Young social entrepreneurs making waves with water-saving manual washing machine in IDP camps in Iraq

Young social entrepreneurs making waves with water-saving manual washing machine in IDP camps in Iraq – The Washing Machine Project

In March 2019, Navjot Sawhney and Alex Hughes, both engineers and co-founders of the fledgling social enterprise The Washing Machine Project conducted research into clothes-washing habits across four IDP camps in Northern Iraq. Only 40% of IDPs living in the camps had access to an electric washing machine, meaning the majority of families still wash their clothes by hand.

In fact, of the 79 Yazidi families interviewed during their research in Chameskyu, Esyan, Shekhan, and Kanke camps, Sawhney and Hughes found that each family typically spends more than 12 hours a week hand washing clothes.

Many women also reported using chlorine or other chemical detergents to kill water-based bacteria with the aim of keeping their children safe, but suffered from skin irritation on their hands and arms as a result.

Saving Livelihoods One Drop at a Time – Global Waters

Saving Livelihoods One Drop at a Time. Global Waters, July 2019.

“She died of thirst. I tried to revive her, but it was too late.”

For Haykal Jibrael Mikhael, a farmer from the town of Qobaiyat in north Lebanon, losing one of his apple trees means losing a part of his livelihood. And for decades, Haykal and many other farmers have been losing many of their trees because of dwindling water availability.

“It’s not the first tree that has died,” added Haykal. “Many others have died, too, because of lack of water.”

“We had to find a solution.”

When the USAID–funded Lebanon Water Project (LWP) offered local NGOs the opportunity to apply for small grants that they could use to help improve the quality and quantity of water available to any local community, the Safadi Foundation in north Lebanon seized the opportunity.

Joining forces with the Qobaiyat Agricultural Cooperative and the Qobaiyat Municipality, the Safadi Foundation proposed a project that would connect area farmers to an existing artificial lake.

Read the complete article.

Global Waters – Turning on the Water: USAID Collaborates with Local Partners to Restore Water Access to Northeast Syria

Turning on the Water: USAID Collaborates with Local Partners to Restore Water Access to Northeast Syria. Global Waters, February 8, 2019.

“It really is an exciting thing to turn back on the water,” says USAID’s Development Advisor David Isaak. “It gives communities some sense of normalcy, that things are coming back to life.”

Before the outbreak of war in 2011, millions of Syrians had their water consistently delivered through a vast network of pipes and thousands of large-scale pumps. Nearly all Syrians enjoyed access to potable water, and massive man-made canals irrigated the arid northeastern countryside, which facilitated a productive agricultural economy.

USAID’s Syria Essential Services (SES II) project helped rehabilitate this well in southwest Syria and installed solar panels to power the pumps. Photo credit: USAID/SES II

The conflict took a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, often deliberately as a tool of war: aerial campaigns and/or improvised explosive devices targeted miles of water networks and destroyed thousands of water pumps. Other water pumps were simply abandoned after the massive civilian exodus.

Read the complete article in USAID’s Global Waters Stories.

Tender: Sanitation solutions for underserved communities in Jordan

The project, initiated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), focuses on rethinking sanitation systems, by improving existing Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) and exploring the development of small scale Waste Water Treatment (WWT) and Faecal Sludge Treatment (FST) solutions. The goal of these improvements and developments is to increase WWT efficiency and sanitation coverage, and turn waste streams into physical and financial resource streams by ensuring and promoting safe reuse of the treated wastewater and faecal sludge. The focus is on Jordanian host communities as a whole, with a particular attention to be paid to unserved, vulnerable communities, as they are more and more impacted by the lack of adequate sanitation systems. The project will be subdivided into two distinct phases – the inception phase and the main phase.

Project ID 157868|Notice no. 975947

Deadline for submission of the complete bid: 28 August 2017

View the full notice at:
www.simap.ch/shabforms/COMMON/search/searchresult.jsf

Global Waters – USAID’s 40-Year Legacy in Water and Wastewater Meets the Needs of Egypt’s Growing Population

USAID’s 40-Year Legacy in Water and Wastewater Meets the Needs of Egypt’s Growing Population. Global Waters, June 13, 2017.

Egypt today is a country in transition. With one of the fastest growing populations in the world — estimates suggest that the population will increase from 93 to 120 million people by 2030 — Egypt’s infrastructure needs to keep pace.

A man turns on the new faucet in his home in Upper Egypt. Photo Credit: Mohamed Abdelwahab for USAID

In both urban and rural areas, population growth has led to an expansion of settlements that strain current water and wastewater systems.

Often, settlements are built over the heavily polluted, unsanitary waterways, posing a public health threat by carrying the risk of waterborne disease.

Since 1978, USAID invested more than $3.5 billion to help bring potable water and sanitation services to more than 25 million Egyptians, directly improving their health and environmental conditions.

Read the complete article.

Lebanese designers keep waste from going to waste

Lebanese designers keep waste from going to waste. Al-Monitor, June 2017.

In a country plagued by a garbage crisis ongoing since summer 2015, several Lebanese designers have rolled up their sleeves to save glass, plastic and rubber from already full landfills.

The carafes, water pitchers and glasses in this undated photo were made from used bottles. (photo by Cedar Environmental Consultancy)

The colorful and practical designs of NK by Nour Kays, Waste Studio and the Green Glass Recycling Initiative Lebanon make chic clutch bags out of plastic bags and maps and cups out of old bottles.

Local and regional initiatives in Lebanon have encouraged people to sort garbage at home or to dispose of plastic, glass and paper at recycling centers, but few nationwide measures have attempted to address the country’s garbage crisis on a larger scale.

In this vacuum, some artists and environmental experts have focused their time and energy on finding small-scale solutions

Read the complete article.

 

USAID – Infographic: Tackling Water Scarcity and Sanitation Challenges Across the Middle East

Infographic: Tackling Water Scarcity and Sanitation Challenges Across the Middle East, December 15, 2016. USAID. 

The American people, through USAID, have been investing in the water sector across the Middle East to improve access to clean water, reduce water losses, facilitate sustainable use of limited resources and improve access to sanitation.

Egypt
2.2 Million People – Since 2008, USAID invested in water systems and wastewater treatment plants, helping 2.2 million people gain access to clean water and sanitation.

850 Kilometers of Water Pipelines – Since 2012, USAID funded construction of 850+ kilometers of pipelines that serve 1.8+ million people in rural areas –many of whom received access to drinking water and sanitation for the first time.

Capacity Building – USAID supported billing and operation systems to strengthen and build the capacity of institutions.

Read the complete article.

Assessment of Macro-Level Socioeconomic Factors That Impact Waterborne Diseases: The Case of Jordan

Assessment of Macro-Level Socioeconomic Factors That Impact Waterborne Diseases: The Case of Jordan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(12), 1181; doi:10.3390/ijerph13121181

• Full text

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an example of a country that suffers from high water scarcity. Additionally, due to the economic drivers in the country, such as phosphate and potash extraction and pharmaceutical production, the little fresh water that remains is generally polluted. The infrastructure, often antiquated in urban areas and non-existent in rural areas, also contributes to poor water conditions and to the spread of waterborne diseases.

This paper examines the socioeconomic factors that contribute to diarrhea and hepatitis A on a macro level in Jordan and discusses the public-policies that government officials could use to abate those problems. Ordinary least squares time series models are used to understand the macro-level variables that impact the incidence of these diseases in Jordan. Public health expenditure has a significant impact on reducing their incidence.

Furthermore, investment in sanitation facilities in rural regions is likely to reduce the number of cases of hepatitis A. Perhaps the most surprising outcome is that importation of goods and services likely results in a decrease in cases of hepatitis A. However, income has little impact on the incidence of diarrhea and hepatitis A.

Webinar: Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) in Water and Sanitation

The RWSN secretariat announces the latest webinar of their mini-series 2016, which will take place on1 6.11.2016. The title of the event is “A tool for Monitoring the Scaling up of Water and Sanitation Technologies (TAF – Technology Applicability Framework)” and it will focus on the use of the TAF, which has been presented and discussed previously at the SuSanA Forum (here). The session will take place in English (2-3 PM Central European Time, please check your local time here) and in Spanish (4-5 PM Central European Time, please check your local time here). Thee two presenters and the titles of their presentations are:

• Joshua Briemberg, WaterAid, Nicaragua: TAF as a participative planning and monitoring tool
• Younes Hassib, GIZ, Germany: Scaling up sanitation solutions in Afghanistan

After the two presentations, you will have the chance to ask questions and participate in the on-line Q&A session and discussion around this topic.

Please use this link in order to register for the sessions.

Recordings and presentations of previous sessions of this mini-series of webinars are available for download and viewing here.

For more information on the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF), please visit: washtechnologies.net/en

Watch the video

Broken glass and needles: the waste pickers scraping a living at Jordan’s landfills

Broken glass and needles: the waste pickers scraping a living at Jordan’s landfills | Source: The Guardian, August 27, 2016 |

At Al Huseyniyat landfill, Syrian refugees salvage recyclables illegally. Efforts to formalise their work offer hope 

Muhammed Abu Najib Temeki, 48, a father of nine from Deraa in Syria, pushes a cart of recyclable waste towards an Oxfam recycling centre in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. Photograph: Sam Tarling/Oxfam

Without warning the bulldozer accelerates, cutting through mounds of waste at Al Huseyniyat landfill in northern Jordan. A lingering stench intensifies as the machine scoops up an armful of rubbish, discharging clouds of flies over a group of people rifling through bin bags nearby.

No one notices the disturbance. Their gazes are trained downwards as they sift through the morning’s waste. “We look for plastic, aluminium, metal, clothes – anything we can sell or keep, or sometimes eat,” says Mohammed Ali, an Egyptian who makes a living salvaging recyclables from the site.

Ali manages a team of 15 waste pickers – men, women and children – most Syrians from nearby Za’atari refugee camp. They earn around 10 Jordanian dinar (£10.90) a day. “It’s not a lot but I make enough to manage on,” says Nawras Sahasil, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee who supports his wife and two children on the 250 dinars a month he earns from the landfill.

Like most people here, Sahasil does not have a work permit. While the Jordanian government has gone some way towards easing restrictions on employment for Syrian refugees, the vast majority are still working illegally. Now, a number of organisations in Jordan are looking to formalise the work of waste pickers and harness their role as recyclers to address the country’s mounting rubbish crisis, while developing sustainable solutions for processing waste in the future.

Read the complete article.