Safe water campaign
Friday, 30 April 2010

Kathmandu: Experts have pointed out that the majority of people residing in the municipalities of Nepal are deprived of safe drinking water. Making a presentation at a dissemination workshop on ‘Partnership for safe water program’ at Hotel Everest on April 27, Bhushan Tuladhar, Technical Advisor of Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) said, “Though drinking water facility has increased satisfactorily, people still are deprived of safe drinking water.”
The programme was organised to inform about the activities and achievements of the programme ‘Partnership for safe water’ launched in March 2008 in five municipalities of Nepal. In order to provide access to safe drinking water at community level the government of Nepal together with UN HABITAT, Coca Cola Company and ENPHO had implemented the project in Lalitpur, Bharatpur, Hetauda, Butwal and Nepalgunj municipalities. The programme had promoted various methods of water purification – boiling, chlorination, SODIS and filtering – in the communities, and had also provided training in schools and communities regarding methods of making drinking water safe.


Krishna Prasad Acharya, Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works said, “If the government, private sector as well as the general people cooperate with each other in the improvement of the water quality, the programme will be effective.”


Roshan Raj Shrestha, Chief Technical Adviser of UN HABITAT South Asia said, “All stakeholders should take initiatives to bring improvement in drinking water and sanitation aspect in Nepal.” It was also informed during the event that the majority of people in those areas have started purifying water before use. Thirteen different communities have already been declared as model ‘safe water zone’.
(Source: The Himalayan Times, April 30, 2010)



HIV infected people need to have access to safe drinking water
Experts and participants agreed that People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are the most vulnerable group to the infectious diseases caused by unsafe water so unified and common action is needed to tackle it.
Workshop on “The Importance of Safe Drinking Water for People living with HIV/AIDS” held on 28 April 2010 in Kathmandu to highlight the importance of safe drinking water for PLWHA. Around 55 participants from different Governmental, International and National NGOs working on water and sanitation and HIV AIDS sector participated on the program. Presentation from experts was followed by the group work and possible future activities and joint actions were drafted.

 
(Source: Clean Energy News Vol. 10, Number 14, April 28, 2010‏)Workshop was jointly organized by National Center for AIDS and STD control, CAWST Canada; ENPHO; CEN and RCNN.