Sanitation Updates

You visit a fancy bar. You go to the toilet. As you wash your hands, a man passes over some nice paper towels. He seems to expect a tip. Welcome to one of the UK’s grimmest workplaces.

At 10pm on a Friday, among the drinkers gathering in pubs and bars around the country, Samuel arrives for work.

He unpacks his bottles of soap and cologne, unfolds a chair with a leopard-skin print on the seat, and lays out a silver plate, loading it with half a dozen pound coins.

For the next five hours he will stand guard in the gents’ toilets of a pub in a fashionable district of north London, dispensing paper towels and friendly banter, while subtly manoeuvring punters towards the tips plate. Chances are that later on he will be sworn at; he might face physical aggression. He will probably take home less than £50.

Read More - BBC News

Pupils from a Belfast primary school have been taking part in an innovative project organised by the British Red Cross to mark World Water Day today.

Children from Strandtown Primary have been keeping water diaries detailing each time they have used or come across water during a typical day.

The pupils will compare their diaries with ones completed by schoolchildren in Cambodia where the British Red Cross supports water and sanitation work in schools.

Read More - Belfast Telegraph

With World Water Day being celebrated on 20 March, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) urged governments, businesses and NGOs alike to step up efforts to reduce uncontrolled dumping of waste in rivers - in both poor and rich nations.

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“Sanitation, human health and the environment are inextricably linked. Adequate water supply and sanitation means a clean environment and healthy people,” said Ger Bergkamp, head of IUCN’s Water Programme.

Read More - EurActiv

Bonn, 19.03.2008. Welthungerhilfe is calling for greater measures to improve sanitation and hygiene facilities in international development projects as well as emergency aid. “This isn’t a popular subject,” explains Martin Wolff, Welthungerhilfe’s Programme Manager for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, “but installing latrines and raising hygiene awareness are essential if people’s health is to improve in developing countries.” In its project countries, Welthungerhilfe makes sure that those who benefit from water installations and sanitary facilities are also those who maintain, repair and administer the amenities.

Read More - Reuters

Improving water supply and sanitation in poor countries is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and reducing poverty. What lessons to help meet this challenge can be learnt from a recent survey of water and sanitation in Kazakhstan?

Research from the University of Nottingham in the UK and the United Nations Development Programme in Kazakhstan reports the findings of a water and sanitation survey carried out in Kazakhstan in 2005.

Target ten of Goal seven of the MDGs is to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, compared with the situation in 1990. Access to clean water and proper sanitation will also be central to meeting MDG targets on reducing poverty and infant mortality.

However, concerns have been raised over the way Target 10 is measured and monitored. The researchers use information from the Kazakhstan survey, which was designed to assess the current level of access to clean water and to provide a baseline for Target 10, to explore some of these concerns.

Read More - id21 Urban Development

A national organisation that supports water and sanitation projects in developing countries is celebrating a move to Loughborough University today (12 March).Partners for Water and Sanitation (PAWS) was established in 2002 in response to the United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation by 2015.

It is a network of UK organisations that work, on a voluntary basis, to help improve access to safe water and sanitation for people living in Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa. PAWS members come from Government, the private sector and civil society, and include water companies, consultancies, development non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Government departments and agencies, law firms and trade unions, as well independent consultants. It is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID).

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The proclamation of 2008 as International Year of Sanitation (IYS) has handed the sanitation sector a great advocacy tool. However, big advocacy drives can also disrupt daily life on the ground, where projects need to be implemented and people connected to basic services. Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) Coordinators from Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan and Burkina Faso were asked about their thoughts regarding the IYS, and its impact on the ground.

Read more: Source Bulletin, Feb 2008

Dr. Håkan Jönsson from the Stockholm Environment Insititute’s (SEI) EcoSanRes Programme receives this award for his work on the development of sustainable sanitation systems in Sweden and abroad. The prize, a travel grant and a diploma, will be presented during the National Conference on Wastewater and Recycling on March 4-5 in Linköping, Sweden

Read more: Avloppsguiden.se, 12 Feb 2008

The United Nations have declared 2008 the “International Year of Sanitation”. In some EU member states almost 40% of the population do not have access to safe sanitation. More than 20 million Europeans depend on unsafe sanitation such as pit latrines, soak aways and drains, which result in high morbidity, even mortality, especially among children.

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Programme Organiser: The EcoSanRes Programme at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

The programme has three parts: a 3-week course in Sweden, a period between courses for project work back home, and a 2-week course in the region. The language requirement is English. Costs are covered by Sida. The deadline for applications from Africa and Latin America is 1 April 2008. The deadline for applications from Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia is 1 May 2008.

ITP 99a “Ecological Alternatives in Sanitation” - for Africa and Latin America:

• For all Africa and Latin America participants: a 3-week course in Sweden from 11-29 August 2008
• For Africa participants: a 2-week course in South Africa in February 2009
• For Latin America participants: a 2-week course in Mexico in March 2009

ITP 99b “Ecological Alternatives in Sanitation” - for Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia:

• For all Asia and Eastern Europe and Central Asia participants: a 3-week course in Sweden from 15 September - 3 October 2008
• For Asia participants: a 2-week course in Asia in April 2009
• For Eastern Europe and Central Asia participants: a 2-week course in the Ukraine in May 2009

Full information