Severe pollution is rendering the rivers around the capital, Dhaka, biologically dead, with specialists warning the situation is beyond rescuing. “The rivers around Dhaka have too little oxygen for the survival of aquatic life,” Umme Kulsum Navera, assistant professor of Water Resource Engineering (WRE) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told IRIN. “The water is especially toxic during the dry seasons,” he said. While oxygen levels increase during the monsoons, they are still too low for a healthy, thriving aquatic environment.

According to research conducted by the WRE, some invertebrates and small organisms come to life in these rivers when water-flow increases at this time. But in the dry season, these life forms completely disappear in

In past decades, the changing nature of the river has forced many – particularly fishermen – to switch livelihoods as the Buriganga – one of the four major rivers that encircle the city (the others are Shitalakhya, Turag and Balu) – no longer holds any fish.

[...] Even the slightest physical contact with the water, which could be described as nothing more than raw sewage, is potentially hazardous, say health experts. “Most of the boatmen around the Buriganga have several types of skin disease. The poisonous water is responsible as there are major toxic elements in the water, from irritants to carcinogens,” Abdal Miah, a dermatologist in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, the Shitalakhya, another major river that flows along the eastern part of the city, has become so polluted that its foul stench can be smelled half a kilometre away.

Industrial dumping is primarily responsible for the Buriganga’s state. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the tanneries around the Buriganga are the leading culprits.

Despite a 1995 Environment Conservation Act, stipulating that all industrial units must have proper treatment plants to get clearance from the Department of Environment (DoE) and hence supplies of gas and electricity, the reality is quite different.

According to the Institute for Environment and Development Studies (IEDS), a leading local environmental NGO, thousands of small and medium factories dump industrial effluent directly into the rivers.

Some 40,000MT of toxic sludge containing hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, chlorine, chromium and other harmful chemicals from the tanneries are discharged into the Buriganga every day.

“The concentration of organic pollutant in the Buriganga is 17 times higher than the allowable limit of 3mg per litre. Chemical pollutants like ammonia, aluminium, cadmium, lead and mercury have also been detected in the Buriganga,” SM Mahbubur Rahman, head of the water resource planning division of the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), said.

The lone sewage treatment facility operated and maintained by Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (DWASA) has a treatment capacity of 0.12 million cubic metres per day, while the daily volume of sewage generated in Dhaka city is 1.3 million cubic metres.

The untreated portion is dumped into the rivers around Dhaka.

At a conference on drinking water in Dhaka held in May 2009, the Industries Minister Dilip Barua admitted that the industrial sector lacked social responsibility plans, especially when it came to effluent treatment plants. The installation of such plants would be enforced stringently by the government and efforts would be taken to relocate the tanneries from the capital city, he said.

See also: Bangladesh, Dhaka: pollution gets to groundwater

Source: IRIN, 13 July 2009

Neglect of the rural health system and poor preparedness result in thousands of avoidable diarrhoea-related deaths annually in Nepal, health analysts warn. “The diarrhoea epidemic has repeated again due to the government’s lack of effective preventive measures which we have been reminding the officials of every monsoon,” said Prakash Amatya, director of NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation.

Most deaths occurred in remote villages in the mid-west region where a large percentage of the population remains vulnerable due to poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water and illiteracy. Many are uneducated about basic hygiene and healthcare.

In addition, there are issues of access [impassable roads] and logistics [lack of electricity].

[...] While much of the mid-west was affected, worst hit was Jajarkot district (400km northwest of the capital), where 106 people have reportedly died since 1 May [2009], according to the District Public Health Office, followed by Rukum, about 300km northwest of Kathmandu, where 25 people died between 29 June and 13 July [2009]. Deaths have also been reported from the region’s remote Dailekh, Salyan, Dang and Doti districts.

Nearly 14 percent of the country’s 27 million people live [in mid-west region], despite limited access to health, education, roads, telephones, electricity, water supply and sanitation services. The region has long been isolated from development initiatives, held back by a decade-long armed conflict and political instability.

According to UNICEF, about 13,000 children under five die annually from diarrhoea because of poor hygiene and sanitation. A government report, Nepal Country Plan for International Year of Sanitation 2008 estimated that only 46 percent of the population had access to basic sanitation. More than 14 million people, mainly in rural areas, do not have access to latrines, states the report, while over 30 percent do not have access to potable water, according to the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention.

“This problem would have never existed if more attention was paid to improving health hygiene and sanitation situation in the rural areas,” Pitamber Sharma, director of the disaster department of the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), said.

[...] But according to the UN: “It doesn’t help to blame but to look at what needs to be strengthened, what could have been done in terms of prevention and to make this a priority for our development partners,” said Wendy Cue, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Source: IRIN, 17 Jul 2009

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) recently surveyed sanitation facilities in 11,200 schools across the country. “About 30 percent of inspected schools had no toilets or inadequate toilets,” says La Quy Don, deputy head of the ministry’s student affairs department.

A separate survey conducted in Hanoi found that of 1,400 schools nearly all failed to have enough sanitation facilities, says Nguyen Nhu Hoa, deputy head of the office for planning and finance in the city’s education department.

Regulations require one toilet for every 100 students and one tap for every 60 students.

Tran Thu An, a sanitation programme officer with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says the issue of toilet facilities rarely gets the consideration it deserves. The UN, as part of its “child-friendly” schools campaign in Vietnam, has been trying to focus on proper sanitation facilities. In the past year, it has been working with MoET, helping to design and build better toilet facilities across the country.

Part of the problem is that there are so many pressing needs when it comes to education that sanitation is often the last thing considered. At the moment, the government’s priority is to replace all the makeshift shelters that serve as classrooms with concrete schools that can withstand monsoon winds and rains, says An. Yet when these new schools are built, toilets are not part of the plans.

The responsibility for building latrines lies in part with local authorities and communities, who often lack the funds or interest. So in the end, says An, toilets just do not get built.

Tran Duy Tao, head of administration for the school infrastructure and equipment department at the education ministry, says it is not always a lack of money. [...] In crowded, yet wealthier, urban areas, schools may have the funds but no room to build more toilets.

In 2006, the government declared that all kindergartens and schools would have hygienic toilets and all children would have access to clean water by 2010 [but] at the current rate of construction, it is highly unlikely this goal will be met.

Parents at the Hanoi elementary school were so upset over the dirty facilities and concerns for their children’s health that a few months ago they decided to chip in and pay a monthly fee [US50 cents] to have them cleaned.

Source: IRIN, 17 Jun 2009

A squatter woman of Lamjung has constructed a toilet by selling her ornament. Jitmaya Magar of Bhoteodar VDC-8 invested her hard-earned money and sold her gold earrings and a goat to construct a concrete toilet at an investment of Rs. 10,000 [US$ 130]. She constructed the toilet [...] after Bhoteodar VDC was declared an open defecation free zone on the occasion of 10th National Sanitation Action Week, [after] the construction of toilets in 1,378 houses [...] public toilets in Krishna garden and [toilets in] six schools.

The Tenth National Sanitation Action Week (NSAW) was held from 05-11 June 2009 with the slogan of ‘we are proud of having toilets in our homes’. Sanitation Week is being celebrated in Nepal since 1977.

Experts are pushing to get the right to sanitation included in the new constitution.

The government has set a national goal to provide sanitation to all by 2017 – which would require constructing 24,000 toilets every month – but there is a shortfall of at least Rs. 24 billion [US$ 311 million] to achieve this. Currently, about 45 per cent of the population has access to toilet facility and some 14.2 million Nepali people [out of total population of 29.5 million] defecate in the open.

Source: Nepal Samacharpatra / NGO Forum, 12 Jun 2009 ; Himalayan Times , 05 Jun 2009 ; Deepak Dahal, Nagarik / NGO Forum, 05 Jun 2009

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping select urban centers in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka improve water management to enhance economic opportunities and reduce waterborne diseases.

The project is funded through an $850,000 grant from the Investment Climate Facilitation Fund established by the Government of Japan last year under the Regional Cooperation and Integration Financing Partnership Facility, which supports technical assistance projects.

Intermittent water supplies are the norm in South Asian urban centers. There are no strategies to make water available 24 hours a day, which is one of the most important objectives in urban water management system. This has resulted in water contamination and wastage, unreliable metering, and burst pipes.

Through the technical assistance, up to 30 urban centers in the three South Asian countries will acquire technology and expertise in managing the water sector. They will develop a better understanding of key policy parameters for water security and reduce risks and vulnerabilities caused by lack of understanding and knowledge of the water sector.

To achieve these objectives, the technical assistance will determine geographical and population coverage of service areas in the chosen urban centers, assess if drinking water supply complies with acceptable quality standards, and if wastewater management affects the quality of groundwater, aquifers, and other water sources.

The project will also determine the levels of non-revenue water, operational efficiencies, and operations management system of the select urban centers.

Source: ADB, 09 Jul 2009

Water in over 20,000 tube wells across the Tarai has been found to have been containing more arsenic than the recommended for safe use. In tests conducted by Nepal Red Cross Society, water in 20,243 tube wells contained arsenic more than the standard fixed by thee government. According to Nepal National Drinking Water Quality Standard 2063, water containing more than 50 ppb arsenic is considered unsafe for drinking.

At a public awareness program organized here by Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO), UN-HABITAT, UNICEF, Nepal Red Cross Society and Department of Drinking Water on May 16, it was informed that over 350,000 people have been affected by arsenic. In Banke district, among 45,191 tube wells tested for arsenic content, nearly 1 percent is found to have been containing arsenic above the recommended amount.
Raju Shrestha, who has been conducting research on arsenic, said arsenic related disease start showing symptoms if somebody consumes water with high arsenic content regularly for two years.

Source: Republica; The Rising Nepal; Naya Patrika / NGO Forum, 18 May 2009

Retired British and Indian [army staff] have operated a drinking water project at an investment of Rs. 4.1 million [US$ 54,000] after they saw that the locals of Bhaluwang of Lalmatiya-3 have been facing drinking water problem for the past many years. The armies have provided drinking water facility to 1,023 people living in 205 households by drawing water from deep boring. Earlier, the locals of Bhaluwang have to walk for an hour to fetch water from the Rapti River.
The project started two years ago is completed recently. Chairman of Drinking Water Committee Captain Jhag Lal Thapa told that pipeline connections have been distributed by constructing two tanks having capacity of 22,000 and 16,00 litres. He told that water has been supplied to six settlements including Aanpkholi, Ratomata, Gautam Buddha and Bhupu Sainik by laying down 8 kilometers pipelines from the tanks. Bhaluwang health post and Bhaluwang Lower Secondary School have been benefited by the drinking water project.

Similarly, the armies have constructed a school building of ten-rooms, 5-chambered toilet, bathroom and 70 sets of furniture at an investment of Rs. 3.2 million [US$ 42,000] . There are about 82 retired British and Indian [army staff members] in Lalmatiya.

Source: Kantipur / NGO Forum, May 8, 2009

Ranibari Youth Club has started charging money for collecting water from a local stonespout. Consumers willing to collect 20 liter water from the stonespout have to buy a ticket worth five rupees [7 US dollar cents] in advance. [...] Earlier, some consumers do not get to fetch water even after queuing up for the whole day in the stonespout due to a large number of water fetchers.

Biki Khadgi, chairman of Ranibari Youth Club told that the club has started ticket system so that the consumers could get drinking water easily. Ticket system has not only regularized water collection from the stone-spout but also provided employment to the some unemployed youth members of the club. [...] The club stated that it will repair and renovate the stone-spout with the money collected from tickets.

Source: Sharmila Kaduwal, Rajdhani / NGO Forum, 9 May 2009

In early 2009 tests by health officials showed widespread contamination of municipal tap and bottled water: High levels of nitrates and arsenic, which can cause cancer, were found, as was e-coli, which causes diarrhoea. Tran Van Nhi, a scientist at the Vietnam Institute of Biotechnology, told IRIN Hanoi’s water was heavily contaminated with ammonia: “It is 6-18 times higher than the allowed level.” Nhi also found arsenic levels two to three times higher than acceptable World Health Organization standards. Most residents boil drinking water as a matter of course, even though high temperatures do not remove arsenic or dangerous heavy metals.

Bottled water

In recent years, as incomes have risen, more people have been buying bottled water. Twenty-litre jugs that sell for around 50 US cents are affordable for most Vietnamese. However, tests on hundreds of brands across the country reveal that bottled water cannot be trusted either. Dozens of samples failed safety standard tests in Ho Chi Minh City in March 2009. “We detected bacterium in our samples, mainly coliform and Pseudomonas aeruginosa,” said Le Truong Giang, deputy director of the city’s health department. Pseudomonas aeruginosa can lead to sepsis and death.

[A]ntiquated water pipes leading from treatment plants to individual households leak, enabling dangerous contaminants to leach in. The long-term solution is to upgrade municipal water supply systems but this requires massive investment. “Water treatment plants can’t meet water demand in the big urban areas,” said Ton. “From now to 2020, Hanoi [which currently produces 600,000 cubic metres of water a day] will have to produce more than one million cubic metres,” to meet demand, said Nguyen Ton, chairman of Vietnam’s Water Supply and Sewage Association in Hanoi. The need to nearly double current capacity will require investment in infrastructure that Hanoi cannot afford, according to Ton.

Source: IRIN, 17 Apr 2009

Simi Kamal heads Hisaar Foundation, a local NGO which advocates judicious use of water and offers low-cost practical solutions. “If we don’t save water now, we will not have enough for anyone,” she said. According to the World Bank, Pakistan, one of the world’s most arid countries, is currently experiencing water stress and will soon face outright water scarcity.

Kamal insists Pakistanis should make a conscious effort to conserve water. “It does not mean a change in your lifestyle; all one needs to do is consciously use less water.” She has put a bucket under her daughter’s shower to collect water. Her modern kitchen has two plastic basins, one with detergent for dirty dishes, the other with clean water for rinsing. Even the water in the washing machine is re-used. “We don’t run the whole cycle but re-use the soapy water to wash our bathroom floors.” In her toilet cisterns, you may find bricks – “so less water gets in there and there is less to flush,” she said.

Tofiq Pasha Mooraj, who hosts a popular weekly gardening show on a private TV channel, and always ends the show on a “use water carefully” note, is one of 200 activists in the Karachi Water Partnership (KWP), founded by Kamal two years ago. It includes government officials, water experts, urban planners, lawyers and economists, as well as schools, multinationals, and even local government departments.

In the last 15 months it has reached out to 200 teachers and 7,000 children in 19 public and six private schools to raise awareness of the need to save water. KWP also repairs pipes and helps raise awareness of sanitation and hygiene issues in government schools.

Women’s Water Network (WWN), formed in November 2008, focuses on urban water and sewage issues. It now has five branches in Karachi. WWN is also working with Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB) inspectors, making them “water ambassadors”. KW&SB has included KWP’s water conservation leaflet in its water bills, said Lily Khan, programme manager for KWP.

Source: IRIN, 05 Jun 2009