Partly to keep the readers of the Hope Spring Water blog informed, partly to keep up to date with what is happening in the world of WaSH, our versatile volunteer Evgeniy Gakaviy has just started a monthly blog post series called the “Water and Sanitation roundup”. In these posts, he shares excerpts from some of the leading WaSH news posts and articles he comes across in a given month.
Here is Evgeniy’s WaSH roundup, we hope you find it informative and/or useful. If you have WaSH-related articles, newsor information you would like him to include in a future WaSH roundup, please use our contact page to get in touch with Evgeniy.
“The wasters guide to wastewater” by Anna Nylander on worldwaterday. I think we can call everyone a wastewater. We waste water when taking a shower, clean teeth etc. Here are some guide confirming that you are a wastewater:
- Turn off the tap while you’re brushing your teeth or doing dishes or scrubbing vegetables. Otherwise you’re just making wastewater without even using it!
- Put rubbish, oils, chemicals, and food in the bin, not down the drain. The dirtier your wastewater, the more energy and money it costs to treat it.
- Collect used water from your kitchen sink or bathtub and use it on plants and gardens, and to wash your bike or car.
“Materials for World Water Day 2017” on World Water Day blog. Materials are available in the following languages:
- العربية
- 中文
- ENGLISH
- FRANÇAIS
- PУССКИЙ
- ESPAÑOL
- HINDI
- GERMAN
- SWEDISH
- CREOL
- POLISH
- PORTUGUESE
- SLOVAK
- SLOVAN
“What Does Water Have to Do with National Security?” by Charles Iceland on WRI. It is not usual to think about lakes, rivers when talking about national security. But water security is an important factor of state stability in many regions in the world.
The Middle East is one of the main dangerous area in the world when it comes to water security. African in this list too.
“Charting a path to valuing the world’s most precious resource” by Willem Mak on World Bank blog. Most people in the world who have a good access to safe water and adequate sanitation do not think how much it cost. They think that it is free.
But people who live in Africa or Middle East know a real value of water. It is an extremely valuable resource for farmers, for animals, hospitals etc. But it is very hard to put a price tag on water. It is quite interesting that one of the most valuable resource in the world do not have its price.
“March and April 2017 offer unique opportunities for progress on achieving universal access to water and sanitation” by Alix Charles on Sanitation And Water For All. March and April usually very busy period for water and sanitation charities. A lot of people pay more attention to water crisis during these months.
There will be few meetings and the main goal of them are:
- To endorse new policy principles which will eliminate inefficiencies and increase access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for all;
- To engage with ministers on the changes needed in order to meet the WASH targets of the SDGs;
- To share best practices and critical elements of a strong WASH sector, with regards to strengthening institutions, increasing capacity, planning sustainably, and designing inclusive policies and strategy;
- To foster collaboration between ministers and senior representatives within four key Collaborative Behaviours defined by the Sanitation and Water for All initiative, towards increasing effectiveness;
- To discuss political, institutional and governance reforms needed to make better use of existing resources, attract new funding, target the most marginalised, and eliminate inefficiencies
“WHO: 1.7M kids dying every year from pollution” by Sheila Crisostomo on philstar. According to the recent WHO research 1.7M kids dying every year from pollution and 361,000 from them dying from drinking unsafe water because of poor sanitation.
270,000 children dye in the first month of their life because they don’t have clean water. On the other hand malaria kills 200,000 children every year.
“Investors pour $25 million into better water and sanitation in Latin America” by Lisa Nikolau on humanosphere. Some countries of Latin America have poor access to clean water and adequate sanitation. And investors are pouring $25 million into approving it.
“Our mission is to complement government programs with capitals of private initiative, to create social change in trying to change habits of hygiene and sanitation,” said Mariano Montero, director of the FEMSA Foundation.
“Webinar Recording: Realizing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation” on Youtube.com. I attended this webinar and decided to include in monthly roundup. A lot of interesting WaSH stuff was discussed there. It is Water Action Month and End Water Poverty prepared 4 webinars for this event.
This was the second one. So I hope to include the rest 2 webinars in my next edition of monthly roundups/.
“Access to drinking water around the world – in five infographics” by Tom Slaymaker and Robert Bain on The Guardian. Since 1990 billions of people have gained access to safe clean drinking water. But there are 663 million people live without access to safe water.
The Guardian has published very good post where they added 5 infographics about drinking water around the world.
“UN in push for universal access to clean drinking water by 2030” by Christopher Turque on Fox News. Here are the figures the United Nations are targeting by 2030:
- 663 million people have no safe drinking water in or near their homes;
- more than 2 billion do not own a toilet;
- almost 1 billion people don’t use toilets;
- hundreds of children under age 5 die every day from sanitation-related illnesses.
Odette Sompougdo, standing near the dregs of a stream, holding a jerrycan and a dish to collect water from the holes dug around, Vy district in Nassoulou Village, Burkina Faso, January 2016. (WaterAid/ Basile Ouedraogo)
