Capturing the humanitarian imagination

Source  http://www.humanitarianinnovation.org/projects/small-grants/knowledgepoint

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health
Newsletter N° 149 / 1 February 2012

JMP thematic report 2011 published
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation published its 2011 thematic report Drinking Water: Equity, safety and sustainability. Based on the 2008 datasets, the report investigates access to and use of drinking-water in greater detail than is possible in the regular JMP progress reports, and includes increased disaggregation of water service levels and analyses of trends across countries and regions.  Download from www.wssinfo.org

* * * *

HWTS News
The WHO/UNICEF/UNC International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage will organize a HWTS session at the 6^th World Water Forum on 14 March 14:30-16:30. The session will focus on the international target of having, by 2015, 30 additional countries with national policies regarding household water treatment and safe storage. Policy options will be linked to proven solutions, effective implementation and regulation. HTWS Network members attending the WWF6 are asked to contact Maggie Montgomery (montgomerym@who.int) who coordinates the HWTS target session.

* * * *

More HWTS News
HWTS Network members working closely with government counterparts are encouraged to assist their counterparts in completing the online HWTS survey available in English, French and Spanish. http://www.who.int/household_water/advocacy/en/

*-*-*-*Source

https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/1353812a97108c2e

Inadequate Sanitation Costs Bangladesh the Equivalent of 6.3 Percent of GDP in 2007

_____________________________________________________________________

2011 Oct 6 – Washington DC — Inadequate sanitation causes Bangladesh economic losses totaling US$ 4.22 billion (Taka 30,000 crore) each year. This is equivalent to 6.3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2007, according to a new report published by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a multi-donor partnership administered by the World Bank.

The report, The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation in Bangladesh, is based on evidence on the adverse economic impacts of inadequate sanitation, which include costs associated with death and disease, accessing and treating water, and losses in education, productivity and time. The findings are based on 2007 figures, although a similar magnitude of losses is likely in later years.

The report shows that losses due to premature mortality and other health-relatedimpacts of poor sanitation total about US$ 3.56 billion (Taka 25,000 crore) (84.3 percent of total economic impacts). This is followed by productive time lost to access sanitation facilities or sites for defecation at US$ 454 million (Taka 3,000 crore) (10.8 percent), and drinking water-related impacts at US$ 207 million (Taka 1,500 crore) (4.9 percent).

Ninety-five percent of the premature mortality-related economic losses are due to deaths and diseases among children under five. Diarrhea among these children accounts for US$ 1.46 billion (Taka 10,000 crore) (40.9 percent) of all health-related economic impacts.

In Bangladesh, diarrhea is the largest contributor to health-related economic impacts resulting from poor sanitation, amounting to two-thirds of the total health-related impacts. This is followed by acute lower respiratory infections, which account for about 15 percent of all health-related impacts.

Poor households are the biggest victims of inadequate sanitation. They experience about 71 percent of the total economic impact of inadequate sanitation.

“Over the last decade Bangladesh has emerged as a global reference point in experimenting and implementing innovative approaches to rural sanitation. Community Led Total Sanitation, which started in Bangladesh, has now been implemented all over the world. Bangladesh’s basic sanitation coverage rose from 33.2 percent in 2003 to 80.4 percent in 2009. This report shows that despite great success, much can still be done in the sanitation sector in Bangladesh”, said Ellen Goldstein, Country Director for World Bank in Bangladesh.

The losses caused by poor sanitation exceed Bangladesh’s national development budget for 2007–2008 by 33 percent. “The total amount of these losses is five times higher than the national health budget, and three times higher than the national education budget in 2007

“Similar studies carried out in East Asia and India indicated annual per capita losses in the range of US$ 9.3 in Vietnam, US$ 16.8 in the Philippines, US$ 28.6 in Indonesia, US$ 32.4 in Cambodia and US$ 48.0 in India,” said Christopher Juan Costain, Regional Team Leader for WSP in South Asia. “Bangladesh lost US$ 29.6 per capita, which demonstrates the urgency of improving sanitation in the country.”

The report underlines that substantial investments are needed to improve sanitation. The Government of Bangladesh has made significant investments towards implementing its “Sanitation for all by 2013” programs. The rising trend in the Government’s budgetary allocation to sanitation indicates a strong commitment to the goals of the sanitation programs.

The report shows that sanitation and hygiene improvements will reduce premature deaths and related morbidity, eliminate domestic water-related costs, reduce absenteeism at schools and workplaces, and improve welfare and productivity.

As a result of comprehensive efforts to improve the level of sanitation, the report estimates a potential gain of about US$ 2.26 billion (Taka 16,000 crore).

The report follows a WSP study published in 2007 on the economic impacts of sanitation in Southeast Asia, a part of the Global Economics of Sanitation Initiative.

Download Full Document

Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WorldbankBangladesh
Be updated via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wspworldbank
For our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watersanitation
Visit the ESI Page: http://www.wsp.org/wsp/content/economic-impacts-sanitation

The Charter

souce    http://washcharter.org/charter/

IN Pakistan we are using UV LAMPS for drinking water

treatment, thinking exposure to uv light kills bacteria, virus .

some who know a little more think that rather than killing it

stalls the further multiplication, so for so good. today i came across this

mutation effect that scares me to think . rather than making our wter safe we may be adding several types of mutated bacteria and virus to our system . these microorganisms are of unknown nature  may be more dangerous than the ones we are trying to get rid of and much more resistant to what  we know of controlling them.

‘Acquired (or somatic) mutations occur in the DNA of individual cells at some time during a person’s life. These changes can be caused by environmental factors such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun, or can occur if a mistake is made as DNA copies itself during cell division. Acquired mutations in somatic cells (cells other than sperm and egg cells) cannot be passed on to the next generation.’

hope microbiologists and molecular/ biological engineers can help me get rid of this negative thinking

IMPROVING SAFE DRINKING WATER SERVICE DELIVERY BY STRENGTHENING THE AMENDED LOCAL GOVERNMENT’s ORDINANCE, 2005

The Constitution of Pakistan guarantees “right to life” to all Pakistani citizens under Section 6.  Water is fundamental for human survival which is universally recognized as a basic human right (stated in Article 25(1), Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water as an essential part of right to life is one of the most important functions of Governments, who take the prime responsibility of providing safe drinking water to their citizens. The situation in Pakistan is, however, much below the accepted limits; whereas the Government of Pakistan realizes that safe drinking water is imperative for human health, and its provision is a mandate which the Government should fulfill, the actual practice is not in line with this thinking.  A case in point is lack of a comprehensive legislation for supply of safe drinking water.

The essential and scarce water resource has to be treated as a public good which implies that management of water resources and supply must be a government responsibility so that public interest can be served. Therefore Government’s involvement should concentrate on strategic planning of water resources development in line with future demand and through effective regulations. Public awareness of water rights, regulations and economic instruments are important to ensure understanding and acceptance of all stakeholders.

Unlike other public utilities like power, gas, telephonic services has lead to the revelation that whereas all these sectors are regulated and have legislation in place, the drinking water is left at the mercy of service providers.  In the process of privatization of utilities the interest of the consumer was kept in mind to some extent, no such relief for the consumers is foreseeable in case of water.

Legislations in sectors of service delivery like the Local Government’s Ordinance, are meant to regulate these sectors for efficient operation; they also serve the purpose of protecting peoples’ rights.  This makes it all the more important that this important utility is governed by uniform policies by the government and legislation is in place to protect peoples’ right to safe water. Such protection is very important for important public utilities.  Public health importance of safe water makes it even more important that legislation is in place to protect human health through ensuring provision of safe drinking water.  However, as is evident  from experience in many countries that the adoption of adequate water laws and regulations is a sensitive and time-consuming task.

The spirit of the Local Government Ordinance 2001 is to improve services for the consumers falling in the ambit of local bodies, by holding the local governments responsible for service delivery in their respective constituencies – supply of safe drinking water is one of these.  However the matter has not been dealt with at length in the Ordinance and this loosely placed responsibility has failed to gain due importance for the local bodies.  It is all the more important because supplying safe drinking water is not the only function that the local governments are performing, and further clarifications are required in the sections pertaining to supply of safe drinking water for the consumers, under the Local Government’s Ordinance.

It is suggested that the following points may be taken into account in the process of making the Local Government’s Ordinance, 2001 more effective and elaborate on the subject of safe drinking water and also ensure supply of this important public health utility in the best possible manner.

Proposed Changes in the amended Local Government Ordinance 2005

Local Government shall be responsible to provide safe drinking water to the population within their electoral boundaries.

Delineation of drinking and wholesome water

• The existing section 94 in the VI^th Schedule may be retained for supply of wholesome water to the consumers.  However it is insufficient in the sense that it does not deal with drinking water exclusively.
• The meaning of the word “wholesome” in Schedule VI article 94, according to Oxford Dictionary is …………………………………………..This is evasive enough to relieve the relevant local government of the responsibility of providing safe ,fit for human consumption drinking water to consumers. The word be changed with safe drinking water. Hence the Schedule VI article 94 Sub clause (1) would read as the concerned local government shall provide or cause to provide to its local area a supply of safe drinking water sufficient fro public and private purposes.

• A sub-section pertaining to drinking water can be added to delineate water for ordinary purposes from that meant for drinking purposes

Health Departments’ involvement

• Mechanism for involvement of the health officials, like EDO health or Tehsil health committees in the subject of provision of safe drinking water to the consumers

• Responsibility of the Local Health Department to inform the water service provider of the number of cases of water-related diseases on a fortnightly basis

• Informing the water service provider of any emergency situation involving water related illnesses so that problem identification and rectification can be initiated to prevent further morbidity and mortality

As for the quality

• Wherever the word water appears and it is meant for human consumption it will mean

Water in accordance with the standard No.PS-1932: 2002, (In place of wholesome)

issued from time to time by Pakistan Standards and Quality control authority (PSQCA), Ministry  of Science and Technology.

• The drinking water provider – public or private- shall ensure complete water analysis and quality control in such a way that the water conforms toPakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority ( PSQCA )standards.

• The provider – public or private- shall arrange to issue a consumer confidence report………………………………….. at least every six months through the media and other possible communication tools. This report will mention the precautions being taken to   ensure a safe drinking water supply, the test reports and any measures the consumer should take in case of an unmanageable quality problem.

• The provider shall also issue a monthly report showing the quantity of water being Supplied to various localities of the area covered.

• Drinking water will be completely tested in a Laboratory of repute like Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR),National Institute Health(NIH), Medical College, University, other than the provider at least once a year, as third  Party surveillance.
• Third party (CBOs, NGOs, Consumer Groups, Researchers, Village Councils / Neighborhood Councils) surveillance for water quality to be encouraged.

As for monitoring

• Monitoring of water supply  management through water committees, comprising of six citizens representing various classes, at UC level .

Water charges …………………………………………………………………………………………?

The terms Improved drinking water and sanitation are hard to understand objectively. WHO/UNICEF joint monitoring program have tried to explain it a little forward. To asses the progress on MDGs we need to unpack the definitions of Improved Drinking water supply and Improved Sanitation. This is important to Evaluate access to MDGs on a uniform level, globally.
As a step Farther the term Reducing to Half the access to those having no reach to improved quality of water and sanitation is not very objective, as the number of existing sufferers , not having improved drinking water and sanitation for each country, zone and region needs to be defined on credible basis.
Kindly Feel Free to discuss.
The drinking-water and sanitation ladders
Since its development in the 2008 report, this ladder allows JMP to show what is considered improved and unimproved in a more refined way than the only pass/fail former presentation without changing the MDG definitions. This ladder currently allows a disaggregated analysis of trends in a three rung ladder for drinking-water and a four-rung ladder for sanitation as shown to the right.
For sanitation, this gives an understanding of the proportion of population globally with no sanitation facilities at all, of those reliant on technologies defined by JMP as “unimproved,” of those sharing sanitation facilities of otherwise acceptable technology, and those using “improved” sanitation facilities.
Similarly, the water ladder has been prepared showing the global proportion of those using unimproved water sources, those using “improved” sources other than piped household connections and those benefiting from household connections in a dwelling, plot or yard.
These refinements allow countries and the international community to form a clearer understanding of the situation of access to water and sanitation (learn more about JMP and country collaborations). As definitional differences are often the prime cause for discrepancies in the estimates between country figures and JMP estimates, the ladder tries to show where this discrepancy precisely is coming from. This new way of analysing access has become an essential tool for data reconciliation at national level, between the different stakeholders and especially sector agencies and national statistics offices, as well as between the national level and JMP.
Source  http://www.wssinfo.org/definitions-methods/watsan-ladder/