Sanitation Updates

LONDON, April 14

A British-based charity is calling on the Group of Eight summit in Japan later this year to agree to take a global action plan meant to improve water supply and sanitation. WaterAid believes the G-8 summit in Hokkaido in July is the ”last best shot” for raising the issue — which is often overlooked by the aid community, activists say.

The charity wants the G-8 major powers to include the plan in a joint declaration by their leaders, which would see a global taskforce set up to examine progress on sanitation and look at ways of overcoming regional failures.  

(…)     One tactic the group is using is to show how dramatic increases in the standards of public health across East Asia resulted from improved sanitation. On the action plan, Northover said he preferred countries to come up with plans outlining what they need to improve sanitation rather than having specific funding targets and just pumping money into nations from the center. According to the charity, it would cost an extra $10 billion each year until 2015 to reach the Millennium Development Goal. WaterAid is keen to see an increase in budgets to address this problem but the funding needs to be properly targeted.

Kyodo News, Japan

A speech by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation.

Let me go straight to the point. An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s population lives without one of the basic amenities of modern life: a toilet.

This means that 2.6 billion people are forced to relieve themselves in open spaces - in fields, forests, bushes, water bodies, or a patch of mud. This is a degrading way of life, and this is a form of environmental degradation with direct and dramatic consequences for health.

Lack of sanitation breeds the so-called diseases of filth. These are diseases caused by the faecal contamination of food, water, or soil, or spread by flies that feed on filth.

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The shamefully weak presence of the health sector in advocating for improved access to water and sanitation is incomprehensible and completely short-sighted. Children who benefit from the huge international effort and financial and human resources spent on immunisation and bednet distribution still have a strong chance of dying from diarrhoeal illnesses—the second biggest killer of children under 5 years. Yet the global health community is standing aside, absolving itself of responsibility, and firmly passing the buck to the water and sanitation sectors. The health sector could, and should, be a powerful voice in lobbying governments, and demanding that donors give more funding to water and sanitation, just as it has done, with some success, in advocating for access to essential medicines.

The complete Lancet editorial - March 29, 2008

The garbage and animal waste produced in the Central Zoo of Kathmandu is being composted and sold as fertiliser.  The Nepal Pollution Control and Environment Management Centre (NEPCEMAC) sells packets of 1, 5 and 25 kg at Rs. 20 [21 Euro cents = 32 US dollar cents] per kg. The zoo produces 9 tons of garbage every month.

Read more: Kantipur / NGO Forum, 13 Mar 2008

OTTAWA, March 20 /CNW Telbec/ - On the eve of World Water Day (March 22), a coalition of Canadian organizations concerned about the global sanitation
crisis is calling on the Canadian government to make investment in sanitation
and water a foreign aid priority. In an open letter sent to Minister of
International Cooperation Beverley Oda, Sanitation & Water Action Network
(SWAN) Canada called for increased investment in sanitation as a way to save
lives, strengthen economies, and fight poverty around the globe.

Read More - Newswire

Lack of sanitation facilities forces people to defecate in the open, in rivers or near areas where children play or food is prepared. This increases the risk of transmitting disease. The Ganges river in India has 1.1 million litres of raw sewage dumped into it every minute, a startling figure considering that one gram of faeces in untreated water may contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts and 100 worm eggs.

Read More - WHO

ISLAMABAD: The diarrhoeal diseases are costing Pakistan Rs 55 billion to Rs 84 billion annually, as 91 million population – 74 million in rural areas and 17 million in urban areas – lack access to improved sanitation in the country, said Caretaker Minister for Environment Syed Wajid Ali Bukhari on Tuesday.

He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of International Year of Sanitation (IYS 2008).

Bukhari said 1.5 million under-five children died every year in the world due to diarrhoea, of which 88 percent deaths were due to lack of sanitation and adequate water.

Read More - Daily Times

Poverty and Sanitation: An Analysis of the Linkage between Poverty and Basic Sanitation in Honduras, Water Sanitation Program, 2008.

This document presents an analysis of poverty levels mong rural and urban households of Honduras and their access to sanitation solutions. It identifies key spects for improving services and contributing to ector policies, strategies and investment plans that arget the poor. The analysis is based on a broad eview of available documentation and data.

This study shows that the low income population in Honduras is mainly rural (74%) and that the rest resides in urban areas (26%). The highest levels of access to sanitation services in cities corresponds to household connections to piped sewerage networks, but this option mainly serves the non-poor. Only 31% f the moderately poor and 12% in extreme poverty in urban areas have achieved access to sewerage networks.

Link to the report (pdf)

 BALI, Indonesia, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) — Four countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have suffered 9 billion U.S. dollars economic loss annually due to poor implementation of sanitation, about 2 percent of their combined GDP, a recent study conducted by the World Bank has said.

The study said that Indonesia, the biggest Southeast Asia economy, had suffered the most losses of 6.3 billion U.S. dollar per year.

Indonesia has struggled to save its state budget from the impact of the global economic slowdown, soaring oil price and commodities, as well as high inflation pressure. The government has planned to widen the budget deficit from 1.7 percent of the GDP or 73.3 trillion rupiah (about 7.97 billion U.S. dollars) to 2percent of the GDP or 83.7 trillion rupiah (some 9.1 billion U.S. dollars).

Read More -  China View

Expert reports indicate that countries worldwide are failing to invest in sanitation, a sector that yields $9 worth of benefits for every $1 spent. 2008 is the UN’s international year of sanitation, did you know that? Well here are some statistics!

Meeting the global sanitation goal which is to halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 would cost a whopping $39 billion, but yield $347 billion worth of benefits.

n 2006, tourism generated approximately US$ 6,477 billion of economic activity, accounting for 10.3% of global Gross Domestic Product and 234 million jobs worldwide (8.7 % of total employment).

This high revenue is closely linked to good sanitation levels. Health, safety and comfort standards as well as aesthetic considerations heavily influence the choice of a holiday destination. This is according to information from the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), Switzerland.

Read More -  allAfrica