Myanmar: In Myanmar, clean water to cook, bathe and grow food – all for about $2 Skip to main content

Myanmar: In Myanmar, clean water to cook, bathe and grow food – all for about $2


3 hours 11 min ago
Source: Pact Country: Myanmar
PALE TOWNSHIP, MYANMAR
It’s hard to overstate the difference that reliable access to clean water makes – something that the people of Ohn Hnauk village in central Myanmar are learning firsthand.
Recently, Pact’s Shae Thot program partnered with UN-Habitat to renovate a hand-dug well and provide a pump house and engine, a 1,500-gallon overhead water tank and main pipelines to bring running water to all of the village’s 160 homes. Each has its own tap-stand and water meter.
Like all of Pact’s work, the project was carried out in partnership with the local community and in a manner that ensures lasting impact. Each household contributed $8.70 to cover the cost of installing pipeline to an individual dwelling, and the village has established a collective fund for operations and maintenance. After consulation with the the community, a new Village Water Committee has begun collecting $0.31 for every 200 gallons of water used.
That means households are spending about $2 per month for water.
Given the benefits, families in Ohn Hnauk say the cost is well worth it.
Before the new water system, the entire village relied on the same hand-dug well. It was always surrounded by stagnant water, which polluted the well and spread disease.
And a typical family had to fetch water three or four times each day, which added up to three to four hours of effort. Now households can spend that time at work or tending to businesses to boost their income. For many, the extra money they make in a single day is enough to cover the month’s water bill.
Families now have the clean water they need to cook, bathe and grow food.
Shae Thot is a wide-ranging, integrated five-year development program that Pact launched in Myanmar in 2011 with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Working with residents and local organizations, the program is making lasting improvements in maternal and child health, economic opportunity and food security, and water, sanitation and hygiene.
In each village where Shae Thot works, Pact helps form committees called Village Development Committees, comprised of democratically elected village members who are independent from local authorities. Through the committees, Pact supports inclusive and participatory village decision-making and transparent and accountable community planning, implementation and monitoring.
Since Shae Thot began, the program has improved access to drinking water for nearly half a million people.

http://www.unocha.org/aggregator/sources/70
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more