of access to drinking water and sanitation services, an assessment of the overall drinking water and sanitation sector and a framework for action.

Nepal: Community campaign helped control cholera

Cholera outbreak has become a yearly 'ritual' in Kathmandu and other parts of the country. This year a 'cholera and diarrhea outbreak control and monitoring' committee formed under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works conducted an awareness campaign that helped control cholera in the affected areas.

Nepal: UNICEF and government developing national sanitation plan

UNICEF and government bodies are working together to develop an Annual National Sanitation Investment and Delivery Plan to mark the International Year of Sanitation 2008.

Nepal, Kathmandu: lack of awareness about groundwater pollution

Most people in the Kathmandu Valley have to depend on groundwater to augment piped water supply, which meets less than 50 per cent of the demand. Not only is the groundwater being depleted but it is also being contaminated due to seepage from septic tanks.

Pakistan: funding incentive for Open Defecation Free movement

The Khushal Pakistan Fund has announced that funding of its US$ 200 million programme, being executed through the Rural Support Program (RSP), would be linked to achievement of Open Defecation Free (ODF) targets in their villages.

Pakistan, Islamabad: high-tech wastewater treatment plant, crumbling sewers

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is accused of failing to properly manage Islamabad’s sewer system. It opted for a “hugely over-priced French sewerage system” without first rehabilitating the crumbling sewerage lines, and without considering alternative decentralised sanitation options.

Sri Lanka: wastewater disposal and latrine leakage growing problems

In South Asia, Sri Lanka leads in terms of access to improved sanitation with 91 per cent coverage. But sanitation and hygiene are seen only as personal issues, and there is “no concern for the environment outside”.

Latin America: WSP and CARE build support for small-scale water and sanitation operators

Small-scale operators play a significant role in water service provision in Latin America, especially in the ever-growing urban concentrations in the region where the majority of the poor live.

Namibia: subsidising water for the poor

Water costs might soon be subsidised by Government for poor Namibians in urban and rural areas once a new development plan kicks off, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development said.

Dominican Republic: government adopts total community participation model

A pilot project carried out by local NGOs in nine communities has succesfully demonstrated to the government how to transfer the operation and management of small rural water systems to local control.

Pollution: world’s ten 'most polluted places' named

U.S.-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland, have announced their second annual Top Ten list of the world's most severely polluted places. The sites lie in seven countries and affect the health of more than 12 million people.

Sustainable development: network established to keep water and sanitation on international agenda

The Global Public Policy Network (GPPN) on Water Management is coordinating the participation of stakeholders (government, civil society and international organizations) in the preparation of the water and sanitation review at the May 2008 session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16).

Development goals: targeting the poor and coordination save children’s lives

The lives of millions of children could be saved by a coordinated global effort to improve nutrition and provide clean water, better sanitation and cleaner household fuels in developing countries, a new study finds. The reduction in childhood mortality can be maximised if the integrated management of the interventions prioritises the poor.

Sanitation: high return on investment says WaterAid report

The global return on investing in low-cost sanitation is projected at roughly US$ 9 for every US$ 1 spent, with even higher returns for universal coverage, says a new WaterAid report. Failure to implement the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water and sanitation would have an economic cost of around US$ 38 billion per year, with sanitation accounting for 92% of this value.

Jon Lane: new Executive Director WSSCC

Mr. Jon Lane has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). He succeeds Dr. Gourisankar Ghosh, who held the Executive Director position from 2001 to 2006.

End Water Poverty campaign: independent secretariat

The End Water Poverty (EWP) campaign managed by WaterAid, one of the founding members is currently discussing plans to develop an independent secretariat to manage the campaign into 2008 and beyond.

Water Integrity Network: staff changes

Jens Berggren, Manager of the Water Integrity Network (WIN) is leaving the WIN Secretariat. Dr. Manoj Nadkarni has recently joined WIN as their new Communication Coordinator.

Sara Ahmed: new Chairperson Gender and Water Alliance

The Steering Committee of the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) in her 11th meeting from 5-7 September 2007 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, elected Dr Sara Ahmed from India as their new Chairperson.

Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council receives Sulabh Global Sanitation Award

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council has received a Sulabh Global Sanitation Award in recognition of its “signal services to the disadvantaged people”.

Good Governance for Sustainable and Pro Poor WASH Services

Delft, The Netherlands, 04-13 February 2008

This course provides a broad overview of local governance for sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. It examines the different components of WASH services and what it means to operationalise local governance across these components.

Multimedia courses: groundwater management, fluoride mitigation, watershed principles, and earthen dams

The India Water Portal offers free multimedia courses on its web site for download or online viewing.

Privatisation policies: “economically flawed” says UN study

Policies promoting Private Sector Participation in developing countries’ water supply are economically flawed, research from the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development from 15 years of water and sanitation privatisation shows.

Water rights: access to water means access to education in the slums of Bangalore, India

Two Bangalore slum communities have asserted their rights to water so that their children can attend school and secure a better future. Key to this achievement was the legalisation of the slum dwellers and the involvement of women.

Avian flu: chlorination inactivates virus strain, says US study

A sub-type (H5N1) of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is “readily inactivated” by chlorination of drinking water, according to a new study.

Child survival: housing, safe water and sanitation critical factors in urban Bangladesh

A recent study on rural-urban migration and child survival in urban Bangladesh shows that housing conditions and access to safe drinking water and hygienic toilet facilities are the most critical determinants of child survival in urban areas, even after controlling for migration status.

Arsenic: folic acid can cut blood levels, Bangladesh study shows

Folic acid, a low-cost nutritional supplement, can cut drastically arsenic levels in the blood of people who have suffered long-term exposure to the poison in groundwater, a new study in Bangladesh has found. Folic acid enhanced the detoxification of arsenic to a form that could be more easily excreted in urine.

Arsenic: over-pumping may lead to contamination of previously safe aquifers in West Bengal, India

From a study of groundwater flow in West Bengal, researchers have concluded that extensive pumping, which started in the 1970s, may have resulted in arsenic contamination of previously safe aquifers.

Open source: Akvo.org, a “Wikipedia and eBay for water”

Akvo.org is a project presented at the 2007 Stockholm World Water Week that aims to be an open source wiki and set of collaboration and finance tools that pool existing knowledge on water and sanitation for the poor. A prototype web site has been developed.

Handwashing: new water-saving technology introduced in Rwanda

Minisante, the Ministry of Health of Rwanda, is promoting the Canacla, a new individual and public hand-washing technology, that is more hygienic than normal taps and also uses much less water.

Microfinance: eBay launches MicroPlace, money transfer by mobile phone

On 24 October 2007, online auction giant eBay launched its new MicroPlace web site where investors from the USA can lend as little as US$ 50 to small business owners around the globe. Western Union and GSM Association have announced a service deal that will allow customers to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency cross-border money transfers via mobile phones.

India: USAID signs agreement with India Infrastructure Initiative on urban water and sanitation

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the India Infrastructure Initiative (III) have signed an agreement for promoting development of new water and sanitation systems in cities across India through public-private partnerships.

Human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation

This report reviews international human rights obligations related to the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation. It discusses their scope and content, nature and monitoring, and points to areas needing further elaboration.

Making anti-corruption approaches work for the poor

This paper aims to raise awareness of the need for greater attention to the poor in the development of anti-corruption strategies.

Infrastructure for all

This guide aims to provide an awareness of gender issues for engineers, technicians and project managers who want to ensure that the infrastructure and services they provide are suitable for the whole of society.

Roofwater harvesting : a handbook for practitioners

This handbook covers all aspects of low-cost Domestic Roofwater Harvesting (DRWH) in the humid tropics.

Towards effective programming for WASH in schools

This manual is an update of the earlier, popular manual entitled Towards better programming : a manual on school sanitation and hygiene education, published by UNICEF and IRC in 1998. It contains many examples, most of which are drawn from a UNICEF-IRC pilot study for School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) carried out in six countries (Burkina Faso, Colombia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Zambia).