Ghana Chapter of Network of Professional Women in place – To build capacity of women in water, sanitation.
The Network of Professional Women in Water and Sanitation-Ghana Chapter, an initiative aimed at building the capacity of women operating in the water and sanitation sector, has been inaugurated in Accra.
The initiative by the African Water Association (AFWA), funded by the Ghana Water Company Limited, will create a platform for exchange of experiences, good practices and capacity building in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
At the inaugural ceremony last Thursday, the Senior Country Operations Officer of the World Bank, Ghana, Dr Beatrice Allah-Mensah, said the initiative was in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six and would empower women as agents of change in the WASH sector in effective decision-making that would impact their professional, public and personal lives.
Need for collaboration Dr Mrs Allah-Mensah said to effectively deal with water and sanitation issues in the country, there was the need for collective collaboration between the government, stakeholders and non-governmental organisations.
According to her, the involvement of women was critical to ensuring that gender perspectives are effectively and sustainably incorporated into the national water and sanitation issues, policies, programmes and projects in the country.
“Women can be ambassadors in advocacy and be agents of empowerment and resource management and distribution.
Women can also be among the skilled labour force to provide services in the sector,” she said.
For her part, the organiser for the network, Madam Faustina Boachie, said the network, which was a subsidiary of the African Water Association (AFWA), would promote the sharing of knowledge and experience among professional women in the WASH sector.
She added that in promoting the agenda, potable water would be provided for schools and health facilities to enhance education on sanitation, and that the network would ensure that the overall national sanitation framework was gender-sensitive.

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene identified as basic rights of people.
City Reporter Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home are some of the most basic requirements for human health, and all countries have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can access them, says Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
He was responding to the recently published Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report by WHO and UNICEF that found some 3 in 10 people worldwide lack access to safe, readily available water at home and 6 in 10 lack safely managed sanitation.
According to a WHO communication, Dr. Ghebreyesus taking strong exception to the findings that 2.1 billion people hold no access to safe water and 4.5 billion remain deprived of adequate sanitation, said these essential facilities should not be a privilege of only those who are rich.
The joint report encompasses progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and Sustainable Development Goal baselines presenting the first global assessment of “safely managed” drinking water and sanitation services.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla inaugurated the construction of a water management system in Umbulan, Pasuruan District, East Java Province, on Thursday, July 20,2017.
The process was long enough to bring together some of the interests," he noted during a speech at the inauguration ceremony for the construction of the water management system.
The water treatment system will provide drinking water to 1.3 million people in five districts in East Java Province.
Kalla remarked that the water treatment system will be constructed under the government-to-business cooperation scheme, which has brought together the interests of the community, region, state, and investors.
East Java Governor Soekarwo, in his speech, expressed gratitude for the construction of the Umbulan Water Treatment System in order to meet the drinking water needs of the community in East Java.
According to Soekarwo, the water springs in Umbulan are one of the sources of best quality of drinking water in the world.
The water treatment project, with an investment of more than Rp2 trillion, is targeted for completion by 2019.
The East Java provincial government and PT Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan are the parties responsible for the project and will serve as the business entities that will complete the construction.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Coordinating Minister for Economy Darmin Nasution and Minister of Public Works and Housing Basuki Hadimuljono.
Reported by Muhammad Arief Iskandar

Bartlett Mitchell helps provide clean water to 5,000 people.
Independent caterer, Bartlett Mitchell, has ensured more than 5,000 people will have access to clean water with the donation of its 50th water pump via its Thirsty Planet water programme.
The company, which first launched the initiative to sell bottles of Thirsty Planet at participating client sites in 2013, donates four pence from every litre purchased to Pump Aid – a British charity that helps rural communities in remote sub-Saharan Africa to have a constant source of safe, clean, drinkable water by installing specialised water pumps.
To date, Bartlett Mitchell has donated enough funds to install more than 50 pumps, providing enough drinking water for people across the Mchingi district of Malawi.
As part of the initiative, Bartlett Mitchell allocates pumps to clients and, as their customers purchase enough water to procure a pump, the company is able to work with Pump Aid to build a new facility.
The ‘elephant pumps’, made from local equipment, are community driven and owned.
The community are trained to repair and maintain the equipment which ensures long-term and sustainable use of the pumps.
The programme forms part of the company’s ‘Fruitful World’ Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility activity which aims to encourage long-term profitability with maximum social responsibility and environmental care.
It has helped bring everybody together to support a very worthy cause.
“This positive social impact also supports our goal of remaining the UK’s most ethical and sustainable foodservice catering business.”

An innovative project would see seven Tulare County towns plagued by polluted wells sharing a water treatment plant, but political infighting stalled the proposal days before a funding deadline.
The river water is available, and the state is willing to help build the treatment plant for the 17,000 people in these towns.
A regional water treatment system shared among several rural towns would be a first for the San Joaquin Valley, but it is threatened by self-inflicted delays and local political slowdowns, including one that last month stalled the estimated $30 million treatment plant.
But we’re not giving up.” River water instead of groundwater is perhaps the most elegant long-term solution to the chronic contamination of drinking-water wells in this farm belt.
Around the San Joaquin Valley, many rural communities with contaminated or dried-up wells are connecting with bigger cities.
The northern Tulare County towns aren’t close enough to connect with big cities, such as Visalia, which has a population of about 130,000.
Cutler and Orosi have 80 percent of the 17,000 residents who would be served.
He says Cutler has been working on the water treatment concept since 2004.
“This is something the community needs,” he says.
The state publicly agreed, but then quietly balked again, citing a funding technicality: The funding would not be high priority because the lead applicant, Orosi, had a water supply that was not currently out of compliance with standards.

An innovative project would see seven Tulare County towns plagued by polluted wells sharing a water treatment plant, but political infighting stalled the proposal days before a funding deadline.
The river water is available, and the state is willing to help build the treatment plant for the 17,000 people in these towns.
A regional water treatment system shared among several rural towns would be a first for the San Joaquin Valley, but it is threatened by self-inflicted delays and local political slowdowns, including one that last month stalled the estimated $30 million treatment plant.
But we’re not giving up.” River water instead of groundwater is perhaps the most elegant long-term solution to the chronic contamination of drinking-water wells in this farm belt.
Around the San Joaquin Valley, many rural communities with contaminated or dried-up wells are connecting with bigger cities.
The northern Tulare County towns aren’t close enough to connect with big cities, such as Visalia, which has a population of about 130,000.
Cutler and Orosi have 80 percent of the 17,000 residents who would be served.
He says Cutler has been working on the water treatment concept since 2004.
“This is something the community needs,” he says.
The state publicly agreed, but then quietly balked again, citing a funding technicality: The funding would not be high priority because the lead applicant, Orosi, had a water supply that was not currently out of compliance with standards.

Preventing disease important for evacuees.
Clean hands will go a long way in preventing the spread of infectious disease where evacuees are in a shared living space like the nearly 700 who are housed at the College of New Caledonia and the University of Northern B.C.
due to the Cariboo wildfires.
"The best way to prevent that is good hand hygiene, so washing your hands frequently, especially after going to the bathroom and before eating and after handling anything that you’re not sure of its cleanliness," Gray said.
"If people do come down with vomiting and diarrhea, we do encourage people to let someone from health services know because we have set up an isolation area where people who are thought to have a potentially infectious condition like norovirus can be in an area where it would be less likely to be transmitted to others," Gray said.
Anyone visiting those who are ill are also encouraged to vigorously wash their hands as well, he added.
Northern Health environmental health officers are also vigilant while working with staff, including cleaning staff, at the two main evacuee centres, Gray said.
"They are making sure there are enough hand-washing stations for people to use, enough hand sanitizer, and making sure there are enough bathrooms for everybody and making sure there’s good rigorous routine cleaning of the bathrooms and floors, while making sure people have access to clean drinking water and safe food, clean cots and linens and waste is disposed of appropriately," Gray said.
Staff at both sites have been provided with guidance on how to properly deal with any type of spill of body fluids.
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Despite the challenges, she says, government has invested resources and efforts to ensure every citizen gets access to clean water and excellent Sanitary services across the country.
Mandate RURA mandate in water sub-sector has been to regulate the provision of water services in a way that promotes fair competition, sustainable and efficient use of water resources and ensure that water service providers offer a good quality of service in regards to drinking water.
It is therefore important to keep the sector well regulated.
The same project has benefitted 450,000 Rwandans with good access to sanitation services.
Government recently enacted the National Water Supply and Sanitation Program with the objective of providing sustainable drinking water supply and sanitation services to rural communities with a view of improving their health.
In the last seven years, RURA has set new regulations and new tariffs for those operating in the water and sanitation sector in Rwanda.
There has been improvement in the water supply services coverage as per the EICV3 and EICV4 results.
The efforts to improve sanitation in the country have paid off with access to improved sanitation facilities increasing from 18% in 1994 up to 74.5% in 2015 and to the current 83.4% according to EICV4 statistics.
Messages on safe hygiene practices were provided through direct promotion activities with communities and training on sanitation and hygiene promotion.
Engineer Byigero, says all service providers are licensed and, currently, number to 23 providing sanitation services in Rwanda.

English Mountain residents without water for a week after multiple water line breaks.
SEVIER COUNTY – Several residents living atop English Mountain in Sevier County say they have been without water for nearly a week after a series of water line breaks disrupted their water supply last Thursday.
Jerry Hayes counts himself lucky.
Still, he said his water access is insufficient for daily hygiene.
"You can’t take a shower, you can’t wash your clothes.
“Where they normally spend the whole summer with us, they’re leaving because they have been out of water for about seven days now.” On Wednesday afternoon, the East Sevier County Utility District issued a boil advisory to urge all of its customers, including those with water access, to boil their water.
She said the company has had maintenance issues with its water system before, but those problems had mostly subsided in the last few years – until crews discovered a large water line break on Friday.
The East Sevier County Utility District services 258 customers, charging a minimum rate of $97.25 per month.
Those lines were first installed in 1972, but she said replacing them entirely could cost millions the company cannot afford.
He is among many residents collecting signatures for a petition to request that another utility company, either in Sevier or Cocke counties, take over their water service.

The report also shows that only one out of four individuals in Pakistan have access to clean drinking water.
Declaring something a human right means, as Kantians would argue, that human rights are universalisable.
If we use this understanding of human right as a guide, the question that arises is: who is obligated to ensure the provision of this water as a human right?
Therefore, one could argue that the responsibility lie with the formal and informal institutions created by the nexus of the heads of families, the corporate management and the state.
A report shows that in Pakistan more than 200,000 children die every year owing to the lack of availability and accessibility to sufficient water that is fit for human consumption.
Instead, it is cash crops, like sugarcane, that are sucking up a sizeable amount of our water resources.
We, the privileged citizens, are also responsible for the crisis of providing the poor citizens of the country access to water.
There is also a crisis of awareness and activism among the citizens.
When there is awareness about what people’s rights are and how they are being violated, we can expect a mass movement that is strong enough to shake and wake the government to fulfil their responsibilities and ensure the provision of water and other basic rights.
It is the entire nexus of the state, corporate owners and the privileged citizens that is responsible for the shortage of drinking water that is fit for human consumption.