Participatory monitoring in the BRAC WASH II programme in Bangladesh

“What is good about the monitoring system that we are using is that it is participatory so that respondents also get knowledge”, says Senior Sector Specialist Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Mahjabeen Ahmed of the BRAC WASH II Programme. Ms Ahmed is one of the 5,000 programme workers who are supporting BRAC WASH II in Bangladesh. From 11 to 15 March 2013 she was in The Hague, The Netherlands, for a programme workshop.

Armed with smart phones, 30 teams consisting of one male and one female staff member have been collecting WASH data in sample areas of the BRAC WASH programme. Each team gets 6 days training in QIS – the Qualitative Information System, a participatory method for capturing and quantifying respondents’ situation regarding WASH issues. The BRAC monitoring teams visit households, village WASH committees, schools and rural sanitation centres.

Tuvalu: composting toilets help conserve water and boost livelihoods in Pacific islands

A new film shows how composting toilets are helping to address the serious water issues facing Tuvalu.

The tiny Pacific island nation of just 10,500 inhabitants recently experienced a devastating drought. Septic tank systems are polluting the groundwater and destroying the reefs in lagoons, forcing fishermen to spend more on fuel to travel further away to catch fish.

The Global Environment Facility supported Pacific Integrated Water Resources Management project (GEF Pacific IWRM) is addressing these problems by installing composting toilets on the main island of Funafuti. Composting toilets use almost no water and produce compost so that families can plant their own vegetables, making them less dependent on expensive food imports.

Getting people to adopt composting toilets was difficult, but once people understood the benefits, demand for the toilets increased. The project in Tuvalu has generated interest around the Pacific. Tonga has built demonstration toilets, Nauru has installed them in schools and the Marshall Islands are planning construction soon, the project web site says.

The GEF Pacific IWRM project is managing 13 national demonstration projects in 12 Pacific countries. It is being executed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC), in partnership with UNDP and UNEP.

Related news:

• Sharing experiences : sustainable sanitation in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, E-Source, 28 Oct 2010
• Tuvalu: state of emergency declared due to water shortages, WASH news Asia & Pacific, 17 Oct 2011

Related web sites:

• GEF Pacific IWRM Project
• Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)
• IRC WASH Library: composting latrines

Source: GEF Pacific IWRM Project, 05 Mar 2012

India, Bihar: Poo Highway

The high incidence of open defecation in the Indian state of Bihar is not due to a lack awareness about toilets, according to this new Water for People video. In their view, it’s more of a supply chain, marketing problem.

The toilets on offer are not particularly good.

Until recently, Water for People India had worked mainly in West Bengal state, but in 2011 the NGO expanded into Bihar, where it is collaborating with the local government.

The current sanitation coverage in Bihar is less than 25% with usage percentage much lower, according to the SWASTH (Sector Wide Approach to Strengthening Health) Programme web site. In the district where Water for People will be working, sanitation coverage is only 14%.

Related web site: Water for People – India

Tuvalu: state of emergency declared due to water shortages

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu (pop. 10,544) has declared a state of emergency due to severe water shortages on 28 September 2011 after existing desalination plants broke, exacerbating an already dire situation. The Australian, New Zealand and U.S. Defence forces – together with the Red Cross – have set up emergency desalination plants on two of the country’s nine islands.

A Red Cross situation report said the former British colony relied mostly on rainwater, which had been scarce this year because of a La Nina weather pattern across the Pacific.

The government of Tuvalu said the water crisis was likely to last until at least January 2012, when there’s more chance of heavy rain.

For the latest updates on the Tuvalu water crisis visit ReliefWeb

Source: AFP / New Age, 03 Oct 2011 ; ABC / ReliefWeb, 17 Oct 2011 ; Drought – Information Bulletin n° 2, IFRC / ReliefWeb, 14 Oct 2011 ; ABC / ReliefWeb, 14 Oct 2011

Bangladesh: BRAC video shows importance of school sanitation for girls

This new 9 minute video shows how BRAC is addressing high absenteeism rates among female students through a water, sanitation and hygiene programme in nearly 3,000 schools across rural Bangladesh. The programme includes menstrual hygiene facilties.

[Female students] have expressed that something so simple like as a sanitary latrine can change their entire educational experience.

The video was directed and edited by Sara Liza Baumann of Old Fan Films.

India, Karnataka: communication campaign helps realise sustainable water supply in small towns

When three small towns in the state of Karnataka, India attempted to provide continuous water supply to their citizens through a public-private partnership, they faced disbelief even ridicule. A sustained and strategic communication campaign over several years finally enabled the Karnataka Urban Water Supply Improvement Project (KUWASIP) to succeed with people’s support. Now, the citizens of these three towns – Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga and Begaum – benefit from 24/7 water supply through the .

This best practice was produced as a short movie titled “Overcoming Resistance and Initiating Change through Communications” by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) in partnership with the Administrative Staff College of India and is part of a training curriculum for city managers and policy-makers.

KUWASIP was jointly funded by the World Bank and the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC). In 2009, KUIDFC received a National Urban Water Award for the project in the category

Related web site: KUIDFC – Karnataka Urban Water Supply Improvement Project (KUWASIP)

ADB launches My View H2O: The Asia-Pacific Video Contest

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is launching its second video competition which is open to all aspiring filmmakers across the globe.

The video contest – My View H2O: The Asia-Pacific Video Contest – promotes awareness of the causes, implications and solutions to Asia’s looming water crisis.

Over $10,000 worth of prizes are being offered for the best videos (between 1 minute and 5 minutes long) about water issues in the Asia and Pacific region in three categories:

• Youth (under 21) from ADB Developing Member Countries
• Open (21 and over) from ADB Developing Member Countries
• Open (all ages) from other ADB Member Countries

Among the judges are: the father of Philippine digital filmmaking Khavn dela Cruz, Japanese filmmaker Momoko Ando, Indonesian director Joko Anwar, American film curator Christopher Beaver, Chinese documentary maker Du Hiabin, and Pakistani filmmaker Samar Minallah.

To register applicants need to complete a short online registration form, and upload their videos to YouTube.com or Youku.com.

The deadline for submission of entries is 31 January 2011.

The launch comes in the lead-up to a five-day international conference “Water Crisis and Choices: ADB and Partners Conference 2010” to be held at ADB Headquarters from 11-15 October.

Source: ADB, 07 Oct 2010

China: country’s first film on water protection premieres

“He Zhang,” China’s first film on the subject of the water supply crisis, premieres on June 5 – World Environment Day – in Beijing, Chinafilm.com reports.

Still from "He Zhang". Photo: CFP

The film is based on events that took place in Wuxi City, located on the banks of the Taihu Lake in east China’s Jiangsu Province, in May 2007. About 2 million residents ran out of safe drinking water after algae took over the polluted waters of the lake.

Chinese actors Ray Lui, also known as Lv Liangwei, and Zhou Xianxin star in the film. Lui plays the boss of a chemical company who illegally dumps polluted water in the lake, and is reported to authorities by his honest father, who’s dying of cancer.

The film’s producers set the premiere for World Environment Day in hopes of evoking concern for environmental protection, especially water protection.

In Chinese, “He Zhang” refers to the local government official in charge of protecting the major rivers in their region. Chinese superstars Li Bingbing, Pu Cunxi and Xu Qin also make appearances in the film.

Source: Han Jingjing, Xinhua, 08 Jun 210

India, Tamil Nadu: Movie highlights success in water management

B. Kailasam’s 55-minute long movie “Writing on Water” [...] captures a couple of success stories wrought in the last few years by the Change Management Group (CMG) [of the Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD)] in the attitude of government officials and the resulting success in villages in the State.

S. Panneerselvam, an Assistant Engineer with TWAD, is featured in the movie as an example of a government engineer whose attitude changed with the ideas of the CMG. But when he was posted to the Endhal Panchayat, he understood the power of folk history and “critical design.”

“The villages in the panchayat had access to only salt water and people used to go to Tiruvannamalai town or nearby places to get good water. I heard an 85-year-old man telling stories from his youth about the local deity promising water if the forest around her temple was tended to,” he says in the feature. Enquiries with people revealed the existence of a well long in disuse. Constantly haranguing the villagers and the Forest Department officials (under whose jurisdiction the area around the well fell) about it, Mr. Panneerselvam managed to bring the well back to regular use.

“When constructing the well and the pumping stations for the different villages, we followed “critical design” ideas. We only built based on the demand and did not try to build very large tanks. We also collected money from villagers on a voluntary basis to make them understand that the well was important for them,” he says.

These stories reflect the importance of concepts that the CMG, formed by senior engineers from TWAD, Agricultural Engineering and other departments, advocates, says Dr. Suresh when participating in the post-screening discussion.

The movie, which was screened [at the World Water Forum] in Istanbul, right now focuses on the Pan-Asia Colloquium on Water held in Chennai in September [2008] and a couple of achievements of the CMG, Mr. Kailasam says.

But he adds that the movie is still a work in progress and the final feature would talk in general about the issues connected with water management.

Contact: B. Kailasam, bkailasam [at] gmail.com

Source: The Hindu, 11 Apr 2009

Sri Lanka: Changing Lives – Rural Water Schemes [video]

Water-related community development activities have big returns-from universal coverage to better hygiene, reduced incidence of waterborne diseases, greater unity among communities, and more. This documentary video [16 min] shows the different stages of Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) engagement in rural water, focusing on Sri Lanka’s completed 3rd Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) Project and ongoing Secondary Towns and Rural Community-Based WSS Project.