WASH News Latin America
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
Mexico: farmers fear loss of “free fertilizer” when wastewater treatment plant is built
02 Aug 10
For over 100 years farmers in Hidalgo State use “the black waters” (wastewater) from Mexico City to irrigate their land. So when word got out that the government was finally going to build a giant wastewater treatment plant, one might have expected the farmers around here to be excited. Instead, they were suspicious. “Without that [...]
DNP taking steps to prevent municipal water shortage by 2025
26 Jul 10
Colombia’s national planning department (DNP) will work with municipal governments to draw up a contingency plan to prevent a severe municipal water shortage by 2025, according to the government’s 2019 development vision. Guaranteeing water supply and reducing the vulnerability of water resources is the first goal established in the new government’s environmental management plan for [...]
Who cares? WASA’s empty promises.
12 Jul 10
Almost one year after completion, in the middle of a severe drought a $25 million Water Treatment Plant installed at Cumuto remains empty. The two massive tanks were installed to treat and distribute four million gallons of water per day—to users in Cumuto and environs—with supplies from wells. However, a Sunday Guardian investigation reveals that [...]
Haiti: six months on, Red Cross calls for urgent sanitation solution
09 Jul 10
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), in a report published [on 8 July 2010], has called on the international community to recognize sanitation as one of the priorities in Haiti’s reconstruction. The report – From sustaining lives to sustainable solutions: the challenge of sanitation in Haiti – calls sanitation the [...]
Ecuador- Interagua will launch consultancy tender for US$120mn wastewater project
05 Jul 10
Ecuadorian city Guayaquil’s private water utility Interagua will launch an international tender to carry out feasibility studies for a US$120mn wastewater treatment project, the head of Interagua’s treatment division, Angela Castaño, told BNamericas. The tender is due by month-end, and companies interested in participating must submit a letter of intent by July 20, along with [...]
Peru loses 42 percent of potable water due to misuse, leaks
05 Jul 10
Peru is currently wasting about 42 percent of its potable water as a result of consumer misuse and leaks, communications supervisor David Falcón of the country’s national sanitation authority Sunass told RPP radio station. “To compare, while Peru loses 42 percent of its potable water, in first world countries like Japan the percentage lost is [...]
Brazil- Amazonas planning US$110mn sustainability projects for southeast region
05 Jul 10
Brazil’s Amazonas state is planning projects worth US$110mn aimed at improving water supply and other sustainability issues through state development plan Proderam, the plan’s executive coordinator, Laercio Cavalcante, told BNamericas. Amazonas state development company (CIAM) and the national institute of Amazon research are working on the plan with the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction [...]
Paraguay: Keeping the Danube alive, opportunities or threats
29 Jun 10
” Historically the Danube has had many uses and it has provided benefits for many people, but it has also sustained its impressive natural values and ecosystem services. But today much of this is being lost due to human activities. The remaining natural areas along the Danube could play a key role in bringing back [...]
An American woman’s fight to give Haitians clean water
22 Jun 10
A case of bottled water (400ml) costs around $36 and may last a family about two weeks before the empty bottles end up in a landfill where they would take hundreds of years to decompose. But, a donation of US$30 or TT$180 can literally save lives by guaranteeing that a destitute family living in Haiti [...]
Cuban Local Authorities Strengthen Control of Water Distribution
22 Jun 10
The drought hitting Cuba for over a year now forced Ciego de Avila’s local authorities to strengthen measures to further control the rational use of drinking water. A new schedule for the pumping of the liquid to residential and economic areas in the northern and western region of the city was established, announced Sergio Barrios, [...]
