Political

A consultation was organised by Arghyam Trust on 9th September 2009 at Bangalore, to share civil society experiences regarding sustainable sanitation with the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission was represented at the event by Dr. Mihir Shah. The focus of the consultation was largely on rural sanitation.

The world around you is changing. When most people think of global warming, they think of icebergs melting, seas rising and low-lying areas getting flooded. But it is no longer just an apocalyptic warning of doom. It is no longer something that will happen in some distant land.

The Big Necessity - The unmentionable world of human waste and why it matters By Rose George

Prakash Kumar, an ecological sanitation consultant with UNICEF/Stockholm Institute provides an update on some recent work on ecological sanitation in India:

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1. We are in the process of supporting I I T Delhi for nutrient recovery project for developing complete process for converting liquid urine in to the crystalline form.
2. We are in the final stage of supporting SCOPE for demonstration of ecosan toilet in a govt. middle school at Musiri, Trichy.
3. Comprehensive evaluation of Tamilnadu ecosan project will be taken up shortly.
4. Last batch of training of CCDU officials have been completed . This year total 5 batches got training on ecosan.

  What’s With The Climate? Original article

Dear All,

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20091015&filename=croc&sec_id=10&sid=1

WSSCC Member Flash
Periodic updates for WSSCC members on hot and late-breaking topics   

Global Handwashing Day Special Edition

The practice of handwashing with soap has been prominent in the last few years on the international hygiene agenda. The second annual Global Handwashing Day takes place on Thursday, 15 October 2009 in countries all over the world, including countries where WSSCC is active through its National WASH Coalitions. The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at critical moments (for example, after using the toilet, while cleaning a child, and before handling food).  

One of the aims of the IRHA's programs is to sensitize the population towards the benefits that rainwater provides. For should the advantages of the use of rainwater harvesting be recognized amongst professionals, is the population aware of it? Let us move out of the space where development specialists are dealing! Let us diffuse the information to the public at large and develop a common language. All these will certainly enable us to reach people who could support us in our work of the protection of as vital resource as water.

We would like to have more water in Greece, Australia and the South of Spain, less water in the United Kingdom and in Bangladesh. We would like to save the animals which die in Argentina due to flooding, and protect those which risk dying the following year due to lack of water. Not only must the act of rainwater harvesting be the priority of national political program on the agenda, but it could also become an environmental contribution for everyone. Furthermore, in calling for common effort to protect the planet, it should lead diverse cultures to come together. Good rainwater harvesting is an objective by itself, but it is also a means for adapting the world to its most haunting problem, which is the climate change.

This research study, by Veena Srinivasan, addresses the challenge of supplying water to rapidly growing cities in South Asia, using evidence from the water-scarce city of Chennai. Chennai (formerly Madras) is a rapidly growing metropolis of over 6.5 million people, whose infrastructure has not kept pace with its growing demand for water. In the year 2003-2004, Chennai experienced a severe water crisis, the piped supply for the entire city was virtually shut down for a 12-month period. Consumers became dependent on private tanker suppliers trucking in untreated groundwater from peri-urban areas.