Two articles on sanitation written by Dick de Jong including one with Ghana journalist Harriette Naa Lamiley Bentil made it into a glossy Global Water Issues book published in the USA Department of State, International Information Program in July 2011,
Published on: 21/10/2011
Two articles on sanitation written by Dick de Jong including one with Ghana journalist Harriette Naa Lamiley Bentil made it into a glossy Global Water Issues book published in the USA Department of State. It was published by the U.S. Department of State, International Information Program in July 2011, available online from their web site.
Global Water Issues explores the political, social and economic challenges presented by threats to Earth’s most vital natural resource. With a foreword by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero, Global Water Issues describes how this ecological emergency affects population centres, human health, climate and food security.
IRC provided the only two articles on sanitation in the Water and Health section of this book building on work by Christine Sijbesma in Vietnam and Harriette Bentil's exposure and training at the 2009 Stockhlom World Water Week:
Seventeen years later after their country passed a law making the health-threatening occupation illegal, some 1.3 million Indians still earn a living by performing the degrading and dangerous job of cleaning up human excrement by hand. Manual scavenging entails cleaning latrines and carcasses of humans and animals with bare hands. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has described it as the most indecent form of work.
Bezwada of Safai Karmachari Andolan has helped a number of manual scavengers obtain alternative livelihoods, and the collective efforts of NGOs in the country have reduced the number of scavengers from 2 million to 1.3 million. Bezwada has become an icon of hope for the hopeless as he strives to create alternatives for manual scavengers. For him, the struggle will not end until every single person is liberated from working as a scavenger. “This is not a fight for power, wealth nor fame, but for human dignity and respect,” he said.
Bentil, H.N.L.; Jong, D. de (2011). 'The most indecent work: unsanitary occupation called disgraceful '. In: United States. Department of State - US. Bureau of International Information Programs (2011). Global water issues: a compilation of articles. Washington, DC, USA, United States Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs. Read more on their web site.
Thuy Thanh Ky is a mason in the Quang Nam province of Vietnam. He is 43 years old and has completed secondary school education. He has a wife and four children. Thuy, from Binh Trieu Commune in the Thang Binh District, was a poor farmer until he took up part-time masonry in 1996 to make some extra money. His business went well, and after two years he became a full-time mason.
The story below was excerpted from a study conducted 2½ years after a pilot project had been implemented to encourage rural residents in Thanh Hoa and Quang Nam provinces, Vietnam, to improve sanitation. The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre from the Netherlands and ADCOM Consultants in Hanoi conducted the study. Dr. Christine Sijbesma of IRC and Dr. Truong Xuan Truong of ADCOM were the team leaders.
Jong, D. de (2011). Better Sanitation Leads to New Career: Success making toilets in Vietnam. In: United States. Department of State - US. Bureau of International Information Programs (2011). Global water issues: a compilation of articles. Washington, DC, USA, United States Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs. Read more on their web site.
Source: Sonia F. Weakley, Editor, print Publications, International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State, snail mail, 14 Oct. 2011
