Going by Social Media standards, World Water Day 2010 has been a full success. “World Water Day” is a trending topic on Twitter, thousands of people gathered online and offline to join the world’s largest toilet queue and various other NGOs as well as GOs are using Facebook & their blogs to highlight the importance of such an international day.
Social media, online stuff – where’s the real action you ask?
Well, here it is:
The World’s Longest Toilet Queue Flickr Stream.
Enjoy! 🙂
According to IPCC, the waste sector (wastewater + solid waste management) accounts for 2.7% of global Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, this does not reflect the whole truth as IPCC calculatations only take into account end-of-pipe waste management strategies neglecting the potencial of reducing, re-using or recycling waste (which applies mainly for solid waste management but also for innovative sanitation tecnologies such as anaerobic digestion and ecosan approaches).
For this reason it is important to investigate the contribution of the waste sector to GHG emissions and integrate the mitigation potential in waste management. Besides many interesting papers presented at conferences worldwide about the importance of an integrated organic waste and wastewater management and its influence on climate change, GHG emissions and the potential of CDM-projects in this field, instruments are needed that show the potential of emission reduction in the waste sector. Continue reading “Sanitation, solid waste and climate change”
New publication by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP): “Financing On-Site Sanitation for the Poor – A Six Country Comparative Review and Analysis” (PDF; 2.4 MB)
Public investments of varying forms enable an absolute increase in the number of poor people gaining access to sanitation, varying from 20 percent to 70 percent, according to a study of six cases in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Mozambique, Sénégal, and Vietnam by the World Bank-administered Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).
This publication seeks to identify the best-performing approaches and the relevant factors and issues to consider in designing a sanitation financing strategy. The report offers guidance to sector professionals developing on-site sanitation projects and programs, which play the leading role in providing access to sanitation.
The Water and Sanitation Program 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.
(via)
The German Toilet Organization, BORDA and WECF in collaboration with End Water Poverty have set up a new initiative to strengthen internal sectoral communication, knowledge management and issue based advocacy in the fields of sanitation, water and hygiene in Germany.
The first step has been to carry out a sector-wide survey to identify the actors (specifically German development NGOs) that are active in these fields and to collect suggestions about how better communication and cooperation amongst those players can be achieved in the future.
The results of the survey will presented to all the organisations that have participated in the survey at a SanWat-Symposium planned for February / March 2010 in Berlin or Bonn. This will provide an opportunity for suggestions and ideas for joint network activities to be presented and discussed. More details, including the agenda and location, will be provided in good time.
To participate in the survey, please click on the link below.
German version: http://sanwat-network.limequery.org/index.php?sid=99747&lang=de
English version: http://sanwat-network.limequery.org/index.php?sid=99747&lang=en
A new publication titled “Sustainable and Safe School Sanitation – How to provide hygienic and affordable sanitaiton in areas without a functioning wastewater system” is now available online (PDF; 4.4MB) from WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future).
“School sanitation is an important but often neglected issue for public health. Children are most vulnerable and affected by poor sanitation conditions. Related diseases, particularly diarrhoea and parasite infections hinder the children´s physical and intellectual development. In a number of countries, evaluations have shown that pupils are dropping out of school due to bad toilet conditions.
This publication gives background on what are important issues to make school sanitation sustainable and success stories. The focus is on urine diverting dry school toilet (UDDT) systems …(which)…offer high quality and comfort. Because of the separation technology in the toilet device, these toilets do not smell or attract flies. For the operation, no water is used for flushing. Water is however needed for the hand washing facilities which are always included in the projects.
This publication is in particular intended for school directors and teachers, administration employees, engineers, architects and construction workers from the field and NGOs.”
The 28-paged publication contains examples from Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.
