HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

 The title, “Nzoue Fiyen,” means water not drinkable in a local language in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. The film was produced by Zakaria Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso for his Internship with Horizon International, an NGO based at Yale University. Zakaria is focusing on Water, Health and Hygiene (WASH) Documentary film production with hopes to advance understanding of the problems especially in rural West African communities and to find knowledge of solutions. Co-Narrators Rasmane Ouedraogo and Janine M. H. Selendy, Script co-authors Frances de Larminat and Janine M. H. Selendy, Montage by Sanata Ouedraogo, and Sound Moumouni Yaro.

Thanks to Horizon International (NGO based at Yale University). Statistics from: WHO / UNICEF report 2019 (https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_...).

Rasmane Ouedraogo, Zakaria’s father, is Rasmané Ouedraogo, is an Award-winning Filmmaker, Director, Producer and Comedian. He co-directed and hosted Horizon International’s TV program “Burkinabé: People With A Future” (available on this YouTube Channel). He heads FESPACO, African film festival. He is training media production on WASH.

“According the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, as of 2017, 2.2 billion people lack safely managed water services, 4.2 billion lack safely managed sanitation and 3 billion lack basic hand-washing facilities.”

Source: https://washdata.org/

During World Water Week (25-30 August 2019) in Stockholm, The World Health Organization (WHO) and UN-Water called for an urgent increase in investment in strong drinking-water and sanitation systems.  They cited a report by WHO published on behalf of UN-Water that “reveals that weak government systems and a lack of human resources and funds are jeopardizing the delivery of water and sanitation services in the world’s poorest countries – and undermining efforts to ensure health for all.”

The report,” Weak systems and funding gaps jeopardize drinking-water and sanitation in the world’s poorest countries,” UN-Water Global Assessment and Analysis of Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2019 (known as the GLAAS report), surveyed 115 countries and territories, representing 4.5 billion people. It showed that, in an overwhelming majority of countries, the implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene policies and plans is constrained by inadequate human and financial resources. Nineteen countries and one territory reported a funding gap of more than 60% between identified needs and available funding. Less than 15% of countries have the financial or human resources needed to implement their plans.”

My health is in my hands!

Photograph by Francis Odupute, BFI’s Leader.

“Too many people lack access to reliable and safe drinking-water, toilets and hand-washing facilities, putting them at risk of deadly infections and threatening progress in public health,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Water and sanitation systems don’t just improve health and save lives, they are a critical part of building more stable, secure and prosperous societies. We call on all countries that lack essential water and sanitation infrastructure to allocate funds and human resources to build and maintain it.”

“If we are to create a healthier, more equitable and stable society, then strengthening the systems to reach those currently living without safe and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene services must be a top priority,” says Mr Gilbert F Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. “While we need to ensure that there is sufficient funding to tackle these critical challenges, it is equally important to continue reinforcing national delivery systems.”

While funding gaps and weak systems are holding many countries back, the report also found that countries have begun to take positive steps towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation.

“The Sustainable Development Goals have inspired us to take concrete actions at the national level to increase access to sanitation,” says Mr David Molefha, Principal Water Engineer at the Ministry of Land Management Water and Sanitation Services in Botswana. “We have developed a sanitation roadmap and are working to eliminate open defecation. With these actions, we are working to improve peoples’ lives.”

“About half of the countries surveyed have now set drinking-water targets that aim for universal coverage at levels higher than basic services by 2030, for example by addressing water quality and increasing access to water on premises. In addition, specifically targeting open defecation will have a dramatic impact on public and environmental health.”

This news is from: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/28-08-2019-weak-systems-and-funding-gaps-jeopardize-drinking-water-and-sanitation-in-the-world%E2%80%99s-poorest-countries and other sources as indicated.

The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of national, regional and global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for global monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH. The JMP uses service ladders to track the progressive reduction of inequalities in levels of service between and within countries. This report presents updated national, regional and global estimates for WASH in households for the period 2000-2017.

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/coverage/en/

Read more and download the 2019 report

Further information

·       WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme

·       UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative

About JMP:  Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP)
“The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) has reported country, regional and global estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) since 1990. The JMP maintains an extensive global database and has become the leading source of comparable estimates of progress at national, regional and global levels. The 2017 report was the first of the Sustainable Development Goal period and established baseline estimates for monitoring the new Sustainable Development Goal targets.”

“The 2019 update estimated that in 2017, 29% of the global population (2.2 billion people) lacked ‘safely managed drinking water’– meaning water at home, available, and safe. 55% of the global population (4.2 billion people) lacked “safely managed sanitation” – meaning access to a toilet or latrine that leads to treatment or safe disposal of excreta. 40% of the global population (3 billion people) did not have access at home to a handwashing facility with soap and water.

Drinking water available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/drinking-water

Drinking water services refers to the accessibility, availability and quality of the main source used by households for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and other domestic uses

Read more

Sanitation available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/sanitation

Sanitation services refer to the management of excreta from the facilities used by individuals, through emptying and transport of excreta for treatment and eventual discharge or reuse.

Read more

Hygiene available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/hygiene

Hygiene refers to the conditions and practices that help maintain health and prevent spread of disease including handwashing, menstrual hygiene management and food hygiene

Inequalities available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/inequalities

Tracking inequalities in access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene is essential for achieving universal access and ensuring progressive realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation.

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Schools available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/schools

The JMP has expanded its global databases to include WASH in schools. The 2018 global baseline report includes harmonized national estimates as well as regional and global estimates for 2016.

 Read more

Health care facilities available at https://washdata.org/monitoring/health-care-facilities

In 2019 the JMP published harmonized baseline estimates for water, sanitation, hand hygiene, health care waste management, and environmental cleaning (WASH) services in health care facilities. The global baseline report found that one in four health care facilities (26%) lacked basic water services, while one in five (21%) had no sanitation service. A companion report published by WHO and UNICEF describes practical steps that countries are taking to ensure universal access to quality care. 

Read more

Books: 

 1^st Edition, Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Environment: Challenges, Interventions and Preventive Measures (with DVDs),

 2nd Volume,  Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions, and Preventive Measures 

Companion website: and http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/selendy/. 

The second volume of books,  Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions, and Preventive Measures, which has an added emphasis on climate change is now available. 

As the back cover summarizes: “Augmenting authoritative interdisciplinary coverage in the first edition, this new edition of Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment expands upon the significance of the changing environment to disease vectors, food systems and nutrition, and population, and the importance of ecosystem health to human health. Many chapters stand as they are in first edition to which readers are referred, and which are not included in this volume.

The books were written by 75 experts and published by Wiley-Blackwell in collaboration with Horizon International.

The following is an excerpt from what Dr. Paul Farmer writes in his Foreword to the new volume, Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment: Challenges, Interventions, and Preventive Measures:

 “The work of experienced scholars, public‐health advocates, and implementers, this new edition of Water and Sanitation‐Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers a thorough review of some of the ranking problems of our time. Taken individually, these chapters constitute a critical compendium of ongoing debates among experts and a concise summary of more settled matters. But editor Janine Selendy has also woven these diverse chapters—which include highly focused considerations of specific waterborne illnesses and more broad‐ranging matters from climate change to technological innovation—into a powerful and hefty manual to guide collective action going forward…. It will be an authoritative reference for practitioners and trainees to deliver on the promise of water, sanitation, and health for all.”

                                 Paul Farmer, MD, PhD Kolokotrones University Professor, Harvard University, Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School Chief, Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Co‐founder, Partners In Health