Sanitation Updates

Kathmandu: This is summer time. This is the season of diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, jaundice and typhoid. But, hospitals in Kathmandu have been witnessing lesser number of dysentery, cholera, jaundice and typhoid patients during the past few summers. The only water-borne disease whose number of cases still keeps going up is diarrhoea.

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Dr. Mahendra Bahadur Bista, Director of Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Hospital said, “Eighty percent of the people who suffered from diarrhoea are found to be careless in matters of personal hygiene, drinking water, and food.” Bista said that lack of good water supply is the major problem in the present context. With the beginning of this year’s summer season, 183 cases of diarrhea have already been registered at Sukraraj Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku.

Director of Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) Bhushan Tuladhar said, “Lack of proper sanitation and carelessness about diarrhoea infection during the rainy season is leading to the increase in the number of diarrhea patients.”

Read more: Shreejana Shrestha, Kathmandu Post / NGO Forum, 11 May 2008

Ghorahi: A dalit [low caste] settlement in Aspari of Dhikapur-6 is becoming a model in the district in terms of sanitation. All the households in the settlement have constructed concrete toilets after the Drinking Water and Sanitation Division Office Dang provided loan assistance to construct toilets.

A local Sita Ram Bika said, “We used to defecate in roads and lanes only in the mornings or night due to financial crisis to construct toilet.” “We got great relief after construction of toilets. Now we can defecate whenever we like,” said Pyari Lal Bika, a local.

Read more: Rajdhani / NGO Forum, May 4, 2008

Hetauda: The Water Treatment Plant, constructed two years ago by Environment Area Assistance Programme (ESPS)* with financial aid worth Rs. 550 million from the Danish Government, is not in full operation. Only 15 per cent capacity of the treatment plant is under operation as some of the big industries producing wastewater in the industrial area are closed and some industries have not constructed underground sewerage to send their wastewater in the plant. Most of the industries connected with the plant produce little wastewater.

Read more: Kantipur / NGO Forum, 23 Apr 2008

* “Environment Sector Programme Support (ESPS) came to an end on 30 June 2005 as the government to goverment agreement expired. However, Danida confirmed its support for the operation and maintenance of Waste Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Air Quality Management (AQM) Components of ESPS in a sliding scale of 70%, 50% and 30% for their sustainability for the period of three years i.e. until February 2009″. [Source: Embassy of Denmark, Kathamandu]

KENDRAPARA, May 13: Ever heard of theft of a pucca house?

The sarpanch of backward Gangapada gram panchayat has alleged that concrete structured community latrines were stolen from the village.   (…)    “I was shocked to be informed that there is no physical trace of the recently built latrines. Thus I take it for granted that either theft has occurred or central grants spent for the purpose were gobbled up by the then PRI members. (…) “

Read all Statesman News Service

Lack of pit latrines and general toilet facilities in the northern regions of the country is likely to compromise health officials’ efforts in curbing cholera, a disease that has since early this year claimed more than 37 lives.

Regional Health Director for the Ohangwena Region Dr Naftali Hamata has said if no drastic measures are taken to address the situation, the affected areas should be prepared to have cholera cases every rainy season.

Since Friday, 1 406 suspected cholera cases were recorded in the Ohangwena Region with 17 confirmed laboratory cases and 19 deaths, Dr Hamata said.

Read More - New Era

The Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement Government would like as many villages as possible in Solomon Islands to have access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation during its term.

Prime Minister, Dr. Derek Sikua, made the statement while addressing villages he visited on North-East Guadalcanal during his current seven-day constituency tour.

Read More - Solomon Times Online

Jalilpur (Chandauli), May 12. In the era of gram pradhans owning palatial houses and zipping in snazzy MUVs, the head of this village lives in a rented house. And despite international renown, he has not even a cycle of his own.

Sri Prakash Singh (51) is a clutter-buster. Not just of this village 15 kms from Varanasi, but also for experts in at least 20 countries. And he is responsible for ushering in a revolution of total cleanliness and sanitation.

A science graduate, he has made Jalilpur of Chandauli globally famous by ensuring that every village in the house has a toilet.

Read More - expressindia

The implementation of a dengue control programme in Puerto Rico led to the discovery of previously unknown mosquito breeding sites underground. Research published in the March 2008 issue of Medical and Veterinary Entomology showed that large number of mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti), which transmit dengue fever to humans, were found to breed in septic tanks.

R. Barrera, M. Amador, A. Diaz, J. Smith, J. L. Munoz-Jordan, Y. Rosario (2008). Unusual productivity of Aedes aegypti in septic tanks and its implications for dengue control.
Medical and Veterinary Entomology ; vol. 22, no. 1 ; p. 62-69.

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Teaching children how to stay away from germs can be a powerful tool to help prevent some communicable diseases.

ABOUT 30 minutes into the interview with Cheng Chee Fong, director of a language enrichment centre for children, four-year-old Christopher poked his head into the room. Spotting me, a stranger, he veered a little towards us on his way out of the centre’s washroom trying to figure out what was going on.

But his curiosity did not make him forget to practise the proper hygiene habits ingrained into him by his teachers.

Stealing a glance at us, he picked up a tissue from a basket outside the washroom and wiped his hands, still dripping with water from washing, before throwing the tissue in a wastepaper basket and hurrying off to listen to his teacher tell the story of germs next door.

Read More - thestar