Viet Nam: even bottled water unsafe

In early 2009 tests by health officials showed widespread contamination of municipal tap and bottled water: High levels of nitrates and arsenic, which can cause cancer, were found, as was e-coli, which causes diarrhoea. Tran Van Nhi, a scientist at the Vietnam Institute of Biotechnology, told IRIN Hanoi’s water was heavily contaminated with ammonia: “It is 6-18 times higher than the allowed level.” Nhi also found arsenic levels two to three times higher than acceptable World Health Organization standards. Most residents boil drinking water as a matter of course, even though high temperatures do not remove arsenic or dangerous heavy metals.

Bottled water

In recent years, as incomes have risen, more people have been buying bottled water. Twenty-litre jugs that sell for around 50 US cents are affordable for most Vietnamese. However, tests on hundreds of brands across the country reveal that bottled water cannot be trusted either. Dozens of samples failed safety standard tests in Ho Chi Minh City in March 2009. “We detected bacterium in our samples, mainly coliform and Pseudomonas aeruginosa,” said Le Truong Giang, deputy director of the city’s health department. Pseudomonas aeruginosa can lead to sepsis and death.

[A]ntiquated water pipes leading from treatment plants to individual households leak, enabling dangerous contaminants to leach in. The long-term solution is to upgrade municipal water supply systems but this requires massive investment. “Water treatment plants can’t meet water demand in the big urban areas,” said Ton. “From now to 2020, Hanoi [which currently produces 600,000 cubic metres of water a day] will have to produce more than one million cubic metres,” to meet demand, said Nguyen Ton, chairman of Vietnam’s Water Supply and Sewage Association in Hanoi. The need to nearly double current capacity will require investment in infrastructure that Hanoi cannot afford, according to Ton.

Source: IRIN, 17 Apr 2009

Pakistan: raising awareness on water conservation

Simi Kamal heads Hisaar Foundation, a local NGO which advocates judicious use of water and offers low-cost practical solutions. “If we don’t save water now, we will not have enough for anyone,” she said. According to the World Bank, Pakistan, one of the world’s most arid countries, is currently experiencing water stress and will soon face outright water scarcity.

Kamal insists Pakistanis should make a conscious effort to conserve water. “It does not mean a change in your lifestyle; all one needs to do is consciously use less water.” She has put a bucket under her daughter’s shower to collect water. Her modern kitchen has two plastic basins, one with detergent for dirty dishes, the other with clean water for rinsing. Even the water in the washing machine is re-used. “We don’t run the whole cycle but re-use the soapy water to wash our bathroom floors.” In her toilet cisterns, you may find bricks – “so less water gets in there and there is less to flush,” she said.

Tofiq Pasha Mooraj, who hosts a popular weekly gardening show on a private TV channel, and always ends the show on a “use water carefully” note, is one of 200 activists in the Karachi Water Partnership (KWP), founded by Kamal two years ago. It includes government officials, water experts, urban planners, lawyers and economists, as well as schools, multinationals, and even local government departments.

In the last 15 months it has reached out to 200 teachers and 7,000 children in 19 public and six private schools to raise awareness of the need to save water. KWP also repairs pipes and helps raise awareness of sanitation and hygiene issues in government schools.

Women’s Water Network (WWN), formed in November 2008, focuses on urban water and sewage issues. It now has five branches in Karachi. WWN is also working with Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB) inspectors, making them “water ambassadors”. KW&SB has included KWP’s water conservation leaflet in its water bills, said Lily Khan, programme manager for KWP.

Source: IRIN, 05 Jun 2009

India, Jharkand: women man handpumps

Jamsol village, 60 km from the Steel City of Jamshedpur in Meniyar panchayat of Musabani block, has opened a new chapter in women’s liberation. With around 150 families, the village currently boasts of around 25 tribal damsels who are engaged in [the] hard work of repairing hand pump[s].

“See, Musabani block alone registers presence of around 1400 hand pumps. Therefore, we have no dearth of work in our area. Our earning is not bad either. But yes, it indeed feels good when our group draws appreciation for their repair work. But for us, there can be nothing more heartening than the fact that Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is planning to engage our group in an annual maintenance contract (AMC) to maintain 60 hand pumps of the public sector unit,” said Sona Tuddu.

Tuddu went on: “But, our path of success has not been a bed of roses. All this has been possible after working hard coupled with stiff resistance from our parents and co-villagers who wanted us to do something else and not pick this line of work. But, now in sharp contrast to their earlier stand, many parents in our village want us to engage their daughters in our vocation.”

Apart from impressing many lower class women in Musabani , the tradition-breaking step of these girls has also made them more cohesive as a group.

Recalling an incident, a woman technician Parvati Hansda said: “A couple of years ago, some youths of a village misbehaved with our teammate while they were on their way to undertake repair work. As a result a hand pump remained unattended for a day as we came back in protest. And soon, the youths apologised profusely. And finally we took up the repair work in that particular village.”

“The repair work in that village could have been done by our male counterparts. But, this was in recognition of the fact we are probably the most dependable technicians in the eyes of the villagers,” she added.

However, the engagement of tribal damsels in hand pump repair is now almost a two year old story. After being provided with the required tools and on successful completion of a training programme organised by the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department (DWSD), Jharkhand in collaboration with UNICEF, trained a group of seven women to repair hand pumps. They were also provided the required tools to make them complete professionals. Over a two year period, their efforts bore fruits and today there are 25 women technicians.

“Initially, we were a bit hesitant about the success of this programme. But, we are thoroughly thrilled the way things have turned out to be,” said a junior DWSD engineer posted at Musabani.

However, underlining the need to initiate such vocational training for girls on a large scale, a social worker, Vasvi said as she talked about the women’s emancipation. “But, with an aim towards this goal, one should assiduously work on liberating women from the stereotype jobs so that they could show that they are not even inferior to male physically. Look, when these girls take to the street clutching their tool bags on back, people get the message females are as efficient as males in all walk of the life,” she said.

More information on women handpump caretakers is available via IRC’s digital library

Source: Sandeep Bhaskar, Deccan Herald, 06 Jun 2009

Pakistan: launch of Total Sanitation Campaign

Plan to launch ‘Saaf Suthra Pakistan Programme’

Ministry of Environment along with its partners is working on a comprehensive plan to launch ‘Saaf Suthra (clean) Pakistan Programme’ that envisages total sanitation all across the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals targets.

Sources at the ministry told APP that allocations would be made for the programme over the next five years to achieve the total sanitation target.

“The ‘Saaf Suthra Pakistan Programme’ will have a phased approach for creating demand through communication and capacity development units in each province,” sources said.

“The programme will also include surveys and mapping for component sharing in selective TMAs and setting up of provincial social mobilisation units to scale up community and school led approaches,” sources added.

Experts at the two-day Pakistan Conference on Sanitation (PACOSAN) a couple of days back had also recommended multiple approaches to focus on the ‘Clean Pakistan Programme’.

It was also proposed during the conference that Rs12.5 billion would be allocated to execute the programme over the next five years, as the environment minister had set a target of total sanitation for all by 2015.

Sources also mentioned that setting up of ‘Rural Sanitation Marts’ in selected tehsils, provision of revolving funds and micro-finance, special consideration for the poorest of the poor, and coverage enhancement of public toilets are other features of the programme.

NGOs would be involved to develop, test, document, and replicate successful models for total sanitation, and solid and liquid waste management, the sources added.

Mentioning the guiding principles of the National Sanitation Action Plan, sources said that open defecation would be unacceptable and there should be an inclusive participatory development.

The total sanitation concept would be adapted with improved sanitation provided to all and focus would be on productive infrastructure only, ensuring that no one is exposed to the risks of unconfined ‘human excreta’ and solid waste. Progress would be accelerated to achieve health benefits and coordinate efforts within a framework of mutual accountability.

Sources also mentioned to improve governance, reward collective outcomes, incentives for producing performance information and support IEC for collective behavioural change.

See also: Call for Total Sanitation in Pakistan by 2015, WSSCC and the press releases issued by Pakistan’s Minsitry of Environment on the PACOSAN here and here.

Source: The News, Pakistan, 31 May 2009

Bangladesh: Cyclone leaves trail of contaminated water sources

One week after Cyclone Aila struck southern Bangladesh [and West Bengal and Orissa in India], survivors in some areas are facing acute shortages of drinking water after many water sources were contaminated.

“The dire situation has yet to improve,” Mohammad Badi Akhter, Oxfam’s acting chief of operations in Dhaka, told IRIN, noting the government was calling on NGOs to beef up their operations, particularly for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

Despite relief efforts by the government, NGOs, the UN and international agencies, thousands of people on islands had yet to receive any kind of relief assistance. Even on the mainland, scores of people were still trapped in their homes, surrounded by stagnant floodwater.

“I don’t see any possibility of the waters receding before the end of the monsoon,” said a water engineer from the Sharankhola area of Bagerhat District. This translates into the end of September [ 2009]: the consequences of the storm may turn out worse than expected.

[...] Lack of drinking water was forcing many to go hungry as they were unable to cook the food they had received from relief agencies.

Over 1,400km of flood protection embankments were washed away by Aila, exposing thousands of villages just as the monsoon is beginning, the country’s Disaster Management Bureau reported.

[...]

The main sources of drinking water in coastal areas are ponds, wells and tube wells, but many have been contaminated. “I had to walk five miles [8km] to get one pitcher of drinking water. All the sweet water ponds and tube wells were flooded by sea water,” said Motia Banu, a resident of Burirchar Union, Borguna District. [In week of 1-7 June 2009, the ICCDR,B estimated that 2000 to 3000 patients suffered from diarrhoea every day in the affected areas, of whom 20-30 patients were severely affected, and three people has died - ICDDR,B, 09 Jun 2009].

Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund and the government’s Department of Public Health Engineering are working with Action contre la Faim, ActionAid, BRAC, CARE, CARITAS, Catholic Relief Services, NGO Forum, Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid, Save the Children USA, Solidarites, Oxfam GB and Water Aid to improve the WASH situation.

UNICEF is procuring 70,000 bags of oral rehydration salts and pre-positioning 12.5 million water purification tablets, essential drugs and 135.7 tons of high-energy BP-5 biscuits.

“We have mobilised volunteers throughout the affected region. They are providing dry food, water purification tablets and oral rehydration solutions,” Mohamad Abul Quasem, an officer of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), told IRIN.

Source: IRIN, 02 Jun 2009

As of 10 June 2009, the death toll from Cyclone Aila according to the government was 190 and over 3.9 million people has been affected.

The WASH cluster/ working group [were carrying out an assessment for further assistance regarding water and sanitation. A rough estimate indicates about 500,000 to 750,000 people are seeking immediate water supply and sanitation supports. Most of the ponds have saline water contamination making them unfit to support drinking and other domestic water supply for the communities. Water purification is carried out by agencies such as CARE/Oxfam GB, DPHE, Save the Children USA, WVI. Bangladesh Army is also supporting water trucking to the locations [that] are difficult to reach by other agencies. Beside providing pure water many WASH working group agencies are working on restoration of potable water sources by dewatering/disinfecting ponds and tube-wells.

Source: Govt of Bangladesh / Reliefweb, 11 Jun 2009

For the latest updates on Cyclone Aiila water and sanitation relief efforts in Bangladesh see ReliefWeb.

Across the border in “over 5.1 million people have been affected in 16 districts of West Bengal, and over 500,000 houses either damaged or destroyed”, according to a release by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPIC) on 8 June 2009. A week after the cyclone hit West Bengal, the Indian Express (02 Jun 2009) reports how the people on the islands of Sunderban had still not received any government relief. “Nine-year-old Sandeepa Gharami survived Cyclone Aila, but succumbed in its aftermath. She died on an embankment near Lahiripur on Friday after several days of continuous vomiting and diarrhoea. She received no medical care. Her parents buried her by the river”.

China: Beijing’s Water and Waste Performance at Olympics Earns Gold, says WRI report

Beijing achieved and largely exceeded the drinking water and waste-management goals it set as part of its bid for last summer’s Olympics, according to a new report.

“[T]he city improved its drinking water, as well as its waste-disposal and recycling systems,” said Cy Jones, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and lead author of two chapters within the report, which was produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with several partners.

WRI’s research – covering the water and waste chapters – found that the city’s drinking water treatment plants met China’s new water quality standards and guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Beijing also expanded its wastewater collection and treatment systems, enabling the city to treat 92 percent of its wastewater during the games.

“[B]eijing’s aggressive efforts before the Olympics show that it’s possible for cities to minimize water consumption, maximize the use of available rainwater and treated wastewater, and protect critical surface-water resources,” Jones added.

In addition to improving water quality, Beijing surpassed its goal of sorting 50 percent and recycling 30 percent of all solid waste produced within the city by 2008. Upgrades to the city’s waste disposal system allowed 52 percent of waste to be sorted and 35 percent to be recycled by 2007.

Further, Beijing greatly expanded its ability to properly dispose of hazardous waste in specially designated landfills. [...] In 2008, the city increased capacity [from 2,000 tons in 2001] to 30,000 tons and recycled an additional 10,000 tons.

The authors found that Beijing’s water management leading up to the Olympic Games serves as an example to other cities of how to achieve maximum efficiency in the use and management of scarce water resources. Beijing should continue its efforts. Further, the International Olympic Committee should promote the development and implementation of environmentally sound water and waste management in all cities being considered for future games.

The report, Independent Environmental Assessment: Beijing 2008 Olympics Games, was produced by UNEP. Data was provided by the Beijing Municipal Government, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, and the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. WRI provided expertise and analysis on both the water quality and solid waste chapters.

Source: WRI, 09 Jun 2009