Source Bulletin 55, February 2009

Published - 13 Feb 09

Features

Nepal: Pee proudly for healthy vegetables

There is one source of fertilizer that seems virtually recession proof and protective against soaring prices as well – and that is the fertilizer in human urine

Water moves sharply up the political agenda

There can be no doubt that water is moving up the political agenda. After President Barack Obama used part of his inauguration speech to highlight the importance of water in poverty reduction, the World Economic Forum took a break from the global financial crisis to stress its concern over water resources.

Nepal: Innovative communication to promote household water treatment

The Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) is one of several organisations actively promoting household water treatment in Nepal. UNICEF and the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation, with technical support from Business Advantage and ENPHO, produced a one-minute TV commercial on Point of Use (POU) Water Treatment.

Matanza-Riachuelo: an environmental disaster born of negligence

The Matanza-Riachuelo river basin in the city and province Buenos Aires (Argentina) qualifies as a real sanitary and environmental disaster. Not only is the water contaminated, but the air and soil are also polluted. Furthermore, the seven million people who live in this 2000 km2 area have a very low standard of living in the country, with two million living below the poverty line.

African reporters to produce short water films using mobile phones

Akvo is a combination of Wikipedia, eBay and YouTube for water and sanitation projects, aiming to create and share internet tools that help to provide clean water and proper sanitation. Akvo has launched a Simple Video Reporting product, jointly with Africa Interactive.

National policies and strategies: WASH coalitions in action

WSSCC-supported National WASH Coalitions operate in 33 countries. An increasingly prominent component of the coalitions' work is cooperation with governments to develop national policy documents. Through dialogue and review, they contribute to relevance and transparency, as well as stakeholder buy-in. Hereunder are three country experiences.

First Global Handwashing Day is a big success

'A handwashing day? This world is full of surprises!’ said one Burkina Faso elder when he heard about the Global Handwashing Day (GHWD) celebrations in his country.

Civil society makes its mark at SACOSAN III

The voice of civil society was heard at the South Asia Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) 2008 in Delhi.

News from WSSCC

The International Year of Sanitation (IYS) 2008 was a big success. Throughout the year, WSSCC promoted five important messages. Basic sanitation improves health, fosters economic development, promotes social development, protects the environment and is universally achievable.

Uganda: IRC and local partners start improved WASH governance project in West Nile

IRC and two local partners have started a project to strengthen WASH governance in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda, by strengthening and supporting dialogue between elected leaders and technical staff, NGOs, CBOs and businesses in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.

Burkina Faso: WASHCost visits commune to learn about costs and quality

The commune of Poa, 60 kilometres from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is made up of six villages which are home to approximately 30,000 people. In November 2008, the 22 members of the WASHCost project visited the commune to get a grounding in local realities before starting an Impact Assessment workshop in Ouagadougou.

Water and land media workshop achieves immediate follow-up action in Arab region

Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation will organize a second capacity development workshop with journalists from all the Nile basin countries. Together with other Arab and UN organizations it will also facilitate the setting up of a platform connecting the various networks of journalists who work on water, land, environment, health and food in the region. These were the main outcomes of the first Capacity Development Workshop for Water and Environmental Journalists in the Arab Countries on the important topic of Water & Land in Egypt from 22-24 January 2009.

Putting multiple uses of water into practice

The multiple-use services (MUS) approach has emerged over the last decade as an alternative approach to providing water services. It stems from a recognition that people use water for multiple purposes, even if the services were originally planned for a single use. Today, the MUS approach aims to move from merely recognising this to explicitly providing water services that are designed to meet people’s multiple water needs.

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