Sanitation Updates
This news feed on sanitation is maintained by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and by USAID’s WASHplus project. It was originally set up to promote the 2008 International Year of Sanitation and continues to provide news, information and resources in support of achieving the goal of sanitation for all.
Nepal: success of cholera mitigation campaign celebrated
31 Dec 08
The number of cholera cases in the Kathmandu Valley dropped drastically after a various intervention programmes, according to a study carried out by an NGO. The month-long Cholera Mitigation Campaign launched in September 2008, reduced the number cholera cases from 315 to zero. During the campaign 250 volunteers were engaged in awareness raising and chlorine [...]
iToilet: flushing made easy
31 Dec 08
Some light “relief’ on the last day of 2008 …While the “iToilet” “may very well be the lamest running joke in all of Appledom” according to Paul Miller, these two examples may amuse the readers of Sanitation Updates.In 2002, Steven Murray of Electric Chicken produced a spoof ad for the iToilet to vent his then “frustrations [...]
China, Beijing: all sewage to be reused within three years
31 Dec 08
The Beijing Sewage Association [said] that within three years, all water processed in the city’s sewage treatment plants will meet requirements for reuse. The annual capacity of Beijing’s nine sewage treatment plants totals 900 million tons, but only 100 million tons of treated water is qualified for reuse. [...] The total quantity of treated water [...]
Two innovative sanitation solutions to get funding from Coca-Cola Foundation
30 Dec 08
The Coca-Cola Foundation will award a total of US$1 million to support four innovative projects to improve water resources and sanitation in developing nations. The projects were selected by the Global Water Challenge (GWC) business coalition and Ashoka’s Changemakers through the “Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis” competition.Two of the projects involve [...]
Liberia: No relief as most Monrovians go without toilets
30 Dec 08
With just one in 25 Liberians having access to a toilet, most [practice open defecation].Liberia’s 3.5 million people share just 19,690 toilets, according to a government water and sanitation sector assessment from October 2008, and fewer than one in three Liberians have access to safe drinking water, according to the head of Liberia’s Water and [...]
Film: Sanitation Kinshasa
29 Dec 08
Filth, dust and stench have reached extraordinary levels during the last two decades in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Solid waste management, storm drainage and infrastructure designed for 400,000 people in the 1960s when Kinshasa was establised, now must serve 8 million in 2008.The post-electoral emergency programme, planned for 2 [...]
Resource recovery - not wastewater treatment, 22 Jan 2009, London, UK
23 Dec 08
A one day conference organised by Aqua Enviro Technology Transfer at the Geological Society in London looking at options for a “sewage treatment revolution” in the UK. The basic principles of wastewater treatment have remained unchanged for at least one hundred years. In principle wastewater contains many valuable resources, namely: water, energy, nitrogen and phosphorus. [...]
Zimbabwe: Nigel’s Story - the tragedy of country’s cholera outbreak
21 Dec 08
[Nigel Chigudu lost] five siblings in five hours to the cholera epidemic that has been sweeping across Zimbabwe. “They started vomiting and had serious diarrhoea,” recalls Nigel, 15. “The youngest, Gamu, was 14 months old, and Lameck was 12 years old. It was in the middle of the night; I could not take them anywhere. [...]
Right to sanitation - contributions sought for World Water Forum
19 Dec 08
Contributions are requested for four sessions on the subject of the Right to Water and Sanitation for the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul (Theme 4: Governance, Topic 4.1)Guidelines on how to contribute for these sessions are available on the Freshwater Action Network (FAN) web site.Topic 4.1: Implementing the Right to Water and Sanitation for [...]
Malaysia - Toilet king says dirty toilet days are numbered
18 Dec 08
DIRTY public toilets have gotten the toilet king of Malaysia fuming these days. Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew, who got this nickname (toilet king) because of his zest to “flush out” out the thousands of stinking cubicles in the country, vows that their days are numbered. »When using the [...]
