Design Week Project
The International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation’s (IWSH) Community Plumbing Challenge (CPC) program has completed its latest installment, a Design Week project in the coastal village of Kampung Nelayan Untia. An intensive four-day assignment concluded in November with a presentation to Untia community authorities and local residents. All design team members were involved and they presented a proposal for a new public facility for Untia village that features new toilets, a new hand-washing area, a new water supply system and a new wastewater system.
Indonesian standardization body, Badan Standardisasi Nasional (BSN), and IWSH will take the proposals, which were met with support by the local village leaders, to relevant government departments for final approval. It is anticipated this will set off a process toward an ambitious construction project around May 2020, after the passing of the annual wet season in the region. Dates and schedule for the proposed construction project next year will be announced as necessary approvals are confirmed.
Companies or organizations who wish to get involved with the new CPC Indonesia program, or any other future editions of the international CPC program, are encouraged to get in touch via [email protected]. One-time, tax deductible donations to support these efforts may also be made via www.iwsh.org/donate.
World Toilet Day
Celebrated November 19 every year, World Toilet Day’s goal is to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and help achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, which promises sanitation for all by 2030. According to the World Health Organization, more than 4.2 billion people worldwide lack access to safely managed sanitation, 673 million still practice open defecation and three billion lack basic hand-washing facilities. This lack of access to safe sanitation is blamed for an estimated 432,000 diarrheal deaths every year.
Ferguson joined the International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH), governments and NGOs in declaring a bold vision on World Toilet Day: every person, no matter where they live in the in the US, should have access to safe sanitation. This commitment is to help the 1.4 million Americans who lack access to safe, reliable sanitation and the hope, dignity and health that it brings.
Ferguson announced an additional $25,000 to IWSH for its efforts in the US, which include two Community Plumbing Challenge projects within the Navajo Nation in the southwestern US, a plumbing training program at the Navajo Technical University and the construction of restroom facilities in a Navajo community center next month. Ferguson contributed supplies for these initiatives as well. The Navajo Nation, where approximately 40 percent of the population does not have access to water and sanitation, is an area particularly hit by this crisis.
The problem is widespread in the US as well, where more than two million people lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation, according to a new report, produced by DigDeep and the US Water Alliance with advisory assistance from IAPMO, Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan. An estimated 1.4 million Americans do not have access to indoor plumbing (hot and cold running water, a sink, a shower/bath or a flush toilet).
IWSH is the charitable arm of IAPMO, a nearly 100-year-old trade association in the plumbing industry. Visit www.iwsh.org for more information about IWSH and its projects worldwide.