India, Uttar Pradesh: transforming lives of people with HIV/AIDS through WASH services

In 2008 WaterAid India entered into a partnership with Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society for a project titled Programme on Arresting Opportunistic Infections for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) to help improve the quality of their lives through water and sanitation. The project is being implemented through CREATE in 14 districts and involves anti-retro-viral therapy cells, located in the Medical Colleges and working with District Level Networks (DLNs) of HIV positives, Drop in Centres (DICs) and Community Care Centres (CCCs), which are care and support centres during opportunistic infection.

These have also become WASH information centres where people living with HIV/AIDS are able to learn about key hygiene practices. The centres share information through posters and pamphlets, display different toilet models, and offer a range of audio, video and other materials as well as group and individual counselling.

PLHAs are also able to use good quality facilities at the centres, such as water filters, washbasins, urinals and latrines. Staff are trained on WASH issues and are able to tell PLHA about the importance of good WASH practices in their lives.

Read more: Johnson Jeyaseelan, Source Bulletin, May 2010

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.

Read all Hawkesbury Gazette

Financial Times: Action urged on sanitation for children

By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent

Poor sanitation is the biggest killer of children in the world but its effect has been underestimated and the issue looks set to be ignored by the Group of Eight this week, according to a new analysis.

A report published Monday by WaterAid, the UK-based charity, (…) says the extent of the problem has been masked because many deaths attributed to malnutrition and respiratory diseases had poor sanitation as their root cause. (…)

Read all Financial Times

G8 to hear sanitation cash plea

By Mark Doyle, BBC News 

Piped water can bring huge benefits, says Water Aid. The charity Water Aid is telling the G8 summit in Japan that investing in sanitation would be the single most effective way to cut child deaths.

Water Aid is lobbying the summit with a new report that says 40% of the world’s population lack even basic sanitation. This kills more children than malaria, HIV/Aids and measles combined, it says. (…)

Read all BBC News