Nepal: drinking water provided free of cost to 0.8 M

The government of Nepal [aims] to provide drinking water free of cost to 1.6 million people within 2010. The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development Board has provided drinking water facilities free of cost to around 824,000 people in 71 districts of Nepal. At present, 1,279 drinking water projects are under operation throughout the country to provide clean drinking water to the people.

[...] The Board has been running drinking water projects throughout the country since 1996 [with funding from the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID)].

Joint-secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works Suman Sharma told that about 19.71 per cent [of the] people have access to drinking water facility from the projects operated by the Board.

Source: Krishna Kisi, Annapurna Post / NGO Forum, 16 Dec 2008

Nepal: success of cholera mitigation campaign celebrated

The number of cholera cases in the Kathmandu Valley dropped drastically after various intervention programmes, according to a study carried out by an NGO. The month-long Cholera Mitigation Campaign launched in September 2008, reduced the number cholera cases from 315 to zero. During the campaign 250 volunteers were engaged in awareness raising and chlorine distribution.

A special programme was organised to thank the volunteers involved in the campaign of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW) launched with support from UNICEF, UN-HABITAT Water for Asian Cities programme and some 25 local NGOs.

At the meeting, the Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Suman Sharma, told that the government is developing a strategy to prevent outbreaks of contagious diseases like diarrhoea and cholera in 2009.

Source: NGO Forum, 16 Dec and 17 Dec 2008

Nepal: new Act to curb pollution

The Government of Nepal has drafted an ‘Urban Development Council Act’ to curb increasing urbanization and pollution in the Kathmandu Valley, [said] Director General of Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) Surya Bhakta Sangachhen. He told that the act aims to relocate harmful industries outside the city, make the urban environment clean and manage urbanization. [T]he act [also aims] to extend Kathmandu valley centred urbanization to other municipalities and arrange housing for the urban poor.

Source: NGO Forum, 07 Dec 2008

Nepal: 10 schools selected for human value based water and sanitation education

The Ministry of Health, UN-HABITAT Water for Asian Cities Programme and Environment Conservation Camp (ECCA) have selected 10 schools of the Kathmandu Valley for piloting the Human Value-Based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (HVWSHE) programme. Based on the outcome of the pilot testing, the government will gradually adopt the education in the school curriculum.

[...] Staff from the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), National Centre for Educational Development (NCED) and teachers from different schools in Kathmandu Valley participated in the orientation programme organized on 22nd and 23rd December in Lalitpur.

See a UN-HABITAT presentation by Andre Dzikus on HVWSHE here.

Source: NGO Forum, 28 Dec 2008

China, Beijing: all sewage to be reused within three years

The Beijing Sewage Association [said] that within three years, all water processed in the city’s sewage treatment plants will meet requirements for reuse. The annual capacity of Beijing’s nine sewage treatment plants totals 900 million tons, but only 100 million tons of treated water is qualified for reuse. [...] The total quantity of treated water in Beijing is currently 600 million tons, 50% of which can be reused.

[An] official said that although the sewage treatment rate has reached 93% in urban areas, it is very difficult to meet a 7% sewage treatment rate in the intersecting areas between urban and rural regions.

 

See also:  John Leslie MacLean, Beijing Beefs Up Sewage Treatment, ADB, May 2008 and Beijing Municipal Water Bureau

 

Source: People’s Daily Online, 15 Dec 2008

Myanmar: Cyclone survivors face water shortages

Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar’s [Burma] Ayeyarwady Delta face possible water shortages, as the dry season begins to bite.Rural communities are largely dependent on communal water ponds which were badly-affected by the May 2008 cyclone, according to experts. Many ponds did not have time to refill before the start of the dry season which normally runs from November to April.

Apart from the dry weather, the water situation could be exacerbated by cyclone-induced salt contamination of reservoirs [and contamination by debris]. [...] UNICEF with its partners, has been working to clean up contaminated ponds and provide water-storage containers. But two months into the dry season, many residents are seeing water levels in their ponds dropping fast.

[...] For those already facing water shortages, in addition to digging tube wells and bore wells, UNICEF and its partners are distributing clean water by boat, as well as setting up several reverse osmosis water treatment plants. Most of the villages that do not have ready access to potable water are those near rivers and streams where salinity levels are generally higher during the dry season, said aid workers.

Even before Nargis, residents faced water shortages during the dry season, but generally much later, between February and April. At such times, residents bought water from those who had stored it in abundance.

[...] Action contre la Faim (ACF) is delivering clean, fresh water to nine villages in Bogale Township.

[I]n Kawat village, Dedaye town, [the village head has] ordered every household not to use more than two buckets of water per day from their one and only water pond – and pay around 2 US cents per bucket. [...] “This is our pre-emptive action to fight water shortages when our water pond runs out,” [village head] Toe Myint said. “With the money we collect, we’ll go to the town [Dedaye] to buy water for our villagers,” he said.

Source: IRIN, 29 Dec 2008

South Asia: Thinning glaciers endangering water supply

New evidence that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking has added weight to concerns that there could be severe water shortages in the region by 2030. Researchers found lower levels of radioactivity than expected  in the Naimona’nyi glacier near Tibet, where atomic tests were carried out 50 years ago.

The scientists, from the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the US-based Ohio State University, say that this is a sign that the glacier is thinning, with no accumulation of new ice since 1944.

Seasonal runoff from glaciers such as Naimona’nyi feeds the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in that part of the Asian subcontinent. The rivers are already severely depleted in places for months each year, say the researchers, writing in Geophysical Research Letters in November 2008.

Current models predicting river flow in the region have taken recent glacial retreat into account, say the researchers. But they have not considered that some glaciers are also thinning.

“If the thinning isn’t included, then whatever strategies people adopt in their efforts to adapt to reductions in river flow simply won’t work,” says Natalie Kehrwald, a doctoral student at Ohio State University and lead author on the paper.

The news comes in the same month that a major report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted the role of ‘atmospheric brown clouds’ in melting the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers, amongst other effects.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that glaciers in the region have shrunk by five per cent since the 1950s.

Source: T.V. Padma, SciDev.Net, 24 Nov 2008

India: scientists ‘must prioritise the needs of the poor’

Eminent Indian science and technology experts have called on the country’s premier research institutes to redirect their work towards addressing national development problems and the basic needs of the poor.

Key research issues should include clean water, food and sanitation, as well as global warming, said the country’s National Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda.

He was speaking at a centenary conference of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) (15 December). Pitroda [...] suggested that India appoint at least one senior scientist to work as a chief scientific officer in each of India’s 600 districts, to give the poor greater access to technology.

S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer and managing director of global software company Tata Consultancy Services Limited, said that the country needs a national agenda to [...] address national development problems such as basic healthcare, water purification and clean power generation.

Source: T. V. Padma, SciDev.Net, 17 Dec 2008

South Asia: climate change threatens water supply to millions

The impacts of climate change in the form of higher temperatures, more variable precipitation, and more extreme weather events threaten the water supply to millions of people living near South Asia’s numerous river basins.

The recently concluded UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan followed the Bali Roadmap, which set forth a negotiating timetable that seeks a successor to Kyoto protocol in Copenhagen 2009. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

N. Harshadeep, World Bank Senior Environmental Specialist for South Asia said, “If climate projections are indicative of future trends, the risks associated with water-related climate variability are likely to intensify and worsen. Therefore it is vital for South Asia to find solutions that will balance its already stressed water supply with increasing demand.” [...] “”Monsoonal rainfall over India has decreased by approximately 5 to 8 percent since the 1950s, and combined with impending climate change, this might contribute to more intense, longer, or more widespread droughts across the region.”

[...] To compound the problems of scarcity, newer stresses associated with rapid economic growth are adding additional strains on South Asia’s water resources. “Rapid industrialization increases water demands, pollution and unsustainable use of natural resources, including groundwater and surface water bodies,” said Harshadeep. “With its heavy reliance on the monsoons and snow-fed rivers, water availability in the region is highly sensitive to climate change.”

[...] There is general consensus that climate change is occurring and may be irreversible. “However, the magnitude and precise timing of these changes is unknown [and the] precise consequences of these changes are currently hard to predict, but they will be significant.”

[...] “Building more resilience to climate change – is critical to maintaining and expanding South Asia’s growth,” said Karin Kemper, World Bank’s Sector Manager for Social, Environment & Water for South Asia. In order to do so, the region needs to focus on knowledge base and investment.

Source: World Bank, 21 Dec 2008

Viet Nam: small piped water networks as a long-term solution

Tien Giang Province’s small towns, deemed unserviceable by major water utilities, found a permanent solution to their big water problem in small piped water networks.

When Viet Nam’s Tien Giang Province was selected as project site for piloting small piped water networks (SPWNs) [in 2005], it was on the premise that these small piped systems would provide a short-term, interim solution to the province’s water problem. The more permanent solution-connections from the water company with its huge pipes-has long been overdue.

SPWPs, which are businesses owned by persons or small organizations, were able to get water to more than 2,500 people within three months.

[...] Whether by fluke of circumstance or by incredible insight on the part of Viet Nam’s legislation, Decree 117, which reconsidered water’s status from a social good to a business commodity, was passed in August 2007 while the pilot projects were in progress. The decree opened up the entire sector to change-high and upfront connections were done away with, water connections were offered free or on flexible 12-month installment schemes to the extremely poor, and water tariffs were adjusted.

[...] SPWNs [...] were also environmentally beneficial, as they put an end to uncontrolled well-drilling that can lead to soil subsidence and groundwater table pollution.

[...] In Viet Nam’s case at least, SPWNs do not offer interim solutions-they are the permanent solution to bringing piped water connections to poor households and communities.

Source: Cezar Tigno, ADB, Dec 2008