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.
USA - Congressman Payne Champions International Year of Sanitation
17 Mar 08
Congressman Donald M. Payne, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, today introduced a concurrent resolution supporting the United Nations’ declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.…Representative Payne affirmed, “Sanitation is the foundation of health, dignity and progress. Economic and social development are its offshoot. It [...]
Maggie Black - An unmentionable global crisis
17 Mar 08
Exactly 150 years ago, an exceptionally hot summer in 1858 reduced the Thames flowing through London to a scandalous condition known as the ‘Great Stink.’The smell off the river was so excruciating that Parliament could barely sit. Fear of pestilence had a powerfully concentrating effect on MPs legislative capacities.The smell off the river was so [...]
Bangladesh - Clean break from cycle of disease
17 Mar 08
Bangladesh is facing an environmental crisis.It has the highest population density of any nation on the planet; and a half of its people are without adequate sanitation.As a result, the rivers and fields are polluted with human waste that enters the food chain.According to figures from Water Aid, 125,000 children under the age of [...]
World sanitation goals slip; nature can help
17 Mar 08
OSLO (Reuters) - “The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers,” French 19th century author Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables. “The sewer is the conscience of the city … A sewer is a cynic. It tells everything.”Judged by its sewers, the world is not doing well. Only 3 in 10 people [...]
Zimbabwe: Engulfed by sewage
17 Mar 08
BULAWAYO, 14 March 2008 (IRIN) - To get to Sinikiwe MaKhumalo’s doorstep in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, visitors have to step on a thin plank perched precariously over a trench that prevents sewage from flowing into her house. The 57-year-old grandmother has endured this arrangement to access her home in the city’s Old Magwegwe [...]
Clean Living - TVE’s Earth Report examines Community Led Total Sanitation in Bangladesh
15 Mar 08
In the International Year of Sanitation, Earth Report travels to Bangladesh to discover changing attitudes to hygiene. No more ‘open defecation’: instead of top-down solutions, the new Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach has eradicated open defecation in more than 300 villages. Earth Report investigates. The programme features CLTS guru Kamal Kar. Read the transcript [...]
Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement Training (SHIT series) kicks offs in Nepal
14 Mar 08
“Ecological Sanitation: Concept to Practice” is the first course offered by ENPHO (Environment and Public Health Organization) in the SHIT series. This three day course runs from 26-28 March 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal (application deadline 22 March). Four other courses are planned: Constructed wetlands; Solid waste management; Biogas for sanitation; and Total sanitation campaigns. Costs [...]
USA - Water-for-Schools Plan Launched
14 Mar 08
WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (OneWorld) - Activists working to improve lives and livelihoods around the world gathered in the United States capital Wednesday to launch a new initiative to bring water and sanitation facilities to schools that currently lack them.The WASH-in-Schools initiative aims to bring clean drinking water, toilet facilities, and hygiene education to 1,000 schools [...]
Cayman Islands - Water Day to focus on our good fortune
14 Mar 08
Most people in the Cayman Islands regard sanitation as a norm, something rarely meriting thought.But maybe we should occasionally pause to consider what Cayman would be like if we lacked human waste disposal facilities, laws and regulations. Many places across the globe offer neither proper sanitation nor access to clean drinking water.Read More [...]
Philippines - Eastern Samar hosts launch of Int’l Year of Sanitation
14 Mar 08
Tacloban City (March 14) — The First Provincial Launch of the International Year of Sanitation will be conducted today at the province of Eastern Samar particularly at the picturesque municipality of Guiuan.Read More
