India sets target of 28 toilets a minute

INDIA has to do a big job. More than half a billion citizens don’t have a toilet and the country needs to build 28 new loos every minute over the next four years to meet the Indian Government’s ambitious sanitation target.

One in two Indians, or about 650 million people, now defecate in the open and the untreated waste poses a serious health risk.

Last year India added about 11 million new toilets but the government wants the rate of construction to increase. (…)

The Indian cricket star, Sachin Tendulkar, has been enlisted to help promote hand washing with soap, which can reduce diarrhoeal cases by almost half and acute respiratory illnesses by 30 per cent.

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Tanzania: 90 pc of Tanzanians don’t use latrines

Over 10 per cent of Tanzanians pass waste from their bodies, including faeces and urine indiscriminately in the bush or around water bodies for lack of latrines. Statistics made public here shows that of all the existing latrines, about 52.8 per cent are either in a dreadful state of dilapidation or of sub-standard, while only 38.0 per cent of them can be regarded as ‘decent and durable’.

The startling statistics are contained in the speech by Mwanza Regional Commissioner Dr James Msekela read on his behalf here at the “World’s Toilet Day’, marked at national level here on Wednesday (…)

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Pakistan ‘to surpass MDGs sanitation target soon’

Islamabad

Federal Minister for Environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi has said that Pakistan is not only well on its way towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target for sanitation, but would also surpass it soon.

The minister stated this while addressing the ministerial segment of the third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN-III) currently underway in New Delhi, India, said a spokesman of the ministry here on Thursday.  (…)

Read all on  the Ministry of Environment web page (click on news)

SACOSAN-III concludes with Delhi Declaration; calls for national priority to sanitation

NEW DELHI, Nov 21 (APP): The weeklong Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN-III) concluded here with a unanimous declaration by heads of delegations, calling for national priority to sanitation being basic right of citizens.

“Access to sanitation and safe drinking water is a basic right, and according national priority to sanitation is imperative, says the declaration, urging the governments to ensure a healthy environment with clean air, soil and fresh water resources so that the present and coming generations could enjoy their lives in a better atmosphere.

The document calls for involving all stakeholders at all stages, effective policy making, institutional and fiscal incentives, working in partnership with religious leaders, communities, institutions and local governments and service providers.

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Ghana: CONIWAS advocate right to improved sanitation

Many homes in Ghana lack improved toilets as most households toilets are converted to living rooms and some houses built without toilet facilities. As a result a lot of people, especially in the city centres roam helplessly daily looking for toilets to use.  Some resort to public toilets while others defecate in the open, irrespective of the health concerns of such actions.  Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violence if conditions force them to defecate only after nightfall and in secluded areas.

The Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) believes that every Ghanaian deserves to have access to clean toilets to ease themselves with dignity everyday.  It states that access to improved sanitation is not a privilege but a fundamental human right. (…)

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India: PM addresses the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation in New Delhi today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s speech on the occasion:

“I am delighted to be here today at the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation. This Conference has a very special significance because the year 2008 has been declared as the International Year of Sanitation.

Sanitation has a strong connection not only with personal hygiene but also with human dignity and well-being, public health, nutrition and even education. Mahatma Gandhi had once said “Sanitation is more important than independence”. He made cleanliness and sanitation an integral part of the Gandhian way of living. His dream was total sanitation for all. (…)

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Realted site: SACOSAN III

Sanitation goal needs fresh impetus

World Toilet Day tomorrow (November 19) is a reminder that over 2.6 billion people lack any form of ‘improved’ sanitation; one-sixth of the world’s population get their water from sources contaminated by human and animal faeces; half of all people in developing countries have an illness related to sanitation and water quality; and every six seconds, a child dies of diarrhoea. (…)

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