AGENDA

admin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:21 +0000

More than 2.5 billion people, roughly 38% of the world’s population, lack access to basic sanitation facilities while more than a billion people across the world continue to use unsafe drinking water sources. This means that the world is not on track to meet Millennium Development Goal targets, especially on sanitation. The focus now needs to be more specific, particularly on poor and marginalized groups, where access to basic water supply and sanitation facilities are largely unsatisfactory. The majority of this population is concentrated in underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In Nepal, 80.4% coverage in water supply and 46% in basic sanitation facilities (DWSS, 2008) shows that the country is not on track to achieving the set MDGs for both water supply and sanitation. A similar situation also prevails in the entire region of South Asia where there is similar gender inequality and a very strong rural urban divide in water supply and sanitation services and access to basic health care facilities. High incidences of water-related diseases have been major cause of death and low productivity of the population in the entire region.

Safe drinking water is one of the most basic of human needs. Access to water and sanitation plays a crucial role in overall social and economic development. Therefore, this sector must be at the central core of the development agenda. Water supply and sanitation issues relating to informal settlement and marginalized communities often tend to be neglected in the mainstream development agenda largely because development policies are less sensitive to the issues and therefore do not provide them needed space and importance. Reforms in development policies to promote people-centered development planning is needed, and this would also be crucial in create enabling environment for increasing investment and people’s participation. Strong public-private partnership has been found crucial in accelerating the coverage of basic water supply and sanitation facilities, especially in informal settlements.

Simple, low-cost and appropriate technologies have tremendous significance in accelerating the basic water supply and sanitation coverage in poor and marginalized communities. While low-cost and appropriate technologies have gained appreciation among development agencies, these have yet to become part of the formal educational system. Academic curriculum designed to train professionals to work in the water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector lack coverage on small, sustainable and low-cost options. This is also the reason that the professionals working in WASH lack appreciation for the links between WASH practices and livelihood and addressing this interlink in designing and undertaking sustainable development programs.

It is on this basis that this conference intends to focus on appropriate and sustainable WASH solutions to the marginalized and informal settlements. The conference intends to bring together researchers, educationists, development workers, professionals and policy personnel working on these issues in South Asia to discuss and come up with recommendations for policy reforms, development planning and appropriate application of low-cost WASH interventions.

Appropriate Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Solutions for Informal Settlements and Marginalized Communities

AGENDA