tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44037113922915345682024-03-14T20:42:47.554+05:30The Sanitation ScribesToilets, menstruation, sanitary pads, open-defecation -- these are issues 'mainstream' journalists usually do not talk about. Inspired by SACOSAN (South Asia Conference on Sanitation) held in New Delhi in 2008, this is an initiative by a group of dedicated journalists to raise awareness on these taboo issues. We are interested in these so-called 'marginalised' issues by mainstream media, which otherwise play a crucial role in our lives.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-70467698287246062232012-11-09T09:08:00.003+05:302012-11-09T09:08:43.787+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 20px;"><strong>World Toilet Day on 19 November aims to highlight the plight of 2.5 billion people without access to a clean, private toilet</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><em>“I give a shit, do you?” is theme of global awareness campaign</em></span></div>
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<strong>8 November 2012 Geneva/Singapore:</strong> “I give a shit, do
you?” is the plea of the 2012 global World Toilet Day campaign put
together by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
(WSSCC) and the World Toilet Organization (WTO).</div>
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Observed annually on 19 November, World Toilet Day aims to break the
taboo around toilets and hygiene, and draw attention to the existing
global sanitation challenge. Sanitation is a fundamental human right.
World Toilet Day was created to raise global awareness of the daily
struggle for proper dignified sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion
people continue to face.</div>
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“Can you imagine not having a toilet?,” asks Saskia Castelein, Advocacy
and Communication Officer at WSSCC. “Can you imagine not having privacy
when you need to relieve yourself? Although unthinkable for those
living in wealthy parts of the world, this is a harsh reality for many -
in fact, one in three people on this globe, does not have access to a
toilet! The World Toilet Day Campaign aims to raise awareness, inspire
action, and make sanitation and hygiene for all a reality in the 21st
century.”</div>
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The benefits of proper sanitation, good hygiene and clean drinking
water on health and well being, educational attainment and economic
growth are increasingly gaining recognition by the international
development community. However, there is still a long way to go.</div>
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Designed as an online campaign, World Toilet Day wants to cast its net
far and wide to get the attention of not just those working on these
issues already, but also decision makers and the public. The website <a href="http://mail.createsend.nl/t/r-l-kkihilk-jliduujdo-t/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">www.worldtoiletday.org</a> enables the world over to:</div>
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Share key messages about safe toilets</li>
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Advocate for better sanitation by hosting an event and registering activities on an interactive World Toilet Day map</li>
<li>
Promote World Toilet Day by using the logo, posters, banners, stickers and brochure</li>
<li>
Tell the world why You Give A Shit!</li>
<li>
Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter</li>
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If you Give A Shit, then take action, share and learn on <a href="http://mail.createsend.nl/t/r-l-kkihilk-jliduujdo-i/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">www.worldtoiletday.org</a>.</div>
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<strong>Media Contacts</strong><br />
WSSCC – Saran Koly, <a href="http://saran%2Ekoly@wsscc.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">saran.koly@wsscc.org</a>; +41 22 560 81 74; WTO – Haikel Fahim, <a href="http://haikel@worldtoilet.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">haikel@worldtoilet.org</a>; +65 6352 8921</div>
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<strong>Note to Editors</strong></div>
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<em>About the World Toilet Organization</em><br />
The World Toilet Organization is a global non-profit organization
committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. It is
a global network and service platform that all toilet and sanitation
organizations can use to share knowledge and advocate sound sanitation
and public health policies by leveraging media and global support to
influence governments. Visit <a href="http://mail.createsend.nl/t/r-l-kkihilk-jliduujdo-d/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">www.worldtoilet.org</a> for more information</div>
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<em>About the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council</em><br />
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) mission
is to ensure sustainable sanitation, better hygiene and safe drinking
water for all people. Good sanitation and hygiene lead to economic and
social development, yielding health, productivity, educational and
environmental benefits. WSSCC manages the Global Sanitation Fund,
facilitates coordination at national, regional and global levels,
supports professional development, and advocates on behalf of the 2.5
billion people without a clean, safe toilet to use. WSSCC is hosted by
UNOPS, supports coalitions in more than 30 countries and has members
around the world. Visit <a href="http://mail.createsend.nl/t/r-l-kkihilk-jliduujdo-h/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009999;" target="_blank">www.wsscc.org</a> for more information. </div>
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Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-32682517464120461102012-11-09T09:00:00.001+05:302012-11-09T09:00:18.493+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-30/guwahati/31260156_1_households-sanitation-facilities-census" target="_blank">'Sanitation still a far cry in progressive Assam'</a></b><br />
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<span class="pubdate">Naresh Mitra, TNN</span><span class="separator"> </span><span>Mar 30, 2012, 10.35PM IST</span></div>
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GUWAHATI: <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Assam">Assam</a>
has a lot more to do in improving sanitation facilities even as more
and more people in the state are watching the television and using
cellphones. There is also a rise in buying of cars and two-wheelers,
despite the fact that the state tops among 14 states using firewood for
cooking.<br />
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The 2011 Census of India report on houses, household
amenities and assets for Assam, which was released here on Friday,
revealed that there was no significant improvement in providing
sanitation facilities to people between 2001 and 2011. The census
covered 3.11 crore population in 26,395 villages, 214 towns, including
126 census towns.<br />
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In 2001, 64.6 per cent households had proper sanitation facilities
within their premises. In 2011, there was only a slight improvement of
64.9 per cent. The number of households not having such facilities has
also declined to 35.1 per cent in 2011 from 35.4 per cent in 2001.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, while 43 per cent of the households have cellphones,
there has been an increase of 44 points for households using the basic
telephone. The 2011 census found 48 per cent (42 per cent in rural and
81 per cent in urban areas) of the households use telephones and 43 per
cent (39 per cent in rural and 69 per cent in urban areas) households
have cellphones.<br />
<br />
Households possessing television sets have
increased to 27.5 per cent in 2011 from 18.3 per cent in 2001. There has
been an increase of 3.77 per cent in houses having four-wheelers in
2011. In 2001, the figure was 2.05 per cent. Likewise, houses having
two-wheelers increased to 10.15 per cent in 2011 from 5.21 per cent in
2001. The report also said that 9.3 per cent of homes (7.2 per cent in
rural and 21.0 per cent in urban areas) have computers and 2 per cent
have access to the internet (1 per cent in rural and 6 per cent in urban
areas).<br />
<br />
Another picture of Assam highlighted in the census
report is that 80 per cent of the households still use firewood, crop
residue, cow dung cakes and coal for cooking, while only 19 per cent use
LPG or PNG, electricity and biogas. While 20 per cent have drainage
facility, 79.59 per cent still don't enjoy such facilities against 79.6
per cent in 2001.<br />
<br />
Households having electricity have increased to
37.1 per cent in 2011 from 24.9 per cent in 2001. Again, kerosene is
still used in 61.8 per cent of homes as a source for light.</div>
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Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-87605833626445472852012-09-11T12:10:00.002+05:302012-09-11T12:10:59.384+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.iwa2012busan.org/" target="_blank">Making every toilet flush count—creating electricity from sewage</a></h1>
<br />
Treating sewage takes a lot of energy, but in the face of rising energy
costs, creating electricity from wastewater is a near-ideal renewable
energy option.<br />
<br />
“Wastewater operators are asking themselves how to maximise energy
recovery from wastewater treatment as well as minimising energy
consumption in the treatment process,” Dr Greenfield says.<br />
<br />
Dr Greenfield, chair of the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology
Organisation, is addressing an international water congress in Korea
next week about achieving improved sustainabilty in the urban water
sector.<br />
<br />
He says the two most valuable products from wastewater treatment are energy and clean water.<br />
<br />
“As the price of energy goes up, that will encourage wastewater
treatment operators to become more energy efficient and look for more
efficient ways of generating energy from the wastewater processing.”<br />
<br />
Sewage, or wastewater, needs to be cleaned of chemicals, organic matter,
bacteria and viruses—and part of the process to achieve this clean-up
can be used to generate electricity, fuel, heat, biogas and more.<br />
<br />
Treatment plant operators are increasingly interested in using methane
generated from wastewater to power their plants and, in some cases, feed
electricity back to the grid.<br />
<br />
The main drivers for mining energy from wastewater are rising
electricity costs and, similarly, carbon prices in countries that have
pollution taxes in place such as Europe and Australia. Modern cities are
also turning to greener design and innovation.<br />
<br />
Dr Greenfield points out that, with time, “there will be different ways
of collecting water—recycled, rainwater, stormwater, desalination,
reservoirs—and a myriad of uses—industry, agriculture, developing and
old areas,” he says.<br />
<br />
“We will end up with much more complex systems than we currently have,
and see great advances in technology. Operators will certainly want to
recover energy, because energy costs are only going to go one way in
future.”<br />
<br />
<div>
The International Water Association’s World Water Congress and Exhibition, in Busan (Korea), runs 16–21 September 2012.<br />
</div>
ENDS<br />
<br />
<hr />
<strong>For interview and/or photos:</strong><br />
<strong>Dr Paul Greenfield</strong>, Chair of the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation; International Water Centre, Queensland, Australia<br />
Phone: +61 7 3014 0200 Email: <a href="http://in.mc1925.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=p.greenfield@watercentre.org" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">p.greenfield@watercentre.org</a><br />
<br />
<strong>For media assistance:</strong><br />
<strong>Alison Binney</strong>, Econnect Communication, Australia<br />
<strong>Phone: </strong>+61 7 3846 7111 <strong>Mobile</strong>: +61 (0)428 900 450 <strong>Email:</strong> <a href="http://in.mc1925.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=alison@econnect.com.au" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">alison@econnect.com.au</a><br />
Jenni Metcalfe, Econnect Communication, Australia<br />
<strong>Phone: </strong>+61 7 3846 7111 <strong>Mobile</strong>: +61 (0)408 551 866 <strong>Email:</strong> <a href="http://econnect.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e&id=2d1fd92d9b&e=bbea99b5fe" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">jenni@econnect.com.au</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Further information:</strong><br />
IWA Congress & Exhibition website: <a href="http://econnect.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e&id=cfbf06a194&e=bbea99b5fe" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.iwa2012busan.org/</a><br />
Event hashtag <strong>#iwa2012busan</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://econnect.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e&id=7b13eaa36d&e=bbea99b5fe" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Follow us on Twitter" height="32" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e/images/twitter_32.png" style="border: 0; display: inline; height: 32px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 32px;" width="32" /></a> <a href="http://econnect.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e&id=5289453410&e=bbea99b5fe" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0066cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img align="left" height="32" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/0c81fff5317050b57ada0e25e/images/facebook_32.png" style="border: 0; display: inline; height: 32px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 32px;" width="32" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Major sponsors of the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition are:
<ul>
<li>
SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT</li>
<li>
Xylem</li>
<li>
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction</li>
<li>
Samsung Engineering</li>
<li>
The Ministry of Environment</li>
<li>
Busan Metropolitan City</li>
<li>
GS E&C Corporation</li>
<li>
Veolia Water</li>
</ul>
</div>
Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-41577747701693046332012-03-05T09:07:00.000+05:302012-03-05T09:07:16.731+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.wsscc.org/media/wash-media-awards/2011-2012">http://www.wsscc.org/media/wash-media-awards/2011-2012</a><br />
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The WASH Media
Awards initiative recognizes and supports the crucial role of the media
in raising awareness of the importance of water, sanitation, and hygiene
services.</div>
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It aims to help
improve access to these services by having a positive influence on
politicians, business persons, civil society representatives, and
individual citizens. </div>
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<br />
The
initiative, first launched in 2002, is open to journalists who write or
broadcast original investigative reports on WASH issues.<br /><br />WSSCC
seeks to use the WASH Media Awards as part of the broader goals of
fostering sustainable relations with journalists in developing and
developed nations, and increasing media coverage of WASH issues. The
WASH Media Awards, now in their third edition, also intend to provide
recognition to those journalists who make public awareness of water,
sanitation and hygiene, and their related development issues a priority.<br />
Journalists
have a perfect profile for WASH advocates since they communicate
messages in a concrete way which reflects the 'WASH on the ground'
reality. Therefore, a media network is a valuable asset to further
create a valued platform for advocacy and influence in the water supply
and sanitation sectors.<br />
<br />
The winners from the first three editions
of the Awards have taken up their newly acquired role as WASH advocates
and became involved in global and regional WASH related events. In
June 2011, WSSCC will announce the details for the next round of
competition. Journalists interested in being informed about the
competition should join the WSSCC press list via the "Media" tab in the
menu above.</div>
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</div>Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-7494806168891932332011-10-21T17:06:00.002+05:302012-03-05T09:07:20.841+05:30Water Hackathon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
'WaterHackathon' to Find Technology Solutions to Global Water Challenges<br /><br />WASHINGTON, October 20, 2011 - Computer programmers, designers, and other information technology specialists convened by the World Bank Group and technology partners at NASA, Google, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Yahoo! will compete for 48 hours in cities around the world this weekend to develop new application software, or apps, that solve water and sanitation challenges in developing countries.<br /><br />Water is essential to sustain life and economic development, yet the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation remains daunting.<br /><br />- 2.6 billion people lack access to sanitation<br /><br />- Nearly one billion live without access to safe drinking water<br /><br />Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the worlds single largest cause of illness, responsible for two million deaths a year thats four people every minute most of them children. More children die of diarrhea than of AIDs, malaria, and TB combined.<br /><br />The first ever global WaterHackathon follows the model set by Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), a partnership among these same organizations, in which subject matter experts and local stakeholders submit problem definitions which are then tackled by volunteer software developers who use the latest technology tools to create innovative solutions. The first RHoK event in November 2009 gave rise to applications such as Im Ok! and Tweak the Tweet, which were used in emergency response operations following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.<br /><br />The sustainable management of water resources has also acquired a new urgency in the face of a global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, increased food demands, and increased hydrological variability caused by climate change.<br /><br />- Irrigation produces around half of the world's food and accounts for about three quarters of water withdrawals worldwide.<br /><br />- Water scarcity will affect at least 30% of the world's population in 2050.<br /><br />- Climate change exacerbates flood and drought challenges as it makes water resources harder to manage, and increases risk and uncertainty.<br /><br />WaterHackathon will take place simultaneously in nine locations, including, among others, Bangalore, Lagos, Lima, Nairobi, and Washington, DC.<br /><br />The general public is invited to follow the event live on Twitter at #waterhack.<br /><br />Water is at the heart of some of the world's most pressing development challenges. At the intersection of technology and consumer-related data, we are seeing new opportunities to create and effectively use non-traditional solutions. Are we really taking full advantage of now-ubiquitous mobile phones, mobile internet access, and social media tools to transform inclusion, citizen participation, and transparency in water management and services? Are we using open data to full practical advantage? It is in search of such non-traditional solutions that the World Bank is launching the WaterHackathon," said Jose Luis Irigoyen, World Bank Director for Transport, Water, and Information and Communication Technologies.<br /><br />"WaterHackathon represents a natural intersection of two focus areas of NASA's Open Government Initiative - open data and open source," said Nicholas Skytland, Program Manager of NASA's Open Government Initiative. "This collaborative project enables us to provide data resources to the water sector and the developer community as they create applications that address some of the world's most urgent water crises."<br /><br />"HP is committed to applying our technology, expertise, and dedicated volunteers to support and contribute to the prosperity of people and communities around the world," said Marlon Evans, Office of Global Social Innovation, Hewlett-Packard Company. "We are proud to partner with the World Bank and Random Hacks of Kindness in their efforts to solve todays water problems."<br /><br />"Microsoft is delighted to see the growth and continuation of the Random Hacks of Kindness model," said Patrick Svenburg, Director of Developer & Platform Evangelism at Microsoft. "The chance to bring together subject matter experts around water and sanitation with software developers from all around the world is a unique opportunity to create open solutions that will directly affect the quality of life of people, perhaps even safe lives."<br /><br />"We are very excited to see the Water Hackathon taking off as one of the first Random Hacks of Kindness Community Events," said Christiaan Adams, a Developer Advocate with Google.org's Crisis Response Team.<br /><br />Among the speakers at WaterHackathon is Jeff Martin, founder and CEO of Tribal Brands and Tribal Technologies, which created the first intelligent database behind mobile applications that predicts consumer behaviors and interactions. "Today, far more of the world's population has access to a cell signal than safe drinking water," he said. "What we need now is a marriage of digital convergence to solve this problem - where mobile phones and apps help bridge this incomprehensible gap in a way desktop computers never did."<br /><br />Contacts:<br /><br />In Washington: Karolina Ordon, +1 (202) 458-5971, kordon@worldbank.org<br />
<br />
Christopher Walsh, (202) 473-4594, cwalsh@worldbank.org;<br /><br />For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org<br /><br />For more information, please visit: www.WaterHackathon.org<br /><br />Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldbank<br /><br />Be updated via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wspworldbank<br /><br />For our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watersanitation<br /><br /><br />
<br /></div>Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-27521645595876498072011-10-11T07:16:00.001+05:302011-10-11T07:16:12.925+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">“King of Bollywood” Shahrukh Khan puts his star-power behind life-saving sanitation and hygiene work</span></strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<em><b><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">First major movie star to talk about importance of toilets for dignity and health</span></b></em><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mumbai,
10 October 2011 – Shahrukh Khan, one of the world’s most popular and
much-loved Bollywood personalities, is making the fight for the right to
safe sanitation and good hygiene his own. The announcement was made
last night at the start of the Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene,
an international conference taking place this week in Mumbai.</span></strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">“I
am very happy to be an advocate for these important issues, because I
believe in every human being’s right to live with dignity,” Shahrukh
Khan said. “It is shameful and tragic that every 30 seconds a child dies
from preventable diarrhoea -- that’s two unnecessary child deaths per
minute, almost 3,000 a day or 1 million young lives wasted each year.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mr.
Khan said he dreams of an India and a world where poor and vulnerable
people don’t have to squat in the street or in the bushes to meet
Nature’s call. “It’s really quite simple. Toilets for all will make
India and the world a healthier and cleaner place, particularly for poor
women, girls and others at the margins of our societies,” Mr. Khan
said, adding “Sanitation for all does not require huge sums of money or
breakthrough scientific discoveries. Political commitment at the highest
level, the need to create awareness, and meet the demand for
sanitation, are all challenging issues, but doable.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jon
Lane, executive director for the UN-hosted Water Supply and Sanitation
Collaborative Council (WSSCC), which asked Mr. Khan to serve in the role
of ambassador, says the actor’s support for the issues is greatly
welcomed. “Mr. Khan is highly regarded by billions of people in South
Asia and Africa, where most of the people without good sanitation and
hygiene services live,” Mr. Lane said. “By extending his support to
water, sanitation and hygiene issues, Mr. Khan will give a huge impetus
to moving the agenda forward of ensuring there is a toilet in every home
and proper hand-washing practices are followed by all in the region.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In
the coming months, Mr. Khan will advocate with the public about the
impact toilets and proper handwashing on their lives by highlighting the
strong linkages it has on their health and the environment around them
including their ground water sources. (Click here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMWnoH2Mxc8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMWnoH2Mxc8</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uz4THb8PFA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uz4THb8PFA</a> to view his first public service announcements.)</span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Experts meeting in Mumbai</span></strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Some
500 activists, business leaders, health professionals, governmental
officials and others from 70 countries are attending the first-ever
Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene (<a href="http://www.wsscc-global-forum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.wsscc-global-forum.org</a>)
in Mumbai. Arranged 9-14 October by the Geneva-based WSSCC and the
Governments of India and Maharashtra, the Forum aims to highlight how to
save millions of lives through handwashing, how to build educational
opportunities for teenage girls through separate latrines, and how to
“invest in waste” through biogas-generating toilets and other
entrepreneurial innovation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Of
the 2.6 billion people living without safe and clean toilets, roughly a
third live in South Asia, a third in sub-Saharan Africa and a third in
China. These people are unable to fulfil their daily needs with safety,
convenience and dignity. There are good reasons to turn this situation
around, including evidence that points to the negative economic impacts
of poor sanitation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">“Poor
sanitation is costing developing countries between 3 and 7% of GDP,”
said Anna Tibaijuka, chair of WSSCC. “Improved access to toilets has
the potential to reduce healthcare costs, improve productivity, increase
earnings from tourism and promote greater educational attainment,
especially among girls. When a school has separate toilets for girls,
with doors that lock, their attendance rates improve, especially once
they reach menstruation.”</span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">About the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council</span></strong><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) mission is
to ensure sustainable sanitation, better hygiene and safe drinking water
for all people. Good sanitation and hygiene lead to economic and
social development, yielding health, productivity, educational and
environmental benefits. WSSCC manages the Global Sanitation Fund,
facilitates coordination at national, regional and global levels,
supports professional development, and advocates on behalf of the 2.6
billion people without a clean, safe toilet to use. WSSCC is hosted by
UNOPS, supports coalitions in more than 30 countries, and has members
around the world.</span></em><span style="font-family: "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
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Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-85807678760021017462011-07-25T10:33:00.000+05:302011-07-25T10:33:46.978+05:30Rural sanitation: Bill Gates Foundation team visits Mandi<a href="http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/rural-sanitation-bill-gates-foundation-team-visits-mandi/231641/"></a><br />
<br />
Express news service<br />
Posted: Oct 24, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST<br />
<br />
Shimla, October 23 Mandi’s success in the community-led rural sanitation drive has started attracting international agencies, who are offering to replicate the experiment in other countries, besides Indian states. More than 150 gram panchayats in the district have already attained status of ODF (open defecation free ) - one of the basic pre-requisite of total sanitation.The district has set a target of becoming completely ODF by August 2008, perhaps the first in northern India.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, a 10-member team from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA, visited two gram panchayats of Mandal and Barsu in Balh Block to see how the community has collectively made a change in their living standards.The team was accompanied by officials of the World Bank, whose water and sanitation programme (WSP) is also actively associated with the drive.<br />
<br />
Paitty Stonesifer, the foundation’s CEO, led the team and met local community leaders and members of mahila mandals to share their experiences. “What actually impressed the foundation’s CEO was the fact that the campaign is completely led by the community and involves no element of subsidy or funding,” said Subhasish Panda, Mandi’s Deputy Commissioner.<br />
<br />
Though the foundation, which works on health issues, has earlier also visited Orissa and Maharashtra, this is the first time the CEO headed for Himachal Pradesh. Some of the local natural water sources maintained by the villagers were also visited by the team leader.<br />
<br />
Next, a team of Pakistan’s media professionals is also reaching Shimla to collect first-hand experience on working of the rural sanitation campaign in the district. Narkanda block in Shimla with 16 panchayats has also recently become ODF. In all, 360 gram panchayats have already become ODF in the state, barring districts of Kangra, Una and Hamirpur, where the campaign has not yet taken up well.<br />
<br />
Strikingly, Kinnaur district in the state’s tribal belt has shown change faster than even some of the bigger districts like Kangra. Now, Bilaspur, Shimla and Solan districts are also witnessing a change, says Director, Rural Development and Panchayats, Rakesh Kaushal.<br />
<br />
“Our focus is to see a collective behaviour change in the rural community. Once that’s achieved, the people will start realising the advantages,” he feels.<br />
<br />
In Solan, the district plan prescribes for regular monitoring of the water quality in and around the panchayats that have become ODF.<br />
<br />
“This is a very good test to monitor community behavior and also prevent re-occurrence of diseases like diarrhoea and gastroenteritis,” said Deepak Shanan, principal secretary, IPH. Shanan says the department is already working on a plan to introduce internal water quality monitoring system for drinking water supply schemes in the state.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-84899818738757604582011-05-20T13:13:00.000+05:302011-05-20T13:13:10.322+05:30Sanitary napkins for rural girls from August <br />
<br />
Aarti Dhar<br />
<br />
Napkins will be sold at subsidised price of Rs. 6 per pack<br />
<br />
Ensuring better menstrual health and hygiene<br />
<br />
Safe disposal of napkins at community level<br />
<br />
NEW DELHI: The Centre's ambitious and much-awaited scheme of making available subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years in rural India will be operational by August.<br />
<br />
As part of promotion of menstrual hygiene, the napkins will be sold to girls at a cost of Rs.6 for a pack of six - Re. 1 per piece - in the village by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA).<br />
<br />
This scheme is aimed at ensuring that adolescent girls in rural areas have adequate knowledge and information about menstrual hygiene and the use of napkins. The girls will be provided a pack of six napkins under the National Rural Health Mission's brand ‘Freedays.'<br />
<br />
Use to increase<br />
<br />
In the first phase, the scheme will cover 25 per cent of the population — 1.5 crore girls in 152 districts of 20 States. It is expected that with availability of sanitary napkins at the village level, their use will increase. Easy access and convenient pricing are the strategies adopted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for increasing usage of safe and hygienic practices during menstruation.<br />
<br />
The ASHA will get an incentive of Re. 1 on sale of each pack, besides a free pack of napkins every month.<br />
<br />
Evidence suggests that lack of access to menstrual hygiene (which includes sanitary napkins, toilets in schools, availability of water, privacy and safe disposal) could contribute to local infections including Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI). Studies have shown that RTIs are closely inter-related with poor menstrual hygiene and pose grave threats to women's lives, livelihood, and education. Services for the prevention and treatment of RTI/Sexually Transmitted Infections are integral part of the Reproductive Child Health II Programme (RCH II).<br />
<br />
Clouded by taboos<br />
<br />
In India, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions for women as well as adolescent girls. Limited access to safe sanitary products and facilities is believed to be one of the reasons for constrained school attendance, high dropout rates and ill-health due to infection.<br />
<br />
With specific reference to ensuring better menstrual health and hygiene for adolescent girls, the government is launching this scheme as part of the Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health (ARSH) in the RCH II.<br />
<br />
Self-help groups involved<br />
<br />
The sanitary napkins will be manufactured and supplied by the Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL) and self-help groups. Tamil Nadu, Haryana and West Bengal will depend totally on self-help groups for the supply of the napkins.<br />
<br />
Uniform price<br />
<br />
The Mission Steering Group — the highest decision-making body of the NRHM — had approved the proposal for supplying the napkins at a highly subsidised cost of Re.1 a pack of five to the girls below poverty line while the rest would have to pay Rs.5 a pack. However, the price has been made uniform for all girls now.<br />
<br />
For safe disposal of the napkins at the community level, deep-pit burial or burning are the options being considered. Due environmental clearance has to be obtained from the States for this. Installing incinerators in schools that can be manually operated is another option which is being explored.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-53899460398235605232011-03-19T11:38:00.000+05:302011-03-19T11:38:08.322+05:30Announcement<br />
<br />
Water for Life Best Practices Award 2011<br />
<br />
Winners of first award edition will be announced and celebrated at World Water Day 2011<br />
<br />
UNITED NATIONS, Zaragoza, Spain: As part of the World Water Day celebrations, two outstanding programmes will be receiving on 22nd of March 2011 the “Water for Life” Best Practices Award in two categories:<br />
<br />
* Category 1 - Best water management practices<br />
<br />
·Category 2 - Best Participatory, Communication, Awareness-raising and Education Practices<br />
<br />
The winners will be awarded their prize during the “Water for Life” Best Practices Award Ceremony in Zaragoza, Spain, with live connection to the main United Nations World Water Day event in Cape Town, South Africa.<br />
<br />
The annual prize aims to highlight those organisations or individuals displaying outstanding merit and achieving particularly effective results in the field of water management or in raising awareness in water issues.<br />
<br />
The first Award edition 2011 focuses on urban water, reflecting the theme of the 2011 World Water Day. The “Water for Life” Best Practices Award is organized by the United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” 2005-2015, which implements the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), and the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-59934842289859213292011-02-11T12:48:00.000+05:302011-02-11T12:48:05.562+05:30In 2010, The World’s Longest Toilet Queue mobilized over 100,000 campaigners in 80 countries to make a stand for sanitation and water for all people, everywhere. Thanks if you were part of this meaningful global event. This year we invite you not to stand… but to walk: From 19-22 March 2011, the World Walks for Water, will YOU too?<br />
<br />
Millions of people are forced to walk 6 km every day just to collect water for their basic needs. Billions have no safe place to go to the toilet. The World Walks for Water, a campaign coordinated by the End Water Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, WASH United and WSSCC, aims to raise awareness of this crisis and demands governments to prioritize water and sanitation for all. The walks on World Water Day won't fundraise, but instead apply political pressure for change as organizers are encouraged to invite local or national politicians to their events, and to lobby them while they attend.<br />
<br />
The campaign is gaining momentum, with walks registered in 25 countries already. Ways for YOU to support The World Walks for Water are numerous:<br />
<br />
* Organize a walk in your country and register it here. Your walk should be 6 km in length (either 6 km in total or broken into smaller walks that together make 6 km).<br />
<br />
* If you won’t organize your own walk, check out the online map to find a walk happening near you. Get in touch with the organizer to support it and work together.<br />
<br />
* Join the online walk (takes only a minute!) and encourage your contacts to join it as well.<br />
<br />
* Promote the campaign to your networks and encourage them to use it as a vehicle for national advocacy on sanitation, water and health.<br />
<br />
To organize a walk in your country, kindly see Your Guide to The World Walks for Water attached to this email. The guide contains, amongst other useful information, walk tips and a checklist for your walk. For further information and a range of online materials (toolkits, press release templates, posters and policy info sheets by country), please visit www.worldwalksforwater.org.<br />
<br />
Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Maja Frei, maja.frei@wsscc.org.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-80192838079894189992011-02-10T19:16:00.001+05:302011-02-10T19:18:28.893+05:30<a href="http://infochangeindia.org/Urban-India/Cityscapes/Why-public-toilets-get-clogged.html">Why public toilets get clogged </a><br />
<br />
The best-designed plans for the building and maintenance of public toilets in India seem to come undone. But the argument that the pay-per-use model popularised by Sulabh is the only workable one is superficial and unrealistic in a country where millions are denied their right to basic services like clean water and sanitation, says Kalpana Sharma <br />
<br />
On November 19, the front page of a leading Mumbai daily ran an advertisement that announced that it was World Toilet Day. The ad was blatantly selling a toilet-cleaning agent manufactured by a leading multinational company. Interesting, nonetheless, that an organisation calling itself the ‘World Toilet Organisation’ should have decided to choose November 19, the birthday of Indira Gandhi, as a day to remember toilets.<br />
<br />
What we should be remembering on that day is the absence of toilets in large parts of India. Our record on sanitation is still well below par for a country that believes it has already arrived on the world stage as an economic power. While some strides have been made in rural sanitation through campaigns like the Nirmal Gram Abhiyan, the urban situation remains problematic.<br />
<br />
With liberalisation has come the belief that many social services like providing sanitation and water can be delivered through public-private partnerships, and that the onus for these services need not be borne by the government alone. The private sector has discovered that there might even be profits in this sector. And NGOs working on sanitation have realised that they can intervene in the design and delivery of sanitation services.<br />
<br />
For Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the inventor of the Sulabh Shauchalaya, profit was not the motive that led him to devise the simple “twin-pit pour-flush toilet” that brought about a minor revolution in the availability of toilet facilities in many parts of India. Dr Pathak began in Bihar in the early-1970s, and now heads an organisation that has spread to other countries. Indeed, ‘Sulabh’ has almost become a generic term for a particular kind of toilet.<br />
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While the Sulabh model has been greatly applauded and has generated substantial revenue for the organisation, not everyone is sold on the idea. Yet, even if there is disagreement on the details, the pay-per-use idea introduced by Dr Pathak has caught on.<br />
<br />
Every city has tried variations on this theme. The main issue here is how a toilet block can pay for itself so that its operations and maintenance costs can be covered. On paper, this seems workable. Municipalities give the land for such public toilets, including where Sulabhs are built, free, and more often than not, even water and electricity are free or heavily subsidised. While the Sulabh model does not need to be linked to the sewerage network, as it uses septic tanks, similar toilet blocks in other cities, particularly larger ones, are connected to the main sewer lines.<br />
<br />
So if Sulabh continues to make profits out of its toilets, how is it that other such efforts have not worked quite as well?<br />
<br />
One reason Sulabh makes profits is because its toilet blocks are usually built in areas with a heavy footfall such as train stations or bus stations or important city junctions. The toilets are heavily used and generate considerable daily revenue. It is estimated that they can cover their construction costs in less than a year. This surplus can then cross-subsidise toilets built in slums where people cannot pay as much and the use is not so heavy.<br />
<br />
There should have been similar success stories to report in cities where the private sector was initially invited to participate in providing public toilets. But the outcome has been mixed.<br />
<br />
Take Bangalore for instance. The Karnataka government set up the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) in 2000 to help garner private involvement in transforming the city. Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys founder Narayan Murthy, offered Rs 8 crore from her personal funds to construct 100 public toilets in Bangalore. The toilets blocks were called Nirmala toilets and followed Sulabh’s pay-per-use model. The Corporation would provide the land free; electricity and water too would be free or subsidised. Private companies were contracted to build, run and operate the toilets and hand them over to the municipality after a fixed number of years.<br />
<br />
The location of the toilets included public places, such as major out-station bus stops, and also slums where the charges would be Rs 20 per family per month rather than pay-per-use.<br />
<br />
In the initial stages, 27 Nirmala toilets were built with this money at a cost of roughly Rs 10 lakh per toilet block. However, even as the toilets were being built, it was evident that operations and maintenance would be a challenge. <br />
<br />
In the following four or five years, the Bangalore Corporation constructed another 50-60 Nirmala toilets. But according to someone involved with the initial concept, the real problem arose when the Corporation decided to drop the user charges and make the toilets free.<br />
<br />
Within a short time, the inevitable happened. Operators running the toilets lost interest as profits fell. Little was invested in keeping the toilets clean and carrying out timely repairs. As a result, dozens of such toilet blocks are now reportedly virtually unusable. <br />
<br />
The Corporation has tried to hand over operations and maintenance to private companies again. But in the interim there has been no real evaluation of why the effort failed and what can be learnt from it. There is no system in place, for instance, for third-party inspection of the toilet blocks. Without regular scrutiny, it is inevitable that standards will slip.<br />
<br />
Some argue that if the Corporation had allowed private contractors to continue running the toilets by collecting user fees, the public would have been better served. The profits from such a venture are now well established, as is evident from the Sulabh experience. The revenue is virtually tax-free as it is a cash transaction. And ultimately, both the entrepreneur and user benefit. For women, in particular, who have minimal access to safe, clean toilet facilities in most cities, even paying is better than having no toilet at all.<br />
<br />
There is, however, a class angle. Those with money have secure housing and therefore do not need to worry about public toilets. They can walk with confidence into hotels or shopping malls when they are out, and otherwise have toilets in their homes. For the poor living in informal housing without individual toilets, public toilets are a necessity. If, on top of that, they have to pay each time they use it, the burden becomes heavy.<br />
<br />
Even if one concludes from the Bangalore experience, and similar ones in other cities, that it is best to keep public facilities on a pay-per-use basis, what do you do about slums where the only toilets available are communal ones usually built by the municipality? The ratio of people to toilets in many slums can be as high as 1:2,500 per toilet seat.<br />
<br />
User charges in slum toilets -- Rs 20 per family per month -- are clearly not going to generate adequate revenue to cover operations and maintenance. Hence, here, either a cross-subsidy or a direct subsidy is unavoidable.<br />
<br />
In cities like Mumbai and Pune, the municipality has roped in NGOs working with the urban poor to design, construct and maintain public toilets in slum areas. The funds for these projects are with the municipality, usually lying unused. The private part of the partnership is therefore not in funds, but in execution. Here again the story has been a mixed one.<br />
<br />
In Pune, for instance, an enthusiastic municipal commissioner encouraged several NGOs, including Shelter Associates and SPARC (Society for Area Resource Centres) to bid for contracts to construct toilets. At first, the outcome was encouraging as these groups consulted communities where the toilets would be built, discussed the design and the location, and encouraged people from the community to be part of the construction process.<br />
<br />
These consultations spawned several design innovations. For instance, children would continue to defecate in the open even where a toilet was available because the toilet pan was too wide for the child to straddle. As a result, mothers would let their children defecate just outside the toilet block making the approach to the toilet filthy. The groups decided to design a separate children’s toilet.<br />
<br />
In some slums in Mumbai, where SPARC undertook the work, a community centre was built on top of the toilet block. And the caretaker and his family lived in a room above the block. This ensured that it was kept clean.<br />
<br />
But even these enthusiastic interventions have not been trouble-free. Some of the problems had to do with the system that operates on the ground. For instance, even if a municipal corporation allows NGOs to bid for the construction of toilets, control of the money lies in the hands of petty bureaucrats. An honest and efficient man at the top does not eliminate the need to grease the palms of middlemen. So, getting funds in time to continue construction, and meeting deadlines, is the first big hurdle that many NGOs face.<br />
<br />
The other issue is the NGOs’ approach to these contracts; they see them as not just a way of meeting a community need but also of building capacity within the community to carry out such tasks in the future. But in the process of encouraging community-based contractors, there is always the risk of inexperience leading to basic construction flaws that show up within a few years of construction.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, it is the issue of operations and maintenance that seems to clog even the best-designed toilets. Community management of slum toilets has had its share of problems. In some cases where the group is cohesive and has been engaged in other issues such as savings, for instance, management is better. In others, where a group has been formed to manage the toilet, the results have not been entirely satisfactory. In several places, toilets have been taken over by the local thug or moneylender who charges whatever he pleases and virtually makes the toilet his adda.<br />
<br />
The story of public and community toilets in India can be told in several theses and books. In each city, the experiences are specific to the politics and needs of that place. But there are also common experiences from which lessons can be drawn for the future.<br />
<br />
It would be easy to conclude that just as there is no free lunch, there should be no free toilet facility. That is a superficial and unrealistic conclusion in the Indian context where millions are denied their right to basic services like clean water and sanitation. Ultimately, the only solution to the toilet crisis is the provision of secure housing in which sanitation is an integral part. But until that can be achieved (and currently it seems an almost insurmountable problem), facilities for the poor will have to be subsidised so that they may be spared the indignity that accompanies the lack of sanitation.<br />
<br />
Infochange News & Features, November 2010Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-79463040076251384682011-02-02T22:05:00.000+05:302011-02-02T22:05:35.549+05:30Poor sanitation cost India $54 bnNEW DELHI: Inadequate sanitation cost India almost $54 billion or 6.4% of the country’s GDP in 2006. Over 70% of this economic impact or about $38.5 billion was health-related with diarrhoea followed by acute lower respiratory infections accounting for 12% of the health-related impacts.<br />
<br />
These estimates are from ‘‘ The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation in India’’, a new report released on Monday by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a global partnership administered by the World Bank .<br />
<br />
Christopher Juan Costain, WSP regional leader for South Asia pointed out that the report helped to quantify the economic losses to India due to inadequate sanitation and also showed that children and poor households bore the brunt of poor sanitation. <br />
<br />
More than three-fourth of the premature mortality-related economic losses are due to deaths and diseases in children younger than five. Diarrhoea among these children accounts for over 47% of the total health-related impact, that is nearly $18 billion dollars.<br />
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The report estimates that in rural areas, where 50% of households are said to have access to improved sanitation, there are almost 575 million people defecating in the open. Similarly, in urban areas where 60-70 % of the households are said to have access to sanitation, 54 million people defecate in the open and over 60% of the waste water is discharged untreated.<br />
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This has led to huge public health costs, besides causing 450,000 deaths. It has led to an estimated 575 million cases of diarrhoea, and 350,000 deaths from diarrhoea alone, in the under-five age group.<br />
It is the poorest who bear the greatest cost due to inadequate sanitation.<br />
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The poorest fifth of the urban population bears the highest per capita economic impact of Rs 1,699, much more than the national average per capita loss due to inadequate sanitation, which is Rs 961. Among rural households too, the poorest fifth bears the highest per capita loss in the rural area at over Rs 1,000. <br />
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‘‘ And these are hugely underestimated estimates because we have excluded mortality impacts,’’ Costain says. The report admitted that many economic impacts like other diseases influenced by hygiene and sanitation and the impacts on pregnant women, low birthweight and long-term health had not been covered.<br />
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Health impacts, accounting for the bulk of the economic impacts, are followed by the economic losses due to the time spent in obtaining piped water and sanitation facilities , about $15 billion, and about $0.26 billion of potential tourism revenue lost due to India’s reputation for poor sanitation, the report says.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-6302321234375158652010-12-29T17:11:00.000+05:302010-12-29T17:11:22.664+05:30S R Sankaran: Champion of the safai karmacharis<br />
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By Mari Marcel Thekaekara<br />
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S R Sankaran, who died recently, transformed the lives of countless people. As a civil servant he worked for the poor, bonded labourers and dalits, and as mentor to the Safai Karmachari Andolan he saw the number of women manually cleaning excreta decline from 13 lakh to 3 lakh.<br />
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This is a column with a difference. It focuses on how one incredible man, S R Sankaran, an IAS officer, transformed the lives of countless others. Not by being heroic, but by simply doing his job. In effect it’s what all IAS officers are mandated to do, rather ought to do! Merely by doing what a civil servant is paid to do, and doing it well, Sankaran has moved mountains. <br />
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Eulogies have been written about ’Sankarangaru’, as he is respectfully called. Really moving ones too. I cannot claim to have known him for decades, as have others, but his passing left me with a sense of great loss, as though a much-loved family member or friend had died. I heard about his passing in a brutally casual manner.<br />
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Sankarangaru’s brother had died and I thought I should call him to condole his loss. I asked Bejawada Wilson, leader of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, almost a son to Sankaran, for a contact number. Wilson’s face was ravaged; I wondered if he was ill or merely exhausted. He said: ”He’s gone, Mari. Our Sankarangaru has left us.”<br />
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I shook my head in disbelief, the words refusing to sink in. ”What are you saying? I heard his brother had died. I wanted to phone him,” I said. ”He had a massive heart attack. We couldn’t save him,” Wilson replied.<br />
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Thousands of people like me went into shock as news of their beloved Sankarangaru’s passing spread through the country. They came flocking to his home in Andhra Pradesh on October 7, 2010, to follow this much-loved man till the very end. It was a bitter blow to everyone. Why should such a good person be taken from us before his time? Why did all of us feel such a sense of loss? It was because Sankarangaru was one of those human beings who brought hope to us. Who restored our faith in humanity when events around conspired to shatter it. This was a man who was diminutive, simple, quiet and soft-spoken. There are people around us who are colourful and charismatic, larger than life. He was neither. He would never stand out in a crowd. You would barely notice him, and he wanted it that way. He dismissed the trappings of power, the retinue of servants, the pomp and paraphernalia of the office of the IAS, and camped in dalit bastis, adivasi hamlets. He ate the barest minimum, simple vegetarian fare, and lived frugally, in sparsely furnished quarters, donating most of his income to educating dalits, adivasis and other poor students.<br />
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But this was not Sankarangaru’s claim to fame.<br />
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As his reputation spread, he became iconic because of his commitment to fighting injustice and poverty. He dedicated his IAS career to making the government work for the poor. He focused his formidable intellect on exposing injustice at every level and in ensuring all government programmes meant for the poor reached them. He worked ceaselessly to this end, and he created waves because he upset the status quo. Oppressors in villages, the owners of bonded labourers, exploitative landlords and the like, generally have relatives in high places, in the corridors of power, both in the IAS and police and other government circles. So justice rarely prevails. <br />
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Sankarangaru was not fazed. He fought fearlessly to improve the status of dalits in Andhra Pradesh. In 1976, at the Andhra Pradesh State Harijan Conference, he managed, with sensitive, like-minded IAS officers and ministers, to convert recommendations into government orders. Protection of dalits and adivasis under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, improvement and expansion of reservations, assignment and distribution of land to the landless, under the Land Reforms Act, integrated development under varous government schemes, removal of indebtedness, releasing bonded labourers, women’s issues, housing, conversion to other religions -- the list goes on. Sankarangaru turned these into practical, do-able government programmes and actions.<br />
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Some change was possible. Sankaran became secretary, social welfare, and soon mere words were translated into action plans.<br />
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His determination to rid the state of bonded labour when Indira Gandhi’s 20-point programme came into force with the Abolition of Bonded Labour Act 1976, earned him many enemies. Politicians who had bonded labour in their employ, and their powerful feudal landlord votebanks, opposed the abolition vociferously.<br />
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In his second tenure as principal secretary, Sankaran took up the issue of bonded labour again. He went from district to district holding meetings in villages, sitting on the ground with dalits and telling them that they had the right to be free, urging them to break out of bondage, and promising them government support. This enraged Andhra Pradesh’s feudal landlords who complained to the chief minister. At a cabinet meeting, Sankaran was publicly rebuked by the chief minister who asked him if it was true that he was going to the villages urging bonded labourers to revolt. The soft-spoken Sankaran replied that it was indeed true and that he believed that it was his duty and the duty of the government to do so. The outraged chief minister shouted that there was no place for subversives in his government. In an even softer voice, Sankaran declared: ”I believe this is true. I have no desire to work in such a government.” He left the room with an air of quiet dignity and self-confidence, while the entire cabinet gawked. Sankaran proceeded on long leave.<br />
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The story became the stuff of legend. The Marxist chief minister of Tripura, Nripen Chakravarthy, himself the epitome of integrity, invited Sankaran to work with him as chief secretary of Tripura. For six years, these two fearless, incredible men worked together. Few places on earth have had the privilege of such a team. No government in India ever benefitted from such an administration. Both men were scrupulously honest, decent and fearlessly dedicated to fighting injustice. Both were deeply committed, frugal men, bachelors, abhorred consumerism, detached from normal worldly interests, concerned only with improving the life of the poor in their care. It was an ideal partnership. <br />
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Sankaran’s abiding sorrow was that his 2004 negotiations for the end of violence in Naxal areas did not bear fruit. His stature and integrity were such that he was in the unique position where both government and the Naxals trusted him. He condemned the violence of the state as well as that of the Naxals, equally. But he saw that the Naxal violence, though counter-productive and untenable, was a result of tremendous injustice and exploitation in rural areas. The breakdown of talks left him heartbroken, but he continued to help people who were under threat of extermination because of false accusations against them.<br />
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Sankaran spent the last decade of his life working for one of the most exploited groups in the country, the safai karmacharis, people at the absolute bottom of the caste ladder, despised even by other dalits. The women are forced, even after 63 years of independence, to clean human shit with their bare hands, a broom and a piece of tin. And often, to carry baskets or containers of waste on their heads or hips. The men plunge into blocked sewers to unblock them. One person dies doing this work every day, in India.<br />
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Sankaran was guide and mentor to the Safai Karmachari Andolan. In his decade of involvement with the SKA, he had the satisfaction of seeing the numbers of women cleaning excreta decline from 13 lakhs to 3 lakhs, thanks to the SKA. This group of mainly young people from the balmiki community went from village to village, basti to basti, exhorting people to throw down their brooms, for the sake of the dignity of future generations, their children and grandchildren. The SKA is completing a task that Gandhiji began but did not finish.<br />
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Sankaran brought his knowledge and expertise to the campaign. Years of getting government to work paid off, as he drafted countless petitions and memoranda, wrote to IAS officers, and penetrated the inner workings of government for his beloved balmikis. He inspired and gave courage and direction to the movement. It was a bitter pill for everyone involved that he died months before the campaign came to a close. <br />
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His passing has left an enormous void in many hearts. What can one say of such a man. Shakespeare comes to mind. But while the world might say, ”This was a man”, to the thousands who wept at his funeral, words were not necessary.<br />
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Sankaran had no biological children. But the inheritance of integrity, compassion, commitment and passion for dignity and justice for the most downtrodden in this country will live on in the hearts of all those who knew him and recognised what he stood for. We hope his actions will inspire generations of IAS officers to go out and do likewise. That would be the most fitting tribute to this incredible man. <br />
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Infochange News & Features, December 2010Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-29218432296125395892010-12-23T16:34:00.001+05:302010-12-23T16:34:06.682+05:30WaterAid in West Africa and WSSCC have formed a partnership to support a regional network of journalists across West Africa with a view to increasing citizens' voice in WASH and ensuring region-wide impact on influencing. The regional network brings together members of existing national networks from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Togo and Senegal as well as journalists from Niger and Liberia, who are in the process of forming networks in their own countries.<br />
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There is a common recognition that campaigning and raising awareness are vital to increasing access to water and sanitation across West Africa. The media is a key platform for bringing these issues to the attention of decision makers, and informing people in order to raise their voices. The news agenda across the region is typically focused on politics and there has been limited coverage of water and sanitation issues. The knock-on effect of this is a lack of attention at a political level, low demand from citizens and a lack of knowledge among media organizations and journalists.<br />
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The partnership will support the journalists with access to sector information, analysis, case studies and building network capacity. It will grant seed funding for the initial three years, with a view to the network becoming financially independent and sourcing funding from outside the partnership. The network is expected to become an open and collaborative regional resource for gathering and sharing information on WASH.<br />
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In a three-day meeting earlier this month in Bamako, Mali, the journalists from the nine countries and representatives from WaterAid, WSSCC, WASH United and Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting discussed the experiences of the journalists so far and their vision for the regional network. It was agreed that the regional network will act as a platform to share knowledge and experience between journalists, work together at key moments for maximum campaigning impact, amplify the voices of the poor, support national networks and project WASH issues at the regional, continental and international level. The network's official vision is to become `The media network for informed actions on WASH in West Africa'. The network's committee members are from Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Senegal, and they will spearhead the plans to focus on AfricaSan in July 2011 in Rwanda.<br />
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For more information please contact:<br />
Tatiana Fedotova – WSSCC tatiana.fedotova@wsscc.org<br />
Apollos Nwafor – WaterAid West Africa apollosnwafor@wateraid.orgTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-26089674341519736802010-11-19T19:30:00.000+05:302010-11-19T19:30:47.008+05:30Better sanitation could save 2 million lives a year<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AE4EY20101115">Better sanitation could save 2 million lives a year</a><br />
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By Kate Kelland<br />
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LONDON | Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:03pm EST<br />
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LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly 20 percent of the world's population still defecates in the open, and action to improve hygiene, sanitation and water supply could prevent more than 2 million child deaths a year, health experts said Monday.<br />
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In a series of studies on sanitation published as a cholera epidemic claims hundreds of live in Haiti, public health researchers from the United States and Europe found that this year 2.6 billion people across the world do not have access to even a basic toilet.<br />
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Unsafe sanitation and drinking water, together with poor hygiene, account for at least 7 percent of disease across the world, they said, as well as nearly 20 percent of all child deaths in the world.<br />
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Despite this, progress in improving safe water supplies and sanitation has been "painfully slow" in many developing countries, they said. They urged international donors, United Nations agencies, developing country governments and health workers to act now to reduce this "devastating disease burden."<br />
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Poor sewerage and sanitation can spread dangerous infections like viral hepatitis and cholera, an acute disease transmitted in contaminated water that causes watery diarrhea and severe dehydration and can kill within hours if not treated.<br />
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More than 900 people have died of cholera in Haiti -- which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in January -- in an outbreak which experts believe was worsened by flooding caused by Hurricane Tomas this month.<br />
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The United Nations forecasts up to 200,000 Haitians could contract the infection as the outbreak extends across the country and says $163.9 million in aid is needed over the next year to fight it.<br />
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In the studies, published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal, researchers said that of the 2.6 billion people who have no access to decent sanitation, two-thirds live in Asia and sub-Sahara Africa.<br />
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It also found huge regional disparities in sanitation coverage. While 99 percent of people in industrialized countries have access to good sanitation, in developing countries only 53 percent have it. Within developing countries, urban sanitation coverage is 71 percent while in rural areas it is 39 percent.<br />
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"Globally, around 2.4 million deaths could be prevented annually if everyone practiced appropriate hygiene and had good, reliable sanitation and drinking water," said Sandy Cairncross of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who led one of the studies. "These deaths are mostly of children in developing countries from diarrhoea and subsequent malnutrition, and from other diseases attributable to malnutrition."<br />
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A World Health Organization (WHO) report published in May found the world was on track to achieve a globally agreed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on access to safe drinking water, but more needed to be done to improve levels of sanitation.<br />
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The MDG targets call for the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015 from levels in 2000.<br />
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Paul Hunter of Britain's University of East Anglia, who led one of the PLoS studies said more research was needed to see which intervention measures could improve sanitation and health.<br />
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"But ... action must not wait for the outcomes of such research," he wrote. "We know enough now about the importance of improved water supply, sanitation, and hygiene ... to consider universal access to these services to be an urgent imperative."<br />
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(Editing by Susan Fenton)Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-4830606084092306572010-10-18T11:38:00.002+05:302010-10-18T18:38:00.482+05:30<a href="http://www.hindu.com/mp/2010/10/18/stories/2010101850760300.htm">Have you washed up? </a><br /><br />Schools should insist that children wash hands to prevent infections<br /><br />Marianne de Nazareth<br /><br />Hand washing helps to contain the spread of infection. Washing of hands is a ritual most of us should be particular about in India before eating a meal. That's because we eat with our fingers. We tend to be careless when in a hurry and what's worse is we use unclean hands to feed others, especially children.<br /><br />October 15 has been dedicated to Hand-washing Day across the world. Global Hand-washing Day aims at motivating children to imitate and spread proper hand-washing practices, and turn them into little “hand-washing ambassadors”. It follows that if the child is taught correctly, they will in turn teach the next generation. Studies also suggest that hand-washing promotion in schools can play a role in reducing absenteeism among primary school children.<br /><br />Reduce diarrhoea<br /><br />There is a simple explanation for that — hand-washing with soap has been cited as one of the most cost-effective interventions to prevent diarrhoeal related deaths and disease. A review of several studies by the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), shows that hand-washing in institutions such as primary schools and daycare centres reduce the incidence of diarrhoea by an average of 30 per cent. Rates of hand-washing around the world are low. Observed rates of hand-washing with soap at critical moments – before handling food and after using the toilet - range from zero per cent to 34 per cent. “More than 1.5 million children under five die each year as a result of diarrhoea — it is the second most common cause of child deaths worldwide. Hand-washing with soap can save lives by reducing diarrhoea rates by more than 40 per cent,” explains David Trouba, the Programme Officer, WSSCC.<br /><br />“Hand washing is quintessential in preventing transmission of infections. In the hospital, washing hands as doctors and nurses move from one patient to the next has reduced the spread of contagious diseases. It has also brought down the numbers of infections contracted by healthcare personnel. It is therefore an important means of bringing down respiratory and skin infections. We should remember to wash hands before each meal and also after we touch any object or person capable of transmitting infection. The method of hand washing whereby each finger and inter-digital space is washed thoroughly has to be mastered by all”, adds Jyothi a doctor from St John's Medical College and Hospital.<br /><br />“On Hand-washing Day we appealed for a change in routine at two critical times in a day – hand washing with soap before eating and after defecation. The practice of hand washing is a behavioural change issue and hence ‘Hand washing Day' tries to bring this into focus every year world-wide,” says Deepinder Kapur of WSSCC.<br /><br />Our schools should insist on spreading the concept of regular hand washing among their children. By teaching children to be clean, we can help save many young lives and prevent expensive unnecessary hospital treatment.<br />endsTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-43302484923777506662010-10-15T14:21:00.002+05:302010-10-15T14:24:03.239+05:30<a href="http://www.asianage.com/columnists/sensex-aur-shauchalaya-911">Sensex aur shauchalaya</a><br /><br />By Patralekha Chatterjee<br /><br />We can thank Commonwealth Games organising committee general-secretary Lalit Bhanot for placing toilets firmly in the collective consciousness of this nation. “Their (Western) standard of hygiene and cleanliness could be different from ours so there is nothing to be ashamed about it”, Mr Bhanot wondered aloud at a press conference. Ever since those famous words, there is no escape from the toilet story in the Commonwealth Games Village.<br /><br />The photos of paan-stained washbasins and bathroom floors, combined with dog poo-smeared bedsheets, have gone viral on the Internet as “toiletgate” takes over the conversations of an anguished middle class in the country.<br /><br />The Sensex may have hit the magical 20,000 mark but disconcertingly, for many of us, the world at large is suddenly more concerned that more people in India have access to mobile phones than to basic sanitation.<br /><br />Is the toilet a template for the state of a nation or civilisation?<br />“The toilet is part of the history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the growth of civilisation”, says Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, sociologist, toilet czar and the man who started the low-cost Indian toilet system, the globally-acclaimed Sulabh Shauchalaya model.<br /><br />Contemporary literature also offers useful takeaways. In a cheeky aside, Isadora Wing, the brilliant, hilarious and outrageous heroine of American writer Erica Jong’s 1973 bestseller Fear of Flying, teases us with the history of the world through its toilets — the British toilet as the last refuge of colonialism where “for one brief moment (as you flush), Britannia rules the waves again”. German toilets observe class distinctions — rough brown paper for a third class railway carriage and white paper called Spezial Krepp in the first class, Jong’s young heroine observes. Isadora links Italian art to the swift way Italian toilets run, is foxed by French philosophy and the Gallic approach to merde (excreta) and is awe-struck by the aesthetics of the Japanese toilet — toilet basin recessed in the floor, flower arrangement behind, inspiring thoughts of Zen.<br /><br />And Indian toilets? Well, well… One must remember this was the good-old or bad-old Seventies, depending on your politics. India was not an emerging power and Jong’s adventurous but Euro-centric heroine did not have the Indian toilet experience.<br />What would Jong say if she took a toilet tour of India today after listening to Mr Bhanot’s wise words?<br /><br />The recent flood of toilet jokes makes us squirm since we are the targets but blunderbuss Mr Bhanot has also touched a raw nerve.<br /><br />The riveting rise of the Sensex and the “cash and clout” image of India in the world is our outerwear where we sport a designer brand. The sanitation story is more like dirty inner wear which we don’t like to either talk about or change.<br /><br />Middle-class Indians typically would not have paan-stained washbasins at home. And there is a fortune to be made out of tapping the bathroom vanity of young, rising India. But how many times have you seen the driver and the passenger in the Honda City ahead of you open the car door and spit out the remnants of a paan or chewing tobacco on the road? In my neighbourhood market — in a posh south Delhi enclave — there are spas, but few spittoons; garbage lies in front of stores peddling grand designs in urban living. What irks middle-class India is not that filth and squalor exist but that they are being showcased by a prying media, denting India’s image as an emerging power.<br /><br />India’s Millenium Development Goals Report (2009) notes that the proportion of Indian households having no sanitation facility has declined from about 70 per cent in 1992-93 (24 per cent urban and 87 per cent rural) to about 51 per cent in 2007-08 (19 per cent urban and 66 per cent rural). But despite recent progress, access to improved sanitation remains far lower in India compared to many other countries with similar or even lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Bangladesh, Mauritania, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam — all with a lower GDP per capita than India — are just a few of the countries that have achieved higher access to improved sanitation, says the Asian Development Bank.<br /><br />India is among a handful of countries where open defecation persists. Through its Total Sanitation Campaign, the government has sanctioned projects for construction of what babudom calls individual household sanitary latrines in all of India’s rural districts. But a lot more action and oversight is needed on the ground to meet the national goal of eradicating open defecation by 2012.<br /><br />Non-governmental organisations’ surveys suggest that many among those who have access to individual, community or shared toilets do not use the structure as a toilet. The reasons for non-use of toilets — poor/unfinished installations, no super structure and lack of behavioural change.<br /><br />As in everything else in India, how and where you excrete is a matter of who you are and your position in the socio-economic pecking order. It comes as no surprise to learn that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have lower access to toilets than upper castes.<br /><br />Sociologists argue that this grim picture is not just about poverty. It has to do with the deeply-ingrained caste structure in India and notions of purity and pollution embedded in our psyche. First, children of so-called upper castes grow up hearing that cleaning garbage is the job of someone else, and that someone else is still often referred to by names that would put you in jail if uttered in public. Second, in an overcrowded country like India, far too many people also believe keeping your home clean is all you can do. What happens beyond is none of your concern — it is someone else’s job to keep the public places clean, someone who is still considered an untouchable deep down despite laws prohibiting untouchability.<br /><br />Money alone will not change such a mindset. Without the collective will for change, Sensex will soar even as we trail behind poorer countries in basic sanitation. The India that shocks and agitates, however, also offers inspiration. Many tribal communities can teach us a thing or two about cleanliness. Mr Pathak built the first Sulabh public toilet in Bihar, his home state, in 1974. Now, almost 8,000 such toilets have been built and are maintained across the country. Sulabh toilet complexes also exist in Bhutan and Afghanisthan, and over the next five years Mr Pathak plans to implement the model in 50 other countries.<br /><br />Patralekha Chatterjee writes on development issues in India and emerging economies and can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.comTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-41792585033329668632010-10-01T15:41:00.003+05:302010-10-01T15:44:40.552+05:30*** Media Advisory ***<br /><br /> <br />Global Handwashing Day<br /><br /> <br />Lathering up: October 15 – More than just a Day<br /><br /> WHAT: Over 80 countries and at least 200 million children, parents, teachers, celebrities and citizens are soaping up for the third annual Global Handwashing Day. Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective and affordable health interventions known to man. Visit http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/<br /><br />On October 15, 2009, 15,115 people washed hands at an event at Nehru Stadium, Chennai, India, and achieved the Guinness World Record for `most people washing hands at one location'. On the same day, 52,970 people washed hands in different places in Bangladesh, attaining the Guinness World Record for `most people washing hands at multiple locations'.<br /><br /> <br />WHEN: October 15, 2010<br /><br />WHO: Global Handwashing Day is endorsed by a wide array of governments, UN agencies, international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, private companies and individuals worldwide and is an initiative of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap.<br /><br />WHERE: In over 80 countries on five continents, Global Handwashing Day events will take place in tens of thousands of schools, community centers, and public spaces. Some programs planned include:<br /><br />Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are seeking to set a Guinness World Record for handwashing;<br /><br /> *<br /> Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will launch her nation's hygiene promotion campaign with a hand-washing event. <br /> *<br /> Madagascar is supporting youth radio reporters to incite people to wash their hands on the air.<br /> *<br /> Yemen is planning a mass media campaign involving television, radio and the press to reach children and their families.<br /><br />WHY: Each year, diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections are responsible for the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under the age of five. Washing hands with soap and water especially at the critical times – after using the toilet and before handling food – helps reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by more than 40 percent, yet the behaviour is seldom practiced and difficult to promote. Global Handwashing Day aims to transform handwashing from an abstract idea to an automatic behavior.<br /><br />Attention broadcasters: For handwashing b-roll and PSAs, visit: http://weshare.unicef.org/pickup?key=S8cf8f010-4b81-42f5-8339-5aa78cfc0cd9<br /><br />Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/globalhandwashingday<br /><br />For further information, please contact:<br /><br />Emily Meehan, UNICEF New York, Tel: 1212 326 7224 emeehan@unicef.org<br />Katie Carroll, Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing Tel: 202-884-8551 kcarroll@aed.org<br />Dave Trouba, Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) Geneva Tel: +41 22 560 81 78 Email: david.trouba@wsscc.orgTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-2837364642415127942010-09-29T19:30:00.000+05:302010-09-29T19:34:03.520+05:30<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2010/sep/28/kenya-slums-poor-sanitation-disease-exploitation">Poor sanitation breeds disease and exploitation in Kenya's slums</a><br /><br />The chronic lack of clean water and proper sanitation leads to social as well as health problems, adding to residents' misery<br /><br /> * Reddit<br /> * Buzz up<br /> * Share on facebook (1)<br /> *<br /> *<br /> Comments (0)<br /><br /> * By IRIN, part of the Guardian Development Network<br /> * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 September 2010 17.05 BST<br /> * Article history<br /><br />kenya slums Kenya's slums are a breeding ground for disease and exploitation Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images<br /><br />Poor sanitation, lack of water and related disease outbreaks are making the lives of the residents of the sprawling Korogocho slums in Nairobi even harder.<br /><br />"The lack of water and improper waste disposal are a big threat to our lives due to the risk of water-borne diseases," Nancy Wangari, a community health worker and village elder in Korogocho, told IRIN. "The threat of typhoid, cholera and other diseases from poor sanitation is real."<br /><br />Although some pay-toilets have been set up, the cost remains prohibitive, forcing residents to dispose of excreta in plastic bags (so-called flying toilets), which litter the area. In the past few days, a broken sewer line running from the neighbouring Kariobangi estate has been emptying its effluence into the slum, choking the already narrow pathways between rows of houses.<br /><br />The scene in Korogocho is replicated elsewhere in Kenya, where rapid urbanisation has meant more informal structures with little or no water and sanitation services are springing up. According to the 2009 census, an estimated one in five Kenyans uses the bush as a toilet – access to piped water covers only 38.4% of the urban population and 13.4% of rural residents.<br /><br />While the "water and sanitation challenges themselves are formidable… their impact on other social, political, and epidemiological systems is equally significant", notes a recent Humanitarian Futures Group (HFG) report, Urban Catastrophes: The Wat/San Dimension, which examines how water and sanitation stress drives other humanitarian crises in slums.<br /><br />"As with any valuable good, the provision of clean water and sanitation facilities in slums is an attractive target for corruption, greed, collusion and exploitation," it states. "Solutions must therefore focus on understanding local social networks."<br /><br />Korogocho resident Maurice Omondi said water vendors make a killing out of residents' misery. "I pay two shillings (about 15p) per 20-litre jerry can but with the rampant water shortages, it may cost between five and 10 shillings for the same in the neighbouring estates," Omondi told IRIN.<br /><br />Countless communities are exposed to their own and others' faeces. Water vendor Peter Macharia* told IRIN he had diverted the main water line running through the slum to his homestead.<br /><br />"My business is now threatened as the National Water and Sewerage Company is demanding we install meters on all supplies to our homes," Macharia said as he collected money from queuing women and children. The lack of land tenure may, however, make it difficult to ensure consistent water payments.<br /><br />According to the HFG report, many urban environments have enough water in absolute terms to provide for residents' needs. The challenge is how to equitably manage and distribute it.<br /><br />In Kenya, slum infrastructure has remained inadequate as it is not government policy to support development in what are considered illegal informal settlements. Residents tamper with electricity and water connections, often resulting in clashes as security personnel are deployed to stop the connections.<br /><br />According to experts, slum conditions may make the settlements a breeding ground for tomorrow's pathogens. Health problems such as malnutrition, diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid fever are already common, especially when water is mixed with industrial and sewage effluent.<br /><br />"General cleanliness in the slums is not good at all. Even as we try our best to keep our individual compounds clean, some people litter our compounds with flying toilets," Korogocho resident Miriam Wangari said.<br /><br />Progress towards halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015 has been slow, say experts.<br /><br />"At present, there are 2.6 billion people living without safe sanitation, which means countless communities where people are exposed to their own and others' faeces. Excreta is then transmitted between people by flies or fingers and also finds its way into water sources, resulting in a public health crisis," says a Water Aid report entitled Ignored, The Biggest Child Killer. In Africa, diarrhoea kills almost one in five children before their fifth birthday, it says.<br /><br />Low-tech waste removal systems such as mobile toilets, bucket removal and dry composting toilets are among measures recommended in slums. In Korogocho, private individuals use handcarts with large drums to manually empty sludge from pit latrines at a fee. This is often done at night and the contents sometimes end up in the Nairobi River.<br /><br />With Kenya's population projected to grow by up to 1 million people a year, existing water and sanitation facilities will be stretched further.<br /><br />"The lack of resources and consequent inability to address the increasing demands on water and sanitation systems throughout the urban and peri-urban areas will not only threaten the viability of cities and towns as a whole, but could transform even relatively viable urban areas into slums," warned the HFG report.<br /><br />* Not his real nameTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-31008646210030086042010-09-10T07:23:00.002+05:302010-09-10T07:27:29.828+05:30Results of the WASH Media Awards 2010 <br /><br /><a href="http://www.wsscc.org/en/media/wash-media-awards/2009-2010/index.htm">WASH Media Awards 2010</a><br /><br />Please see video here <br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjc-a3-aO2M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjc-a3-aO2M</a><br /><br />endsTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-53113076361924926092010-09-08T09:15:00.001+05:302010-09-08T09:17:24.344+05:30<a href=" http://www.siwi.org/stockholmjuniorwaterprize">H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented a prestigious prize to a project on biodegradation of Polystyrene</a><br /><br />Canadian Teenagers Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong Wins 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize<br /><br />Stockholm (2010-09-07) – The 14th annual international competition for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize concluded this evening. The winners, Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong from Canada were handed the prize by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony at the World Water Week in Stockholm. Their research on biodegradation of the plastic Polystyrene won them the prize.<br /><br />Photos, video and press kit available at: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/media<br /><br />“Every year more and more chemical debris is introduced in the environment and water bodies around the world. Research has shown these chemicals can release toxics into the water, they can be harmful for the environment, and deadly to life in water. Much of the debris in the world’s waterways are plastics which is used for fast food containers, disposable cups, and packing material for example. To date, there is no natural solution to safely take care of these harmful plastics. The winning project created a novel approach to break-down these plastics using micro-organisms and enzymes that are cost effective, and readily available. This method could greatly reduce the amount of plastics that end up in the world’s waters,” said the International Jury in its citation.<br /><br />“Expanded Polystyrine (EPS) is a great threat to the environment since it contributes to the spread of toxins such as styrene and bisphenol A into our waters. We hope that our method will be widely used and consequently increase the water quality in the world,” said the winners after receiving the prize.<br /><br />The international Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition brings together the world’s brightest young scientists to encourage their continued interest in water and the environment. Each year, thousands of participants in over 30 countries join national competitions for the chance to represent their nation at the international final held during the World Water Week in Stockholm, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The international winner receives a USD 5,000 award and a prize sculpture. As a result of the competitions, thousands of young people around the world become interested in water.<br /><br />“We believe the Stockholm Junior Water Prize has the power to transform our industry by engaging students—the next generation of water leaders —to address critical water issues,” said Gretchen McClain, president of ITT’s Fluid and Motion Control group. “As water pollution and scarcity continue to threaten areas around the globe, the innovative research that this competition generates year after year gives us confidence that we can rise above future global water challenges.” <br /><br />Excellence Diploma to China<br />A Diploma of Excellence was given to Ms. Yingxin Li, Mr. Zhaonan Yang and Ms. Wanling Chen from China for their project “Novel Soil Remedation Technology for South China”<br />The international Jury said “their project neatly addresses the theme of this year’s World Water Week: The water quality challenge. The team of extremely enthusiastic and dedicated students worked both in the field and in the laboratory for a long time. Their effort resulted in an exceptional report dealing with several crucial water quality-related problems including fertiliser loss, recycling of waste, and the improvement of soil fertility. The technique developed by the students holds great promise to help solve some of today’s most pressing problems within the agricultural sector.”<br /><br />PRESS INFORMATION<br />For more information and interview requests, contact:<br />Ms. Britt-Louise Andersson, SIWI, +46 8 522 139 72, britt-louise.andersson@siwi.org<br />Ms. Anna Norén, SIWI, +46 76 129 26 90, anna.noren@siwi.org<br /><br />About the Stockholm Junior Water Prize<br />The competition is open to young people between 15-20 years of age, who have conducted water-related projects focusing on local, regional, national or global topics of environmental, scientific, social or technological importance. As a result of the competitions, thousands of young people around the world develop personal interests, undertake academic study, and often pursue careers in the water or environmental fields. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is the Patron of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. The winner receives an award of USD 5,000 and a handmade blue crystal sculpture. The Stockholm International Water Institute administers the competition, which is sponsored globally by ITT Corporation. The official suppliers for the competition are Infobahn, Halebop, Hertz, People Travel Group and Trosa Tryckeri. http://www.siwi.org/stockholmjuniorwaterprize<br /><br />About the World Water Week in Stockholm <br />The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together 2500 experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions. www.worldwaterweek.org<br /><br />About Stockholm International Water Institute <br />The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is a policy institute that contributes to international efforts to combat the world's escalating water crisis. SIWI develops and promotes future-oriented and knowledge–integrated policies, towards sustainable use of the world’s water resources leading to sustainable development and poverty eradication. www.siwi.orgTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-88821140441105610082010-09-08T07:35:00.003+05:302010-09-08T07:41:02.069+05:30<a href="http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=29843">World Water Week opens in Stockholm </a><br /><br />By Mohammad Ghazal<br /><br />STOCKHOLM - Water experts from across the globe convened in Stockholm Monday at the opening session of the World Water Week 2010 with calls for addressing “pressing” global water issues and ensuring clean water access and safe sanitation to people.<br /><br />Over 2,500 leading experts, practitioners, decision makers and business innovators from over 130 countries along with 200 organisations are participating in the event taking place at the Stockholm International Fairs premises.<br /><br />During the event, held under the theme: “Responding to Global Changes: The Water Quality Challenge”, participants will look into a number of issues, including food security, climate change, the right to water access and sanitation, urbanisation, water governance, and the strategic water concerns of businesses.<br /><br />Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute which organises the meeting annually, said in his opening address that water quality will be the main topic to be discussed in addition to other related issues.<br /><br />Stressing the high importance of preserving the adequate quality of water and ensuring adequate sanitation and personal hygiene, Berntell said: “Bad water kills more people than malaria, AIDS and wars combined.”<br /><br />“In 2009, over 50 countries still reported cholera to the World Health Organisation (WHO), something we will hear more about later. Two-hundred million people are infected with schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia. Every year 1.8 million people die from diarrhoeal disease attributable to unsafe water or poor sanitation and hygiene, mostly children under five,” he added.<br /><br />According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, freshwater ecosystems have degraded more than any other ecosystem, including tropical rainforests. Several studies indicate that more than 40 per cent of fish species and amphibians are threatened with extinction, he said.<br /><br />“Polluted freshwater ends up in the oceans, causing serious damage to many coastal areas and fisheries, thereby constituting a major challenge to ocean and coastal resource management,” he said.<br /><br />In her speech at the opening session, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson said: “A great deal has happened since World Water Week was launched 20 years ago.”<br /><br />“Today, almost two billion more people have access to safe drinking water compared with 20 years ago, and around 1.5 billion more people have access to sanitation. The provision of safe water has actually outperformed global population growth and given more than eight million people, roughly the population of Sweden, access to safe water every month - for 20 years!” she said.<br /><br />In seminars held during the day, experts underlined the importance of addressing global water challenges, including water scarcity, pollution and equity, with calls for focusing on providing people with access to sanitation and clean water, a matter they said reflects positively on the overall development of each country.<br /><br />“Lack of sanitation has a cost on the country’s gross domestic product as due to lack of sanitation in a certain country, this country will lose in being able to attract tourists and in spending more on health. Not having sanitation has also an impact on the environment and there is a cost for that,” Jaehyang So, manager of the Water and Sanitation Programme, which is a multi-donor partnership administered by the World Bank to support poor people in obtaining affordable, safe and sustainable access to wate? and sanitation, said in one of the seminars.<br /><br />According to Berntell, a supporting statement will be completed by the end of the week to be later presented to the high-level plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in the United Nations that will take place in New York on September 20-22.<br /><br />This year marks the 20th anniversary of both the World Water Week and the Stockholm Water Prize. <br /><br />A majority of the previous Stockholm Water Prize laureates are present in Stockholm in observance of the jubilee to share their solutions to future water challenges at a special laureates’ seminar later during the week in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.<br /><br />This year’s World Water Week in Stockholm, which is the first European Green Capital, will run through September 11.Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-7191351839470825012010-09-03T14:48:00.001+05:302010-09-03T14:50:45.352+05:30<a href="http://www.unicef.org/media/files/raisingcleanhands_2010.pdf">The Four R’s of Education</a><br /><br /> <br />As hundreds of millions of children across the world head back to school this fall, and you prepare your back-to-school stories, something critical will be missing for more than half of those children. It’s not teachers or text books or even desks. It’s toilets.<br /><br />Which means each year, 272 million school days are lost to absenteeism caused by diarrhea; in some areas, over 40% of diarrhea cases result from transmission in schools, rather than homes. Over half the world’s schools lack toilets and a place for children to wash their hands; 50% lack safe drinking water. It doesn’t matter how good the education is -- if children are forced to miss school.<br /><br />That’s why this October, a coalition of nearly 30 organizations, including UNICEF, will organize a series of events in Washington DC to demand that the US Government, the World Bank, and others involved in the education of children across the globe, no longer forget the crucial 4th R: the Restroom. No future school should ever be built without safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, nor should any student be resigned to the disease and indignity of a school without a restroom. That 4th R makes a monumental difference to education:<br /><br /> <br />· In one school in Ghana , Mohammed Yahaya, a teacher, proclaimed, “I’ve been teaching here for eight years. Before the borehole well we had 46 students now we have close to 400 students!”<br /><br />· In Bangladesh and Tanzania , studies show school attendance increases 15 % and 12% respectively, when water is available within a 15-minute walk compared to one hour or more.<br /><br />· In Alwar District , India , the school sanitation program increased girls’ enrollment by one third, leading to a 25 % improvement in academic performance for both boys and girls.<br /><br />The impact is lifelong and also affects the next generation. Women who have been to school are less likely to die during childbirth and each additional year of education is estimated to prevent two maternal deaths for every 1,000 women.<br /><br />We invite you to begin your back-to-school reporting in advance of the October events. We can help you identify programs that are tackling this issue and improving lives. We can direct you to WASH and education experts to interview about this issue. We can connect you to US organizations, teachers and students that are directly involved with solving this problem through service learning programs ( US schools matched to developing country schools). The coalition has a global network of on-the-ground partners that will help you meet the students, teachers and parents affected by this issue so you can hear their stories directly.<br />endsTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-40899624369894879662010-09-02T22:06:00.001+05:302010-09-02T22:09:08.811+05:30For the Magical Wash Tour at the World Water Week at Stockholm in September, please check this link:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wsscc.org/fileadmin/files/pdf/events/Promo_sheet_WWW_2010.pdf">Magical Wash Tour</a>Teresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403711392291534568.post-29416515595479725332010-09-02T07:32:00.003+05:302010-09-02T07:35:48.742+05:30<a href="http://www.digtoilets.org/">Dig Toilets, Not Graves</a><br /><br /><br />4,000 children die, every day<br /><br />That’s three children every minute of every day. They die because they don’t have proper toilets, so many have to defecate wherever they can. Faeces contaminates everything they touch, eat and drink, causing deadly diarrhoeal diseases.<br />The solution is so simple<br /><br />We can stop the suffering by digging safe pit toilets. The technology needed is as simple as a spade. The training and equipment are no more complicated. And pit toilets last for years, saving lives day after day. So your gift will keep on working.<br /><br />To sign the petition, please log on to <br /><a href="http://www.digtoilets.org/petition.php">Sign our petition now and help us change lives</a><br /><br />endsTeresa Rehmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08302750469459057291noreply@blogger.com0