Download - Story ideas for WASH
Story ideas on sanitation, water and hygieneDick de Jong
“Brown gold” from pit latrines2 million in Bangladesh
Bangladesh: government cuts water and sanitation budget by US$ 121 million
(July 2012)• The Bangladesh government has reduced its allocation for water and sanitation by
around 10 billion taka (US$ 121 million) in the proposed 2012-13 budget. This is 29 per cent less than in 2011-2012. Just two months earlier at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting in Washington, DC, the government had committed to increase the allocation for sanitation and water supply by 50 per cent.
• Speaking at a press conference in the capital Dhaka, WaterAid country representative Md Khairul Islam said that the government should raise the water and sanitation allocation and bridge the disparity between urban and rural people.
Zimbabwe: ‘I am not nobody now’
This story was told by Amai (Mother) Toriro before she died in 2010 in Zimbabwe from an AIDS related illness. The key message that she wanted readers to know was that she had changed her life through becoming active with the help of a community health club.Source Bulletin (2011) Story from the field
Ethiopia: rush to achieve water and sanitation for all by 2015
• Addise, comment I have read the news on IRC site stating Ethiopia's ambition to achieve 98.5% water and 100% sanitation coverage. That is a noble ambition.The ground reality is, however,
the opposite ….E-Source Tuesday 24 July 2012 http://www.source.irc.nl/page/73068
• Team up with Engr Ebele Okeke, the first WSSCC Ambassador from Nigeria.
Dick de Jong, comment on First consultation on developing post-2015 monitoring indicators, Berlin: Refocusing the monitoring approachhttp://www.source.irc.nl/page/65999
Corruption destroys sustainability
• Zimbabwe, Namibia: examples of corruptionZimbabwe's urban residents have to grease the palms of officials to ensure they can get access to water supply and sanitation services. In Namibia community members manning water points in villages should be paid for their work, says Henock Kankoshi, a Swapo MP in the National Council
• Corruption and decentralization: strengthening capacity for local governance
Corruption destroys sustainabilityShordt_Corruption_and_decentralization.pdf (348.4 kB)
• Pro-poor anti-corruption approachesBy Janelle Plummer This paper addresses how corruption impacts on the poor, and how we can try to ensure that anti-corruption actions are pro-poor.• Plummer pro-poor anti-corruption approaches.pdf (1.2 MB)
What do people think?
From WSP calendar, May 2013. All available from:http://www.wsp.org/about/Cartoon%20Calendars
Check realities on the ground
School sanitation and hygiene is important for girls
• Editorial, Daily Champion, NigeriaIt beats the imagination that it had to cost the students such grievous assault before they could get government to provide basic water for their school. (E-Source - 2007)
• IRC's Dick de Jong on the need for sanitation and hygiene in schoolsVideo http://www.irc.nl/page/67991 24 November 2011
There is one issue which IRC's Dick de Jong is passionate about: the need for sanitation facilities in schools. The lack of decent toilets in schools causes kids - especially girls - to drop out once they reach puberty. Dick talked to Louisa Selander in the Watercube at the World Water Day 2011 celebrations in Cape Town.
Sanitation as a business
The Bokul Sanitation Centre on the Road of Hobirbari village. Bangladesh. Photo: IRC/Dick de Jong, 2013B
“Competition? I am the best”
Rasheda estimates that she sells around 30 sets of toilet rings and slabs per month – which brings in 35,000 taka – and that she clears a profit of 120,000 taka (about 1,200 euros) per yearhttp://www.irc.nl/page/77099 .
Generate story ideas
• You can get additional story ideas from IRC’s E-Source news service at http://www.source.irc.nl, and in Google, using for instance:
ethiopia (sanitation | latrines | toilets)
• Follow BBC World News video series on Human Waste: Toilet troublehttp://www.bbc.com/specialfeatures/horizonsbusiness/episode/human-waste/
• Communications over a 30-year period Dick de Jong talks about the changes in communication in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector over a 30-year period at the Water Cube in 2011.See blip tv video.
Other Resources
Become part of a global community of journalists dedicated to raising awareness and giving voice to people on water, sanitation and hygiene for all, for ever.
• WSSCC media top resourceshttp://www.wsscc.org/media/top-resources
• WASH media awardshttp://www.wsscc.org/media/wash-media-awards
• IRC thematic blogshttp://www.irc.nl/page/72520
• IRC’s MySource you decide what water and sanitation news you want to get, when and howhttp://www.source.irc.nl/page/62887
• Become member of WASH journalist network
Contact
• Dick de Jong, email: [email protected]
• Retired journalist, 30 years with IRC
• Now free lancing (occasionally): H2O Communicationshttp://h2ocommunications.net
