Anwarul for using affordable, low-cost SWS to face diarrhoea
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Adviser for LGRD and Cooperatives Mohammad Anwarul Iqbal underlined Monday the need for best utilisation of Safe Water System (SWS) to face the diarrhoeal episodes among the urban slum dwellers and other low-income communities in the country.
"The SWS might turn out to be a dependable and sustainable option to provide many people with safe drinking water at the most least cost round the year," he said this while speaking as the chief guest at an inaugural session of a two-day regional seminar here.
The seminar on the 'Safe Water System (SWS)' was jointly organised by the government and The World Health Organisation Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) at Hotel Sheraton.
The objective of the seminar is to increase the motivation for successful implementation of SWS in South East Asian region which was jointly developed by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in response to the Latin American Cholera epidemic in 1992.
The experts at the seminar informed that the SWS consists of three components -hygiene promotion, an improved storage container and household chlorination of drinking water by using of chlorine solution (0.5 per cent Sodium Hypo- chloride).
SWS is an affordable and effective means for providing safe drinking water as a five-member family could ensure safe drinking water by using only Taka 10 worth chlorine solution for a whole month.
From the view point of investment perspective, the modern water supply and sanitation systems require several decades to be fully met in the country even with strong political backing, Anwarul Iqbal told the seminar.
"So, the SWS can be an interim low-cost but effective measure to protect the poor from health risk due to unsafe drinking water", he observed.
The SWS could also open up opportunities to access safe drinking water for the rural people living in arsenic affected areas of the country, the adviser added.
The experts at the seminar said that, In Bangladesh, presently, the WHO piloting the SWS methods on 3,000 households that live under very poor environmental condition at a slum area in Dhaka locally known as Mollar Basti.
After successful completion of the pilot project the SWS will be introduced in dense populated areas across the country, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) sources said.
"The SWS might turn out to be a dependable and sustainable option to provide many people with safe drinking water at the most least cost round the year," he said this while speaking as the chief guest at an inaugural session of a two-day regional seminar here.
The seminar on the 'Safe Water System (SWS)' was jointly organised by the government and The World Health Organisation Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) at Hotel Sheraton.
The objective of the seminar is to increase the motivation for successful implementation of SWS in South East Asian region which was jointly developed by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in response to the Latin American Cholera epidemic in 1992.
The experts at the seminar informed that the SWS consists of three components -hygiene promotion, an improved storage container and household chlorination of drinking water by using of chlorine solution (0.5 per cent Sodium Hypo- chloride).
SWS is an affordable and effective means for providing safe drinking water as a five-member family could ensure safe drinking water by using only Taka 10 worth chlorine solution for a whole month.
From the view point of investment perspective, the modern water supply and sanitation systems require several decades to be fully met in the country even with strong political backing, Anwarul Iqbal told the seminar.
"So, the SWS can be an interim low-cost but effective measure to protect the poor from health risk due to unsafe drinking water", he observed.
The SWS could also open up opportunities to access safe drinking water for the rural people living in arsenic affected areas of the country, the adviser added.
The experts at the seminar said that, In Bangladesh, presently, the WHO piloting the SWS methods on 3,000 households that live under very poor environmental condition at a slum area in Dhaka locally known as Mollar Basti.
After successful completion of the pilot project the SWS will be introduced in dense populated areas across the country, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) sources said.