Source Bulletin 54

Published - 11 Nov 08

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Readers’ Opinion

Key sector people are occasionally giving readers’ opinion in the Source family of newsletters. Here you’ll find a collection of opinions. You are invited to provide a reaction by using the comment button at the bottom.

Why rural households in Assam are not interested to have sanitary latrines

I am Dr. Binoy Das regular reader of IRC’s Source Bulletin since its inception. My work in sanitation promotion started with UNDP Global Project in 1980, with UNICEF from 1987. I see five major reasons why rural households in Assam are not interested to have sanitary latrines by spending their own money. If it is given free, households may accept it but there is no guarantee that open defecation would end.

IRC moves back to The Hague

IRC is on the move. After almost a decade in Delft, sharing a building with UNESCO – IHE Institute for Water Education, the IRC team will move back to The Hague in mid December 2008.

Ghana: Presidential candidates quizzed about sanitation on prime time radio

Candidates for the Ghanaian presidential election scheduled for December 2008 answered questions on prime time radio about their sanitation plans if they are elected.

Providing toilets, safe water is top route to reducing world poverty: UN University

Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released [19 Oct 2008] by the United Nations University - International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

Hands-on campaign makes soap a “must-have” product in Ghana

Ghanaians use soap, and they buy a lot of it. However, the soap is almost all used for cleaning clothes, washing dishes and bathing. In a baseline study, 75 percent of mothers claimed to wash hands with soap after toilet use, but observation showed that only a third of mothers washed their hands at all and only 3 percent washed with soap.

Kyrk-Kyz or forty girls in Uzbekistan gain the courage for leadership

The wellbeing of rural people Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan depends on water supply, equitable water allocation, and wise gender-based water management.

From the GWA Secretariat

The Gender and Water Alliance has come to an important point in its existence. Of the five years of our second phase we have now completed three. This is a good time to reflect on what we have learnt and how we will apply this.

Cambodia Capacity Building focuses on Water Resources Planning

Officers from key Government agencies in Cambodia and stakeholders from local communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been sharing experiences in water resource development and management and learning how to apply lessons in the planning process.

Brazilian Road Show reaches all points of the compass

Project Road Show in Brasil has reached out to more than 580 members of 12 River Basin Committees from the north, south, east and west of the country with a view to developing greater cooperation.

Research partnership strengthens capacity building

Cap-Net and the International Foundation for Science (IFS) are celebrating five years of partnership during which they have helped numerous young professionals to develop research proposals. Now they are inviting more capacity networks to build research capacity towards sustainable water management.

Thank you

Cap-Net will no longer have a special section in Source Bulletin after this edition. We would like to thank IRC and others for sharing this platform for the last two years and our collaboration will continue in other areas.

Indonesia: Communities look to their own resources to keep benefits of low income project alive

"Working with a local team, I visited villages in Mojokerto (East Java) and Lombok Timur (West Nussa Tenggara) in August 2008 to evaluate the impact of the Water and Sanitation for Low Income Communities Project, identifying key issues for sustainability. Villages are still successfully managing their water services, and to a lesser extent their sanitation programmes several years after project completion but they have had to address a number of problems."

Honduras: Water support technicians learn to put their training to multiple use support

“Multiple-use services are all about changing perspectives. First, we would see someone irrigating some tomatoes, and we would say that he is wasting water. Now, we see the same situation, but from the perspective of the user, and we say that he is making a good and economic use of water”.

IRC 2000-2008: More focus on sustainability issues and poverty reduction

The work of IRC and its partners from 2000 to 2008 has focused more than ever before on sustainability issues and poverty reduction, as a result of a more integrated approach to water, sanitation, and hygiene programmes.

Lessons from inception phase WASHCost programme

Understanding of life-cycle unit costs is increasing in Ghana following the launch of the WASHCost programme. This was one of the achievements shared by the Ghana team at the end of nine months of inception work of the WASHCost programme which is also working in Andhra Pradesh (India), Burkina Faso and Mozambique.