Brazil, Sao Paulo: participatory sanitation project wins Mario Covas Award 2009

On April 8, 2009, the Project “Environmental Rehabilitation of Vila Machado: shared territorial management linked to Action Monitoring for Effectiveness” received the ‘Mario Covas Award 2009′ under the category Innovation on Public Management. The project, coordinated by the São Paulo State Basic Sanitation Company SABESP in a partnership with the Post-Graduate Programme on Environmental Science of the University of São Paulo PROCAM, uses an adaptation of Action Monitoring for Effectiveness (aMe) to involve city dwellers in the implementation of improvements on sanitation in a peri-urban community. An earlier development of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre by Katheleen Shordt, aMe was considered an innovative element of public action. Maria Lucia G. Borba, a former IRC staff member and now with PROCAM, is collaborating with SABESP in this project.

The Mario Covas Award was created in 2004 as an effort by the São Paulo State Government to continuously search for the modernization of administrative action through its Secretariats and other governmental institutions. In 2009, of 184 public initiatives featuring projects being implemented in the state of São Paulo which were received by the organizers of this important event, 15 received the Award under two categories: Excellence on Public Management and Innovation on Public Management. For more information on the 2009 Award (only in Portuguese) see here and here.

For more information on the project contact Maria Lucia G. Borba, maluborba [at] yahoo.com 

Prize winners: from left Márcia Alice Alves – SABESP, Carlos Roberto Dardis – SABESP, Maria Lucia G. Borba – PROCAM/USP and Dilmara Veríssimo de Souza – SABESP.

Guatemala: Global Water and Peace Corps collaborate in Healthy Schools program

Having developed many water systems in Guatemala, Global Water saw an opportunity to assist the Peace Corps volunteers who were trying their best to educate schoolchildren about proper hygiene but without the tools to do so.

In a rural school adjacent to a small village in Guatemala, a Peace Corps volunteer stood before a group of schoolchildren. Holding her hands out in front of her, she rubbed them together, mimicking the motions of lathering soap, then extended them back under the imaginary spigot. The lesson was on hand-washing and was part of the Peace Corp volunteer’s assignment to teach health and hygiene to the rural poor. The “Healthy Schools Program“, as it has become known in Guatemala, is supported by the Appropriate Technology Program of the Peace Corps. There was one vital ingredient conspicuously missing from the lesson however. “Water”

Having developed many water systems in Guatemala, [NGO] Global Water saw an opportunity to assist the Peace Corps volunteers who were trying their best to educate schoolchildren about proper hygiene but without the tools to do so. [...] Global Water had successfully partnered with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on previous projects in Guatemala to build village water supplies and sanitation facilities. In these projects, Global Water provided the funding and water treatment expertise, while the NGO’s provided the construction expertise and local supervision necessary to build the water systems. Now the Peace Corps would add other key components to this partnership to make school facilities a reality – their day-to-day involvement with the community which was needed to gain permission to work at schools, as well as the teaching acumen to create a hygiene education program. Finally, the communities themselves had to contribute to the project, by providing manual labor to support the building of the water facilities.

[...] Through the Healthy Schools projects in Guatemala, rural schools in need receive water systems, latrines, kitchen stoves and hand washing stations ["lavamanos"]. Global Water’s funding helps provide these systems [...].

Once these facilities are installed, the schools participating in the Healthy Schools program are required to implement an educational program to teach students how and why to use the new hygiene facilities. This education program is usually created by the Peace Corps volunteer who helped build the facilities at the school. Once this program is in place, the school is inspected by the Minister of Health, and can be recognized as a “Healthy School” by the Guatemalan government.

Read Global Water’s Healthy Schools Progress Reports:

• Final Report Handwashing station at Pakawex .pdf
• Final Report Tank Lavamanos Project .pdf
• Pacorral Final Report .pdf
• Pacorral Pictures .word doc

Source: PR.com, 10 Apr 2009

Peru, Lima: using carbon bonds to finance wastewater treatment

The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and Peru’s state water utility Sedapal have signed an agreement to start a pilot project at the Carapongo wastewater treatment plant, in Lima’s Ate Vitarte district. [...] Sedapal has bought equipment to burn the methane gas that is produced at the facility. CAF will assist with studies related to the sale of carbon bonds, generated by the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The entity will also try to identify potential buyers for the carbon bonds [...] under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism [CDM] or other markets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The sale of carbon bonds would help to finance the project

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 16 Apr 2009

Peru: sanitation – two out of three installations not used!

Such is the observation made by “Alternative Pro-poor Sanitation Solutions in Peru” (APSS), despite the numerous sanitation investments of the last few years for families, especially the poorest ones. The program supported by the Foundation Ensemble and undertaken in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) begins with this fact to act simultaneously on supply and demand. On the one side, awareness actions are undertaken to explain the challenges and opportunities of sanitation, and stimulate demand. Access to credit is facilitated. On the other side, activities focus on developing the supply locally, engage institutions and suppliers, and provide them with the means of meeting the evolving demand. Overall, five pilot zones are being studied, and the results are already encouraging.

Find out more:

• Fondation Ensemble - Alternative sanitation solutions for the most underprivileged – WSP- Peru
• WSP - Alternative Pro-poor Sanitation Solutions in Peru [project sheet]

Source: Fondation Ensemble newsletter, no. 11, Apr 2009

Paraguay: WB Approves US$64 Million to Improve Water, Sanitation for Most Vulnerable

The World Bank [has] approved a US$64 million loan to increase the efficiency, coverage and sustainability of water and sanitation services in Paraguay. The project will directly benefit almost 17 percent of Paraguayans, especially the most vulnerable and underserved groups.

[...] The Water and Sanitation Sector Modernization Project seeks to:

• Improve sector governance;
• Improve water services and increase access to sanitation [for one million people] in Metropolitan Asunción; and
• Increase access to sustainable water and sanitation services [for nearly 24,500 people] in rural areas [and] to build and/or expand approximately 30 water systems to support more than 6,000 indigenous peoples in rural areas.

For more information on this project go here.

Source: World Bank, 14 Apr 2009

Mexico, Mexico City: water, sewerage services restored

Potable water and sewerage services have been restored to [all but two] of the [areas] in Mexico’s federal district (DF), ending the water emergency affecting the area. [L]ocal water utility SACM [...] had to implement a 32-hour rationing period on April 11 and 12, as the main reservoirs that supply the Cutzamala system are at dangerously low levels due to lack of rainfall. The Cutzamala system supplies around 5.5mn inhabitants in Mexico state (Edomex) and the DF. [The two remaining areas that are cut off] Álvaro Obregón and Iztapalapa [...] are being served with portable water tanks.

The weekend water cut has angered inhabitants of poor neighborhoods in Mexico City. Time magazine quotes housewife Graciela Martinez, 44, [who] complains that the smell of her bathroom – used by her family of eight – had forced them all outside. “We have got no toilets, I can’t wash my children, I can’t cook, I can’t clean the mess off the floor,” Martinez says, trying to find shade from the sweltering sun. “And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink.” [...] She is also enraged that the blight is mostly hitting poor neighborhoods like hers. “The rich are still swimming in their pools while we are dying of thirst,” she says.

Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City’s water department, says the long-term solution [to the water shortages] involves teaching people to ration their water much better. [At present] the average Mexico City resident uses 300 liters of waters per day compared to 180 per day in some European cities, says Arreguin.

Piet Klop, an investigator at the Washington-based environmental think tank World Resources Institute, says that people will not learn to ration water unless it hits their pockets. “We need to understand that it is a more valuable commodity than oil and prices must reflect that better,” Klop says. “Cheap subsidized water is not helping people. It is giving them a bad service.” However, radically hiking the prices of any basic commodity would be a tough sell for any politician, especially in a turbulent democracy such as Mexico.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 13 Apr 2009 ; Ioan Grillo, Time, 11 Apr 2009

Mexico, Mexico City: water cut off affects 5 million people

Mexico City officials have shut down a main pipeline providing fresh water to millions of residents because reserves have fallen to record low levels. The closure, due to last 36 hours, will affect five million people, or a quarter of the city’s population. Unusually low rainfall [in 2008] and major leakage [50% of water never reaches consumers] are blamed for leaving reservoirs less than half full.

[...] This is the third time the capital has faced such a drastic form of water rationing this year [and] it has been deliberately timed to coincide with Easter weekend, when many residents [...] leave the city.

Source: BBC News, 10 Apr 2009

Colombia: Uribe appoints new environment, housing, territorial development minister

 

 

Carlos Costa. Photo: Cesar Carrión - SP

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has appointed Carlos Costa Posada as the country’s new environment, housing and territorial development minister. A former consultant to the World Bank’s Latin American and Caribbean water and urban development unit, Costa replaces Juan Lozano, who served as minister between July 2006 and March of this year. Costa’s areas of expertise include environmental management, disaster risk and climate change management.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 06 Apr 2009 ; Ministerio de ambiente, vivienda y desarrollo territorial, 06 Apr 2009

Bolivia, Chile: authorities closer to initial agreement regarding Silala waters

Bolivia and Chile are close to drawing up an initial agreement regarding the use of the Silala waters, following a meeting in Chilean capital Santiago on April 3 [2009]. Authorities agreed that Chile should compensate Bolivia for the water used, and that the resources should be divided equally between the two nations, local press reported. [...] The group will meet again in Bolivia, in May, to continue talks.

The initial agreement will require Chile to pay for 50% of the Silala resources. [T]he costs would be covered by state copper company Codelco and Chilean investment group Luksic’s rail company, Ferrocarril Andino, which connects Chilean city Antofagasta and Bolivia, as these are the two firms that most benefit from the Silala waters.

Meanwhile, Bolivia’s foreign relations minister David Choquehuanca has spoken about a fee of US$17,000/d, which would total about US$6mn/y.

Compensation for the water is a major policy change for Chile, as the country has steadfastly refused to pay for the resources, claiming they are part of an international river. At the same time, [..] Bolivian department Potosí’s Quijarro province [...] is opposed to Chile using any of the water.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 06 Apr 2009

Paraguay’s Indigenous Peoples in peril

The Paraguayan state is failing to adequately protect the rights of its Indigenous Peoples, forcing many to live in misery and effectively condemning some to death, Amnesty International has said.

The Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous communities have been displaced from their traditional lands and are unable to source water and food for themselves and with inadequate provision of health and education.

“In these conditions, the very survival of the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa is at risk,” said Louise Finer, Paraguay researcher at Amnesty International. “But the government has the power to show its commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ rights by fully complying with the Court’s rulings. These two communities have waited long enough.”

The Court set a deadline of 13 July 2008 for the restitution of traditional lands to the Yakye Axa and of 19 May 2009 for the Sawhoyamaxa. The Court also ordered that the Paraguayan state must provide the communities with basic services – such as sanitation, medical care, food and water – to ensure they are able to survive until their lands are returned.

More than 27 members of the two communities have died of preventable causes since those judgements were passed. In the past four months, six of the Sawhoyamaxa have died after suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting, among them four infants under the age of two.

Some action has been taken by President Fernando Lugo, but much more needs to be done, and much faster,” said Louise Finer. “The clock is ticking fast for the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa and unless their lands are returned and funds are made available for their development, more lives could be lost.”
AmnestyInternational: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/paraguay039s-indigenous-peoples-peril-20090331, 31 March 2009

Related new: http://livewire.amnesty.org/category/paraguay/