Although more than 3,000 people have been infected, health officials affirm there are signs that the cholera outbreak in central Haiti may be stabilising.
Officials indicate that the disease is a serious threat to the 1.3 million survivors of January’s earthquake who are living in tented camps surrounding the city.
The poor sanitary conditions make them vulnerable to cholera, which is caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated water or food.
The director general of Haiti’s health department, Gabriel Thimote, said yesterday (24.10.2010) that the number of people who had died in the outbreak was rising, but more slowly than during the previous 24 hours.
“We have registered a diminishing in numbers of deaths and of hospitalised people in the most critical areas,” he told reporters.
“The tendency is that it is stabilising, without being able to say that we have reached a peak,” he added.
Haitian officials said more households were following advice on drinking clean water and taking care with personal hygiene.
The Japanese government has signed a 55mn-cordoba (US$2.56mn) grant agreement for the expansion of the sanitation system in western Nicaragua’s Granada city, local paper La Prensa reported.
Full article available on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 13 Aug 2010
For the fifth week in a row, the number of H1N1 cases continues to grow throughout the country, said Dr. Otto Pelaez Sanchez, head of the Transmissible Diseases Department of the Cuban Public Health ministry.
Based on the situation, people were called to strictly follow personal and collective hygiene measures indicated by health authorities and to visit the doctor as soon as any symptoms of flu appear.
In reference to the national vaccination campaign against the H1N1 virus to conclude on Tuesday, April 2, Dr. Pelaez Sanchez said 981,130 people (87.4 percent), selected based on risk factors, have received the shot. Of them78, 915 are either pregnant women or have given birth recently, representing 99.7 percent of the total.
Dr. Pelaez Sanchez said the people who have been vaccinated remain under strict watch so that they can receive immediate medical care in case of severe reactions, although no serious side-effects of the vaccine have been reported so far. Among minor adverse reactions are headaches, pain in the area of the shot, fever, tiredness and allergies.
A pilot project in Honduran capital Tegucigalpa has increased solid waste collection by 75% . The city’s solid waste division has started to collect garbage at night.
Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 11 Mar 2010
Costa Rica’s state water utility AyA will invest US$270mn to start treating the 2,800l/s of wastewater currently produced in the greater metropolitan area in and around capital San José. The project involves the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the sewerage networks in nine municipalities. The initiative is partly financed with a US$130mn loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 25 Jan 2010
Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state water utility Caern intends to improve its sewage collection coverage in state capital Natal from 33% to 73% in time for the 2014 World Cup. The service boost will lift the city out of its poor sewage collection ranking among World Cup host cities, according to the center for social research for economic thinktank Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV).
Read the full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 30 Dec 2009
Brazil could meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in sanitation by 2025, a full 10 years behind schedule, according to a study by NGO Instituto Trata Brasil (ITB) and center for social research at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV).
Read the full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 26 Nov 2009
The program to improve sewage collection in Brazil’s Bahia state capital Salvador should be used as a model throughout the country, according to Marcelo Cortes Neri, head of the center for social research at Brazilian economic thinktank Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). FGV, in association with NGO Instituto Trata Brasil (ITB), released the results of a detailed study of sanitation services in the 27 state capitals.
Read the full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 24 Nov 2009
Honduran capital Tegucigalpa and neighboring city Comayagüela require an investment of US$500mn to repair their ageing sewerage system. Of the capital’s 2,500km network of sewerage pipelines, 30% are in a state of disrepair. In many places, sewerage pipelines are connected to rainwater pipelines, or are leaking into potable water pipelines.
Read the full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 24 Nov 2009
Thanks to US$ 50 million in grants from Spain and US$ 50 million in loans from the Inter-American Development (IDB) Guatemala will expand safe water and sanitation services to approximately 600,000 people in 280 rural communities and 60 urban and periurban areas that today lack those services.
In addition to enhancing and expanding water and sanitation services, the program will foster organized participation by the rural communities and the municipalities in order to ensure that the systems constructed are sustainable over time. The funds will also serve to consolidate and strengthen the institutions needed for the planning, regulation and delivery of the services.
The program will lend support to a comprehensive plan drawn up by the Government of Guatemala to reduce the shortfall in coverage of these services. Current water and sanitation service coverage, nationwide, is 75 percent and 47 percent, respectively, which means that nearly 3 million Guatemalans still lack public water services and approximately 6 million lack sanitation services.
In the rural areas of Guatemala, water coverage is 60 percent, sanitation 36 percent. The worst shortfalls are found in areas with predominantly indigenous populations. According to Government estimates, only 15 percent of the water distributed in the country can be considered potable and barely 5 percent of the sewerage systems properly treat wastewater prior to disposal. To achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Guatemala would have to invest an estimated $1,602 million in improving these services.
This is the fourth project financed jointly by the IDB and the Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Spanish Fund), an entity established in 2009 at the initiative of the President of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
[...]
Apart from the project in Guatemala, the IDB and Spain are co-financing projects in Haiti, Bolivia and Paraguay, and between now and mid-2010 they are expected to finance projects located in Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru and Uruguay. All in all, Spain will donate US$ 407 million to those projects, while the IDB will contribute US$ 213 million in grants and loans, in addition to defraying the bulk of the their preparation and implementation costs. Some 4 million people living in low-income urban and rural communities are expected to benefit directly from these projects.
Initially, the program will be executed by the National Peace Fund (FONAPAZ) with the support of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. Nineteen months into the Program, responsibility for executing it will pass to the Municipal Development Institute (INFOM/UNEPAR).
Of the loans granted to the program by the IDB, US$ 40 million will be for a 30-year term, with a 5.5 year grace period, at a variable interest rate based on Libor, while the remaining US$ 10 million will be for a 40-year term with a grace period of 40 years, and an interest rate of 0.25 percent. The IDB could eventually consider financing a second phase of the program with an additional US$ 100 million loan.
Brazil is on track when it comes to applying necessary investments to achieve its goal of universal potable water supply and sewage collection and treatment services in 20 years, president of national...
Latin American water utilities that are able to cover their costs through tariffs are most likely providing wider potable water coverage in their areas of competence, a paper by the Economic Commissio...
A WASH News blog maintained by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
