Sanitation Updates

Warning that a global water and sanitation crisis was looming, development experts and Government and civil society representatives called for accelerated action on water-management issues in general, and sanitation in particular, as the Commission on Sustainable Development devoted a second full day to reviewing water and sanitation decisions taken at its thirteenth session.

Also today, Commission Chairperson Francis Nhema of Zimbabwe introduced part I of his summary of the Commission’s work during the sixteenth session, which runs through Friday. The summary outlines the 53-member body’s discussion thus far on its thematic issues — agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification, and Africa –- and highlights what delegations cited as obstacles and constraints to sustainable development, as well as lessons learned and best practices to overcome those challenges. He stressed that the summary was not a consensus document, but merely a reflection of the discussions under way.

During two half-day interactive panels, many speakers underscored the need for more integrated and better funded water-management policies to extend basic water services and meet the Millennium Development Goals on safe drinking water, which seemed within reach, and sanitation, which did not. In their estimation, current efforts to improve sanitation were in the toilet. One expert said there seemed to be a “blind spot” about the integral role of sanitation in reducing poverty and achieving all the other Millennium Goals. While major immunization programmes had led to significant success in meeting the Millennium targets on child mortality, an immunized child could still die from diarrhoea due to poor sanitation conditions and unsafe hygiene practices.

Read More

Plan UK recently launched a handbook on Community Led Total Sanitation to enable communities analyse their sanitation conditions and collectively understand the impact of open defecation on public health and their environment.

About Community Led Total Sanitation Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an approach that focuses on igniting a change in sanitation behaviour through community participation rather than constructing toilets. It does this through a process of social participation. It concentrates on the whole community rather than on individual behaviours and the collective benefit from stopping open defecation can encourage a more cooperative approach. People decide together how they will create a clean and hygienic environment that benefits everyone.

Read More - Reuters

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.

Read abstract

Efforts afoot to observe IYS 2008, implement Sanitation Policy, ISLAMABAD, May 10 (APP):

Ministry of Environment in collaboration with partners like UNICEF and WSP-SA is devising a strategy to observe 2008 as International Year of Sanitation. Number of activities are going on side by side effective implementation of National Sanitation Policy devised in 2006 as well as provincial strategies to enhance sanitation cover in the country  (…)

Read all Associated Press of Pakistan

NEW YORK, USA, 8 May 2008 – Water and sanitation experts joined financing professionals at UNICEF House in New York yesterday to identify sustainable methods of providing clean water and safe sanitation to those who lack these basic rights.

At the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance meeting – organized by UNICEF, Ashoka and the German Technical Cooperation Agency – keynote speakers characterized sustainability as important to all aspects of sanitation improvement, including financial, environmental and political sustainability.

Read More - UNICEF

By Elizabeth Kiem, NEW YORK, USA, 8 May 2008

Water and sanitation experts joined financing professionals at UNICEF House in New York yesterday to identify sustainable methods of providing clean water and safe sanitation to those who lack these basic rights.   At the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance meeting – organized by UNICEF, Ashoka and the German Technical Cooperation Agency – keynote speakers characterized sustainability as important to all aspects of sanitation improvement, including financial, environmental and political sustainability. (…)

Read all UNICEF Press Release

Coupling Sustainable Sanitation and Groundwater Protection

Symposium to the International Year of Sanitation (IYS), 14-17 October 2008

WHO and UNEP are co-sponsoring this International Symposium, organized by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), 14-17 October 2008 in  Hannover. The objective is to provide a forum for interaction between practitioners and decision makers, with the goal of finding practical solutions to sustainable sanitation. Reducing health risks associated with inadequate sanitation is a key cross-cutting theme.

More information and registration: Symposium to the International Year of Sanitation 14-17 October 2008

Streams of Knowledge (STREAMS) together with its member, the NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation, a leading WATSAN apex organization based in Bangladesh will be the leading organizers of three-day event, which will include two days of workshops and a one-day visit to a Community-Led Total Sanitation Project.

Themes:

1. Addressing environmental vulnerability through Integrated Water Resources Management
2. Policy, Practice and Advocacy for Sustainable Sanitation
3. Wastewater Management for Productive Use
4. Community Participation in Sanitation Solutions
5. Business Unusual: Sanitation Entrepreneurship
6. Safety Nets for Ensuring Water Quality

Abstract deadline: 5 July 2008

For more information go to the STREAMS web site

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) has invited public comment on the Strategic Framework on Water for Sustainable Development: Discussion document. The deadline for written comments is 30 May 2008.

Source: Participation Junction

The discussion document is quite frank about current failures/shortcomings in water and sanitation service delivery. Some quotes:

“When 77 WSA managers surveyed for the 2007 Masibambane II evaluation were asked whether those who were served would in future be rejoining the backlog queue as a result of defective infrastructure in recently completed projects, 51% said this was happening already. 16% of beneficiaries in settlements with recent water projects said they now had to walk more than 200 meters to fetch water”. [chap. 3.2.2, p. 17]

“A growing number of new flush toilets malfunction, particularly those built swiftly to meet bucket eradication targets. The number of sewage spills from overloaded systems is rising steadily. Some houses have two new VIP toilets, built by parallel programmes. Many VIPs are built badly, some are not being used at all, and unusable full pits means people are reverting to unimproved toilets or open defecation, with little net gain in health or hygiene behaviour”. [chap. 6.3.5, p. 41].

Organised by: Regional Capacity Building Partners (RECABIP), Nairobi, Kenya

Many development institutions have done very little to understand the contextual impacts of HIV and AIDS on Water, Hygiene and Environmental Sanitation programmes and have not integrated programmatic actions to halt the spread of HIV and AIDS, and mitigate its impact in their programmes. Similarly, AIDS service organizations have not analyzed the role of safe water, sanitation and Hygiene in fostering quality care, prevention, treatment, impact mitigation services at individual, household and community level. The Course focuses on strengthening skills, knowledge and understanding practical mainstreaming tools and processes.

Course fees: US $1,000 (excluding international travel, accommodation and food).

RECABIP is a network of professional organisations and individuals engaged in capacity building workshops, seminars, conferences and consultancy services in the fields of HIV and AIDS, Climate Change, Governance and Leadership issues. [ Note: the website provides no list of names with CVs of individual members of RECABIP, no names of clients, no annual report etc.]

Full information and application details are available on the RECABIP web site

For more info on HIV/AIDS and WASH see the IRC web site