Bangladesh, Dhaka: unusually early outbreak of diarrhoea

As temperatures climb and power outages continue, a lack of safe drinking water has resulted in an unusually early outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases across Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.  In [the third week of March 2009]  over 40 patients an hour were seeking admission at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) hospital in the city.  Compared with the same period of last year, the number of patients has trebled. At least three tents have been set up in the ICDDR,B car park to cope with the influx.

[...] Since 11 March [2009], an average of 700 patients have been admitted to ICDDR,B each day, and health workers are struggling to cope.  ”Usually we don’t have more than 250 patients admitted at a time. But this season, as the situation worsens every day, we have had to set up temporary wings. We admitted 811 patients on 14 March and 747 on the 18th,” Shahadat Hussein, head of ICDDR,B’s Longer Stay Unit, told IRIN.

“Usually diarrhoea breaks out in late April. But this year, the diarrhoea season seems to have started early. In mid-March, we are admitting more patients than [in] the average April-peak season,” Hussein said.

ICDDR,B sources blame increasing temperatures and chronic power outages as the primary cause. Load shedding is nothing new in this city of 12 million, but with an increase in population and the number of industries, demand for safe drinking water has increased exponentially over the last decade.  Most of the patients are from the slums, areas well known for their inadequate supply of safe drinking water and where residents are largely dependent on groundwater pumped to the surface.

As demand for water rises, the water table continues to fall, and many residents have no choice but to drink contaminated water in the absence of a regular supply.  Hot weather helps bacteria replicate faster, while power outages prevent the smooth distribution of water in the city. The number of diarrhoeal patients is expected to rise in April and May.

[...] Diarrhoea is one of Bangladesh’s main health concerns. It is responsible for about 9 percent of deaths among infants under 12 months old, and 10 percent of deaths among the under-fives, according to the health authorities. Bangladesh has made significant achievements in lowering infant and child mortality rates, but almost 100 children still die every day from diarrhoea, say health experts.

See also: Bangladesh diarrhoea ‘epidemic’, BBC News, 28 Apr 2009

Source: IRIN, 19 Mar 2009

South East Asia & Pacific: Report Highlights Need For Improved Sanitation and Water

The [Australian] Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Mr Bob McMullan, [...] welcomed a report that highlights the sanitation and water challenges facing developing countries in [the South East Asia & Pacific] region. The report by a coalition of academic and non-government organisations, including the Institute for Sustainable Futures and WaterAid Australia, was released to mark World Water Day [22 March 2009]..

“Meeting the Sanitation and Water Challenge in South East Asia and the Pacific” outlines priorities and actions for tackling the challenge of scaling up access to sanitation. [...] The report was produced following the Sanitation and Water Conference held in Melbourne in October 2008

“The outcomes from this conference have helped develop the [Australian] Government’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy and the related $300 million Access to Clean Water and Effective Sanitation Initiative,” Mr McMullan said. “This initiative will increase the Government’s focus on meeting the challenges of sanitation [and water supply] in the Asia-Pacific and Africa and [...] will also support water and sanitation infrastructure in schools.

Read the report here .

Source: AusAID, 22 Mar 2009

China: vast water clean-up launched

A project to improve water quality in China has been launched by the government, which says it is the largest expenditure on environmental protection since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. The project, which has an estimated budget of more than 30 billion Chinese yuan (around 4.4 billion US dollars) over 12 years, aims to counter the deteriorating water quality affecting millions of Chinese people and their livelihoods. The Water Pollution Control and Management Project – known as ‘Water Special Project’ – will focus on the treatment of whole river basins instead of the conventional approach of end-pipe treatment, according to Meng Wei, chief engineer of the project and director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

[...] Coordinated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the aim of the project is to guarantee safe drinking water and improve the overall water environment, Meng said. [...] Some 64 per cent of the water reaching urban areas is categorised as suitable only for industrial or agricultural purposes and half of cities have suffered groundwater pollution to some degree, according to Liu Yanhua, vice minister of science and technology, at the launch of the project [on 19 February 2009].

A number of demonstration projects will be carried out at major rivers across China, such as Haihe, Huaihe, Liaohe and Songhuajiang, as well as Lake Tai and the Three Gorges. But Qin Boqiang, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, said the government should focus on controlling the sources of pollution instead of treating it after it happens.

Source: Weixiao Chen and Yidong Gong, SciDev, 17 Mar 2009

Viet Nam: Finland funding small town water supply and sanitation project

The Finnish Foreign Ministry is contributing EUR 10.5 million towards Water and Sanitation Programme for Small Towns (WSPST), Phase II in Viet Nam. The project will run from July [2009] until mid-2012 and will focus on provision of safe water and centralised wastewater treatment systems in eight provinces. [...] The Finnish programme has established concrete objectives: by 2010, 95% of the urban and 75% of the rural populations have access to safe water; and 40% of urban areas and 70% of industrial zones have centralised wastewater treatment systems.

Source: Development Today [subscription site], 03 Feb 2009

Viet Nam: Norwegian mixed credit portfolio at brink of collapse

As Sweden launches a new, streamlined untied mixed credit scheme for project financing, Norway is closing down its troubled scheme. [...] Projects worth hundreds of millions of [Norwegian] crowns have piled up at the Norwegian aid agency, Norad. It is uncertain whether they will ever be implemented.

[...] The Norwegian mixed credit system is untied, but Norway (unlike Sweden) has a tied guarantee system. This means that the Norwegian guarantee institute GIEK only can issue guarantees for Norwegian suppliers. [Especially for] a firm in a developing country, it is difficult – if not impossible – to obtain a guarantee for the contract. Such a guarantee is a pre-condition for finalising a mixed credit financing package, which consists of both an aid-financed grant and a commercial bank loan.

[...]

[Although] the Norwegian government has now decided to close the mixed credit scheme down [it] has already committed to fulfilling all obligations related to the scheme obtained by the end of 2008. Only two projects have been implemented. Norad has 16 projects in the pipeline for untied mixed credit financing. The contract value of these projects is NOK 634 million; 13 of them are in Viet Nam.

Two Vietnamese water supply projects, Hoi An (USD 6 million) and Song Cong (USD 4.8 million), illustrate the problems. Following an international tender, suppliers from China and Viet Nam won the contracts, but neither Norad, Eksportfinans (which facilitates the financing package), the local counterpart nor the suppliers have been able to obtain a guarantee for the projects. The global financial crisis has compounded the difficulty of securing a guarantee and the projects have now been postponed.

[...] In a letter to the Foreign Ministry, Norad states that it favours a solution where GIEK can provide an untied guarantee for the remaining projects in the mixed credit scheme. [...] Norad says the easiest way to do this is for the Ministry of Trade and Industry to allow GIEK – as an exception – to issue untied guarantees for the remaining projects in the mixed credit scheme.

[...] Norad writes further in its letter that if Norway cannot solve the guarantee issue for the projects Hoi An and Song Cong, the Ministry of Finance in Vietnam must do so or the projects must be cancelled. In Hoi An, the first part of the supplies, which were financed locally, has already been delivered.

It is unclear what legal obligations Norway will have, but Norad writes that it is likely Norway will not be tied to its obligations if it is not possible to raise financing.

Source: Development Today [subscription site], 03 Feb 2009

Bangladesh, Coastal Belt: Danida documenting lessons learned from water project

Coastal Belt Project - Drilling of deep hand tube well. Photo: Danida

Denmark has provided substantial support to the water supply sector in rural areas and small towns in the Coastal Belt of Bangladesh for more than two decades. Danida will be documenting and disseminating lessons learned from from this assistance to the water supply and sanitation sector. [Topics will include] issues such as alignment with government institutions and procedures, aid effectiveness, government project planning, management, implementation and monitoring, centralisation versus decentralisation, community involvement, financing, operation and maintenance systems, and gender.

The final output [will be] a high-quality publication of 15-20 pages [...] as well as an event where government and sector stakeholders will discussion its findings.

[Work on the compilation of the lessons learned document will start] late March, including a 4-6 week period in Bangladesh.

The current Coastal Belt Water Supply and Sanitation Project, which is implemented by the Bangladeshi Department of Public Health, will be completed by June [2009].

Contact persons at the Danish Embassy in Dhaka are Jan Møller Hansen and Niaz Chowdhury.

Source: Development Today [subscription site], 23 Feb 2009

Nepal: 10 extra marks to primary school students having toilet

Many students of Dhikpur VDC [Village Development Committee] [Dang Deokhuri District, Rapti Zone, south-western Nepal] get [an] additional 10 marks in [their] exam for constructing toilets in their houses. [...] Women and youths of Dikhpur VDC have made this idea to make their VDC clean. The schools also accepted their idea and made [a] rule to give additional 10 marks in exam to the students having toilet in their house.

“The students have constructed toilet in their houses to get additional 10 marks in exam,” said Drona Rawat, principal of the Mukunda Danda primary school, adding, \”Only few students had toilets in their house until a year ago. About 90 percent students attending the first quarterly exam this year had toilet.”All the students have toilet in their houses at present. Learning from the students, the other houses in the VDC have also started to construct toilet,” he added.

See also: Durga Lal K.C, Kantipur / NGO Forum, 07 June 2009

Source: Durga Lal K.C., Kantipur / NGO Forum, 21 Feb 2009

Nepal: Sanitation Brand Ambassador, actress Jharana Thapa, on campaign

In September 2008, famous Nepali actress Jharana Thapa was nominated Sanitation Brand Ambassador by the End Water Poverty Campaign. In November 2008 she participated in the South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) III held in New Delhi, India, where she stressed to establish sanitation as a basic right.After her participation in the conference, Jharana Thapa is not only involved in making speeches on sanitation. Whenever she visits villages for shooting or [a] personal visit nowadays, she asks, “Is there a toilet or not? Is it clean or not? “Do you wash your hands with soap and water after going to the toilet?” [...] “Due to toilet problem, many girl students do not drink water during school hours,” said Jharana, adding, “The girl students feel uncomfortable during periods and toilet problem might cause mental problem.” Jharana advises the girl students not to feel ashamed and talk to the school management to arrange separate toilets for them.

Jharana herself has experiences of problems a woman has to face for not having a toilet. Jharana said, “I also had to search for a toilet in many places while in outdoor shooting locations. So, I am arranging for a mobile toilet in my home production to be used in shooting. She added, “I am also initiating to include social messages of sanitation in my films.”

Source: Nepal Samacharpatra / NGO Forum, 18 Feb 2009

Nepal: New policy to promote rainwater harvesting technology

The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works is finalizing directives [that will make it mandatory to include] rainwater harvesting, storage and usage technology [when designing new houses or buildings]. [...] Joint Secretary at the ministry Suman Sharma told that the ministry is preparing directives to encourage people to promote rainwater harvesting technology [...] with an objective of solving drinking water problem in the country.

Source: Annapurna Post / NGO Forum, February 14, 2009

Nepal: Red Cross to launch sanitation project

Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) plans to launch new Water Supply and Sanitation (WatSan) projects [in 2009] which are expected to benefit more than 75,700 people in 16 districts by the year 2011. The projects are being implemented through a community-based or a school-based strategic approach [with the support of] the Belgian Red Cross – Flanders (BRC-F), German Red Cross, Austrian Red Cross, UN-HABITAT, DWSS, UNICEF and CIDA. [...] Total costs of the projects are estimated to be worth 110.21 million rupees.

At the moment, a new Belgian Red Cross-funded program is starting up [which] combines the school and community-based approaches in one single project. The BRC-F is extending support worth Rs. 46 million which was raised through a Belgian national broadcasting station.

[...] “The Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) alone has covered 15 per cent of the water and sanitation facilities in the national coverage,” said Dev Ratna Dhakhwa, Secretary General of the NRCS. [S]ince 1983 [NRCS has] provided water and sanitation facilities to more than 1,952,000 people in 25 districts of Nepal.

Source: The Rising Nepal / NGO Forum, 10 Feb 2009