India, Karnataka: no toilets in half of State’s schools

Half of the schools in Karnataka have no toilets. In every fourth high school, girls have to share toilets with boys!

These shocking revelations are among the findings of a nation-wide survey on the condition of schools and schoolchildren conducted by an NGO ‘Pratham’.

Although the survey ‘Assessment Survey Evaluation Research 2009’ (ASER 2009) indicates a marginal improvement for Karnataka in a number of parameters, the State seems to have left this most primordial of needs to nature’s devices. The survey was conducted in October – November 2009 in 133 primary schools and 623 middle and high schools across both government and private schools in all 27 educational districts of the State.

The findings of the survey state that 51.9 per cent of primary schools in the State do not have usable toilets and a further 11.5 per cent do not even have the infrastructure. This marks a steep decline from a ASER 2007 survey, which stated that only a little over 10 per cent of the primary schools had unusable toilets.

Similarly, 48.7 percent of the middle and high schools in Karnataka do not have usable toilets with about 5.5 per cent of them not even having the infrastructure. Toilet facilities in high schools too have seen a sharp decline as ASER 2007 had put the number at around 20 percent.

But perhaps a more damning indictment of the infrastructure at schools in the State is the stark statistic that says that 42 percent of primary schools and 25 percent of middle and high schools have no separate toilets for girls.

In fact, the survey points out that only 35 per cent of the girls’ toilets are usable.

• 51.9 pc of primary schools in the state do not have usable toilets
• 48.7 pc of the middle and high schools do not have usable toilets
• 42 pc of primary schools in the state have no separate toilets for girls
• 25 pc of middle and high schools in the state have no separate toilets for girls

For the whole of India, ASER 2009 reported that the percentage of schools with no water or toilet provision is declining over time. Water is available in 75% of government primary schools and 81% of upper primary schools. Useable toilets can be found in over 50% of government schools. Four out of ten government primary schools do not have separate toilets for girls. This number is lower for upper primary schools at 26%. About 12 -15% girls’ toilets are locked and only about 30 – 40% are useable.

Source: Kaushik Chakravarthy, Deccan Herald, 18 Jan 2010

India, Karnataka: 3.3 million toilets in next two years

The State government will construct 33 lakh (3.3. million) toilets in the next two years, announced Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar on 28 January 2010.

The drive will be taken up in villages under the “Sampoorna Svachatha Andolan” (Total Sanitation Campaign) with the help of NGOs and Stree Shakti Groups, Shettar said while participating in the “Nirmala Gram” award function at Raj Bhavan in Bangalore. It is a national award accorded to gram panchayats (village councils) for achieving total sanitation. The State government had recommended as many as 500 gram panchayats to the Centre for the award, however, only 245 were short-listed by the Union government, the minister said.

Shettar said he would discuss with the Chief Minister on the possibility of providing State awards to the remaining gram panchayats.

Bangalore rural had the maximum number of gram panchayats in the award list (40), Gulbarga and Raichur drew a blank. Governor H R Bhardwaj was also present at the award distribution ceremony.

The function was jointly organised by the Rural Department and Panchayat Raj Department and the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency.

Source: DHNS, Deccan Herald, 28 Jan 2010

India, Himachal Pradesh: good response to sanitation awareness campaign

The hill state of Himachal Pradesh is surging ahead on the path of becoming completely free from open defecation by the end of 2010.

There has been a tremendous increase in rural sanitation coverage from less than 30 per cent in 2001 to over 80 per cent in 2009. The campaign to stamp out open defecation is eliciting encouraging response from the rural masses and yielding a positive outcome.

The gram panchayats, which achieve 100 per cent sanitation coverage in terms of individual household toilets, schools and anganwadis, defecation-free and clean environment are being provided fiscal incentives. As many as 22 gram panchayats (village councils) were given the “Nirmal Gram Puraskar” in 2006-07 and the number rose to 245 in 2007-08 and 253 in the following year. Gram panchayats receiving the incentives could use the funds for maintaining sanitation facilities in their respective areas. The blocks and districts could use the funds to set up monitoring mechanisms for sanitation. However, the gram panchayat is derecognised if it fails to maintain the ODF status.

The maximum number of 125 Nirmal panchayats was in Mandi, followed by 29 in Kangra, 23 in Shimla, 25 in Hamirpur, 15 in Solan, 13 in Sirmaur, 7 in Chamba, 8 in Bilaspur, 3 each in Kullu and Lahaul and Spiti, one each in Una and Kinnaur. They were given cash rewards ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh A sum of Rs 3.65 crore would be disbursed among the ‘Nirmal Gram Panchayats’ so that the remaining panchayats were also inspired to follow their footsteps. The government has decided to honour the people who contribute in the implementation of total sanitation programme in their respective areas.

The government has also started the ’Maharishi Valmiki Sampuran Swachhata Puraskar’ to help achieve the goal of safe and hygienic sanitation facilities for all and to motivate the panchayati raj institutions. School sanitation reward scheme and Mahila Mandal Protsahan Yojna has also been started.

Source: The Tribune, 21 Feb 2010

Bangladesh: government and civil society against climate aid via World Bank

Bangladesh has voiced strong opposition to plans by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to provide close to US$100 million in climate change aid [1] – because of its delivery through the World Bank.

“We are strongly against the World Bank’s involvement in handling the climate fund. DFID should give the money straight to the Bangladesh government rather than giving it to the World Bank to disburse it,” Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque told IRIN on 16 February 2010.

“It should be a country-led programme rather than a World Bank-led one,” he said, adding that there were expectations the Bank would attach “unacceptable strings and conditions to its programme”.

His comments come one day after 21 civil society organizations, including campaigners from the European Action Group on Climate Change Bangladesh, the World Development Movement (WDM) and the Jubilee Debt Campaign, protested against the UK decision outside the DFID office in Dhaka.

Protest outside the National Press Club in Dhaka. Photo: WDM

WDM accuses the World Bank of being “responsible for funding high carbon projects that have caused climate change and that is also responsible for projects that have led countries like Bangladesh into further debt and poverty”.

WDM and the other protesting organizations insisted that DFID withdraw all conditions on the $94 million grant being offered to Bangladesh to cope with the impact of climate change.

The UK is actually taking this money from Bangladesh’s already allocated aid budget, money that should be spent on vital services such as health, education and clean water, and re-naming it climate finance rather than giving any new money, WDM says.

The British High Commission in Dhaka said how the funds were given out was not an issue.

“The issue of involvement of the World Bank in disbursing the money is a minor issue as the government of Bangladesh shall have full control of the fund,” Nazneen Ferdousi, senior press officer for the British High Commission in Dhaka, told IRIN.

The World Bank, as a development partner, would only provide administrative support in handling the funds, she said.

“We don’t see any problem in it,” she said.

Within the next 50 years, over 20 million people could be displaced and become “climate change refugees”, if sea and salinity levels rise in Bangladesh, according to the government’s 2009 Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan [2].

Proposed activities in the Action Plan include a water and sanitation programme in climate vulnerable areas, improvements in urban drainage, and installing rainwater harvesting systems in existing and new buildings.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day Bangladesh development meeting on 15 February 2010, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called on donor countries to speed up delivery of promised funds to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

World leaders pledged $30 billion from 2010 to 2012 at the December 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen to help least developed countries (LDCs) most vulnerable to climate change, particularly low-lying coastal countries like Bangladesh.

Bangladesh says it is entitled to ask for at least 15 percent of the climate adaptation fund pledged in Copenhagen. It needs an estimated US$ 5 billion over the 5 years for climate change adaptation.

Donors in attendance in Dhaka included the USA, European Union, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The meeting is to review Bangladesh’s development programmes, including plans to reduce poverty, and help donors select areas of cooperation.

[1] DFID – Climate Change Programme  – Jolobayoo-o-Jibon

[2] Ministry of Environment and Forests (2009). Bangladesh climate change strategy and action plan 2009. xviii, 76 p. ISBN 984-8574-25-5. Download PDF file.

Source: IRIN, 16 Feb 2010 ; WDM, 15 Feb 2010

Laos: small towns buckling under strain of migration

Small towns in Laos are experiencing an influx of migrants in search of better living conditions, increasing the strain on infrastructure and services such as water and sanitation, the UN and government officials say.

Laos is experiencing a high urbanization rate of 4-5 percent per annum, adding to pressure on local authorities to provide basic infrastructure, according to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).

There are an estimated 139 small towns in Laos, and many of those along economic corridors – bordering Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam – are seeing influxes from rural areas.

“Many of these small towns experience high population growth, and increased pressure on the local environment. Small towns are now becoming increasingly polluted because of a lack of adequate infrastructure,” said Buahom Sengkhamyong, chief technical adviser for UN-HABITAT in Laos.

As part of its regional Mekong Water and Sanitation Initiative (MEK-WATSAN) programme, the agency is providing improved services in small towns, especially along the economic corridors.

The lure of basic services

Water and sanitation has been identified as a development priority by the Lao government, which has floated an urban water sector investment plan estimated at US$266 million from 2005 to 2020.

But as the government improves services in small towns, they are proving a draw to migrants and creating unmanageable population growth in certain areas, including southern Savannakhet Province, according to UN-HABITAT and the government’s Nam Papa State-Owned Water Supply Enterprise.

“In Savannakhet Province, water and sanitation services are a serious issue for many districts,” Phandola Khouanemeuangchane, director of Nam Papa Savannakhet, told IRIN.

“Yet, we have a more complicated problem: the districts with improved water and sanitation services are flooded with ‘resource migrants’. In the end, our services often do not meet the demands of these growing small towns,” he said.

For Kung, a 95-year-old woman from a village outside of Sounvouli District in Savannakhet Province, migration for her family to a small town is a dream.

“Of course I would like to be able to move my family to a small town for better services,” said Kung.

“Three times a day, I travel to the well to collect water for my family to drink. It’s a laborious and time-consuming chore. In April and May, our village well dries up and then we compete with our neighbours to reach the well first. There’s simply not enough water to go around,” she said.

Planning challenges

In Laos, insufficient data on small-town population growth means development programmes are planned according to the national population growth rate of 2.8 percent, rather than the local rate, which is unknown.

According to Nam Papa, the number of small towns, and the percentage of the country’s population of some 5.86 million living in small towns by 2015, will exceed the government’s own estimates.

“Our investments in the sector disregard the true impact of resource migrants. Funding will not be adequate and will not meet the demands of our small towns along the economic corridors of Savannakhet Province,” said Phandola.

The Lao government, in its 2004 National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES), aims to improve services for an additional 1.95 million urban population.

But with rapid small-town growth, the NGPES will not be able to meet the demands for all the inhabitants needing improved water and sanitation services, officials say.

Meanwhile, small-town populations face the problem of the high cost of water, especially where local authorities lack the ability to supply it.

In the mountainous small town of Houn in Oudom Xai Province in northern Laos, one cubic meter of water is sold by private vendors for the equivalent of $3 – 26 times more than the average cost charged by Nam Papa.

“Unless improved services are provided, the people in small towns will get into the vicious cycle of poverty which they were trying to get away from in the first place,” said UN-HABITAT’s Sengkhamyong.

“Lack of water and sanitation infrastructure has a direct adverse impact on the quality of life of the communities, especially the poor,” he said.

Source: IRIN, 18 Feb 2010

Japan: Sulabh to construct low-cost toilets

Sulabh International, a leading sanitation NGO, has decided to start its operation soon in Japan by constructing low cost toilets popularly known as “Sulabh Sauchalaya“.

The decision was taken in the light of the initiatives by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, on whose invitation Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak visited Tokyo to throw light on effective methods for easy disposal of human waste.

Pathak, who also visited some rural areas of Japan, said that there was a need for cheap toilets as the technology in use in that country was very expensive and felt that the two-pit toilet system could be a perfect solution given the climate of Japan.

Sulabh is going to construct at least half a dozen low- cost toilets as part of its project to display the efficacy of its technology.

Source PTI, Deccan Herald, 31 Jan 2010

Nepal, Mid-Western Region: lack of toilets leading to epidemic

Hardly one fourth of the house-holds in the mid-western region have toilets, a report reveals. The report, prepared by the regional monitoring and supervision office under the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS), points out the lack of toilet facilities as the main reason behind frequent epidemic outbreaks.

According to the report only 26 percent households have toilets, while a majority of people excrete out in the open. Of the total 591,077 households, only 153,117 households have toilets. Last year alone, around 400 villagers had lost their lives to cholera epidemic in the mid western region. Kalikot has the lowest number of toilets. Of the total 16,725 households, only nine percent have toilets.

Jumla has the highest number of toilets. Over 35 percent households in Jumla have toilets. Even Surkhet is backward in terms of having toilet facilities. Only 66 percent of households in Surkhet have toilets. Prem Krishna Shrestha, divisional engineer at DWSS, points out sanitation as a major problem facing the mid west.

According to Shrestha, only 27 percent households in the mid western region have access to pure drinking water. “We are aiming to provide toilet and sanitation facility to all households by 2015,” he says. Sociologist Kamal Adhikari says that the country has been incurring a loss of Rs 10 billion every year due to epidemic outbreaks caused by lack of sanitation. “We can save this money by making people aware of sanitation,” he says.

Source:  Kalendra Sejuwal, Republica, 23 Jan 2010

India, Manipur: total sanitation programme to cover 263,000 families

The afternoon session of the second day Bharat Nirman campaign held at Panthoibi Lampak started with a speech by Swamikanta Director Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) attached to the Public Health Engineering Department Government of Manipur, in northeastern India. He said under the total sanitation campaign launched by the department 20,476 toilets have been constructed in Manipur break up being 11,513 for those belonging to BPL (Below Poverty Line) families and 8963 belonging to APL (Above Poverty Line) out of 263,254.  111 sanitary complexes have been constructed out of 386. 

He also said 1602 toilets for Government schools have been constructed. The target set to be covered is 3919 Government schools, he added. He said every family having six persons is entitled to get one toilet.

If the family members exceed six persons they will be entitled to receive more toilets. He said the main objects of the Total sanitary campaign are to bring about an improvement in the general quality of the life in rural areas, accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to enable them have access to toilets to all by 2012 and to motivate communities and panchayat institutions promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education among other things.

Every year Nirmal Gram Puraskar Award is bestowed to the Panchayat which can have maximum number of toilets constructed in his area.  The award for the year 2008 went to Gram Panchayat Maklang and the award for the year 2009 was bagged by Utlou Gram Panchayat. The aim and objects for institution of the award are to make total sanitation programme a success.

A BPL can get the facility of having free toilet by depositing just Rs 300 [US$ 6.50), he also said. He informed the gathering that ecosan toilets will be constructed as an experiment in Manipur. In this case the human excreta will be used for useful purposes. On being pointed out that while some persons get the benefit of the Government programmes of constructing free toilets the others do not get the prestige of getting one, he rebuked saying this is total sanitary programme wherein the question of leaving applications do not arise. 

K. Kullachandra Consultant CCDU, PHED Manipur also participated in the discussion. He recited a poem that encouraged the masses to pay the thrust in the construction of toilets.

Source: PIB, KanglaOnline,

Nepal: Melamchi’s padlock opened after seven months

The site office of the Melamchi Water Supply Project, which has remained padlocked for the last seven months, has opened on 26 January 2010. Locals in the project-affected area had padlocked the office since 24 July 2009.

“Locals agreed to unlock the office when negotiation was made to address their demands within a year,” said Bharat KC, Deputy Executive Director of Melamchi Water Supply Project. Chairperson of Hyolmo Sindhu Melamchi Valley Social Upliftment Programme Implementation Committee (HSMVSUPIC) Chandra Bahadur Thapa warned of padlocking the site office of the project again if their demands were not addressed within the stipulated time.

The protests have delayed the construction of tunnel works of the Melamchi Water Supply Project, which was due to start in August 2009 when Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal laid the foundation stone.

As a result of the delay, the China Railway 15 Bureau Corporation and China CMIIC Corporation workers, who were contracted to construct the tunnel, have left the site. The tunnel was due for completion by December 2013.

The tunnel construction is an important work, which constitutes 27 percent of the total work.

Although construction was to start in 2002, it was postponed for five years after the donors World Bank, Norway and Sweden backtracked from the project and the works restarted with Asian Development Bank cooperation on condition to give the valley drinking water supply to the private sector.

The valley drinking water was given to Severn Trent, a British company as per the ADB condition.

When Maoists came to government, Hisila Yami who was the then minister for physical planning and works canceled the agreement with the Severn Trent and the tunnel works were delayed for another two years.

The Melamchi project was started in 1998 with a view of supplying clean drinking water to increasing population of Kathmandu valley.

Admitting that the tunnel works were delayed, Executive Director Gajendra Kumar Thakur said the delay in construction was because of lengthy process of acquiring license for the explosives needed, as it needs 1,100 tonnes of explosives. Other explosives and materials are being brought from Lhasa and Hyderabad of India.

After this arrives, the tunnel works will start from eight places simultaneously, he said.

The cost of the tunnel is Rs. 4 billion and 288.8 million.

Under the project, 170 million liters of water will be collected daily in the reservoir to be built at Mahankal of Sundarijal.

The first phase total cost is 317.3 million US dollars.

The second phase will add water from Yangri and Larke Rivers and reach 350 million liters.

Of the total cost, 249.4 million will be spent in various infrastructure in Melamchi valley and in social programmes. Rs 67.9 million dollars have been allocated for drinking water alone.

Source: NGO Forum, 31 Jan 2010 ; Republica, 23 Jan 2010

Nepal, Kathmandu Valley: garbage collectors end strike

The Environment Management Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) said that it would take another three days to clear all garbage heaped in the capital valley over the last 12 days. The Department started garbage disposal from 1 February 2010 after the unions of local bodies decided to return to work. Employees had been on strike since 21 January 2010.

“Altogether 60 KMC garbage trucks are being used round the clock,” said Rabin Man Shrestha, chief at the department, adding, “Our staff will be busy in waste removal till the midnight.” Over 4,200 tons of garbage had piled up in the valley during the strike, he informed, adding, some 900 employees were engaged in garbage disposal. When dumping resumed, various organisations and government officials started pressurizing KMC to clear the mess from their respective neighborhoods early on, Shrestha said.

On Monday, calling off their protests, local body union employees said they would not sit for dialogue with CPN-UML-led government and would not allow concerned ministers to enter their office. Similarly, they also decided to continue their protests inside the concerned local body offices by putting black flags in front of the main gates, Ganga Dhar Gautam, president of Local Body Employees’ Union Nepal, said. “We will boycott all the government ministers in the local bodies as part of our protest,” Gautam added.

When KMC garbage carrying vehicles were not operating during the protest of the local body staff, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force personnel jointly disposed 500 metric tons of garbage at Tikathali over the last three days.

Source: The Rising Nepal / NGO Forum, 03 Feb 2010