WASH preparedness in disaster management

WASH preparedness in disaster management

July 30, 2010

UNICEF organized third WASH Cluster meeting on July 29, 2010 at UNICEF Country Office to discuss on the progress on ongoing WASH preparedness intervention and identification of life saving intervention for Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) Fund. Different WASH Cluster members including Oxfam, Save the Children, Nepal Red Cross Society and Department of Water Supply and Sewerage shared about the ongoing WASH preparedness intervention in their working areas.  

Sharing that Central Emergency Response Fund—a multi-donor trust fund comprising 119 donors—has allocated US $ 500,000 for life saving WASH intervention from the total US $ 2 million provided to Nepal, Madhav Pahari, Lead-Wash Cluster requested all WASH cluster members to identify best and appropriate option for life saving interventions for CERF funding.

Sharing that door-to-door campaign, community awareness on safe drinking water and sanitation and effective media mobilization are the best options to prevent occurrences of water-borne diseases in the urban areas, Anil Sthapit, Director, GUTHI told to give continuity to such campaign to prevent diarrhoeal diseases. He shared that similar campaign had helped to reduce diarrhoeal cases in the past. Similarly, Dr. Suman K. Shakya, Executive Director, Environment and Public Health Organization informed that ENPHO in association with UN-HABITAT formed Paschim Paaila immediately after the first outbreak of diarrhoea epidemic in Jajarkot, Rukum, Surkhet, and Dailekh districts and sent 63 volunteers to the epidemic-hit regions. He further told that it was the vigor and willingness in youths that made a rapid response to the outbreak possible. “So, we must prepare more of such youths for immediate response to such epidemic in the future,” said Shakya. He informed that ENPHO has now the capacity to produce 2500 units of Piyush, chorine solution, per day.

Sharing that there are more than 20 water kiosks in a short distance of 2.5 km from Naradevi to Swoyambhu in Kathmandu, Executive Director of NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation Prakash Amatya told that the urban population, mostly tenants, in the core areas are purchasing water from such informal water kiosks, who sell the water brought from private water tanker suppliers. “I think that there is need to carry out a quality survey of the water sold by such water vendors as this is the water the consumers are actually consuming,” said Amatya. “However, this survey is not intended to discourage such water vendors. This is just to get clear picture of the quality of water consumed by a large mass of urban poor and raise awareness on water quality and strategize the water treatment promotion at the household level,” he added. “We should seek support from the media and they can play a pivotal role to highlight the issue,” Amatya suggests.

(Source: ngoforum.net)