Innovative reports from Stockholm
Follow news and video flashes on diverse topics of IRC and partners’ work, from seminars, the exhibition floor, and side events at the 2009 Stockholm World Water Week. Key topics include: Evaluating & Improving the WASH sector, Unite for children - WASH in schools, Sanitation for the Urban Poor, Unpacking the Business Case for Microfinance in Water and Sanitation and Manual Scavenging.
Making sense of water, sanitation and hygiene wikis
29 Aug 09
Watch a video, try a search engine and read about water, sanitation and hygiene wikis. There are several efforts ongoing with wikis. Juerg Staudenmann, UNDP, and Thomas Bjelkeman-Pettersson, Akvo.org, and Nick Dickinson, IRC, talk about water wikis and how we can avoid duplicate work and instead support each other.
Harriette's Highlights: Thursday 20 August
21 Aug 09
Climate change took centre stage on the fourth day of the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.A session on Focus on Water and Climate: Presenting the African-European Dialogue on Climate Change was particularly interesting. Speakers including the Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi, First Vice president of the Pan African Parliament were obviously very passionate about the issue.
Harriette's Highlights: Wednesday 19 August
20 Aug 09
The World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden entered its third day with less zest but definitely with an equal number of seminars, events, and workshops comparable to the first two days. As typical of the week, people were seen rushing in and out of seminars and side events which included a seminar on ‘Sanitation for the urban poor” Exploring New Pathways’.
Kenyans are currently facing a water shortage crisis
19 Aug 09
Kenyans are currently facing a water shortage crisis so severe that its government has declared it an emergency. “The cartels selling the water now are so happy because they are making a kill”, Mrs Jacqueline Musyoki from the Water Trust Fund said in an interview with Harriette Naa Lamiley in the Stockholm Water Cube.
Real costs and benefits of water and sanitation
19 Aug 09
Cost information is key to advocacy of sustainable water and sanitation services. According to Clarissa Brocklehurst, Head of Water, Environment and Sanitation Section, UNICEF is starting to look into the full life-cycle cost in order to justify investments as other sectors do (health and education).
Harriette's Highlights: Tuesday 18 August
19 Aug 09
The World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden entered its second day with a lot of verve, seminars and side events, taken place simultaneously. For me what was particularly interesting and mind blowing was how millions of Indians especially women were surviving the hideous, dehumanizing job of manual scavenging, where they actually clean toilets and collect human excreta using their bare hands.
"No human being should carry someone else's shit"
19 Aug 09
Mr Wilson Bezwada of Safai Karmachari Andolan, a national campaign movement working for the eradication of manual scavenging in India is interviewed by Harriette Bentil.
Regulating water services in Kenya
18 Aug 09
Robert Nduati Gakobia of the Water Services Regulatory Board, Kenya talks about the practice of four years experience on regulating water services in his country with Jean de La Harpe, South African expert from IRC on local governance and decentralisation of water and sanitation services.
The worst job in the world
18 Aug 09
There are some 1.3 million Indians still trapped in the manual scavenging of human excreta sixteen long years after the country had enacted an Act to make the human threatening job illegal. Mr, Wilson Bezwada of Safai Karmachari Andolan: “This is not a fight for power, wealth nor fame, but for human dignity and respect”.
The work of sanitation ambassador Dr Pathak - A win for all Indians
18 Aug 09
Forty years of devotion to the environmental sanitation sector has earned Dr Bindeswar Pathak the enviable Stockholm Water Prize for 2009, presented to a personality whose work has impacted positively on lives. Dr Pathak’s achievement is a win for all Indians as by his sheer intervention, more than ten million Indians now have access to public places of convenience daily.
