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.
India - Contest to award photo coverage of sanitation
07 Mar 08
To commemorate the “International Year of Sanitation - 2008,” the Water and Environmental Sanitation Network India (WES-Net India) and its constituent member organizations, UNICEF, WaterAid; Plan India, invite photojournalists working in newspapers and magazines across India to take part in a photo contest on themes related to sanitation. Entries must be received by April [...]
Yemen: Sanitation services limited, sewage treatment plants poor
07 Mar 08
SANAA, 5 March 2008 (IRIN) - Sanitation services in Yemen are limited. Almost all villages in rural areas, where 75 percent of Yemen’s 21 million people live, still use traditional means: Sewage is either dumped in watercourses or piped onto open ground.Officials at the Ministry of Water and Environment said the government was striving to [...]
Jordan: Sewage network crumbling in city of Zarqa
07 Mar 08
AMMAN, 4 March 2008 (IRIN) - A crumbling sewage system in the city of Zarqa, 30km east of Amman, could trigger the spread of diseases on a large scale, according to community leaders and residents. “We warned officials at the Ministry of Water on several occasions that the city’s sewage network is collapsing at a [...]
Bangladesh: Towards “sanitation for all by 2010”
07 Mar 08
DHAKA, 4 March 2008 (IRIN) - “Half the slum is knee-deep in water during high monsoons. There is no electricity, no water supply. And the worst is that we do not have toilets,” said Tara Mia, a vegetable hawker who lives with his wife and three children in a Dhaka slum.From 2010-2015 Bangladesh will be [...]
Pakistan: Open defecation-free communities - one village at a time
07 Mar 08
KAMRA, 6 March 2008 (IRIN) - Until recently, Mohammad Nafees was like most children in his village when it came to relieving himself.“I used to poop outside. Just over there,” the nine-year-old giggled, pointing to the green field near his family’s home in the mountain village of Kamra, about 70km east of Islamabad.With UK funding, [...]
Essential environmental health standards in health care [publication]
06 Mar 08
Essential environmental health standards in health careEdited by John Adams, Jamie Bartram, Yves ChartierWorld Health Organization, 2008, 57 p.Health–care associated infections affect between 5 and 30% of patients. The associated burden of disease is extremely high, and is a significant drain on health-sector resources and households. Ensuring safe environmental health conditions in health care can [...]
Pakistan - Diarrhoeal diseases cost country
05 Mar 08
ISLAMABAD: The diarrhoeal diseases are costing Pakistan Rs 55 billion to Rs 84 billion annually, as 91 million population – 74 million in rural areas and 17 million in urban areas – lack access to improved sanitation in the country, said Caretaker Minister for Environment Syed Wajid Ali Bukhari on Tuesday.He was addressing the inaugural [...]
New paradigm for periurban WatSan
04 Mar 08
Prof. Duncan Mara, University of Leeds, has made the paper he co-authored with Dr Graham Alabaster of UN-Habitat, “A new paradigm for low-cost urban water supplies and sanitation in developing countries” [Water Policy 10 (2), 119−129, doi:10.2166/wp.2008.034] available on-line − pdf here, and more info here.In his blog Mara says: “the New Paradigm is very [...]
Honduras: Poverty and Sanitation
04 Mar 08
Poverty and Sanitation: An Analysis of the Linkage between Poverty and Basic Sanitation in Honduras, Water Sanitation Program, 2008.This document presents an analysis of poverty levels mong rural and urban households of Honduras and their access to sanitation solutions. It identifies key spects for improving services and contributing to ector policies, strategies and investment plans [...]
Namibia: ‘Flying Toilets’ a Health Hazard in Informal Settlements
04 Mar 08
Sanitation remains a great concern in the country’s informal settlements as many inhabitants resort to “flying toilets” in their moments of need, observed President Hifikepunye Pohamba.Flying toilets are plastic bags slum dwellers usually use to relieve themselves after which they discard them onto the streets, alleys, ditches or even rooftops - anywhere out of sight. [...]
