India: liberated women scavengers visit Parliament, meet Speaker

A new beginning: A group of liberated women scavengers during their visit to the Parliament House in New Delhi, India. Photo: R. V. Moorthy/The Hindu

It was an unforgettable moment for 300 women who used to work as manual scavengers as they entered the precincts of Parliament to get an experience of the Lok Sabha [Lower House] on Tuesday [16 August 2010] for the first time.

Treated as “untouchables” and ostracised by society for the nature of their work for decades, the women belong to a class of workers who used to manually clean human excreta.

The 300 women, who hailed from Alwar and Tonk districts of Rajasthan, have stopped working as manual scavengers now. They were received by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as special guests.

Nicaragua: Enacal requesting US$5.78mn for sanitation

Nicaraguan national water and sewerage utility Enacal needs to invest some 120mn córdobas (US$5.78mn) to repair and remodel 25 wastewater treatment plants throughout the country in 2010, local paper La Prensa reported.

The repairs and upgrades are required to avoid a collapse of the sanitation system in several departments. In some cases, the plants have received no maintenance work over the last 10 years, according to Enacal head Ruth Selma Herrera.

The initiatives are included in Enacal’s 2010 investment plan. However, the utility currently lacks the resources to carry out the works, and is requesting financing from several international organizations and cooperation funds.

Enacal has presented its plan to Japanese organizations and IDB, and hopes to receive a loan or donation as soon as possible, the report said.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 16 Dec 2009