WSA signs up with Malaysian firm for technical support on sanitation

Water Sanitation for Africa (WSA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian firm Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd for technical know-how and consultancy services in sewerage management in African countries.

WSA selected Indah Water “to be in a technical committee formed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to propose immediate, medium- and long-term solutions for sanitation services in WSA member countries”. In 2011-2012 WSA received three Gates Foundation grants totalling US$ 7.2 million, one of which to develop sanitation financing models for urban poor and another to set an African Sanitation Think Tank.

Chief Executive Officer Datuk Abdul Kadir Mohd Din said that the Gates Foundation “had sent a team of wastewater experts from the United States to visit Indah Water after visiting the African continent and Asean countries”.

Indah Water is Malaysia’s national sewerage company. In 1994, the Federal Government awarded the company the concession for nationwide sewerage services which before were the responsibility of local authorities.

Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA) is a Pan African Inter-governmental Agency based in Burkina Faso, previously known as the African Regional Centre for Water and Sanitation (CREPA). WSA has a presence in 32 African countries.

Source: Bernama, 16 May 2013

Request for Proposals: “GSF Mid-Term Evaluation Consulting Services”

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) has specified in its Medium Term Strategic Plan 2012-2016 that all programmes funded by WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) are subject to independent mid-term and five-year evaluations. These evaluations are aligned with the overall GSF financing mechanism, which is based on a five-year programme cycle.

Therefore, WSSCC is now calling for proposals by 7 June 2013 for “GSF Mid-Term Evaluation Consulting Services”. For more information about the consultancy, please click on this link:

http://www.wsscc.org/about-us/jobs

The mid-term evaluations of GSF programmes in ten countries will be clustered in two batches of five countries in 2013 and 2014/2015 respectively. The assignment covers design and implementation of the mid-term evaluations as well as analysis, consolidation and dissemination of findings as per the Terms of Reference.

As of 31 March 2013, the GSF programmes are implemented in ten countries: Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. In addition, programme preparation is on-going in another six countries; Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Pakistan and Togo. Sanitation and hygiene awareness-raising and promotion activities in the first ten countries with GSF programmes has resulted in 1.4 million people having improved toilets, and more than 1 million people in nearly 4,000 communities who are now living in open defecation free environments.

Kiribati’s North Tarawa declared first open defecation free island in the Pacific

Everyone on North Tarawa now has access to improved sanitation. Photo: ABC Radio Australia / UNICEF Pacific.

North Tarawa in Kiribati is the first island in the Pacific to be declared open defecation free, thanks to the “Kiriwatsan I Project”. The Ministry of Public Works is implementing this project with technical support from UNICEF and funding from the European Union.

North Tarawa is made up of a string of islets with a combined population of 6,102 (2010) and a land area of 15.26 sq.km.  Previously about 64 per cent of people used the beaches and mangroves for defecation and dumping their rubbish.

UNICEF spokeswoman Nuzhat Shahzadi says that diarrhoeal diseases cause 15 per cent of the deaths of children under five in Kiribati.

In March 2013, North Tarawa adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach following a training of trainers course conducted by Dr Kamal Kar. The CLTS pioneer wrote that he had convinced Kiribati President Anote Tong to set December 2015 as the target date for the whole nation to become open defecation free.

The villagers of North Tarawa dig shallow pits and use local materials like brick and coconut leaves to build the toilet superstructure. They keep water and soap in one corner. After using the toilet, the villagers sprinkle ash to stop the smell and flies getting in, and then keep it covered.

Ms Shahzadi said that the women and girls were very happy that no longer have to go out on the beach in the middle of the night if they need to use the toilet.

Source: UNICEF, 11 May 2013 ; Radio New Zealand International, 13 May 2013 ; ABC Radio Australia, 14 May 2013

UNICEF launches groundbreaking cholera toolkit

To tackle the alarming resurgence of cholera, UNICEF has launched a new comprehensive Cholera Toolkit on 15 May 2013.

The toolkit launch [...] will be the culmination of a thorough review of existing guidance and global consultation with UNICEF at all levels and from all divisions in Africa, along with main partners in the fight against cholera, such as the World Health Organization as the lead agency.

There are 3-5 million cholera cases each year, killing 100,000 to 120,000 people, half of whom are children under 5 years old. Only 5-10% of cases are reported. In Western and Central Africa, there were more than 80,000 cases of cholera in 2012 resulting in nearly 1,500 deaths.

The Toolkit provides the health and WASH sectors an integrated approach to cholera prevention, preparedness and response. In addition it includes specific content linked to education, nutrition, communication for development (C4D), child protection and other relevant sectors.

UNICEF Cholera Kit, p. 41

“What the toolkit does is harvest the best and most up-to-date knowledge in the field and brings it together in one location,” said UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera. “It looks at the evidence. It looks at practices that have produced results.”

Download the Toolkit at: www.unicef.org/cholera

Related websites:

• WHO – Cholera
• CDC – Cholera
• MSF Field Research – Cholera

Source: UNICEF, 15 May 2013

 

 

May #MENSTRAVAGANZA – WASH United’s menstrual hygiene campaign

“If women can have moustaches we can all talk about menstruation”. With this message WASH United kicked off May MENSTRAVAGANZA, a 28-day campaign to raise awareness and break the silence around menstruation and menstrual hygiene.

Messages are posted on the campaign website:
wash-united-may-menstravaganza.tumblr.com and
on Twitter using hashtag #MENSTRAVAGANZA

India, Bihar: rapes ’caused by lack of toilets’

Map showing frequency & severity of violence against
women in Bhalswa slum, Delhi. Shirley Lennon/SHARE.

The lack of safe toilets for women and girls is often linked to an increased risk of sexual harassment and rape. Earlier studies [1] from Kenya, Uganda and India, and now a recent BBC news item are some of the few sources to actually quantify this risk.

Senior police official Arvind Pandey from the Indian state of Bihar told the BBC that 400 women would have “escaped” rape in 2012 if they had toilets in their homes. The rapes take place when women go outside to defecate early in the morning and late evening. These “sanitation-related” rapes make up nearly half of the more than 870 cases of rape in Bihar in 2012.

The BBC news item lists three specific cases:

• On 5 May, an 11-year-old girl was raped in Mai village in Jehanabad district when she was going to the field at night
• On 28 April, a young girl was abducted and raped when she had gone out to defecate in an open field in Kalapur village in Naubatpur, 35km (21 miles) from the state capital, Patna
• On 24 April, another girl was raped in similar circumstances on a farm in Chaunniya village in Sheikhpura district. She told the police that two villagers had followed and raped her. One of them has been arrested

In Bihar , 75.8% of homes have no toilet facilities (Census 2011). Some 49% of the households without a toilet wanted one for “safety and security” for women and children, according to a study by Population Service International (PSI),   Monitor Deloitte and Water for People.

[1] Heise, L., 2013. Danger, disgust and indignity : women’s perception of sanitation in informal settlements. Powerpoint presented at “Making connections: Women, sanitation and health”, 29 April 2013, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Video version available at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS9ulpJqh7s

Related news:

• Request for Proposals: The effects of poor sanitation on women and girls in India, Sanitation Updates, 07 Mar 2013
• India, Delhi: how sexual violence against women is linked to water and sanitation, E-Source, 27 Mar 2012

Source: Amarnath Tewary, BBC, 09 May 2013

 

Sri Lanka: new partnership tackles fecal sludge management

Septage disposal. Sri Lanka/Nuwara Eliya sanitation project, 2008, Photo: Flickr/USAID.

An international research institute is helping the government of Sri Lanka to improve septage management in the country.

On 8 May 2013, the Colombo-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides a collaborative framework for sustainable septage management in Sri Lanka.

IWMI will contribute research data for the drafting of a septage management component of the national sanitation policy. The Ministry will lead implementation of the policy through an advisory committee headed by Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

Only about 3% of Sri Lankans have a sewerage connection while the rest rely on latrines and septic tanks for sanitation. Safe disposal of septage (fecal sludge) is a problem because of a lack of treatment facilities in large parts of the country.

IWMI is studying a new approach in cities around the world, which treats the sludge so that it can be safely reused as agricultural fertiliser. With the rising costs of imported fertiliser, such an approach would not only benefit farmers but also allow better sanitation and environmental protection for all.

Related news:

• The business of the honey-suckers in Bengaluru (India), E-Source, 27 Sep 2012
• WASHplus Weekly: Focus on Fecal Sludge Management, Sanitation Updates, 30 Nov 2012

Related web sites:

• IWMI - Resource Recovery and Re-use
• Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage
• SuSanA - WG 5 – Food security and productive sanitation systems and Library – Fecal sludge management

 Source: IWMI, 8 May 2013