Thailand, Bangkok: struggling to clear garbage in flood crisis

Garbage piled up on a flooded street in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Getty Images / WSJ

Industrial parks in Bangkok are being threatened after residents in Bangkok’s northeast demolish government-built levies to release the stagnant, garbage-ridden water that was building up in their neighbourhoods, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Flooded roads are preventing garbage collectors getting to many areas—raising fears over the risk of disease and over the blockage of drains, which is impeding the flow of water into the sea. Bangkok produces about 8,700 tons of rubbish a day—roughly a quarter of Thailand’s total. Added to that figure is the additional trash flowing into the city from northern provinces.

Harnessing the wisdom of crowds – Open discussion forum helps to answer many sanitation related questions

The idea for this open discussion forum on sanitation came from our experience that when you want to buy a new car or have a question about your baby’s teeth: where do you get advice from? You put your question into a search engine like Google and you end up reading other people’s postings on a discussion forum. Usually, those questions and answers prove to be very helpful.

The same mechanism can hold true for a discussion forum on sanitation issues. This is why the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) secretariat developed a new discussion forum which was launched in July 2011. The forum is open –  as opposed to some existing closed fora which require a login even just for reading. Today, the SuSanA forum already has 930 registered users, 40 topics, nearly 1000 views for the most popular topics, and some topics have attracted up to 20 replies.

All postings are readable by everyone and searchable by search engines like Google and Yahoo. A broad range of topics are covered such as sanitation systems and technologies, health and hygiene, CLTS, school sanitation, sanitation systems for special conditions, menstrual hygiene management, SuSanA working groups and announcements and many more.

All registered users can contribute to the forum by creating new discussion topics or by responding to the posts of others. The option to create a user profile, including a passport-style photo, is available. The user can also attach additional documents and photos to his or her posts.

For people who like to receive postings via e-mail, it is also possible to subscribe to a daily e-mail alert service of new posts simply by leaving your e-mail address here. Alternatively or in addition, one can subscribe to specific categories or topics after logging in and thereby follow specific discussions.

Here are four examples of very active discussion threads so far:

• Faecal sludge management;
• Mobile sanitation systems like peepoo bags in Kenya or a new urine diversion toilet pot in Bangladesh;
• Menstrual Hygiene Management, including the Ruby Cup business idea in Kenya;
• Progress of SuSanA working groups:

To view the discussion forum or to obtain your own login for writing on the forum, please click here.

For further information or questions please contact the SuSanA secretariat (susana@giz.de)

WASHplus Weekly – WASH and Humanitarian Assistance

This WASHplus Weekly contains 2010 and 2011 resources about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues in disaster or emergency situations. Please contact WASHplus if you have new or upcoming resources to add to this for future issues. Some of the resources in this Weekly include updates of WHO technical notes for WASH in emergencies, the 2011 SPHERE manual on WASH standards, links to USAID and other relevant websites.

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UNESCO-IHE and partners get US$ 8 million Gates grant for urban sanitation education and research

UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and partners have been awarded a US$ 8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will be used for postgraduate sanitation education and research with a focus on solutions for the urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. This 5-year capacity building and research project was developed by Prof. Damir Brdjanovic, Professor of Sanitary Engineering at UNESCO-IHE and his team.

“This is probably the largest research and postgraduate education project targeting sanitation for the urban poor ever conducted,” Prof. Brdjanovic said.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this grant when they unveiled their new sanitation strategy at the 2011 AfricaSan 3 conference in Kigali, Rwanda on 19 July 2011.

Jay Graham/USAID – Photos from Haiti

WASH in Haiti by Jay Graham 

Photos highlight two organizations – SOIL and Deep Springs International – working in earthquake affected areas

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Tunisia-Libya border: UNICEF sets up sanitation facilities at transit camps

UNICEF is covering the sanitation needs for more than 7,000 people who have fled the violence in Libya and find shelter in transit camps in southern Tunisia. The refugees first get registered in Ataawan transit camp, where they spend the night before moving on to Shousha camp.

Hygiene kits are being distributed in the camp and messages are also being prepared to raise awareness of good sanitation and hygiene practices, such as hand-washing.

UNICEF WASH Specialist Ahmedou Ould Sidi Ould Bahah is working at the border, assessing sanitation facilities including latrines, showers and water tanks in the Ataawan and Shousha transit camps.

He meets daily with national partners and volunteers, and liaises with the local municipality of Ben Guardane to ensure septic tanks are cleared in a timely manner.

A total of 632 latrines have been set up by UNICEF and partners at the camp, and more are being constructed.

Trucks are currently providing safe drinking water to Shousha but the drilling of a borehole at the camp is being considered to address water supply issues during the upcoming hot season.

Source: Roshan Khadivi, UNICEF, 30 Mar 2011

Japan: post-disaster water and sanitation problems

 

Survivors at a shelter in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, in north-east Japan, after the earthquake and tsunami struck. Photo: Reuters

Millions of people in Japan’s devastated northeast are without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures. Access to water in the tsunami affected areas is a concern due to water contamination and salination. An estimated 1.4 million households in 14 Prefectures have no access to water, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Four days after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on 11 March 2001, some 550,000 people have been evacuated and at least 10,000 are expected to have died.

“People are exhausted both physically and mentally,” said Yasunobu Sasaki, the principal of a school converted into a shelter in Rikuzentakata, a nearly flattened village of 24,500 people in far-northern Iwate prefecture.

There was not enough food for three meals a day and no heating, he said. Sanitation was a also problem. His shelter has fewer than 10 temporary toilets and several makeshift wooden toilets with a hole in the ground.

“That’s not enough for the around 1,800 people here,” he said.

The Turkish Red Crescent, Switzerland Humanitarian Aid Response Team, Canadian Medical Assistance Team, Save the Children and Plan International are providing technical assistance.

Source: Yoko Kubota, Reuters / Alertnet, 14 Mar 2011 ; OCHA Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Situation Report No. 3, 14 Mar 2011

New Zealand, Christchurch earthquake: emergency water and sanitation measures

New Zealand army troops take water from the sea to desalinate. Photo: New Zealand Defence Force

Water and power services are gradually being restored in the city of Christchurch, three days after it was hit by an earthquake, leaving 103 people dead and 228 listed as missing.

Seventy-five per cent of earthquake-ravaged Christchurch now has power and 40 per cent has water but authorities are still warning people to conserve and boil it before drinking.

If water was available and there were no sewage flows appearing near the house, residents could flush toilets sparingly but should continue to avoid showering, the authorities said.

Otherwise residents were advised to dig a hole of reasonable depth, bury their waste and not put it out for the kerbside collection. Scrupulous hygiene should be observed to avoid the spread of disease.

There are 200 portaloos in the city now and 900 should be set up in the next few days, the council said.

Source: Stuff.co.nz, 25 Feb 2011

Haiti: unarmed in the fight against cholera, death toll passes 500

Cholera prevention poster in Haiti. In reality clean water, sanitation and nearby health clinics are absent in most rural communities. Photo: PAHO

Safe water and sanitation, vital tools to combat the current cholera epidemic, are absent in most communities  in Haiti, reports IRIN. The death toll rose to 501 on 6 November 2010, up from 442 on 3 November, and hospitalisations for cholera totaled 7,359, up from 6,742.

Haiti is one of the few countries in the world where both urban and rural sanitation coverage has steadily decreased between 1990 and 2008, according to the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, March 2010).

Historical legacies of inequality, corruption, and extreme poverty all contribute to the Haitian government’s systemic inability to deliver safe water and sanitation.

Haiti: cholera toll tops 200, all affected families to receive WASH packages

People receive rehydration serum in the parking lot of the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti. (Dieu Nalio Chery/Associated Press)

The number of deaths in Haiti’s cholera outbreak has risen to 208 and the number of confirmed cases to 2,646 in the Artibonite and Central departments. There were five confirmed cases of cholera in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Humanitarian organisations working in the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) sector have agreed to distribute WASH supplies for 100 per cent of affected households. The package for a family of 5 for one week will contain 5 bars of soap, water purification tablets to ensure 40 liters of water per day per family, and 10 rehydration salt sachets. The WASH Cluster is collaborating with the Haitian water and sanitation directorate (DINEPA).