water as hc component-urban ethoes.doc

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Assessment of Water Sanitation Status of a City / Towns in Developing

Countries Case Study from NepalBy Er. Dinesh Pd. Bhatt,[email protected]

Lecturer, Insitute of Engineering ,Thapathali Campus

Key Words: -Healthy City, Water Sanitation, Component, Indicator, Evaluation, Water sanitation

Index

Abstract

In last few decades, population is growing rapidly in urban areas. Population growth in cities

put pressure on all physical infrastructures. Cities wants make their delivery better than others

willing to make their city best place to live. Every individual wants to live in a healthy city.

Healthy City endeavor to support for good health condition of the people by creating improved

physical and social environment. In developing countries that can be achieved trough properattention in water sanitation along with road safety, food safety, social harmony, solid waste

management, air pollution, housing, disaster preparedness, parks, resilience to climate changeand public health. This paper mainly focuses on evaluation of cities on their delivery status on

water sanitation through systematic process. Status of a city on water sanitation can be

evaluated with the help of suitable indicators. Basic indicators as well as water sanitation indexhave been proposed to evaluate, monitor and find out the status of city and comparison between

several cities.

Background

In last few decades, population is growing rapidly in urban areas. Peoples are migratingtowards cities due to lack of economic opportunity and basic services in villages. Populationgrowth in cities put pressure on physical infrastructures, water-sanitation, solid waste

management, natural resources etc ultimately health of people. Every one wants to make

his/her city healthy.

Need of Evaluation

Some components are basic components that are affecting the environment and health in cities.

In the context of cities in Nepal, the one of major component identified is water sanitation

along with road safety, food safety, social harmony, solid waste management, air pollution,housing, disaster preparedness, parks, resilience to climate change and public health. There is

need of evaluation criteria to chanelize the efforts and resources to major challenging areas.Water and sanitation as Major Component

Water is the most important requirement for the human life to exist. Satisfactory (adequate, safeand accessible) drinking water and sanitation are primary concern for healthy cities. Since

water and sanitation are basic rights, all municipalities must be committed to deliver such

services to people. The provision of safe water supply and good sanitation plays a vital role inpromoting health and hygiene status of every individual and increases the productivity and
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wellbeing of city as well as the nation. Water supply and sanitation are essential for economic

development and poverty alleviation.

Context in Nepal:

Satisfactory drinking water and basic sanitation are common problems faced by cities of Nepal.

Water demand of the cities has increased immensely in last few years due to the rapid growth

of population and urbanization. Water has become a serious problem for the people of manycities in terms of both quantity and quality. Safe drinking water means there is reduce in healthrisk. Safe drinking water is suitable for all usual domestic purposes, including personal

hygiene. If the water quality is not safe, it may cause serious health hazards. In Nepal piped

water is also unsafe in most of areas almost throughout the year. Significant households sufferfrom water borne disease if they do not use their own disinfection systems at household level.

Ensuring water quality is major challenge for municipal water suppliers in Nepal.

In Nepal, there is less coverage of toilets even in cities. Open defecation is common practice inmany areas in absence of HH toilets, which is responsible for serious health hazards,

epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. In absence of sewerage system

people have leave their wastewater in open places that is responsible for serious health hazards,

epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. Most of cities in Nepal do nothave treatment systems before disposal that is responsible for serious health hazards,

epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination of water bodies.

The conditions requires in Healthy City:

All the citizens must have access in satisfactory (adequate, safe and accessible) water supply.

They should have access in proper sanitation. Human excreta and wastewater should be

properly disposed without producing any adverse impact on environment.

Methodology of Evaluation

Indicators

To evaluate the water sanitation status, there is need of indicators. Indicators are purposed to

evaluate and monitor the performance of city towards delivery level on water sanitation. They

are measures of health and of the factors that influence health in the arena of Water Sanitation.They are based on both qualitative and quantitative data. There is the requirement of indicators

for the followings:

To evaluate the status of the city.

To find the areas to be intervene and prioritize them.

To compare the health status of city with that of another.

For allocation of scarce resources.

For monitoring and evaluation of services, activities and programmes of service providers.

To measure the extent to which the objectives and targets of a programme are beingattained.

Indicators of Water Sanitation

Access to drinking water

Access to water supply means having water within own house premises or near to house. If

there is no access to water, people have to walk long distance fetching water or buy the water in


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tankers and bottles thus by increasing the price of water. In addition, the combination of

opportunity costs such as spending time fetching water rather than pursuing productive

activities and water related health issues further hamper the capacity of households to grab

opportunities for economic development.

The piped water is considered as a source of safe water. In absence of continuous supply ofpiped water, people pick and mix a variety of informal sources such as open public sources,

private boring and local water vendors.

As water is basic requirement for life, every household manages it for their survival, but the

major concern how they are managing it. Municipal pipe lines should provide water in their

own house premises in cities.

Water quantity

Defining basic human needs for water is difficult. Normally we can estimate an average need of

5 liters/capita/day for drinking, plus 10 for food preparation, 15 for bathing, and 20 for basic

hygiene and sanitation making a total of 50 liters/capita/day. However, domestic water demand

is not simply a multiple of the population size. Per capita demand increases with urbanization

and rising incomes. Per capita water demand is also indicator of human development index.

Water supply is inadequate in many cities of Nepal; this has significant adverse consequences

for public health and economic development of the country.

Although municipal water supply pipeline in house is a matter of concern, but the main concern

is it providing adequate quantity of water required for basic human needs.

Water quality

Improving access to safe drinking water can result tangible benefits to health. Safe drinkingwater means there is reduce in health risk. Safe drinking water is suitable for all usual domestic

purposes, including personal hygiene. Access to drinking water can not guarantee access to safe

water. If the water quality is not proper it may cause serious health hazards. In Nepal piped

water is also unsafe in most of areas almost throughout the year. Significant households suffer

from water borne disease if they do not use their own disinfection systems at household level.

Ensuring water quality is major challenge for municipal water suppliers in Nepal. Water quality

should be such that it doesnt cause adverse effect on health. If the water quality is poor it may

cause serious health hazards, therefore water quality should be assured as per National

Drinking Water Quality Standards 2005 or WHO standards. If the supply is not according to

standard it may cause several water related diseases. Therefore, water related disease are

indicator to water quality.

Water Quality standards


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Government of Nepal has prepared and applied National Drinking Water Quality Standards

2005 and implementation directives to ensure that the water supplied by agencies to general

consumers conform to NDWQS and do not have any harmful effects to human health.

Disinfection

Disinfection is method of killing pathogenic organism present in water. If the quality of citysupply is good, citizens need not to disinfect the water. Water is usually boiled in many cities

for disinfection. Water quality can be analyzed by peoples believe on quality of water of city

supply.

Sanitation

Toilet

A toilet is a plumbing fixture primarily intended for the disposal of human excreta. In Nepal

there is less coverage of toilets even in cities. Open defecation is common practice in many

areas which is responsible for serious health hazards, epidemics, several diseases and

environmental contamination. Toilet coverage is important parameter to test good sanitation

behaviour of people. Ideally each house holds should have toilet in their premises.

Sewerage System

Sewerage is a system of sewers and ancillary works to convey sewage from its point of origin

to a treatment plant and/or to other places of disposal. Sewer is a pipeline to convey sewage or

other wastes and does not normally flow full. In absence of sewerage system people have leave

their wastewater in open places that is responsible for serious health hazords, epidemics,

several diseases and environmental contamination. Central sewerage collection should be incities to remove waste water from houses properly. In Nepal most of municipalities also

assocites some rural areas within their boundaries. In rural area as buildings are not close by we

cannot make such a long sewer lines due to cost consideration and economy of people.

Therefore, it also should be taken in consideration.

Sewage disposal

Sewage disposal is the process of disposing of sewage. After conveying the wastewater through

sewers, the next step is its disposal either after treatment or before treatment. The wastewater

treatment reduces the objectionable properties of water carried waste and makes it suitable for

safe disposal in water bodies and environment.

Sewage treatment

After conveying the wastewater through sewers, municipalities should dispose wastewater after

treatment. Wastewater disposal with out treatment pollutes the water bodies (rivers) near the

cities.


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Water Sanitation Index

Water sanitation index have been purposed here to find out status of the city in water sanitation

and comparison between, a numbers of cities or towns throughout the word. Water sanitationindicators are divided into five classes in comparison to Nepalese context. Category A means

best which we want to achieve in healthy cities and category E is worst condition we have in

city regards to that indicator. To find water sanitation index following formula should be used.

Water sanitation index =4IndicatorsofnoTotal

)0EofNo.1DofNo.2CofNo.3BofNo.4Aof(No.

++++

Number of A=4,B=3,C=2,D=1,E=0 will be fixed from detail criteria prescribed in table

bellow. Water Sanitation index have value range 0-1.

Table 1: Indicators for the assessment of water sanitation status at municipal level

Indicator Definition Calculation

methods

Unit Ranking method

Access to

drinkingwater

Access to drinking water

means having water with inthere own house by pipe or

atleast two minute walking

distance.

(Supply agency

HH connection+ HH having

PSP with in 2

min walk) /

Total HH

Percentag

e

100%-A

>80%-B>60%-C

>50%-D

120 lpcd- A

100-120 lpcd -B60-100 lpcd C

30-60 lpcd -D

< 30 lpcd-E

Water

related

diseases

Quality should be such that

which doesnt cause advere

effect on health and reduce

occurrence of water related

diseases

Records of

health facilities

and sample

survey of

patients after

their

consultation

Percentag

e of

patients

having

water

related

diseases

0-5%-A

5-15%-B

15-30%-C

30-50%-D

50%-E

Disinfected

supply to

people

Water quality should be

according to NDWQS.

Household

water quality

test and

interview

(sample)

Percentan

ge

100%-A

>80%-B

>60%-C

>50%-D

80%-B


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records and

sample survey

>60%-C

>50%-D

80%-B

>60%-C>50%-D

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water as hc component-urban ethoes.doc