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Safe Water is Life in Bangladesh

safe_water
A World Health Organization case study of the quality of water in Bangladesh has revealed dangerously contaminated water. The daily use of this water puts many lives at risk.

The mayor of one region in Bangladesh, Nasir Uddin Ahammed, states that the community had believed that “water is life,” when the reality is actually that safe water is life.

In Bangladesh, diarrheal disease kills 62 in 1000 children under the age of five. The government has a current target to bring this number down to 46 by 2016.

However, when customs are deeply entrenched in traditional communities, it is difficult for change to occur quickly. In addition to diarrheal disease, other risks include dysentery and cholera.

Water sanitation programs have begun to work toward improving the safety of the water. Simple solutions, such as building platforms for tube wells and covers for water pumps and using clean containers for water collection, reduce the contamination risk of water.

Awareness campaigns can effectively help the citizens of Bangladesh address unhygienic practices. The WHO understands that it is unrealistic to expect programs to repair the 10 million tube wells in the country. However, targeted awareness campaigns can provide community members with the knowledge they need to make local changes.

Clean water is important for direct health reasons, and it is fundamental to the progress of communities. When children are sick from contaminated water, they cannot attend school. Furthermore, when community members are ill, the production and development in the region decreases.

With the mounting pressure on water systems due to migration from rural areas, clean and safe water is more important than ever. In communities, water can be purified with boiling. However, some families do not participate in this practice or may not be able to afford the fuel to boil water.

Current water sanitation programs are starting to see fewer diarrhea outbreaks with increased hygiene awareness. Moving latrines further away from tube wells has proven essential. In addition, with increased awareness, more community members are willing to pay for technologies and practices that will keep their drinking water clean.

– Iliana Lang

Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2, UNICEF
Photo: Fast Company

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Water in Rio May Pose Health Threat to Athletes

health_threat_to_athletesThe World Health Organization (WHO) is asking the International Olympic Committee to run new tests on the water in Rio de Janeiro. The request comes after an investigation by the Associated Press (AP), which determined the waterways still pose a health threat to athletes.

Previous evaluations of the water only checked for bacteria, not viruses, which is what WHO wants to change.

An AP investigation into Rio’s waterways found that pollution levels are still high in places where canoeists, sailors, swimmers and triathletes will compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The AP reported that some athletes training in Rio have fallen ill with symptoms including fever, vomiting and diarrhea because of dangerous levels of viruses and bacteria in the waterways.

The results of the investigation are disappointing for Rio, as being chosen to host the Olympics was supposed to motivate the city to clean its waterways. A newly installed sewage system was thought to be able to handle 80 percent of raw sewage, but as of March, the treatment rate was only 49 percent.

Still, the results aren’t necessarily a surprise, as Rio mayor Eduardo Paes confirmed to Brazil’s SporTV in March that Guanabara Bay, the waterway that is supposed to host the sailing events, would not be clean by the time the games start.

The waterway has become a place where some of the untreated sewage from the city’s 12 million residents ends up.

Rodrigo de Freitas Lake in Central Rio, a second venue for rowing, canoeing, triathlon and open-water events, also poses a health threat to athletes, with tests showing high levels of viruses in the water.

In response to the results of the investigation, the world sailing governing body said it would conduct its own independent testing of Rio’s waterways.

– Matt Wotus

Sources: The Washington Post 1, The Washington Post 2, The Washington Post 3
Photo: The Guardian

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Cleaner Water for Sub-Saharan Africa?

New water purification system in Tanzania Tanzanian entrepreneur Askwar Hilonga has invented a solution to a crisis that plagues his hometown in Tanzania, as well as the greater sub-Saharan Africa region, the lack of pure drinking water. Hilonga has created a water filter, the Nanofilter, that uses nanotechnology for water purification.

Hilonga was born and raised in an impoverished rural region of Tanzania. In his youth, he and his family had no access to clean water. He decided to devote his life to ending this atrocity, aiming to provide millions of people with this basic human right.

Hilonga’s water filter is sand-based — it uses sand to trap bacteria. The nanotechnology eliminates smaller particles like fluoride, heavy metals and chemical contaminants. It purifies water by 99.9 percent.

In Tanzania alone, 70 percent of the population does not have access to clean water or any type of water purification system. 88 percent of infant mortality is caused by waterborne diseases.

Hilonga is motivated to bring change to the country because of these statistics, but also because of his own experience growing up without clean water.

“I was born in rural Tanzania and raised by a poor family in which most of the times we were suffering from waterborne diseases because we could not afford the luxury of expensive bottled water,” explained Hilonga to How we Made it in Africa.

Hilonga, who received his PhD in Nanotechnology from a university in South Korea, won the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation this June, a $38,390 check to help get his company started. The money has enabled him to build his company. “It’s time to save more lives. And grow my business,” said Hilonga.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, which distributes the African Prize for Engineering Innovation, said that the Nanofilter is a transformative invention with the potential to save lives of innumerable Africans, as well as the lives of people across the world.

The Nanofilter is slowly becoming available across Tanzania. Ten entrepreneurs in the country operate water stations that utilize the Nanofilter at the center of their business model.

“We rent the filter to them and they sell drinking water at an affordable price – five times cheaper than the bottled water,” explained Hilonga. The entrepreneurs who run the stations then pay Hilonga’s company around fifty cents per day.

The Nanofilter is cost-effective, with a market price of only $130 per unit. Hilonga believes that the price will continue to drop because, due to his prize money, he can buy materials in bulk and save money.

Nine households have already purchased units. Hilonga has also sold nine filters to local schools, the price subsidized by a Canadian charity.

“We have orders now from various places in Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia. At present the demand for our filter is higher than our ability to supply…Now we are able to increase our production capacity and we will also strengthen our team by employing more people for sales and marketing,” said Hilonga.

Before Hilonga won the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, he feared that the Nanofilter would never make it due to financial constraint. “I was always looking for external sources of support at least for seed capital,” he said.

The Prize, he explained, not only gave him financial confidence, but also business training. Additionally, due to the prize the Nanofilter was publicized and gained credibility.

Hilonga’s plans for the future are ambitious — he wants to provide the 70 percent of nine million in Tanzania who currently do not have access to water treatment with access to the Nanofilter. After that, he hopes to reach the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

– Aaron Andree

Sources: How We Made It In Africa, BBC
Photo: QuartzAfrica

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Urban Water and Sanitation Project to Benefit 590,000 in Dakar

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Only 62% of households in Senegal’s capital city have access to sanitation facilities. Considering that nearly half the Senegalese people live in urban areas, improving access to clean water and proper sanitation in these regions is imperative to the population’s health and the country’s development.

In an effort to help Senegal extend water and sanitation access throughout urban and peri-urban areas, the World Bank’s International Development Association has just approved $70 million in credit to fund an Urban Water and Sanitation Project, which is estimated to better the lives of 590,000 Senegalese people by 2030.

Senegal has made great strides in the past, achieving a 98% rate of urban access to safe water; however, population growth in the capital city, Dakar, and Petite Côte, a prominent tourist destination, has led to increased water shortages. The water deficits are set to worsen over the next five years, reaching 35,000 cubic meters and 60,000 cubic meters per day respectively in Petite Côte and Dakar by 2020.

Tackling these water deficits will be a major component of the Urban Water and Sanitation Project. One strategy proposed is the desalination of seawater as a supplement to groundwater and surface water resources.

Another area that the project will address is social sustainability, seeking to develop “pro-poor policies” that will improve access for impoverished Senegalese households. The program will target low-income areas in and around urban centers currently underserved by water and sanitation networks.

The project proposal promises that the newly developed water connections will be freely available to beneficiary households after “a small refundable deposit of $31, whereas the average price of a standard connection is $145. Similar rules will apply to social connections to sewers.”

In addition to supplying important access to sanitation services and safe water, the initiative hopes to promote gender equality. As is the case in many developing nations, Senegalese women and girls are largely responsible for the burden hauling water in areas without pipelines and distribution systems. The development of water and sanitation systems to impoverished areas will afford those women and girls more time for employment, education and other activities that promote social mobility.

The Urban Water and Sanitation Project also seeks to actively promote women’s interests, stating: “Attention will be given to promoting women’s entrepreneurship through the project as well as access to opportunities for training, business and leadership where feasible.”

Furthermore, women will take a central role in hygiene education and information programs associated with the Urban Water and Sanitation Project. The proposal also promises that women will also participate in selecting the locations of public sanitation facilities.

“By expanding access to clean water and sanitation, the project will help boost the health of Senegal’s urban population,” noted Matar Fall, World Bank Task Team Leader for the Urban Water and Sanitation Project. “Water access can also form the basis for many types of income-generating activities such as home-based manufacturing and services that can turn the poor into local entrepreneurs.”

The World Bank and Senegal are looking ahead to a future in which sanitation and water work to promote equality and opportunity, rather than functioning as a sign of poverty.

– Emma-Claire LaSaine

Sources: The World Bank, All Africa, USAID, WASH
Photo: Hampton Roads PDC

The SunSaluter: A One-Stop Shop For Power and Water

SunSaluter
Eden Full was 19-years-old when she dropped out of Princeton University to turn her high school science project into a global technology innovation. She created the SunSaluter, a solar panel rotator designed to collect energy and produce four liters of clean drinking water at the same time.

The SunSaluter is a low-cost solar panel placed on a single axis that rotates towards the sun. The solar panel is mounted on a rotating frame, with a weight suspended from one end, and a specially designed water clock suspended on the other. As the sun rises, the water clock is heated, which forces the water to empty through a purifier and into a container. This process produces four liters of clean drinking water each day.

The rotation is a passive movement that increases the efficiency of the solar panels by 30 percent. The SunSaluter is built using low-tech tools and materials, making it a perfect fit for the developing world.

Not only does the SunSaluter produce more energy that most solar panels because of it’s rotation, it also saves time and energy for those who use it, who otherwise would spend time collecting wood or spending money on gas and electricity. It provides families with electricity and clean water, providing them with resources they did not previously have access.

In 2012, Full installed the first SunSaluters in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In an interview with Triple Pundit, she explains the value of the simplicity of the SunSaltuer. “A lot of the people, mostly women, who gather the water and who would be maintaining these devices, have never gone to school. So it’s very important to actually go out into the field to figure out what kind of technology is needed to match that lifestyle.”

However, the SunSaluter is still a work in progress. Full is working on a business strategy to fund the production, as well as to maximize the efficiency of the product itself. Full is bright and determined, and is pushing for success of the SunSaluter.

– Hannah Resnick

Sources: Business Insider, Clean Technica, SunSaluter, Triple Pundit
Photo: Flickr

How to Make Water Drinkable

How-To-Make-Water-Drinkable
One of the biggest issues in many developing nations with regards to poverty is the lack of necessary resources. One such resource that many impoverished people lack is safe and sustainable drinking water.

Though most countries seem to have plenty of water sources, many of these are not safe for people. This means they are not safe not only to drink but to bathe in, as many people do in poor and underdeveloped nations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has done studies that have shown that only approximately 59 percent of the world’s population has access to safe drinking water. WHO also has stated that it is proven that having adequate and sustainable water resources has prevented the outbreak and spread of disease. This means that the other 41 percent of the global population without safe drinking water are not only without a resource necessary for the sustenance of life, but are also at risk for the outbreak and spread of dangerous diseases.

For example, unsafe and contaminated water sources are responsible for the increasingly rampant spread of dangerous diseases in Africa, especially amongst young children and the elderly. Although just over half of the world has access to safe drinking water, only about 16 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has access to such a resource.

This issue revolves around a number of flaws in the maintenance of water filtration systems in poorer countries in Africa. It is also attributed to a lack of education for the people in what they should consider safe drinking water, the potential risks of drinking from unsafe sources and how to get access to safer water.

How to make water drinkable:

Despite the flaws in the system, there are a number of actions being taken by NGOs and charity organizations as an effort to end such problems with such an essential resource. For example, The Water Project is a nonprofit organization that works with communities in sub-Saharan Africa to create sustainable and safe water filtration systems. This includes not only building infrastructure that would physically yield more drinking water, but also educating the people of the region in safer habits and smarter financial practices that would make these efforts have a more long-term impact.

It is through organizations and programs such as these and smarter maintenance of innovative systems by the states themselves in underdeveloped and developing nations that will make sustainable water resources something that 100 percent of the world’s population will soon have access to.

– Alexandrea Jacinto

Sources: The Water Project, World Health Organization
Photo: IKKUMA

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Car Batteries Creating Clean Water?

Clean-Water-Car Battery
Providing clean water to poor communities is a critical step in ending poverty. Dirty water is a breeding ground for bacteria and parasites that cause severe illness and death. Also, women and young girls are the main group of people who collect water. If they have to spend more time walking to the places that have clean, safe drinking water, they have less time for taking care of their family or going school, respectively.

There are roughly 1 billion people without access to clean water and thousands more who travel a long distance to find it. That is why organizations and people are building wells and finding innovative solutions to turn dirty water into drinking water.

A new method involves a car battery, some water and the right mix of salt. The NGO PATH and Mountain Safety Research have teamed together to bring this car battery water purifier to people in need. It is called the SE200 Community Chlorine Maker.

What the SE200 does is create chlorine that is then used to treat contaminated water. (Chlorine is often used to kill bacteria and viruses that make water unsafe to drink.) One teaspoon of chlorine can purify 5 gallons of water.

So, how does the SE200 make chlorine? Well, there is a small plastic canister that attaches to the car battery. The canister is marked with lines that guide the user in adding the right amount of water and salt. The user simply has to push the button on the machine, and the magic begins. What unfolds next is a chemical reaction that separates the salt ions to create chlorine in about 5 minutes. The kit even comes with test strips to make sure that the chorine concentration is correct, though the makers boast that the SE200 will always make the right concentration.

The SE200 has been field tested over the past several years with many positive results. The makers of the SE200 say that it can last for up to five years and provide clean water to 200 people. Each batch of chlorine can clean 200 liters of water.

The SE200 is currently being distributed by NGOs to the areas that are in need of clean water. The Mountain Safety Research group is providing yet another way for people in developing countries to access clean water and live better lives.

– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: Global Biodefense, NPR, The Water Project, United Nations
Photo: Wikipedia

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10 Breakthroughs That Will Help Women and Children

10 Breakthroughs That Will Help Women and Children
Since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000, global poverty has nearly halved. There have been huge advancements in medicine and more people than before having access to clean drinking water.

However, despite these advancements, women and children are still the most at risk. Because of the uneven progress in reducing global poverty for women and children, the Every Woman Every Child movement was started. Policymakers, donors, healthcare professionals and many others come together to find a solution to the uneven progress in reducing global poverty for women and children.

PATH released a list of Top 10 Technologies in 2015 for Women and Children that will help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Here is a summary of each:

For Women:
1. Nonpneumatic AntiShock Garment is used to prevent postpartum hemorrhaging. It compresses the body and circulates blood to the vital organs after the mother has given birth.

2. Magnesium Sulfate is a low-cost, effective drug in treating life-threatening convulsions, preeclampsia and eclampsia, all pregnancy-related conditions.

3. Sayana Press is a new form of injectable contraceptive that is packaged in a one-time use, simple to administer needle. This increases women’s access to contraceptives and eliminates the risk of transmitting disease through sharing needles.

For Newborns:
4. Helping Babies Breathe is a program and simulator created to train 1 million birth attendants to make sure the baby takes it’s first breath, regardless of where it is born.

5. Chlorhexidine is a low-cost antiseptic that prevents the disease from entering the baby’s system through the newly-cut umbilical cord.

6. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Device is designed to help premature babies breathe. It is an air and water pump system that gently flows pressurized air into the baby’s lungs.

For Children:
7. Kit Yamoyo is a bundled package of zinc and oral rehydration solution, which are affordable diarrhea treatment. Cola Life created the Kit Yamoyo to pack with Coca-Cola bottles that are delivered to Africa to spread the cure to diarrhea.

8. Phone Oximeter is a low-cost mobile health platform that allows people to test their blood oxygen levels using a sensor on the phone to test for pneumonia. The device then tells them the diagnosis and treatment options without needing access to a doctor.

9. Rotavac is an effective vaccine to cure rotavirus, the cause of deadly diarrhea. It costs $1 per dose and has already become widely available in India, changing the lives of thousands.

10. Backpack PLUS Project is a toolkit made to empower health workers in areas where the patients may never be within proximity to a doctor. The prototype includes medicines, diagnostics and supplies to increase the number of lives saved.

– Hannah Resnick

Sources: PATH, Every Woman Every Child
Photo: African Union

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India’s Sanitation Solutions

India's Sanitation Solutions Poor Sanitation
Build toilets, not temples. This is the message from India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, reflecting on India’s sanitation solutions.

 

A Need for Solutions to Poor Sanitation

 

The goal is to end defecation in public places by 2019. About 130 million households do not have toilets – 53 percent of India’s population. The number jumps to 70 percent when villages are singled out, where most people simply relieve themselves in fields, on the side of roads or behind bushes.

The issues that come with this are massive. Health is impacted in numerous ways. The spread of disease is pervasive when open defecation is common: “because India’s population is huge, growing rapidly and densely settled, it is impossible even in rural areas to keep human feces from crops, wells, food and children’s hands. Ingested bacteria and worms spread diseases, especially of the intestine.”

Poor sanitation is the reason for 80 percent of illnesses in India, as well as the leading cause of death for children under 5-years-old. Malnutrition is also a huge problem, despite some children’s diets improving and others getting more than enough to eat. When bacteria gets into children’s intestines, it causes something called enteropathy, which prevents bodies from absorbing nutrients and calories. Because of this, half of India’s children are still considered malnourished.

Hundreds upon hundreds die each year from diseases related to poor sanitation, but politicians have been slow to face up to the problem, and locals have been known to actually prefer “going” in a field instead of a government-built toilet. Culture comes into play here: in the Hindu tradition, it is sometimes encouraged to relieve oneself far away from the home to preserve its purity.

There is a safety aspect to the issue, as well as the issue that people have to leave their homes at night to relieve themselves. There have been instances of young women being raped and murdered while venturing out to take care of business.

 

Innovative Aid at the Heart of India’s Sanitation Solutions

 

What is being done to help solve India’s waste problems? The government’s toilet building campaign is a good start, despite the usage issues that they face. Convincing the public to forget old ways is never easy. Even more worrisome is the fact that while many toilets have been built – around 77 percent of households under the poverty line have toilets – countless numbers of them are out of order.

While toilets are certainly needed, safe water is also key. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is investing in a machine called the Omni Processor which is capable of turning sewage into drinking water while powering itself independently.

Bill Gates even tried out the water it produces. One machine can produce enough clean water for 100,000 people. Construction is already underway for a machine in Senegal, and Gates says that there is one in India’s near future as well.

A simple Google search provides a multitude of water-filtering devices similar to searching for solar-powered flashlights. However, the problem runs deeper than simply purifying water in India. There simply is not enough of it. The country is home to 16 percent of the world’s population, but it only has four percent of the world’s freshwater. The groundwater for many of India’s major cities is quickly disappearing, with levels so low in places like Mumbai and Delhi that they could be depleted entirely within a few years. Machines like the Omni Processor could be the answer to this water depletion catastrophe.

– Greg Baker

Sources: Economist, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Clean Leap, New York Times, India Sanitation Solutions,
Photo: Acumen

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Cholera Outbreak Among Burundian Refugees Contained

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A cholera outbreak in Tanzania that claimed the lives of 30 Burundian refugees and local Tanzanians has been curbed.

The epidemic occurred in western Tanzania near Lake Tanganyika, in a remote village that is overcrowded with refugees. Authorities estimate refugees consumed contaminated lake water, which facilitated the spread of cholera. A total of 4,408 cases have been reported.

A UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman, Adrian Edwards, said that no new deaths have been reported since last Thursday, and the number of new daily cases has fallen from around 915 per day at the height of the outbreak on May 18 to less than one hundred per day. According to Edwards, the situation is improving but it still could take several weeks to see cholera completely eradicated among this population.

The majority of the cholera victims are refugees of Burundi who are fleeing to avoid violence stemming from a failed political coup in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura.

The influx of refugees from Burundi to surrounding countries has not stopped. The UNHCR estimates that over 100,000 Burundian refugees have escaped, leaving over 64,000 Burundians in Tanzania, and the remaining in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 100 Burundians per day arrive to each of these surrounding countries.

The refugees that arrive in Tanzania must walk four hours through the mountains to reach the border. Some immediately are bussed to the camp called Nyarugusu, and some wait for boats that will take them to a camp called Kigoma. Tens of thousands wait by Lake Tanganyika, a tiny beach area that is only 800 meters by 500 meters. The overcrowding and high density of refugees on the move has facilitated the quick spread of cholera.

Many refugees are being moved from Lake Tanganyika because it is overcrowded and unsanitary. Kahindo Maina, a public health officer of the UNHCR, said, ”Our priority is to get all the refugees out of Kagunga because the situation is dire. We have built latrines and brought supplies to provide clean water but the terrain and the crowded situation does not allow for a good sanitary situation there.”

Refugees have been moved to the Tanganyika stadium in Kigoma where there are better facilities, and cleaner water and sanitation. Tanzanian health authorities, the UNHCR, the World Health Organization and other partners have helped stem the spread of cholera by the promotion of hygiene, treatment of patients, implementation of effective prevention measures and the creation of access to sanitation and safe water.

Other preventative measures provided by the Ministry of Health, the UN and NGO partners include airlifting medicine and providing medical supplies and protective gear. UNHCR spokesman Edwards explained that “together with the government and our UN and NGO partners, we are providing oral rehydration solutions, soap and water purification tablets, and increasing hand-washing facilities.”

Around 30,000 refugees have also been moved from the lake area to Nyarugusu. Here, they receive vaccinations for childhood illnesses, get dewormed and have nutritional assessments done. New latrine and sanitation facilities are being built.

– Margaret Anderson
Sources: AllAfrica, Humanosphere, UNHCR 1, UNHCR 2
Photo: UNHCR