India, Tamil Nadu: housing and toilets for women self-help groups

Photo: IVDP

An Indian NGO that provides housing and toilets for women’s groups was a finalist in the 2010 World Habitat Awards. Established in 1979, the Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP) mobilises poor women to form self-help saving groups (SHG).

Some 6,700 groups have been established do far, each of which is made up of 12 to 20 disadvantaged women. IVDP has sourced affordable credit lines for the members of the saving groups, enabling the construction of 24,705 houses and 17,000 toilets. Awareness-raising campaigns help improve wider vulnerable groups’ understanding of water, sanitation and personal hygiene practices.

India, Nagaland: sanitary napkin vending machines installed in schools

Photo: Eastern Mirror newspaper

Automatic sanitary napkin vending machines have been installed in five schools in Kohima district, Nagaland, as part of India’s total sanitation campaign. The installation was an initiative of the Communication and Capacity Devlopment Unit of Nagaland’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and the Sulabh School Sanitation Clubs (SSSC), New Delhi, in collaboration with the School Education Department. The sanitary napkins cost about (US$ Rs. 3 (6.7 US dollar cents) each.

India, Orissa: cholera-diarrhoea epidemic claims 140 lives

At least 140 people have died from cholera and diarrhoeal diseases in the Indian state of Orissa. Worst hit is Rayagada district, where 39 deaths have ocurred and 784 affected persons have received medical attention since first week of August 2010. After fierce criticism from opposition parties, accusing the state government for failing to contain the outbreak, Health Minister Prasanna Acharya and the Secretary of the Rural Development Department, which oversees drinking water facilities, rushed to the Rayagada district on 14 September 2010 to take stock of the situation. One opposition leader (Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Congress) claimed that over 600 people had already died in undivided Koraput district.

In Rayagada district, according to official sources, 39 deaths have occurred till date, while unofficial figures put the mark at over 65. Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, has confirmed the prevalence of cholera in the district. [...] To assist the existing medical teams, 70 more personnel, comprising 30 doctors and 40 paramedics, are being sent to the district.

Back in 2007, a cholera and diarrhoea epidemic in Rayagada district had claimed over 100 lives.

Non-availability of clean drinking water, faecal contamination of drinking water sources, lack of awareness about sanitation among tribals living in remote pockets and slow progress of the Total Sanitation Campaign are the reasons behind the recurring cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks in this district during monsoon, said Chief District Medical Officer of Rayagada, B.D. Nayak.

Lack of doctors and communication facilities in remote areas adds to the problem. Fifty-nine posts of doctors are vacant in Rayagada district.

Source: Sib Kuma Das, The Hindu, 15 Sep 2010 ; The Hindu, 14 Sep 2010

Bangladesh, Dinajpur: 3,000 villagers stage water protest

A ground water resource conflict culminated in a mass protest as nearly 3,000 villagers besieged a power plant in northern Bangladesh. The villagers threatened to cut the electricity supply to the water cooling system of the Barapukuria power plant in Dinajpur. They claimed that the plant’s excessive withdrawal of groundwater had left hundreds of village tubewells dry.

Fourteen pumps at Sherpur village, around one kilometre off the plant, lift 1,300 tonnes of underground water every hour for operation of the 250 megawatt plant, insiders say.

[...]

The villagers now have to collect drinking water from distant areas and use tainted water released by the power plant for shower and washing, they claimed, adding that skin diseases are spreading in all the nearby villages.

A meeting between the villagers and the plant’s Chief Engineer failed to yield an agreement. The villagers now plan to stage another protest on 26 October 2010.

The chief engineer of the power plant said he formed a five-member committee in late August [2010] to conduct a survey over the persisting water crisis at the surrounding villages.

After completing the survey he would send the report to the ministry concerned and Bangladesh Power Development Board for a possible remedy, he added.

The water released by the plant is harmful to public health and is widely spreading skin diseases, say health officials. But the authorities claim they are releasing water after treating it inside the plant.

Source: Daily Star, 15 Aug 2010

Pakistan: sanitation crucial to survival for flood victims

Millions remain without proper sanitation in flood-affected Pakistan.

“Sanitation is ‘the invisible problem’ in disaster relief and by highlighting the problem, behaviour change happens,” according to Bill Fellows, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) global cluster coordinator working with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the WASH cluster lead agency.

Hygiene is four times as important as clean drinking water for preventing diarrheal disease according to research published in The Lancet medical journal [1]. Whilst in flood devastated Pakistan, access to clean drinking water is on the rise, thanks to the efforts of WASH cluster member agencies, with 2.5 million people receiving clean drinking water every day, the attention to sanitation has become critical in preventing disease outbreaks.

UNICEF, in cooperation with the government, is implementing hygiene education in relief camps through a “no open defecation campaign”. “This is based on a system developed in Bangladesh and helps affected communities take a first step to achieve basic sanitation in disaster affected communities”, said Fellows.

In addition, the hygiene education campaign includes teaching flood survivors to build open pit latrines. As part of the flood relief efforts 2,723 emergency latrines have been built, benefitting 40,000 people.

Female health workers and Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers are also on the frontline of hygiene education, which is one of the most critical components in reducing water-borne disease. To date, these volunteers have helped educate almost 750,000 people on the benefits of good hygiene.

To compliment hygiene education, soap and hygiene kits are needed. UNICEF reports 400,000 hygiene kits are in the pipeline along with three million bars of soap.

“It is crucial in disaster response that flood affected communities receive latrines and soap, as well as hygiene education to prevent illness and disease”, said Manuel Bessler, Head of the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan.

In addition to water and sanitation flood relief activities, UNICEF and its partners are engaged in an integrated approach to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of flood survivors through health and nutrition, child protection, education and prevention of child trafficking.

[1] The same conclusion can be found in a recent article by Cairncross et al. in the International journal of epidemiology

Read the latest Pakistan Floods WASH-related news on ReliefWeb

Related web site: Global WASH Cluster

Source: ReliefWeb, 14 Sep 2010

India, Bangalore: new legislation lets water board tackle water thieves

A recent amendment to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) Act enables the board to take tough action against water theft and meter tampering. So far the BWSSB has booked criminal cases against 15 violators and subsequently disconnected their water supply. Another 24 violators will soon face the same fate.

The amended BWSSB Act has new sections 108A and 108B to deal with water theft and bring in stringent measures to curb meter tampering. This allows the board to book violators and punish the guilty with a three-year jail term or with a penalty of Rs. 5,000 [US$ 320] depending on the dimension of the site. The penalty includes the cost of meter and arrears, the press release said.

Called the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage and Certain other laws (Amendment) Bill 2009, the amendment was approved by Governor on April 14 and the gazette notification issued on April 16.

Source: The Hindu, 10 Sep 2010

Viet Nam: hygiene promotion should build on community action

The path down to a stream where children defecate. Viet Nam, Lao Ca province. Photo: Danida

More affordable sanitation technologies and participatory community interventions will make future hygiene promotion more effective, say two PhD-fellows Xuan Le Thi Thanh and Thilde Rheinländer. They have spent 16 months in ethnic minority communities in the Northern Province Lao Cai to do research on hygiene and sanitation promotion in the Danida-funded research project SANIVAT (Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Vietnam). SANIVAT supports research and capacity building on the impacts of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions and investigates how people perceive hygiene, health risks and hygiene promotion.

India, Punjab: opposition Congress party promises subsidised water for the poor

Coming down heavily on the Punjab [state] government for the sale of clean potable drinking water to the poor in the cotton belt of Malwa affected by incidents of cancer, the Punjab Congress [...] promised to supply subsidised drinking water to these sections after coming into power in the next Assembly elections.

[A party statement] said the poor in these villages of Malwa belt were not in a position to pay for treated water [supplied by reverse osmosis (RO)] and they continue to drink polluted water from other sources.

He said the RO system installed in the affected village was of no use to the poor under such a situation.

[Party spokesperson Parminder Singh said] it was shocking that the poor continued to rely on the polluted water in the absence of paying capacity. He said the economic conditions of the poor had deteriorated to such an extent that they were not in a position to pay Rs 2 [4.3 US dollar cents] per 20 per liters for the treated water available from the government installed RO systems.

He said the state government should also go into the technical aspect of this system as the problem in this system was the disposal of the residual water after treatment and in this case this water is allowed to be absorbed in the soil, it would further pollute the ground water.

He said the government must take the necessary steps or go in for some alternate technology.

Related news: India, Punjab: every village to store enough drinking water for 15 days, minister orders, Source Weekly, 18 Sep 2009

Source: UNI, newKerala.com, 13 Aug 2010

Nepal, Pokhara: collateral-free loans for water connection

A bank in Pokhara is said to be the first in Nepal to provide collateral-free loans to people to get a piped water supply connection. All the bank requires is consent from the neighbours.

Kamana Development Bank is providing loans to the poor consumers of Lekhnath municipality who can not afford to get a water supply connection on their own. “We are providing a facility to those who cannot afford for pipeline connection at once,” said Umesh Acharya, Chief Executive Officer of the bank, adding, “We do not ask for any collateral, but we only need consent of the neighbours.”

Lekhnath Small Town Water Supply Project is charging Rs. 15,100 [US$ 200] for a new pipeline connection and the bank is providing loan facility to the people who cannot pay the total cost at once. According to Acharya, the bank is providing a 2-year loan covering 80 percent of the total connection cost.

Interest rates, according to the bank’s website, are 15-19%.

Chandra Krishna Karmacharya, president, Water Supply Consumers Committee said, “With this kind of facility, people will not have to be deprived of drinking water just because of financial problem.”

Source : Kantipur / NGO Forum, 25 Jul 2010