by Sarah Bramley, WASHplus Project, CARE
Photo credit: PATH
On World Water Day, a day on which people around the world joined together to recognize the importance of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene education (WASH), I spent the morning thinking about the number of children who do not have access to these basic necessities at school. Therese Dooley, Senior WASH Advisor for UNICEF once said, “Currently, investment [in schools] can be quite low, and sometimes WASH in schools falls between the cracks…we just need to make sure there is funding allocated and that it does get priority.”
Addressing improvements to water and sanitation in schools has been elevated on the global stage in the last several years. However, more often than not, theseconversations have been missing a key component: key stakeholders in the education sector. The creation of silos between WASH and education has been occurring for years due to funding. All too often grants are awarded with so many guidelines they can only be used for either improvements in WASH or for educational development, which make program collaboration difficult. There are often stipulations that educational funding can’t be used to improve water and sanitation services at school.
In support of World Water Day 2010, publisher Routledge is offering free access to over 100 research articles related to sustaining healthy ecosystems, increasing water quality, access to clean water and contemporary challenges in water management. These articles are available free until the 23rd April 2010.
Journal titles include: Water International, International Journal of Water Resources Development, Development in Practice, Hydrological Sciences Journal, Third World Quarterly, Environmental Politics, Gender & Development (special issue on Water), Knowledge Management for Development Journal (special issue on Learning for the Water Sector) and International Journal on Environmental Studies (special issue on Greywater)
See the full listing.
A world record for the length of a toilet queue was set Sunday when 756 people, including Belgium’s former tennis champion and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Justine Henin, lined up for a latrine in central Brussels to raise awareness for the need for clean water on World Water Day [ 22 March 2009]. The event was organised by the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF. “The latrine was of the same design as we use in third world countries — a dry latrine — and we formed the longest queue this morning,” UNICEF spokesman Benoit Melebeck said. “The Guinness Book of Records told us we needed to get at least 500 people in the queue to get the record,” he said.
Source: Jan Strupczewski, Reuters, 23 Mar 2009
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Justine Henin. Photo: REUTERS/Sebastien Pirlet
On 12 April students from the capital Thimphu performed dances and skits with the theme “Sanitation Matters” to observe International Sanitation Day/World Water Day. Even though water and sanitation are government priorities and coverage levels have increased, water-related diseases are still among the leading causes of child mortality in Bhutan. The World Food Programme (WFP) is channeling funds to UNICEF for school sanitation. SNV Netherlands Development Organisation plans to implement a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme.
Read more: Source South Asia, 1 May 2008
On World Water Day, 22 March 2008, more than 100 thousand signatures collected from 35 districts of the country were handed over Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala calling for increased funding and a national master plan for sanitation. The signatures were submitted by representatives of WaterAid Nepal, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), NGO Forum for Urban Water & Sanitation, Federation of Drinking Water and Sanitation Users’ Nepal, Lumanti Support Group for Shelter and Guthi campaign. The signature campaign was coordinated by the End Water Poverty Campaign secretariat.
PM Koirala said he committed to take necessary steps immediately if concrete suggestions are presented before him for the improvement of sanitation.
Sources: NGO Forum, 24 Mar 2008 ; The Rising Nepal / NGO Forum, 14 Mar 200