Selection of news for SN_12.8.08 « Visite a Crepa pour Sources Nouvelles

Selection of news for SN_12.8.08

août 12, 2008 — caridad

Selection of news for SN made on the 12.8.08
Informations générales (max 3)

- Monitoring: staggering number of people without improved sanitation
facilities, says new report
- G8 leave 2.6 billion people with no place to go

Afrique Sub-Saharienne (max 3)

- Ghana: shared latrine facilities versus improved facilities?
- South Africa: Democratic Alliance turns to Law to get water reports
- Nigeria, FCT: draft water policy to be presented to National Assembly
Europe et Amérique du Nord (max 1) Pas de nouvelles

Autres régions (max 2)

- Haiti: Report indicts U.S. government and IDB for violations of the rights to clean water and health
- Bangladesh: Arsenic detector saving lives

Leçons d’expériences (max 3)

- Post-conflict approaches: evaluation of Water for Recovery and Peace Program (WRAPP), Southern Sudan
- Ceramics becomes key to disease control

Technologies à suivre (max 3)
- Communal Water House: demonstration unit unveiled in South Africa
- Arsenic detection: UNICEF Bangladesh purchases 50 “digital arsenators”
- Venezuela: Government to install 125 solar powered potable water plants

Funding opportunities (max 1)
- Financing water and sanitation at local levels
- Uganda: microfinance offered to urban poor in Kampala for toilet construction

Publications récentes (max 2)

- Towards water neutrality : reducing and offsetting the impacts of water
footprint
- ¿Saneamiento para todos?

Nouvelles vagues Web (1).

- WaterEUM – Effective Utility Management Resource Toolbox
Acteurs du secteur (1)
Evénements et conférences
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Informations générales
MONITORING: staggering number of people without improved sanitation facilities, says new report

Every day, over 2.5 billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and nearly 1.2 billion practise open defecation, a staggering number, according to a new report [1] by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. “At current trends, the world will fall short of the Millennium sanitation target by more than 700 million people,” said Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director.

The report assesses — for the first time – global, regional and country progress using an innovative “ladder” concept for different service levels for sanitation and drinking water.

Real improvements in access to improved drinking water sources have occurred in many of the countries of southern Africa. Worldwide, the number of people without access has fallen below one billion for the first time since data were first compiled in 1990. At present 87% of the world population has access to improved drinking water sources, with current trends suggesting that more than 90% will do so by 2015. Disparities remain, however, between rural and urban dwellers. Worldwide, there are four times as many people in rural areas – approximately 746 million – without improved water sources, compared to some 137 million urban dwellers.

[1] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (2008). Progress on drinking water and sanitation : special focus on sanitation. New York, NY, USA, UNICEF and Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. 54 p. Download here [http://www.irc.nl/url/26603]

See also:

* Bostoen, K. and Evans, B. (2008). Crossfire: ‘Measures of sanitation
   coverage for the MDGs are unreliable, only raising a false sense of
   achievement’. Waterlines, vol. 27, no. 1 ; p. 5-11. DOI:
   10.3362/1756-3488.2008.002 [http://www.irc.nl/url/26605]

* Cotton, A. and Bartram, J. (2008). Sanitation: on- or off-track? Issues
   of monitoring sanitation and the role of the Joint Monitoring Programme.
   Waterlines, vol. 27, no. 1 ; p. 12-29. DOI: 10.3362/1756-3488.2008.003
   [http://www.irc.nl/url/26606]

Web site: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation [http://www.irc.nl/url/26607]

Contact: WHO, Switzerland, mailto:contact-who@wssinfo.org ; UNICEF, USA, mailto:contact-unicef@wssinfo.org

Source: WHO [http://www.irc.nl/url/26610], 17 Jul 2008
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G8 leave 2.6 billion people with no place to go
“Hopes of a breakthrough in the global sanitation and water crisis at the G8 summit were [...] dashed as the G8 delivered a communique largely devoid of concrete actions to help the 2.6 billion people lacking access to a safe toilet, and the 1.1 billion people lacking access to clean water”.

“Instead of agreeing an action plan to tackle what a recent WaterAid report claims kills more children than any other single factor, G8 leaders were content to report on progress at the 2009 summit and take steps to implement the discredited 2003 G8 Evian Water Action Plan“.

“Proposals included in earlier communique drafts for an annual meeting and review to drive progress had been removed, while the G8 failed to provide any specific financial commitments”.

Read more: http://www.endwaterpoverty.org/news__events/123.asp
Other sources: G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit Leaders Declaration
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Afrique Sub-Saharienne

GHANA: shared latrine facilities versus improved facilities?

Ghanaian institutions believe that about 61% of the people have access to improved latrine facilities. However, a recent report from the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) called “A Snapshot of Sanitation in Africa” [1], indicates that only ten percent of Ghanaians had access to improved latrine facilities as at 2006. The JMP’s adherence to the application of international standards in computing the figures is the cause of the controversy. The JMP clearly separates shared latrine facilities from the improved ones, a situation that places Ghana, in terms of performance 48th out of 51 African countries and 14th out of 15 West African countries assessed in the report. According to the report, shared facilities alone represent 51% in terms of access to latrines in Ghana.

Ghana has made enormous investments in public latrines. To declare all these facilities unimproved by Ghana would imply additional financial resources to either provide or promote private latrines.

The sanitation sector as a whole, led by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, should debate this issue as soon as possible. This will help the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate to do a more effective analysis of the on-going nationwide baseline sanitation data collection before another ‘data bomb’ explodes.

[1] A snapshot of sanitation in Africa [http://www.irc.nl/url/26640], report produced for the AfricaSan+5 International Conference on Sanitation held in Durban, South Africa in February 2008

Web site: UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme [http://www.irc.nl/url/421]

Source: Public Agenda (Accra) / allAfrica.com [http://www.irc.nl/url/26641], 04 Jul 2008
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SOUTH AFRICA: Democratic Alliance turns to Law to get water reports

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is using the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to try to establish whether the death of 140 children in Ukhahlamba in Eastern Cape was directly related to contaminated water supplies [1].

The DA’s approach to the water affairs department to obtain information follows the deaths earlier this year as well as numerous reports indicating that water quality in some municipalities is increasingly below standard.
Water Affairs Minister Lindiwe Hendricks has repeatedly given the assurance that water quality is monitored and where problems occur they are rectified”.

[1] Related news: South Africa: Minister to take over municipal water supply, country shocked by infant deaths, Source Weekly [http://www.irc.nl/url/26643], 10 Jun 2008

Web site: the official DA statement [http://www.irc.nl/url/26642]

Source: Wyndham Hartley, Business Day (Johannesburg) / allAfrica.com [http://www.irc.nl/url/26644], 03 Jul 2008
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NIGERIA, FCT: draft water policy to be presented to National Assembly

The Director of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Water Board, Engineer Jibril Ibrahim has said the FCT draft water policy and bill will soon be presented to the National Assembly for consideration. Ibrahim said the policy done in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) is meant to provide FCT Water Board with a new mandate, autonomy, improved accountability frame work and to encourage private sector participation. The perception that water is free and people not willing to pay for it, has brought about water failure in the city, according to DFID consultant Engineer Adesoji Adeyemi.

The policy will facilitate customer’s involvement in water management and ensure closer collaboration with other government agencies.

Source: Usman a Bello and Musa Umar Bologi, Daily Trust (Abuja) / allAfrica.com [http://www.irc.nl/url/26645], 09 Jul 2008
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Autres régions

Haiti: Report indicts U.S. government and IDB for violations of the rights to clean water and health

“In 1998, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) awarded $54 million in loans to the Haitian government to improve the country’s patchwork, crumbling public-water system. The money was intended to bring clean water to people who for many years had been denied this basic human right, with devastating consequences for public health. Ten years later, however, this desperately needed money has not produced a single improvement to Haiti’s water supply in the city designated to be one of the first recipients”.

On 23 June 2008, Partners In Health – along with its Haitian sister organization Zanmi Lasante, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center – released the 87-page report “Wòch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti” in New York City.

The report “reveals the United States government’s clandestine efforts to ensure that political considerations (namely the desire to destabilize Haiti’s elected government at that time, led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide) took precedence over the rights of some of the planet’s poorest and most vulnerable people”.

“In the 10 years since the loans were approved, the Haitian water system has actually gotten worse. In 2002, a water-poverty index released by the British-based Centre for Ecology and Hydrology ranked Haiti dead last out of 147 countries surveyed”.

The investigative team that produced the report “worked for six years to bring the story of the IDB loans to light. During that time, Haiti’s water system continued to deteriorate. The report states that:

* Public water systems are rarely available throughout the year and close to 70 percent of the population lacks direct access to potable water at all times
* The percentage of the population without access to safe drinking water has increased by at least seven percent from 1990 to 2005
* Infectious diarrhea was the second leading cause of death in Haiti in 1999, and gastrointestinal infection was the leading cause of mortality for young children. These preventable diseases result primarily from unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation”.

Read more:http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/IDB_Haiti_report.html

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Bangladesh: Arsenic detector saving lives

“Millions of people in Bangladesh continue to drink water from arsenic-contaminated tube wells, the most common source of drinking water in the country, according to health specialists.

A 2001 survey by the British Geological Survey estimated that more than 50 million people in Bangladesh drank water from such wells – that figure is closer to 100 million now, says Mohammad Quamaruzzaman of Dhaka Community Hospital”.

[...]

So far only half of the 10 million tubewells in Bangladesh have been tested for arsenic, according to UNICEF water and sanitation specialist, Rick Johnston. “The only way to test so many wells in such a short time is through field testing kits”, Johnston said. For this purpose UNICEF Bangladesh has purchased 50 digital “arsenators” to be used in collaboration with the government and NGO partners. Besides delivering fast results, this portable field testing kit is seen to be accurate, easy to use, and environmentally friendly.
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Leçons d’expériences

Post-conflict approaches: evaluation of Water for Recovery and Peace Program (WRAPP), Southern Sudan

The Water for Recovery and Peace Program (WRAPP) has been operating in Southern Sudan under PACT since 2005 with the aim to:

increase access to protected water supply and enhance awareness about sanitation and hygiene;
enhance capacity for community management of water schemes;
contribute to the reduction of conflict and the promotion of stability and peace; and
be gender and environmentally sensitive.
The main funding agency of WRAPP is USAID/OFDA. By November 2007, WRAPP had implemented 707 (boreholes) rural water supply schemes, rehabilitated 505 (boreholes) schemes, 13 semi-urban water distribution schemes, public toilet blocks in 10 towns and one hafir, a major rainwater harvesting facility. The total number of beneficiaries reached under WRAPP reach an estimated 1,4 million.
Read full report: http://www.odi.org.uk/wpp/resources/project-reports/WRAPP%20evaluation%20report.pdf
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Ceramics becomes key to disease control
Waterborne diseases are a big problem in the city of Bafoussam, in the West of Cameroon. Hopefully the habitants of this city will shortly forget about the diseases thanks to the introduction of locally made ceramic filters in the near future. This video shows the situation in Bafoussam at this very moment.
“In 2007 we had about 150 cases of cholera”, says Dieudonne Mouofo, a medical officer at Bafoussam health centre. He says that the announced filters are a good method of getting rid of germs, just like disinfectants or decanting water.

Local NGOs Action pour un Développement Équitable, Intégré et Durable (ADEID), PRACTICA and Prespot are to shortly introduce low-cost ceramic filters in the area.

One important step in the implementation of the project would be the training of locals on how to produce ceramic filters.
See a video created by Africa Interactive in cooperation with the Practica: http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/19451

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Technologies à suivre

- Communal Water House: demonstration unit unveiled in South Africa
On 4 July 2008, Science and Technology Deputy Minister, Derek Hanekom unveiled the first ever Communal Water House in South Africa in the village of Jansenville in the Eastern Cape.

The demonstration unit comprises technologies for water and solar energy use as well as low-water consumption sanitation methods. [...]. It allows residents to use potable water for drinking and cooking, and to apply grey water recycling to re-use the water for laundry, sanitation and irrigation. [...] Water use is further improved as heating is done via solar panels.

There are plans to roll out the service to between 200 to 800 people in other municipalities.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has invested R21 million in the project.

The project web site mentions that “water use efficiency is by 2-3 times higher than in conventional systems. Therefore, much more people can be serviced by the same amount of water. Energy need is by 100.000 kWh per year lower. Solar energy is used instead of fossil fuels. Therefore, no connection to centralized electricity supply is necessary. Climate effect is equal to 30 tons of carbon dioxide equivalentsper year per unit and therefore contributes to climate improvement measures”.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200807040554.html
Read more at the Communal Water House website: http://www.wasserhaus-suedafrika.de/index.en.html

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Arsenic detection: UNICEF Bangladesh purchases 50 “digital arsenators”

So far only half of the 10 million tubewells in Bangladesh have been tested for arsenic, according to UNICEF water and sanitation specialist, Rick Johnston. “The only way to test so many wells in such a short time is through field testing kits”, Johnston said. For this purpose UNICEF Bangladesh has purchased 50 “digital arsenators” to be used in collaboration with the government and NGO partners. Besides delivering fast results, this portable field testing kit is seen to be accurate, easy to use, and environmentally friendly.
Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79160

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Venezuela: Government to install 125 solar powered potable water plants

Venezuela’s Fundelec, a foundation under supervision of the energy and oil ministry, which promotes nationwide electrification, is carrying out a programme to install solar powered potable water plants. A total of 60 plants (125 are planned) have already been installed, benefiting 59 communities and 14,820 inhabitants. The water plants are aimed at indigenous and isolated communities, as well as those located near international borders.

Source: BNamericas.com(subscription site), 17 Jun 2008

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Funding opportunities
Financing water and sanitation at local levels

WaterAid carried out analyses in 12 developing countries in Africa and Asia (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia) to identify some of the key blockages and systemic weaknesses that stand in the way of development finance reaching the local authorities who are responsible for delivering water and sanitation services. The research showed that in spite of policy commitments to decentralisation, local governments are consistently by-passed by those financing development, resulting in a high risk of duplication and inequitable coverage. In the countries studied, on average nearly two-thirds of capital expenditure for the water and sanitation sectors is outside of the local government budget and their direct control. This undermines governance and accountability at the local level. Local government’s own expenditure on water and sanitation barely gets above US$ 6 per capita per annum. And yet, even the simplest hand-dug wells cost US$ 30 per capita. National governments and donors in particular need to step back and allow local governments to make decisions (and mistakes) in response to local pressures. Recommendations are provided for the different stakeholders – national governments, donors, NGOs and local government – to improve financing for and governance at the local level.

Based on the research WaterAid has published a synthesis paper (”Think local, act local” by Laura Hucks, April 20 (http://www.wateraid.org/documents/think_local_act_local_report.pdf) and a full research report (”Financing water and sanitation at local levels” by Dinesh Mehta and Meera Mehta, Jan 2008).http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/financing_water_and_sanitation_at_local_levels.pdf

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Uganda: microfinance offered to urban poor in Kampala for toilet construction
July 9, 2008 · No Comments
Uganda Microfinance Limited and Centenary Bank are offering financial solutions to the urban poor in Kampala to purchase and install toilets.

The toilets are being installed as part of a public-private initiative launched by the the Ministry of Water and Environment and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

“The project will be implemented in partnership with Crestanks and Poly Fibre, private companies that produce and distribute plastic toilets”.

[...]

“The two-year pilot phase of the project is estimated to cost sh480m. Of this, sh240m was contributed by GTZ, while the private companies contributed sh120m each. Crestanks and Polyfibre will set up demonstration units on use of the toilet facilities in six pilot parishes in Kampala”.

Source: John Kasozi, New Vision / http://allafrica.com/stories/200807071053.html, 6 July 2008

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Publications récentes

Towards water neutrality : reducing and offsetting the impacts of water footprint

Hoekstra, A.Y. (2008). Towards water neutrality : reducing and offsetting the impacts of water footprints. (Value of water research report series ; no. 28). Delft, The Netherlands, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.
- 36 p. : boxes, fig. – 38 ref. – Includes glossary

This report discusses water footprints and the water-neutral concept.
Despite the possible pitfalls and yet unanswered questions, it seems that the water-neutral concept offers a useful tool to bring stakeholders in water management together in order to discuss water reduction targets and mechanisms for the compensation of environmental and social impacts of residual water footprints. However, the concept can only become really effective in the actual contribution to wise management of global water resources when clear definitions and guidelines will be developed. There is a need for scientific rigour in accounting methods and for clear
(negotiated) guidelines on the conditions that have to be met before one can speak about water neutrality. Without agreed definitions and guidelines on what is water neutrality, the term is most likely to end up as a catchword for raising funds for charity projects in the water sector. In that context, the term can also fulfil a useful function, but it would be ‘water neutrality’ in its weakest form. It will become a strong concept only when claims towards water-neutrality can be measured against clear standards.

Download document [http://www.irc.nl/url/26649]

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¿Saneamiento para todos?

Bruijne, G. de; Geurts, M. and Appleton, B. (2008). ¿Saneamiento para todos? (Documento tematico / IRC; no. 20). Delft, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. – 63 p.

Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) no. 20, Sanitation for all? Is now available in Spanish. After introducing the topic of sanitation, it looks at the historical perspective and addresses different types of sanitation, such as basic sanitation, environmental sanitation, and ecological sanitation. It goes on to explain the elements of a sanitation system and the different stakeholders involved. Approaches to technology choice are discussed and the TOP concludes with a number of relevant books, articles and papers, websites and contacts. For decades, water and sanitation sector professionals complained that sanitation was being neglected. Today, the mood is very different. Powerful arguments about the role of sanitation improvements in reducing poverty, protecting the environment, raising education standards, and spearheading human development attracted massive media attention at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 1992. As a direct result of that Summit, a vital sanitation target was added to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Target 10 of MDG7 urges governments
to: Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The challenge to WSS practitioners now is to deliver sustainable sanitation services to more than two billion people by 2015.

Download document [http://www.irc.nl/url/26650]
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Acteurs du secteur

- Tanzania: Norconsult exits country to avoid corruption
Tanzania: Norconsult exits country to avoid corruption

Norconsultant will no longer bid for contracts managed by local authorities in Tanzania due to widespread corruption. The findings of a new audit, revealing irregular payments to several projects, have made the company decide to close down its local subsidiary Norconsult Tanzania Ltd (NTZ), and to fire the Managing Director. The new audit is the company’s follow up of an on-going World Bank investigation launched more than a year ago in connection with an irregegular USD 146,500 (EUR 93,000) cash payment in the Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Project.

Web sites:

* Norconsult [http://www.irc.nl/url/26669]

* Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Project,
[http://www.irc.nl/url/26670]

* Global Corruption Report 2008 [http://www.irc.nl/url/26668]: Corruption
in the Water Sector, released in New York on 25 June 2008 by
Transparency International.

Related news: Norconsult: risks debarment from World Bank contracts, Source
15 Jun 2007 [http://www.irc.nl/layout/set/plain/page/36565].

Source: Development Today [http://www.irc.nl/url/26491] [subscription site], 18 May 2008 ; Norconsult [http://www.irc.nl/url/26492], May 2008

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Nouvelles vagues Web

WaterEUM – Effective utility management resource toolbox

Package of tools designed by water and wastewater utilities in six collaborating associations and the US Environmental Protection Agency, to advance effective management practices to achieve long-term sustainability.
The Resource Toolbox provides a compilation of the resources from the seven organizations collaborating on the Effective Utility Management effort and is organized according to the ten attributes of effectively managed utilities and the five keys to management success.

The six coalition members are: the American Water Works Association, American Public Works Association, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, National Association of Water Companies, Water Environment Federation.

Web site: http://www.watereum.org/ [http://www.irc.nl/url/26648]

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