Going to the toilet whilst you’re traveling in Africa is not an experience you look forward to. To be totally frank, it can be so bad that invariably it makes you gag. But in Kenya, ask anyone for the nearest “Ikotoilet” and all your dreams come true. For just five shillings (pennies on the dollar) you get to do your business in a spick-and-span public loo. What’s more, once you’re done you can top up your phone, buy a cold Coke or get your shoes shined.  Forbes

IT STINKS: 3 of 10 Filipinos Have No Access to Clean Toilets

Disgusting as it may seem, but the number of Filipinos who are practicing open defecation has increased especially in rural areas. Sen. Edgardo Angara said in the Philippines, the number of people who openly defecate has increased to 12 percent in the last 10 years. This is based on a study conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) which also raised concerns as it found out that around 5,000 children in the world die everyday due to diseases such as cholera, dysentery, pneumonia, and malnutrition brought about by open defecation practices and lack of sanitary toilets. Angara said this is why the government should seriously invest in water and sanitation projects and address the deteriorating state of sanitation in the country. Tempo

8 Things Our Future Military Leaders Need to Know About Water Management

USAID Global Water Coordinator Chris Holmes lays out the national security case for WASH engagement. Given the realities of global conflict, the military increasingly finds itself enmeshed in the problems of development and public health. Holmes hopes that effective partnerships can make this reality an opportunity. USAID Impact Blog

UN Deputy Chief Urges Action on Water Rights

Most of the world’s urgent problems boil down to water and sanitation, and global leaders must act to reduce child mortality and urban poverty, the UN’s deputy chief said Friday. “If we do water and sanitation right, we can have a great improvement on other goals,” Eliasson said.  ABC News 

The Cure for Cholera — Improving Access to Safe Water and Sanitation

Whenever epidemics of cholera occur, the global public health community is energized. Experts meet, guidelines for control are reviewed and reissued, and new and modified interventions are proposed and promoted. But even when it is not covered in the news or noticed by the public, cholera occurs regularly in the developing world, and the annual number of cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) has increased over the past few years to more than half a million cases and 7816 related deaths reported from all regions in 2011. New England Journal of Medicine

Call for Targeted Investments in Cholera-Prone Areas

Aid groups are urging donors to invest in water and sanitation in areas known as hotbeds for cholera. They say while such projects might directly affect a relatively small population, the indirect impact in terms of cholera reduction could be immense. “Governments in this region and donors want to find long-term solutions,” said Christophe Valingot, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) specialist with European Union aid body ECHO. “The identification of risk zones allows us to say, OK, we’ve got to invest here if we want to have an impact on cholera.”   IRIN
 

Rising to the Challenges of Water Management at UNESCO-IHE

Writing on his experience as a Rotary Scholar at the UNESCO-IHE Institute on Water Education, Kenechukwu “Kaycee” Okoli finds that while the transition from Nigeria to the Netherlands is difficult, learning about the future of water and sanitation is a rewarding and important pursuit. Rotary Voices

Study Reveals Impact of Combined Water and Sanitation Interventions in Rural Bangladesh

Findings of the pilot study carried out in low income communities in central Bangladesh, where handwashing with soap and treating drinking water were not commonly practiced, show that hand washing with soap jumped from 17 to 75% after rural communities received a combination of health messages and tailor-made hardware. ReliefWeb

Can ‘Nexus Thinking’ Alleviate Global Water, Food and Energy Pressures?

With the world population growing at a rate of around 80 million people a year, it is estimated that by 2030 the world will need 30% more water, 40% more energy and 50% more food. That’s not just to feed, water and power the new arrivals, but also those currently living “off grid” in developing countries as they rise out of poverty.  The Guardian 

DRI to Lead Efforts In Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Solutions In Developing Nations

The Conrad N. Hilton foundation has provided a three-year grant of $500,000 to support Dr. Braimah Apambire’s work with DRI to create a center on Water, Development, and Sustainability Issues. For decades, the growing concern on limited water resources in places such as West Africa has turned into a reality. As safe water sources are sparse in these areas, it has led to diseases such as diarrhea, trachoma, and guinea worm from contaminated drinking water. To Apambire, this research will focus on developing solutions to real world problems that are considered a human rights concern.  Water Online

Davos 2013: Partnership Makes Impact on Water Crisis

A public-private partnership to emerge from Davos is rising to the challenge of the water crisis in developing countries. Listening were the chief executives of several large water-using companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and SABMiller; the presidents of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Intra-American Development Bank. The Guardian

Tanzania: Bank Moves in to Improve Sanitation in Schools

Half of girls who drop out of school do so because of poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene while ten per cent do not attend school during menstruation. The Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashid, said in Dar es Salaam that despite the success in increasing student enrolment, the dropout rate is 33 per cent with significant higher rates for girls and pupils with disabilities. The deputy minister was speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Stanbic Bank Tanzania which will address the scarcity of clean water for schools. AllAfrica

Rivers, Lakes, Wetlands: Could Water Become the World’s Biggest Market?

In Uganda, a beer brewer is paying communities to protect wetlands in a bid to secure a steady supply of water for its businesses. In neighbouring Kenya, flower companies, ranchers and hotels are giving farmers vouchers for seeds and tools in exchange for efforts to reduce farm runoff, which can damage irrigation systems and spoil landscapes. In China, a government-backed scheme is giving tens of thousands of people health insurance benefits in exchange for land management practices that could improve the quality of drinking water. The number of projects that pay communities – either cash or in-kind compensation, such as training or even land rights – to protect or revive water supplies has doubled over the past four years, according to analysts at Ecosystem Marketplace. The Guardian

We Need Innovation in Water, Sanitation Management – World Bank Specialist

Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank, Tuesday said institutional arrangements, approaches and methodologies for  developing, use and management of water and sanitation services needed to be looked at again so as to factor in gender and household–based elements. “There is the need for innovation. Assumptions about households and gender in general and in particular as units of analysis should give way to using the data and information to develop follow up actions, monitor and evaluate the actions with reference to gender and households,” she said. Ghana Business News

Ghana Loses $221 Million Annually Due to Poor Sanitation

Ghana loses 420 million Ghana cedis yearly due to poor sanitation, according to a desk study carried out by the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank in 2010. Sixteen million Ghanaians also use insanitary or shared latrines, whilst 4.8 million have no latrines and attend to nature’s call in the open. This was disclosed by Professor Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi. He said the “enormous” challenge posed by rapid urbanization, coupled with institutional weakness in physical planning policies had led to the growth of slums which had no access to safe drinking water and good sanitary practices. Spy Ghana

133 Children Die a Day in Afghanistan

According to available figures, about 73 percent of people in Afghanistan lack access to clean drinking water and 95 percent do not have access to sufficient sanitation. As a result, diarrhoeal diseases are responsible for the death of 48,545 children every year in the country. Lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation is a chronic problem not only in rural areas, but also in most of the Afghan cities which are developing — unplanned — at a rapid rate. Rawa News