1st assessment of water security in Africa is based on 10 indicators

Despite global Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made in 2015, just 29 African nations have made some progress over the past three to five years, 25 have made none, according to the UN’s first-ever assessment of water security in Africa.

Published on the eve of World Water Day (March 22) by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment and Health, the assessment employed 10 indicators to quantify water security in Africa’s 54 countries.  Water security is elaborated below.

UNU-INWEH authors Grace Oluwasanya, Duminda Perera, Manzoor Qadir and Vladimir Smakhtin, the Institute’s Director, say the assessment is limited by “very poor” data on water security-related issues such as access to drinking water or sanitation, but it nevertheless offers some “preliminary but obvious conclusions.”

“Data limitations do not change the main outcome of this assessment, which is strong and clear,” says lead author Grace Oluwasanya.  “Overall levels of water security in Africa are low. Not a single country let alone a subregion have at present achieved a state that can be seen as ‘model’ or even ‘effective’ stage of water security.”

Says co-author Duminda Perera: “This assessment for African countries aimed to create a quantitative starting point and a platform for subsequent discussions with national, regional and international agents; it is neither a prescription nor a guide.”

“As this quantitative tool develops, it will help generate targeted policy recommendations and inform decision-making and public-private investments toward achieving water security in Africa.”

Results in brief

Overall

Except for Egypt, all country scores are below 70 (on a scale of 100). Only 13 of 54 countries reached a modest level of water security in recent years, and over a third are deemed to have levels of water security below the threshold of 45.  

Together, the 19 countries below the threshold are home to half a billion people.

Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia are Africa’s top five most water-secure countries in Africa, yet with only modest absolute levels of water security achieved. 

Somalia, Chad and Niger appear to be the least water-secure countries in Africa. 

There has been little progress in national water security of most African states over the past three to five years, the report finds. The number of countries that made some progress (29) is close to the number of those that made none (25).

Indicator 1 

Access to drinking water ranged from 99% in Egypt to 37% in the Central African Republic, and between subregions from 92% in North Africa to 62% in Central Africa. Africa’s average basic drinking water service is 71%, “leaving behind some 29% of the total population” or more than 353 million people. 

Indicator 2 

Access to sanitation is broadly similar at the subregional level, but a few countries — Seychelles and most countries in North Africa countries — have reached or nearly reached 100%. The most challenged countries are Chad and Ethiopia (under 20% access), with 60% average access to even limited sanitation; thus at least 40% of the total population (483 million people) are left behind. 

Indicator 3

Access to hygiene facilities and practices (e.g. hand washing) are greatest in North Africa (67%), worst in West Africa (with Rwanda, Liberia lowest among eight countries with less than 10% access; Chad and the Central African Republic suffer the highest number of deaths from diarrhea).

Indicator 4

Per capita water availability is highest in Central Africa (with the Republic of Congo considered Africa’s most water-rich country — over 31,000 cubic meters per capita), while half of North African countries appear to be absolutely water scarce — less than 500 cubic meters of water per capita per annum. Due to their population growth, water availability has recently declined in West, Central and Southern Africa sub-region, and, on a country scale, in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Somalia, Mozambique, and Malawi.

Indicator 5

Water use efficiency appears to be lowest in North Africa (with Somalia lowest at the national level) highest in Central Africa (with Angola highest at a national level). In general, agriculture-dominant countries score lower.  An improvement seen in water use efficiency in Africa as a whole is primarily due to efforts in Tunisia, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Uganda, but poor data quality makes assessment difficult.

Indicator 6

Water infrastructure is deemed best in the Southern Africa sub-region, worst in East Africa. South Africa, with over 25% of all large dams in Africa, is outscored by Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, likely due to just one mega reservoir in those countries. Half of all countries score very low, reflecting the continent’s low level of water storage development. Only Ethiopia and Namibia have increased their storage over recent years, while Ivory Coast and Gabon have shown a decline, partly explained by rising populations with no or minimal increase in storage. Africa-average per capita storage capacity increased by only 3% over five recent years. 

Indicator 7

Wastewater treatment scores are highest in North African countries, lowest in East and West Africa, where 12 countries in each region treat less than 5% of wastewater. No country treats more than 75%, only Tunisia, Egypt and Lesotho treat over 50% and 67% of African countries treat less than 5%. The issue is poorly tracked in Africa overall. 

Indicator 8

Water governance appears to be most advanced in North and Southern Africa sub-regions, while Central Africa the least advanced. Nationally, Ghana reported reaching 86% of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) implementation, a significant improvement in just two years. Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Comoros are the lowest-performing countries, but again the assessment may be affected by the quality of national reporting. 

Indicator 9

Disaster risk has either remained unchanged (North and Southern Africa sub-regions) or increased. North Africa appears to be the least risky subregion, West Africa the riskiest. Egypt appears to be the least risky country, while Cape Verde is the most, followed by Djibouti and Comoros. Some 49 of 54 African countries have seen increased disaster risk scores over five recent years, explained by the impacts of changing climate worsening countries’ exposure to natural disasters and outpacing their ability to adapt. 

Indicator 10

Water dependency on neighboring nations and water resources variability:  Egypt stands out as Africa’s most water-dependent country; the Southern Africa sub-region has the most variable water resources. Naturally existing physiographic conditions may, to an extent, determine how much effort is needed for a country to achieve higher levels of water security. 

Call for global standards

To compare Africa’s situation globally, the authors call for global standards for water security measurement data and assessment. 

“Some critical components of water security simply cannot be assessed without introducing surrogates or proxies,” as used in the report in the case of drinking water and sanitation, for example. 

“With such poor data availability, progress toward water security is difficult to assess accurately.” 

For example, it is not possible to estimate the percentage of the African population that will have access to safely managed drinking water services or safely managed sanitation by 2030, a key UN Sustainable Development Goal globally agreed in 2015. 

“Data availability – or the lack of it – in itself may be an excellent indicator of water security,” says Dr. Oluwasanya. “Action needs to be taken immediately by national governments with support from international agents to radically improve data collection efforts for Africa.”

What is water security?

The UN’s concept of water security encompasses various needs and conditions — water for drinking, economic activity, ecosystems, hazard resilience, governance, transboundary cooperation, financing, and political stability.

See https://bit.ly/3hUzIh4

Hence water security is not just about how much natural water a country has but also how well the resource is managed.  It is defined as “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”

UNU-INWEH led the UN’s development and definition of water security and its related tools are now the most widely-accepted in the world.  This was a fundamental milestone, contributing to conceptualization of the SDGs and to on-going efforts to assess national water security in a quantifiable way.

The assessment tool is still a work in progress, Dr. Smakhtin notes, adding that UNU-INWEH’s goal is to have by 2025 — five years before the deadline for meeting the UN’s Agenda 2030 — “an improved, influential and nationally-owned tool” for assessing water security in all African countries. 

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About UNU and UNU-INWEH 

The United Nations University (UNU), an academic arm of the UN, includes 13 institutes and programmes located in 12 countries around the world, and dealing with various issues of development.

UNU-INWEH was established as a public service agency and a subsidiary body of the UNU, in 1996. Its operations are secured through long-term host-country and core-funding agreements with the Government of Canada.

The Institute is located in Hamilton, Canada, and its facilities are supported by McMaster University. 

UNU-INWEH’s mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through critical analysis and synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable science-based solutions to water issues; and global outreach. 

UNU-INWEH carries out its work in cooperation with the network of other research institutions, international organisations and individual scholars throughout the world. 

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Media coverage highlights:

New York Times, United States (181,487,873): Climate change is making armed conflict worse. Here’s how. Click here

Reuters, United Kingdom, Africa’s water security perilous – but data reveals surprises, click here

Agencia EFE, Spain (via e.g. Infobae, Argentina, 49,192,499)
1) Some 500 million people live in Africa without water security, click here
2) Spanish: Unos 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here
3) Russian, click here

The Hill, United States (15,808,772): 500 million people in Africa remain ‘water insecure’: UN report, click here (also distributed via MSN, United States (198,375,148) and Yahoo News, United States (61,261,480)

ORF Online, Austria (7,871,539), Jedes dritte Land ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Deutsche Press Agentur, via e.g. Handelsblatt, Germany (6,134,345), UN: Mehr als ein Drittel der Länder in Afrika ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Xinhua (新华网), Mainland China (4,312,277), UN report says Africa’s fragile water security a threat to sustainability agenda, click here

IndoAsian News Service, India (via ProKerala, 10,631,550)25 African nations ‘least’ water-secure, click here

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Italy (4,066,652)Rischio acqua per oltre mezzo miliardo di persone in Africa, click here

France 24 (EN) France (2,853,455), Eye on Africa video program – Water security in Africa ‘unacceptably low’ (UN), click here

Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Germany (4,274,603), click here

Diario de Sevilla, Spain: Alrededor de 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here

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Mainstream media coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Enough energy to power all households in the USA and Mexico; enough nutrients to meet ~13% of world fertilizer needs; enough water to fill Lake Victoria in seven years, Lake Ontario in four; UN University foresees 24% wastewater rise by 2030; 51% by 2050

Vast amounts of valuable energy, agricultural nutrients, and water could potentially be recovered from the world’s fast-rising volume of municipal wastewater, according to a new study by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

Today, some 380 billion cubic meters (m3 = 1000 litres) of wastewater are produced annually worldwide – 5 times the amount of water passing over Niagara Falls annually – enough to fill Africa’s Lake Victoria in roughly seven years, Lake Ontario in four, and Lake Geneva in less than three months.

Furthermore, the paper says, wastewater volumes are increasing quickly, with a projected rise of roughly 24% by 2030, 51% by 2050.

Today, the volume of wastewater roughly equals the annual discharge from the Ganges River in India. By the mid-2030s, it will roughly equal the annual volume flowing through the St. Lawrence River, which drains North America’s five Great Lakes.

Among major nutrients, 16.6 million metric tonnes of nitrogen are embedded in wastewater produced worldwide annually, together with 3 million metric tonnes of phosphorus and 6.3 million metric tonnes of potassium. Theoretically, full recovery of these nutrients from wastewater could offset 13.4% of global agricultural demand for them.

Beyond the economic gains of recovering these nutrients are critical environmental benefits such as minimizing eutrophication – the phenomenon of excess nutrients in a body of water causing dense plant growth and aquatic animal deaths due to lack of oxygen.

The energy embedded in wastewater, meanwhile, could provide electricity to 158 million households – roughly the number of households in the USA and Mexico combined.

The study’s estimates and projections are based on theoretical amounts of water, nutrients, and energy that exist in the reported municipal wastewater produced worldwide annually.

The authors underline that information on wastewater volumes — generated, available, and reused – is scattered, infrequently monitored and reported, or unavailable in many countries. They also acknowledge the limitations of current resource recovery opportunities.

Nonetheless, says lead author Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director of UNU-INWEH, in Hamilton, Canada: “This study offers important insights into the global and regional potential of wastewater as a source of water, nutrients, and energy. Wastewater resource recovery will need to overcome a range of constraints to achieve a high rate of return but success would significantly advance progress against the Sustainable Development Goals and others, including adaptation to climate change, ‘net-zero’ energy processes, and a green, circular economy.”

Among many findings:

• The energy value in 380 billion m3 of wastewater is estimated to be 53.2 billion m3 methane – enough to provide electricity for up to 158 million households, or 474 million to 632 million people, assuming an average of three to four persons per household. Given the foreseen wastewater increases, that number rises to 196 million households in 2030, and 239 million households in 2050.
• In agriculture, the volume of water potentially recoverable from wastewater could irrigate up to 31 million hectares – equal to almost 20% of the farmland in the European Union (assuming two crops and a maximum 12,000 m3 of water per hectare per year). “The reclaimed water can be used to irrigate new areas or replace valuable freshwater where crops are already irrigated.”
• World wastewater production is expected to reach 470 billion m3 by 2030, the year by which the SDGs are supposed to be met – a 24% increase from today. And by 2050, it will reach 574 billion m3, a 51% increase.
• Asia is the largest wastewater producer with an estimated 159 billion cubic meters, representing 42% of urban wastewater generated globally, with expectations of that proportion rising to 44% by 2030
• Other regions producing large volumes of wastewater: North America (67 billion m3) and Europe (68 billion cubic meters) – virtually equal volumes despite Europe’s higher urban population (547 million vs. North America’s 295 million. The difference is explained by per capita generation of wastewater: Europe 124 cubic meters; North America 231 cubic meters). By contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa produces 46 cubic meters of wastewater per capita – about half of the global average (95 cubic meters), reflecting limited water supply and poorly-managed wastewater collection systems in most urban settings.
• Full recovery from wastewater could, theoretically, offset 14.4% of global demand for nitrogen as a fertilizer nutrient; phosphorus 6.8% and potassium 18.6%. Based on current levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash use in agriculture worldwide (estimated at 193 million metric tonnes in 2017), the study says about 13.4% of the global fertilizer nutrient demand could be supplemented by full nutrient recovery from wastewater.
• The nutrients in wastewater could theoretically generate revenue of $13.6 billion globally: $9.0 billion from the recovery of nitrogen, $2.3 billion from phosphorus, and $2.3 billion from potassium.

The paper cites prior research showing that human urine is responsible for 80% of the nitrogen and 50% of phosphorus entering municipal wastewater treatment plants. “Removing these nutrients in time would not only be environmentally beneficial,” the paper says, “resulting in less eutrophication, it would reduce the cost of wastewater treatment while supporting closed-loop processes.”

Current wastewater nutrient recovery technologies have made significant progress. In the case of phosphorous, recovery rates range from 25% to 90%.

The paper points out that maximizing economically the potential use of thermal energy in wastewater swings on several basic requirements, including a minimum flow rate of 15 litres per second, short distances between heat source and sink, and high-performance heat pumps.

Says Vladimir Smakhtin, Director of UNU-INWEH, a global leader in research related to unconventional water sources: “Municipal wastewater was and often still is seen as filth. However, attitudes are changing with the growing recognition that enormous potential economic returns and other environmental benefits are available as we improve the recovery of the water, nutrients and energy from wastewater streams.”

Co-authors comments

“Safely managed wastewater is the key to water-related sustainable development at a time when the world is embarking on achieving SDGs, particularly SDG 6.3, which calls on us to half the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increase recycling and safe reuse globally by 2030.”

Praem Mehta, UNU-INWEH / McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

“This data can be used to develop national action plans aiming at water resources management, pollution control measures, nutrient and fertilizer access, and energy recovery and energy production systems.”

Younggy Kim, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

“It is important to note that many innovations are available and are being refined to bridge the gap between current resource recovery levels and resource recovery potential.”

Blanca Jiménez Cisneros, UNESCO and the National Autonomous University of Mexico

“For countries to progress, there is a need to invest in a supportive regulatory and financial environment towards a green economy, and to leverage private capital for resource recovery-related business models that are financially feasible and increase cost recovery from municipal wastewater.”

Pay Drechsel, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka

“There is a need to facilitate and expedite implementation of resource recovery innovations particularly in low- and middle-income countries where most municipal wastewater still goes into the environment untreated. This concerns mainly the growing small and medium-size towns where agricultural land is still in proximity but also urban agricultural areas around larger cities.”

Amit Pramanik, Water Research Foundation, Alexandria, VA, USA

“The SDG challenge is on, and step-wise approaches are needed which should involve both the public and emerging private sectors which often struggle with inadequate regulatory frameworks, limited finance, and the lack of capacity to develop or evaluate bankable business plans about resource recovery and reuse. As the demands for freshwater are ever-growing and scarce water resources are increasingly stressed, ignoring the opportunities leading to safely managed wastewater is nothing less than unthinkable in the context of a circular economy.”

Oluwabusola Olaniyan, Winnipeg Water and Waste Department, Canada.

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Funding: Global Affairs Canada / Government of Canada

UNU-INWEH

The UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. Its mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges of concern to the UN, its Member States and their people, through knowledge-based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and relevant and targeted public outreach.

Related research, unconventional water sources:

Rising levels of toxic brine as desalination plants meet growing water needs

Click here: http://bit.ly/2HcOSyM

UNU-INWEH is supported by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and hosted by McMaster University.

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Coverage highlights:

Science Magazine, USA, Reaping resources from sewers, click here

Deutschlandfunk (German national radio), Unterschätzte Ressource – Abwasser könnte künftig Energie und Nährstoffe liefern, click here

Agencia EFE, Las aguas residuales aumentarán un 51 % en 2050, pero también su aprovechamiento, click here

Europa Press, Abundante energía y nutrientes aprovechables de las aguas residuales, click here

IndoAsian News Service (India), Municipal wastewater source of valuable energy, nutrients, click here

Triple Pundit, USA, Wastewater is a Source of Valuable Water, Energy and Nutrients: How Do We Recover It?, click here

Climate News Network, UK, Wastewater flushes away a river of wealth, click here

Full coverage summary, click here

3 Nov 2015

Safe, systematic collection of human waste in low-resource countries could yield valuable fuels, invaluable health and environmental benefits

Biogas from human waste, safely obtained under controlled circumstances using innovative technologies, is a potential fuel source great enough in theory to generate electricity for up to 138 million households – the number of households in Indonesia, Brazil, and Ethiopia combined.

A report today from UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health estimates that biogas potentially available from human waste worldwide would have a value of up to US$ 9.5 billion in natural gas equivalent.

And the residue, dried and charred, could produce 2 million tonnes of charcoal-equivalent fuel, curbing the destruction of trees.

Finally, experts say, the large energy value would prove small relative to that of the global health and environmental benefits that would accrue from the safe treatment of human waste in low-resource settings.

“Rather than treating our waste as a major liability, with proper controls in place we can use it in several circumstances to build innovative and sustained financing for development while protecting health and improving our environment in the process,” according to the report, “Valuing Human Waste as an Energy Resource.”

The report uses average waste volume statistics, high and low assumptions for the percentage of concentrated combustable solids contained (25 – 45%), its conversion into biogas and charcoal-like fuel and their thermal equivalents (natural gas and charcoal), to calculate the potential energy value of human waste.

Biogas, approximately 60% methane by volume, is generated through the bacterial breakdown of faecal matter, and any other organic matter, in an oxygen free (anaerobic) system.

Dried and charred faecal sludge, meanwhile, has energy content similar to coal and charcoal.

UN figures show that 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation facilities and almost 1 billion people (about 60% of them in India) don’t use toilets at all, defecating instead in the open.

If the waste of only those practicing open defecation was targeted, the financial value of biogas potentially generated exceeds US$ 200 million per year and could reach as high as $376 million. The energy value would equal that of the fuel needed to generate electricity for 10 million to 18 million local households. Processing the residual faecal sludge, meanwhile, would yield the equivalent of 4.8 million to 8.5 million tonnes of charcoal to help power industrial furnaces, for example.

World already reuses the water and nutrients in wastewater

Says lead author Corinne Schuster-Wallace: “Increasingly, water-scarce regions are being driven to separate and reuse the water in wastewater, particularly to expand marginal agricultural lands. There is a technological opportunity, particularly in rural growth areas and small towns, to derive energy as well from this resource.”

UNU-INWEH Senior Research Fellow Chris Metcalfe of Trent University notes that human waste, as with animal waste, is already used to improve food production in many places around the world, governed by guidelines to ensure its safe use.

A study in Sweden established that human urine contains over 300 g of phosphorous, 900 g of potassium and 300 g of sulphur per cubic meter. According to the World Health Organization, an individual’s body excretes an estimated 4.5 kg of nitrogen and 548 g of phosphorus per year.

“We recycle the nutrients in human waste effectively via agriculture in many places, yet the potential energy value of human waste has been given much less attention to date,” says Dr. Metcalfe, a report co-author along with UNU consultant Chris Wild. “Challenges are many but clearly there is a compelling, multi-dimensional financial case to be made for deriving energy from waste.”

Says UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel: “When it comes to creating misery and poverty, human waste mismanagement has few rivals. If we can demonstrate a simple, cost effective new approach in low-resource settings, if we can successfully make a business case and change the economic paradigm of human waste management, we can advance development, protect the environment and help reduce sanitation problems causing one-tenth of all world illnesses.”

“World Toilet Day, upcoming November 19, offers the opportunity to promote new thinking and to continue puncturing the taboos in many places that inhibit discussion and perpetuate the disgrace and tragedy of inadequate human waste management in many developing world areas. This report contributes to that goal.”

Waste to wealth

With initial seed funds from federally-funded Grand Challenges Canada, UNU-INWEH in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, its agencies, and other NGO and academic institutions, established the Waste to Wealth national framework.

Waste to Wealth utilises modern anaerobic digestion technologies linked to sanitation systems.

With a focus on rural growth centers and small towns, as well as high population density institutions such as schools and prisons, the biogas and residual material left from energy conversion is a valuable economic resource to provide a return on investment in bioenergy technologies.

The ultimate goal of Waste to Wealth is decentralised (on site) faecal waste management and to help bridge the finance gap for sanitation in Uganda. By identifying value in waste (energy and /or fertilizer), Waste to Wealth provides an incentive to use toilets and a mechanism to finance both upfront capital costs as well as facility operation, maintenance, and expansion. In addition to the economic opportunities, sanitation interventions have known benefits to individual, household and community health and wellbeing.

Video: http://bit.ly/1GH9oRy

Photos: http://bit.ly/1RcC1qr

Website: http://inweh.unu.edu/waste-to-wealth

Phase two of the project involves proof of concept of a series of proposed initiatives, including equipping a Ugandan prison with a $100,000 system requiring approximately $5,000 in annual operating costs, expected to pay for itself through fuel cost savings within 2 years.

Waste to Wealth is one of several pilot projects in Africa to have received seed grants from Grand Challenges Canada for the systematic collection of waste for processing into a variety of energy or agricultural products.

Related projects in Africa include:

Kenya

• Collecting and converting human waste into solid fuel for use by cement plants and other industries
• Franchising toilets; profitably, safely collecting and removing the waste daily, converting it into fuel and fertilizer, and
• Collecting human waste and converting it into high quality, emission free bio-charcoal cooking fuel

Uganda

Production of biogas and organic fertilizer from street waste

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UNU-INWEH

http://bit.ly/1vjfKAS

The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; through cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; through application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and, through relevant and targeted public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.

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Example coverage:

TIME Magazine, USA, “How Poop Can Be Worth $9.5 Billion,” click here

Washington Post, USA, “Burning humanity’s poop could yield up to $9.5 billion,” click here

Discovery, USA, “Will the Future Be Powered by Feces?,” click here

Science Magazine, USA, “Human feces from the developing world could power millions of homes,” click here

Reuters / Thomson-Reuters Foundation, UK, “Power from human waste could light millions of homes-UN University” click here; Spanish, “Energía de desechos humanos podría iluminar millones de hogares: Universidad ONU” click here

Agence France Presse, France, French: “Les excréments humains, source potentielle importante d’énergie,” click here; Spanish: “Excrementos humanos tienen importante potencial como para producir energía,” click here; Portuguese: “Estudo aponta potencial energético de excremento humano,” click here; Japanese: “人間の排せつ物で発電、途上国の衛生改善も 国連,” click here

The Guardian, UK, “When will the world wake up to the potential of poo power?” click here

Daily Mail, UK, “Now that’s wind power! Gas from human FAECES could generate electricity for up to 138 million households, report claims” click here

BBC World Service Radio, UK (Science in Action), click here

Chicago Sun-Times, and Sun-Times Network (Seattle WA Sun Times, Jacksonville FL Sun Times, Charlotte NC Sun Times, Columbus OH Sun Times): “Study says world’s human poo worth up to $9.5 billion,’ click here

The Atlantic, CityLab, USA, “The Miraculous Energy Source of the Future: Our Poop?” click here

Huffington Post, USA, “Human Waste Could Light Up More Than 138 Million Homes: Study,” click here

Al Jazeera America, USA, “Human waste could provide power for millions in developing world, says UN,” click here

The Australian, $13bn resource squandered as world wastes value of human dung” click here

Politiken, Denmark, “Københavnerne steger i gas lavet af naboens lort og opvaskevand,” click here

Agencia EFE, Spain, “Científicos proponen aprovechar valor energético y económico de excrementos,” click here; English service: “Scientists propose extracting energy and economic worth of human excreta,” click here

RIA Novosti, Russia, “Топливо из высушенных нечистот принесет миру 10 млрд долларов ежегодно” click here

Science et Vie, France, “Energie: Les Excréments Humains Recèlent d’importantes Quantités de Biogaz Inexploitées,” click here 

CNN en Español, United States, “Excremento humano podría ser la próxima gran fuente de energía mundial, según la ONU,” click here, CNN Greece, “Ενέργεια από περιττώματα,” click here

Global News, Canada, “How human poop could generate power for up to 138 million homes,” click here

La Repubblica, Italy, “Dalle deiezioni umane energia per 138 milioni di case,” click here

Green Report, Italy, “Il valore energetico dei rifiuti umani. Dal biogas del Burkina Faso al Franchising toilets in Kenya” click here

Public Radio International (PRI), USA ” click here

Helsingen Sanomat, Finland, “Ihmisen jätöksistä saisi energiaa miljoonille kotitalouksille,” click here

Yonhap News Agency, Korea, “인류 배설물의 에너지 가치…연간 최대 11조원”, click here

Mental Floss, USA, “Poop Could Be the World’s Next Big Energy Resource,” click here

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Full summary of coverage in 14 languages from 59 countries, click here

News release in full, click here

One billion people don’t use toilets: 1 in 6 people in developing regions;

New UN-Water GLAAS findings underscore
critical gaps in monitoring, particularly for sanitation in rural areas

The UN today called on religious, education and opinion leaders in developing regions to join government officials and champion a halt to open defecation, a practice of 1 billion people worldwide – one-sixth of the developing world’s 5.9 billion inhabitants.

At UN Headquarters in New York marking World Toilet Day, coordinated by UN-Water, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson highlighted the health threat posed by lack of access to sanitation, and the particular dangers open defecation poses for women and girls.

Said Mr. Eliasson: “We know that political will at the highest level is critical to address these challenges. However, we also know that success at ending open defecation goes beyond infrastructure. It requires the understanding of behaviors, cultural attitudes and social norms.”

“Throughout all life stages, women and girls bear the greatest burdens caused by the lack of toilet access. Girls are more likely to drop out of school if they don’t have access to a safe and clean toilet. Women and girls can also risk harassment and sexual abuse when trying to use public toilets or when trying to find somewhere to defecate in the open. Universal access to sanitation has a clear role to play in defending women’s safety, dignity and equality,” said Mr. Eliasson.

The Deputy Secretary-General, on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in March 2013 launched the Call to Action on Sanitation. This in turn inspired the UN’s End Open Defecation campaign created earlier this year (opendefecation.org; #opendefecation).

Said Chris Williams, Executive Director of the UN-hosted Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council: “The active support and efforts of leaders of religion, education and public opinion are needed as much as that of elected and other government officials. We call on all leaders of societies and cultures where open defecation habits are still tolerated: Help us end the taboos associated with frank talk about the dangers of the practice and the benefits of proper sanitation and hygiene.”

“A generation ago, the idea of smoke-free restaurants, theatres, airports, banks and other public places seemed improbable. Attitudes were changed by the concerted focus of political leaders, health officials and advocates, and today the notion of sharing such spaces with smokers has become almost universally foreign. It is beyond time for all of humanity to have access to adequate toilets and to use them.”

The practice of open defecation is deeply rooted in poverty but has also been related to convention and customs in some countries and societies – representing, for example, some of the only times other than worship when women from rigid family circumstances may meet.

The recent Ebola outbreak shone a public spotlight on the open defecation issue in West Africa, where worried health officials in Lagos and Nigeria, citing human waste as a vector of the virus, appealed through the media for citizens practicing open defecation to stop.

In Liberia, the nation most affected by Ebola, roughly half the nation’s 4.2 million citizens don’t use toilets; in rural Sierra Leone, the second worst-hit country, the estimate is 28%.

WHO and UNICEF have issued joint guidance on WASH and Ebola (http://bit.ly/1E5vyYn), including the need for separate toilets for use by patients and health care workers in Ebola clinics.

In the sub-Saharan Africa region, where 25% of the population practices open defecation, diarrhea is the third biggest killer of children under five years old. Studies estimate that a child dies every 2.5 minutes because of unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene.

Children with diarrhea eat less and are less able to absorb the nutrients from their food, which makes them even more susceptible to bacteria-related illnesses. Compounding the problem: the children most vulnerable to acute diarrhea also lack access to potentially life-saving health services.

Critical gaps in monitoring; resources not targeted to greater needs; rural sanitation neglected

Published today by WHO on behalf of UN-Water, the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report says “countries are unable to confirm whether funding is directed towards actual needs or to report back on whether they have met financial allocation targets.”

“More importantly, data often does not inform decision-making: less than half of countries use data in the allocation of resources to sanitation. Existing plans for reaching disadvantaged groups are commonly left unmonitored. Less than half of low and middle income countries track progress in extending sanitation services to the poor.”

The vast majority of those without improved sanitation are impoverished rural residents. And, according to the report, where rural sanitation progress has occurred, it has primarily benefitted richer people, increasing inequalities.

“Political commitments to ensure everyone has access to water and sanitation are essential to human health and are at an all-time high,” said Dr. Maria Neira, Director of the WHO Department of Public Health and the Environment. “International aid for the sector is on the rise. But we continue to see major financial gaps at the country level, particularly in rural areas.”

GLAAS data show sanitation expenditure as a proportion of overall WASH expenditure growing from 20% in 2010 to 40% in 2014. Aid commitments for sanitation, however, fell to one-fourth of water and sanitation in ODA in 2012, compared to one-third in 2010.

Estimates indicate that expenditures for rural sanitation comprise less than 10% of total water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing.

“Despite considerable health benefits to be had through hygiene promotion … hygiene remains a neglected component of WASH,” says the report.

Reducing open defecation worldwide

The World Health Organization and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (http://bit.ly/11vJFZf) shows open defecation was almost halved in developing regions between 1990 and 2012, down from 31% to 17% of those populations.

About 825 million people – 82% of the 1 billion practicing open defecation – reside in just 10 countries:

Five in Asia:
India, 597 million (47% of the national population)
Indonesia, 54 million (21%)
Pakistan, 41 million (22.5%)
Nepal, 11 million (40%)
China, 10 million (<1%)

Five in Africa:
Nigeria, 39 million (22%)
Ethiopia, 34 million (36%)
Sudan, 17 million (45%)
Niger, 13 million (72%)
Mozambique, 10 million (38%)

In the rest of the world, the number of people practicing open defecation is estimated at 182 million.

Open defecation is declining steadily in Asia, and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In South Asia the percentage dropped from 65% in 1990 to 38% in 2012, with the greatest reductions in that region recorded in Nepal (from 86% in 1990 to 40% in 2012), Bangladesh (from 34% to 3%) and Pakistan (from 52% to 23%).

The 25% of people in sub-Saharan Africa not using toilets is down from 36% in 1990. However, the practice is growing in 26 of sub-Saharan Africa’s 44 countries.

Countries are taking action and the Sanitation and Water for All partnership has created an overview of national commitments: http://sanitationandwaterforall.org/commitments/country-commitments.

For example, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged 111 million toilets and an end to open defecation by 2019, an ambition channelling the view of the nation’s late spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, who termed sanitation “more important than independence.”

Nigeria has set a target date of 2018 for the end of open defecation, while Burundi is evaluating a framework for eliminating the practice by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, from 1990 to 2012, open defecation in Ethiopia fell by 55 percentage points, from 92% to 37%.

According to the GLAAS report launched today, key elements of Ethiopia’s success include:

* Strong political will for improving access to water and sanitation. According to the Ministry of Health: “The government has shown demonstrable, high level political commitment to enhanced sanitation coverage over the past few years. This goal is reflected in the national Health Extension Program, the National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy and a national step-by-step protocol and Sanitation Action Plan (SAP) for achieving universal access by 2015. There has been significant improvement in access to safe sanitation and hygiene in Ethiopia since the Health Extension Program began in 2002/2003.”

* Human resources and education. Health Extension Workers educate communities about sanitation and help create cultural acceptance of toilets. The nation’s 39,000 HEWs are trained at nine Training Vocational and Educational Centres and the government has upgraded the degree levels for sanitation and hygiene to improve qualifications.

Governments that have invested in behavior change programmes, rather than just in constructing of toilets have seen the most positive results.

Community approaches such as Community Led Total Sanitation, for example, offer an innovative approach to eliminate open defecation. This approach focuses on the behavioural change needed to ensure real and sustainable improvements and the creation of open defecation-free villages, since even a minority practicing open defecation puts a whole village at greater risk of disease. Through the use of simple and effective demonstrations which explain the link between open defecation and disease, families make the decision to change their sanitation practices and the community as a whole comes together to decide on what steps need to be taken to achieve an open defecation free environment.

Says Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes: “UNICEF has been successfully implementing these approaches at scale in more than 50 countries, leading to some 26 million people abandoning open defecation in the last six years. They encourage innovation, mutual support and appropriate local solutions, thus leading to greater ownership and sustainability.”

* * * * *

UN World Toilet Day is coordinated by United Nations Water (UN-Water) – the UN’s inter agency coordination mechanism on all fresh water related issues, including sanitation.

For more information:

World Toilet Day: unwater.org/worldtoiletday
UN-Water: unwater.org
GLAAS report: who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas/en
End Open Defecation Campaign: opendefecation.org; #opendefecation

UN Call to Action on Sanitation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDUCr-V9NE8

* * * * *

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• Agencia EFE, Spain, click here
• Press Trust of India, India, click here
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• Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran, click here

World Toilet Day 2014 coverage summary, with links to 2,500+ news articles across 84 countries, click here

5 Sept. 2013

UN-backed study says annual treated wastewater in North America roughly equals volume of Niagara Falls; less than 4 percent is reused

Amid growing competition for freshwater from industry and cities, coupled with a rising world shortage of potash, nitrogen and phosphorus, an international study predicts a rapid increase in the use of treated wastewater for farming and other purposes worldwide.

However, research shows that treated wastewater — comparable in North America alone to the volume of water flowing over Niagara Falls — is mostly unused and, in many nations, not even quantified.

Of 181 countries studied, only 55 have information on three key aspects of wastewater: generation, treatment, and reuse. Another 69 countries have data on one or two aspects, 57 countries show no information on any aspect.

As well, in countries where data does exist it is mostly outdated: almost two-thirds (63%) of the numbers are five or more years old, according to the study led by Japan’s Tottori University and the United Nations University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

As water supplies fall and stress rises in many areas, the potential resource of wastewater is being widely recognized, says the study published Sept. 5 by Elsevier journal Agricultural Water Management. Water demands already exceed supplies in regions with more than 40% of the world’s population and in just 12 years as much as 60% of the world’s people may confront water scarcity.

Synthesizing what data there are on wastewater treatment, the study shows that, on average, high-income countries treat 70% of the generated wastewater, upper-middle-income countries treat 38%, lower-middle-income countries treat 28%. Just 8% of wastewater generated in low-income countries undergoes any kind of treatment.

In North America, of the estimated 85 cubic kilometers of wastewater generated each year, 61 cubic kilometers (75%) is treated. (A cubic kilometer is 1 trillion liters — about 220 billion US gallons). Annually, however, just 2.3 cubic kilometers or 3.8% of that treated wastewater is used.

Tables in the study detail the wastewater generation, treatment and reuse — and how up to date the numbers are — in individual countries around the world.

“From the earliest of times, most wastewater has truly been wasted. However, it is a vast resource if we reclaim it properly, which includes the separation of municipal from industrial wastewater,” says UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel.

“Another way of envisioning the volume of the resource potentially available worldwide each year is to imagine 14 months watching the outflow from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Another way of envisioning the volume of the resource potentially available worldwide each year is to imagine 14 months watching the outflow from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.”

It has been reported that wastewater today irrigates between 1.5% and 6.6% of the global irrigated area of 301 million ha (1.2 million sq. miles) and that about 10% of world food is produced using wastewater. However, according to the study, there is little data to support such claims.

In developing countries, particularly in water scarce countries, wastewater volumes are thought to have increased substantially in recent years due to rural-urban migration.

Many farmers in water scarce developing countries irrigate with wastewater because:

• It is the only water source available for irrigation year-round
• Wastewater irrigation reduces the need for purchasing fertilizer
• Wastewater irrigation involves less energy cost if the alternative clean water source is deep groundwater
• Wastewater enables farmers in peri-urban areas to produce high-value vegetables for sale in local markets.

Says lead author Toshio Sato of Tottori University, Japan: “Given the growing importance of wastewater management to the health of people and economies at local and national levels, having up-to-date basic insights into wastewater generation, treatment and reuse is an essential investment.”

“The key point underlined throughout this report is the need to invest the time and resources to fill the global data gap,” adds author Manzoor Qadir of UNU-INWEH. “Better data will enable the research and policy community to enhance understanding and craft effective solutions that will benefit millions of producers and consumers worldwide.”

Says the study, on which Tottori University and UNU-INWEH collaborated with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka, and Hazara University, Pakistan: “The country level information aggregated at the regional and global levels would help in identifying the gaps in pertinent data availability and assessing the potential of wastewater in food, feed, and fish production at different scales.”

Selected highlights

The study is the first ever to identify information gaps with respect to wastewater generation, treatment and use.

About 70% of the world’s freshwater (up to 95% in some countries) is used for irrigation.

Competition for freshwater already exists among municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors, particularly in water scarce areas. Agriculture has been yielding its share gradually to non-agricultural uses.

The combination of less freshwater allocation to agriculture and growing volumes of urban wastewater, is expected to continue and intensify, particularly in water scarce countries.

Agriculture in these countries will increasingly rely on alternative water resources, such as wastewater generated by non-agricultural activities in urban and peri-urban areas.

Under-reporting of wastewater generation, treatment and reuse might relate to fear of economic repercussions in agricultural trade due to concerns regarding food safety and phyto-sanitary measures.

Jordan’s export market, for example, was impacted in 1991 when countries in the region restricted imports of fruits and vegetables irrigated with inadequately treated wastewater. Jordan implemented an aggressive campaign to rehabilitate and improve wastewater treatment plants, introduced enforceable standards to protect the health of farmers and consumers, and continues to focus on this sensitive situation, given the importance of regional and international trade.

North America

The estimated volume of wastewater generated in North America each year is about 85 cubic kilometers, of which 61 cubic kilometers are treated. (A cubic kilometer of wastewater is 1 trillion liters — about 220 billion US gallons).

Annual use of treated wastewater accounts for 2.3 cubic kilometers, which is only 3.8% of the wastewater treated in the region. Thus, while about 75% of the wastewater generated in North America is treated, only a small portion is used.

While the data describing wastewater generation and treatment are available in Canada, the data on wastewater use are not available. However, there are several projects underway suggest the use of wastewater in Canada at pilot scale.

An estimated 46% of California’s annual reclaimed water use takes place in agriculture. In Florida, the proportion is 44%. Increasingly stressed water resources motivate wastewater use in Arizona, California and Texas, while limited groundwater motivates water recycling and reuse in Florida.

Latin America

Complete information on wastewater generation, treatment, and use is available from only 9 of 32 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. Even this information is relatively old as the data pertain largely to 1996-2002.

Ten countries have partial data available: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela.

Only about 20% of generated wastewater undergoes treatment in the Latin American countries for which pertinent data are available, in part because many Latin American countries do not have well developed wastewater collection and treatment systems. In 8 of 15 Latin American countries, less than half the population is connected to wastewater collection and treatment systems

Rapid urbanization without sanitation facilities has caused major downstream pollution problems in this region. The urban population is projected to further increase by 130% in 2025 and by 166% in 2050

In Chile, untreated wastewater was used directly for agricultural purposes until 1992. With widespread occurrence of cholera in Latin America, the direct use of untreated wastewater was restricted in the country.

Water scarcity is not the main driver of wastewater use in most of Latin America. Rather, farmers engage in wastewater use because it provides a low-cost source of plant nutrients. Wastewater use in the region is particularly important, given that the shortages in supply of phosphate and potash fertilizers are projected to increase to 3.5 and 4.1 million tons by 2014.

Europe

Complete information on wastewater generation, treatment, and use is available for only 10 countries in Europe – Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom.

Most of this information pertains to the last 10 years. Partial data are available for almost two-thirds of Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Kosovo, Monaco, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland. No data are available for Albania, Finland, Iceland, and Norway.

Most of the wastewater generated in Europe (71%) undergoes treatment.

In southern Europe reclaimed wastewater is used predominantly for agricultural irrigation (44% of the wastewater projects) and urban or environmental applications (37% of the projects). In northern Europe, wastewater is used primarily for environmental applications and industry

Russian Federation and Independent States from the Soviet Union

Complete information on wastewater generation, treatment, and use is available for 8 countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (Table 4). Partial data are available for other countries – Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

The volume of wastewater treated in the Russian Federation is about 14 cubic kilometers per year. Nearly 28% of this is treated in accordance with established regulations, while the remainder is emitted in inadequately treated form into water bodies.

Middle East and North Africa

The estimated volume of wastewater generated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is 22.3 cubic kilometers per year, of which 51% (11.4 cubic kilometers per year) is treated. With the exception of Algeria and Iraq, complete information on wastewater generation, treatment, and use is available from all countries in the region.

Treated wastewater use is essential in the water scarce MENA region. Currently, 51% of treated wastewater is used for irrigation. Some countries in the region are planning to increase the use of treated wastewater. For example, Saudi Arabia intends to increase wastewater use to 65% by 2016 (USEPA, 2012). Israel already uses 70% of the wastewater generated in the domestic sector.

High-income countries in the region use treated wastewater for agricultural and landscape irrigation. In Kuwait, only vegetables that are eaten after cooking (potatoes and cauliflower), industrial crops, forage crops (alfalfa and barely), and highway landscapes may be irrigated with treated wastewater in Kuwait.

Wastewater use represents about 10% of the Israeli national water supply and almost 20% of the water supply for irrigation

Sub Saharan Africa

Among 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, complete information on wastewater generation, treatment, and use is available from only three countries – Senegal, Seychelles and South Africa. Even this information is old, as the data from Seychelles and South Africa pertain to 2000 to 2003. The countries with partial data available are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda. No data are available from the remaining 32 countries in the region.

Most wastewater goes untreated in sub-Saharan Africa, where water pollution triggers the spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera. In most cases, the wastewater used for in agriculture is polluted. For example, untreated wastewater is used for irrigation in the peri-urban zones around Kumasi in Ghana, Dakar in Senegal, Nairobi in Kenya and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.

Given the inherent uncertainty regarding wastewater quality and nutrient content, it is not possible for farmers to optimize the use of nutrients, particularly when using untreated wastewater.

Oceania

Complete information on all three aspects of wastewater is available only from Australia. The volume of treated wastewater is available for New Zealand, but the information on the volume of wastewater generated and treated wastewater used is not available. No information regarding wastewater is available from Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

About 45% of the 450 wastewater use projects in Oceania are in agriculture sector. In Australia, an estimated 0.35 cubic kilometers of treated wastewater are used annually. This volume accounts for 19% of the wastewater treated in the country and about 4% of the total water supply

In New Zealand, wastewater is used to irrigate golf courses and for industrial applications, but the volumes involved likely are small

Asia

Information on all three aspects of wastewater is available from only 5 countries – China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Vietnam. Partial data are available for 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Only about 32% of the wastewater generated in Asia is treated,

Japan has adopted a comprehensive strategy for treated wastewater use. In 2009, 0.2 cubic kilometers of treated wastewater were used in the country. More than half was used for environmental purposes, such as landscape irrigation, recreation, and river maintenance. Wastewater use in agriculture and industry is not substantial, accounting only for 7% and 1% of the treated wastewater, respectively. In addition, more than 3% of the treated wastewater is used for toilet-flushing. Japan’s wastewater use strategy is somewhat unique, as it is focused on meeting urban water needs, rather than providing water primarily for agricultural uses.

An estimated 1.3 million ha are irrigated with wastewater in China, while an estimated 9,500 ha are irrigated with untreated wastewater in Vietnam. At least 2% of the agricultural land around most Vietnamese cities is irrigated with wastewater, and much of that land is planted in rice.

An estimated 32,500 ha are irrigated with wastewater in Pakistan. Most of the wastewater is untreated, and yet there are no clear regulations in Pakistan regarding which crops may be irrigated with wastewater. Direct use of untreated wastewater is also common in India, where in 1985, an estimated 73,000 ha were irrigated with wastewater.

The increasing demand for plant nutrients in Asia provides an incentive for farmers and public officials to develop safe methods for distributing and managing wastewater for use in agriculture. Projections suggest that the potash supply in East Asia will be much smaller than demand by 2014.

The projected annual nutrient deficits for South Asia include 4.3 million tons for nitrogen, 7.4 million tons for phosphorus, and 5.1 million tons for potash.

UNU-INWEH acts as the “United Nations’ Think Tank on Water,” responding directly to the regional and global water crisis, and facilitates efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. It is contributing to the design and subsequent implementation of development goals beyond the year 2015 by providing the evidence base.

UNU-INWEH’s mission is to contribute to efforts to resolve pressing regional and global water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through targeted research, capacity development, knowledge enhancement, and transfer and public outreach.

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United Nations University

Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada

14-Feb-2012

The impact of unsafe water and sanitation on the death rates of children under five and mothers in the year after childbirth has been quantified for the first time by Canadian-based researchers.

In a paper published in the UK journal Environmental Health, researchers at the United Nations University and McMaster University analyzed data on access to safe water and adequate sanitation across 193 countries.

Using regression analysis techniques to factor out other variables like income and average children per mother, they compared safe water and sanitation rates with maternal and child deaths in those countries.

Dividing the 193 countries into four tiers (“quartiles”), they found that countries ranked in the bottom 25% in terms of safe water had about 4.7 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.

The researchers estimate that, when related to safe water access, the difference in mortality between each 25% tier is 1.17 deaths per 1,000 children under five.

Similarly, when judged on access to adequate sanitation, countries ranked in the bottom 25% tier had about 6.6 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.

Put another way, with respect to the availability of adequate sanitation, the difference in mortality between each of the four tiers of countries is estimated at 1.66 deaths per 1,000 children under five.

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UNU-INWEH report offers 9-point prescription for achieving Millennium Development Goal for sanitation

Far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet and improved sanitation, according to UN experts who published today a 9-point prescription for achieving the world’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation by 2015.  They also urge the world community to set a new target beyond the MDG (which calls for a 50 percent improvement in access to adequate sanitation by 2015) to the achievement of 100 percent coverage by 2025.

Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released today by the United Nations University.

The analysis says better water and sanitation reduces poverty in three ways.

• New service business opportunities are created for local entrepreneurs;
• Significant savings are achieved in the public health sector; and
• Individual productivity is greater in contributing to local and national economies.

Information gaps include such seemingly obvious measures as common definitions and worldwide maps to identify communities most vulnerable to health-related problems as a result of poor access to sanitation and safe water. UNU also calls for creation of a “tool-box” to help policy-makers choose between available options in local circumstances.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/unu-pts101408.php

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Experts estimate that $9 in productivity, health and other benefits are returned for every dollar invested installing toilets for people in countries that today are off-track in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation.

Some argue that meeting the sanitation MDG is also a prerequisite to the goals of reducing global poverty.

Achieving the sanitation goal – to simply halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 – would cost $38 billion, less than 1% of annual world military spending. That investment, however, would yield $347 billion worth of benefits – much of it related to higher productivity and improved health.

Full text: www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/unu-sii031808.php
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