Water Pakistan

Water Hygenie and Sanitation Issues Of Pakistan

WASH in 2020, Future Trends

Filed under Way forward by admin

Scanning the 2020 horizon: An analysis of trends and scenarios in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector

Updated – Monday 15 August 2011

Year of publication: 2011

What will the international Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector look like in, let us say, 10 years from now? Will access to sanitation still lag behind water supply, or will it evolve into a stand-alone sub-sector with its own set of dedicated institutions and organisations? Will aid continue to play a predominant role in investing in WASH infrastructure, or will emerging economies increase their investments in the sector? And, how will trends outside the sector, such as urbanisation or changes in food prices, affect the sector?

The document presents 21 trends IRC considers most critical to WASH sector development. It examines trends both within the WASH sector, as well as those outside the sector which have the potential to impact on the sector. Many of these are updates of factors identified in a similar exercise undertaken five years ago by IRC.

In general, compared to five years ago, we see little change in the main paradigms employed in the sector, the issues discussed, the stakeholders involved, or the type and level of financing. This is not surprising as reforms take time.

Based on these trends we developed four possible scenarios, representing diverging futures for the WASH sector:

  • Scenario 1: Two steps forward; one step back for the sector
  • Scenario 2: New players in a less stable environment
  • Scenario 3: Towards a post-aid WASH sector
  • Scenario 4: A multi-polar WASH sector

The document concludes with reflections on how IRC has used these trends and scenarios to inform its strategic choices and the development of its business plan 2012-2016.

Finally, we call upon other sector organisations to undertake similar exercises, not only to support individual organisational development, but also to ensure a contribution to a better understanding of what will be required within and from the WASH sector as we near the 2015 MDG target date and beyond.

Only available electronically

- Download:
OP45_Scanningthe2020horizon.pdf (1.15 MB)
- Series:
Occasional Paper Series 45

Source  http://www.irc.nl/page/65919

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August 19, 2011 at 9:56 am Comments (0)

The WASH Sustainability Charter

Filed under drinking water, hygiene, Sanitation, Way forward by admin

The Charter

PREAMBLE

We, the undersigned, believe:

  • That the lasting provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education (WASH) is a leading development priority of our time. Around the world, almost one billion people live without access to improved water sources, while 2.6 billion people live without access to adequate sanitation facilities;
  • That the lasting provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education is key to sustaining human health, education, and economic development, empowering women, and maintaining ecosystems that support all life;
  • That sustainability requires the development of meaningful partnerships that recognize the diverse roles of all actors, including communities, governments, donors, implementers, and all other stakeholders;
  • That our efforts to promote ongoing safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education are critical to the stability and development of communities around the world and can end the needless suffering and premature death of men, women, and children due to waterborne illness;
  • That there are still enormous systemic challenges to providing sustainable safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services in many countries. Most critically, many of those who may have benefited in the short-term from WASH projects now have systems that are not working adequately, or have failed completely.
  • That the premature failure of these solutions is unacceptable.

The first steps in partnering to address these systemic challenges are to build on our successes, learn from our failures, and agree on a shared vision of sustainable WASH services regardless of one’s role or perspective. Specifically, WASH should be viewed in the developing world as it is in the developed world – as a service, not as a project.

Together, we propose to advance sustainable solutions[i] in water, sanitation, and hygiene education through the following mission and guiding principles. These are intended to serve as a common framework that stakeholders[ii] in the sector can agree upon when collaborating with communities in pursuit of these basic services[iii] around the world.

MISSION

To collaboratively promote the delivery of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services that produce high-quality, lasting benefits to consumers.

PURPOSE

This Charter seeks to align WASH stakeholders around collaboratively developed sustainability principles and catalyze adoption of these principles around the world. In recognition of the many approaches to achieving each principle, the Charter provides a framework for the development of corresponding best practices and metrics to facilitate ongoing learning rather than prescribing specific practices to achieve these principles.

Those endorsing this Charter will strive to incorporate these principles and actively promote WASH sustainability throughout their work. The Charter is an aspirational document, not a governing one. Endorsers agree to pursue the mission and strive towards the principles incorporated in the Charter. It is intended that WASH stakeholders will encourage and assist each other in applying the Charter’s principles, and ultimately, in improving the sustainability of WASH services around the world.

SUSTAINABILITY GUIDING PRINCIPLES

This mission will be enabled by guiding principles in the areas of:

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

In order to ensure that WASH services are properly planned, designed for long-term operation, and coordinated with the local community and other stakeholders, we will:

  • Consider solutions that are equitable, environmentally-friendly, and well-suited to the specific needs and long-term operations and maintenance capabilities of the local community.
  • Align planning efforts with other stakeholders, including development organizations and national/local governments.
  • Meaningfully include consumers and other stakeholders throughout the planning and budgeting processes.
  • Assess full life-cycle[iv] risks during planning and develop appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
  • Consider the long-term education, capacity-building, and training needs of stakeholders.

GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

In order to ensure effective management of resources and communication amongst stakeholders, we will:

  • Clearly articulate and document roles, responsibilities, commitments, and expectations of all stakeholders while recognizing the central role of women in WASH solutions.
  • Promote and deliver programs where all stakeholders are accountable to each other and operate in a transparent manner.
  • Evaluate the capabilities and capacity of the consumers, community, and service providers when determining their roles in ongoing service delivery.

SERVICE DELIVERY SUPPORT

In order to ensure that an operational infrastructure is in place to meet ongoing service delivery needs, we will:

  • Develop and promote a local operational infrastructure (e.g. replacement parts, curriculum, maintenance capability, supplier network, etc.) that enables long-term service delivery.
  • Prepare the consumers and/or other stakeholders to take responsibility for the service delivery support processes.
  • Establish mechanisms to educate stakeholders and to ensure that education transmission is sustained over time.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

In order to ensure that capital is available to meet the full life-cycle costs associated with ongoing service delivery, we will:

  • Utilize financial resources for their intended purposes, as agreed-upon by all stakeholders, throughout the service delivery life-cycle.
  • Establish a long-term financing plan that realistically accounts for all phases of the service delivery life-cycle.

REPORTING AND KNOWLEDGE-SHARING

In order to ensure timely identification of service delivery challenges and to continuously improve our efforts, we will:

  • Utilize appropriate and consistent metrics, evaluation criteria, and tools to monitor and measure performance relative to long-term service delivery throughout the solution life-cycle (including post-implementation phases).
  • Share data and lessons learned – both from failures and successes – in order to provide continuous improvement throughout the sector.
  • Adopt and use consistent financial and operational reporting frameworks.

###

ENDORSEMENT

By signing this Charter, we agree to pursue the mission and strive towards the principles incorporated herein, thereby leading the sector toward a vision of WASH as a sustainable service.

Endorse the Charter or View Endorsers

Endnotes

[i] Solutions – Refers to the system or approach used to improve the delivery of water, sanitation, and hygiene in a particular geographic area.

[ii] Stakeholders – Refers to a collective group of individuals (e.g. consumers), organizations (e.g. donors, NGOs, implementers, corporations), and other entities (e.g. local and national governments, private sector actors, ministries of health, etc.) that have an interest or stake in the delivery of WASH services for a particular geographic area.

[iii] Services – Refers to the ongoing delivery of WASH solutions in a particular geographic area. Often this term is used in contrast with projects/programs, with emphasis on the implementation of temporary WASH solutions (often interventions) for a specific community or geographic area.

[iv] Life-Cycle – Refers to all stages of a WASH service improvement, from the preliminary needs assessment through the post-implementation period.

souce    http://washcharter.org/charter/

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July 28, 2011 at 8:44 am Comments (0)

drinking water treatment by UV Light, are we increasing the problem.

Filed under drinking water, House hold water Treatment systems (HWTS), Sanitation, Way forward, What's New by admin

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

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July 19, 2011 at 11:58 pm Comments (2)

UN Secretary-General launches the “Sustainable Sanitation: Five-Year Drive to 2015

Filed under Sanitation, Way forward, What's New by admin

UNITED NATIONS, 21 June 2011 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, Ugandan Minister of Water & Environment the Hon. Maria Mutagamba, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, today launched the Sustainable Sanitation: Five-Year Drive to 2015 , a push to speed up progress on the Millennium Development Goal target of improving global sanitation by 2015.

The launch took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York, with members of the Secretary-General s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and other dignitaries in attendance.

The Millennium Development Goals include a target of halving, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation. With 2.6 billion people half of the population in developing regions still without access to improved sanitation, the target is lagging far behind, and without urgent and concerted action globally it will be out of reach.

On 20 December 2010 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling upon the UN Member States to “redouble efforts to close the sanitation gap”. The resolution established a global push, “Sustainable Sanitation: The Five-Year-Drive to 2015″, to focus attention on the Goal and to mobilize political will, as well as financial and technical resources. The resolution also made history by calling for an end to open defecation, the most dangerous sanitation practice for public health.

Over 1.1 billion people have no sanitation facilities at all, and practise open defecation. According to UNICEF, inadequate and dirty water, poor sanitation, and improper hygiene are the main causes of diarrhoea, which each year kills at least 1.2 million children under five. The organization says diarrhoeal diseases are mainly excreta-related; therefore it is crucial to protect people from contact with feces. Improvements in sanitation can lead to an almost 40% reduction in illnesses caused by diarrhoea.

Achievement of the sanitation goal, UNICEF says, will have far-reaching and lasting effects on the health and well-being of millions of people.

About UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org

About UNSGAB
The United Nations Secretary-General s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation is an independent body established in March 2004 by the UN Secretary-General to give him advice as well as to galvanize action on water and sanitation issues. Chaired by His Royal Highness the Prince of the Netherlands, the Board is composed of a wide range of dignitaries, technical experts, and individuals with proven experience in providing inspiration, moving the machinery of government, as well as working with the media, the private sector and civil society. See: http://www.unsgab.org/

About the Water and Sanitation Program
The Water and Sanitation Program (www.wsp.org) is a multi-donor partnership administered by the World Bank to support poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services.

For further information, please contact:
Leanne Burney, UN Secretary-General s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation
Tel: 212 963 5003,
burneyl@un.org

Rita Ann Wallace, UNICEF Media
Tel: 212 326 7586,
rwallace@unicef.org

Martina Donlon, UN Department of Public Information
Tel: 212 963 6816,
donlon@un.org

Christopher Walsh, WSP
Tel: 202 473 4594,
cwalsh@worldbank.org

 

source  https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/130b3866d3605b38

 

June 21, 2011 at 9:07 pm Comments (0)

Press release on the joint CSO declaration for sacosan IV -Colombo

Filed under Sanitation, Way forward, What's New by admin

MAKE THIS CONFERENCE COUNT:

GRASSROOTS ACTIVISTS URGE GOVERNMENTS TO MAKE GOOD ON THEIR COMMITMENTS

As the fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN IV, 4-7 April 2011) kicks off in Colombo, Sri Lanka, leading civil society groups present a unified call to their governments to take concrete steps to address the life threatening state of sanitation and hygiene affecting the nearly one billion most marginalised and voiceless people in the region.

Civil society representatives and community leaders will formally present a joint statement, reflecting the views of thousands of people living with the reality of unsafe sanitation, to leaders and experts calling for them to deliver on commitments made in Delhi in 2008. In addition, they call for:

  • the inclusion of the right to sanitation and water in legislation
  • the design and delivery of context-specific, equitable and inclusive sanitation and hygiene programmes with better identification of the poorest and most marginalised groups, and transparent targeting of financing
  • the development of strong accountability mechanisms that include everyone from community level to national governments

In turn, civil society groups commit to leading with integrity, inspiring through example and transforming through meaningful partnership their collective vision of sanitation and hygiene for all into reality.

“Despite our collective efforts, since the last SACOSAN 750,000 children under-five have died of diarrhea caused by poor sanitation and water in South Asia,” the statement reads.

“We are striving to bring an end to these preventable deaths and this huge suffering so we call on our governments to take urgent action.”

“We have consulted widely with our communities so our statement reflects thousands of voices” explains Ramisetty Murali, Convenor of FAN South Asia (FANSA) co-organiser, with WaterAid and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), of a preparatory meeting, where over 100 civil society members and activists came together to explore key issues blocking progress on sanitation and to agree the statement.

“We have worked hard over the years to secure space in the official conference and, for the first time, community leaders have the opportunity to present the statement in their own plenary session, where key decision makers will also benefit from hearing the real life experience from those people working on the ground.”

“We would like to see our recommendations taken seriously and reflected in the final declaration as well as in national policies going forward” said Mustafa Talpur, WaterAid’s Regional Advocacy and Policy Advisor for South Asia

“If the leaders of South Asia are serious about tackling child mortality, and stopping millions of needless deaths, they must follow their consciences and deliver on the promises they have made.”

Early findings from a South Asian People’s Perspective on Sanitation study will be launched at the conference. Based on a series of interviews and discussions with a cross-section of poor and marginalised people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it highlights the real situation people are facing every day thanks to the shocking state of sanitation and offering solutions for the way forward.

The coalition also employed an innovative Traffic Light discussion paper, produced by WaterAid, to highlight the gap between government commitments on sanitation and action taken for each country.

At current rates of progress, the 2015 MDG target for sanitation will not be met in South Asia. `”As South Asia races to meet the MDGs, we will need to focus disproportionately on the marginalised and vulnerable in order to ensure that they are not left out “, emphasizes Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC.   This failure comes at an enormous social and economic cost. In India alone inadequate sanitation costs the economy US $53.8 billion annually in lost productivity, healthcare provisions and other losses.

Notes to editors:
For all media enquiries, please contact Ceridwen Johnson (FAN) +94 776 120 203 or Archana Patkar (WSSCC) +91 982 123 3355

Grassroots Voices: Tuesday 5th April 11.35 – 1.00pm
Reaching the Unserved: Tuesday 5th April 2.15 – 3.40pm
Strengthening Monitoring and Accountability: 6th April 9.15 – 10.40am

Copies of the Declaration of the Pre-SACOSAN IV Consultation Meeting of CSOs, Traffic Lights discussion paper and South Asian People’s Perspective on Sanitation executive summary are available online www.freshwateraction.net/sacosaniv. The full South Asian People’s Perspective on Sanitation report is due to be published next month.

Commitments between SACOSAN meetings are tracked at www.washwatch.org
For the latest news from SACOSAN, please visit: www.freshwateraction.net/sacosaniv

FAN South Asia (FANSA) is a regional network of small and medium sized civil society organisations. FANSA aims to strengthen the engagement of CSOs in policy-making and development initiatives to achieve the international targets on water and sanitation, improve regional cooperation between CSOs of differing perspectives, priorities and skills to increase the number of NGOs to advocate and communicate clearly on water policy issues and the broader agenda.  www.fasasia.net

WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.  The international organisation works in 26 countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific region to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in some of the world’s poorest communities.  Over the past 30 years, WaterAid has reached 14.38 million people with safe water and, since 2004, 9.4 million people with sanitation. www.wateraid.org

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), is an international organization that works to improve access to sustainable sanitation, hygiene and water for all people.  It does so by enhancing collaboration among sector agencies and professionals who are working to provide sanitation to the 2.6 billion people without a clean, safe toilet, and the 884 million people without affordable, clean drinking water close at hand.  WSSCC is part of the UN system and contributes to development through knowledge management, advocacy, communications, and the implementation of a sanitation financing facility.  WSSCC supports coalitions in more than 30 countries, and has a broad membership base and a small Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.

Source .   http://www.freshwateraction.net/sacosaniv

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April 4, 2011 at 9:03 am Comments (0)

Proposed draft declaration SACOSAN 4, Colombo-Srilanka

Filed under Sanitation, Way forward, What's New by admin

Proposed Declaration
SACOSAN 4, Sri Lanka.April 2011

The main idea is to trigger a virtual discussion, so as to have basic points of discussion at the conference.
The CSOs and CBOs of south Asia gathered here in Colombo, to reflect on sanitation scenario of the South Asia particularly Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan from the point of view of past-SACOSAN declarations and identify key issues and action strategies for achieving desired progress on sanitation.
The draft declaration that follows is the resultant out put of our deliberations here and several sessions of development organizations, convened back home in our countries with the stake holders
This document is the distillate of all these discussions and based on grass root inputs from the south Asian (SA) countries, it is hoped that this draft will find enough consideration, acceptance and reflected in the ministerial declaration.
The awareness and discussion taking place over the past two sessions of SACOSAN I & II, and the in between periods has led the people of SA to a better understanding of the issue, its importance vis-à-vis overall development (see annex open defecation and human development) and impact on human development (see annex water sanitation hygiene -Nexus).
This changed thinking is oblivious from the recommendations that takes a new look at the issues and the solutions.
Since the start of SACOSAN meetings , drinking water supply , quality and quantity has gone to the back burner.In order to acheive improvement in the quality of life of south Asians, it will be important to address water sanitation and Hygiene at the same time.
1.      We are convinced that lack of attention to our WATSAN issues is one of the major contributors to the disease, poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and hence our backwardness.
2.      It will be cost effective to spend on WATSAN in the ratio of 1:9. Hence a very important area of development activity.
3.      We are convinced that the initiative being gigantic and expensive can only be handled in a phased manner. So rather than making big claims let us have doable and realistic targets till the next meeting in Sri Lanka.
4.      Flushing our shit downstream is no sanitation. Given that most of the domestic and Industrial waste water is mixed with Fresh Water or used as irrigation water for vegetable farms, without any treatment. This results in serious pollution to our fresh water sources both surface and ground water. Vegetables grown in these farms add to pathogenic recirculation in human and animals, if proper awareness and care is not there.
5.      The current practice of letting untreated domestic and industrial waste flow down stream is causing an increasing eco depletion of soil nutrients causing nutrient deficiency and extra financial burden on replenishing these nutrients. Additionally it is causing pollution downstream
6.      Looking at treatment of industrial, domestic waste, pipe laying, septic tanks standard plumbing fittings we find that most of these issues funnel down to lack of indigenous, viable technologies. Which eventually leads to the need of capacity building?
7.      We concur that establishing a centre of excellence in water Technologies (concept note with TORs) attached, will help the SA people develop viable solutions to our problems that we can afford and operate. Sharing our knowledge and experience sincerely will boost up our initiatives in solving the WATSAN issues.
8.      Hygiene awareness like washing hands with soap and
8.1 Providing soap for this purpose in schools, hospitals public toilets will be an         important initiative
8.2 Schools to be provided with clean drinking water and separate toilets.
8.3 In order to bring half of our population in main stream development process gender specific hygiene should be an important target of awareness and attention during this phase of action, till Sacosan IV.

Visit Link for more details.    http://www.waterpakistan.com/category/waste-water-treatment-solid-waste-hospital-waste-clts/

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January 24, 2011 at 8:38 am Comments (3)

Plant a Tree and take care of it, Key to stop climatic changes

Filed under Climate Change, Way forward by admin

We in Pakistan have a forest cover of 3.90% of area as against standard of 25 % of area cover under the trees. Of late due to shortage of electricity and Gas dependence on wood and coal as fuel has increased thus putting an extra pressure on the trees survival.

Trees  support  precipitation, act as wind breaker, check sol erosion provide wood, fruits and medicines in addition to most important Oxygen for breathing.

To check extreme weather as climate change , if all of us in Pakistan plant one tree preferably a fruit tree and take care of it for an year, we stand rich by 180 million trees in 2011.

The plantation season is just a couple of weeks away, get ready and plant your tree. A fruit tree of your area will be a good choice. Like mango in Multan and Lokat in Kallar Kahar.

Planting Tree fruits in Grave Yards will be very successful experience and bring Sawab to the dear ones .

Good luck- Happy Planting

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January 22, 2011 at 6:35 am Comment (1)

WASH Issues, center of excellence in water studies

Filed under Drinking Water Polices, Way forward by admin

The start of a capacity building institute is a step in the right direction though late. We need to define our needs very clearly lest this institute also becomes a show piece.

It should be working towards
1. Practical, affordable and locally manageable technologies to wards sewerage water treatment and use.
2. Reasonable drinking water treatment methods
Design, manage and locally fabricate the above two initiatives.

3.Quick testing for microbiological safety of drinking water
4.Standards for pipes, and sanitary fittings
5. Design for domestic sanitation pit

Cont
M Jahangir
Islamabad

Surce http://thenews.com.pk/27-11-2010/islamabad/17554.htm
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Mumtaz Alvi
Islamabad
Pakistan with only 16 percent out of 12,000 water supply schemes providing safe water for human consumption is soon to have a National Capacity Building Institute of Water Quality Management.
A South Korean team of experts has arrived in Pakistan to finalise the details for the first ever project of its nature in this part of the world. The friendly country will be bearing the cost (US $213 million) and building the four-storey institute within the premises of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) here.
Presently, all the civic bodies including Wasa, Public Health Engineering and Local Government mechanism have technical hands but they are not specifically educated and trained diploma holders to ensure water quality fit for human consumption.
The Korean team will be holding discussions with the Minister of Science and Technology Azam Swati, Secretary Irfan Nadeem and also visit the PCRWR head office here regarding the proposed institute.
Talking to The News here, PCRWR Chairman Dr. Muhammad Aslam Tahir confirmed that South Koreans had agreed to one of the two projects, they had proposed, billing this development a major breakthrough in water sector.
“In over 6 decades, we have not been able to set up an institute, which should offer three-year diploma in water and waste water and today our civil engineers tend to work with water supply projects, but they lack even basic know-how about their job and the situation in other Muslim countries is also not much different from us,” he said.
He said that a set policy in the West was that extensive courses were offered and utmost importance was given to water-related knowledge. Dr. Tahir noted an improved water quality was key to boosting average age in the advanced countries and good results could be achieved in Pakistan as well by giving due attention to this important sector.
Replying to a question, he said that poor drinking quality was mainly responsible for low average in Pakistan and pointed out one of the basic problems was with the water supply schemes, as most of these were neither properly planned nor constructed.


November 29, 2010 at 6:30 am Comments (2)