Yemen: more than 600,000 students targeted in bilharzia campaign

Around 680,870 boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18 in 1774 schools have been targeted for four days as part of the third phase of the national campaign to rid 32 districts in Sana’a, Ibb, Lahjj, Sa’ada, Hodeidah, and Shabwa of bilharzia (schistosomiasis).

Launched Sunday [09 Nov 2008], the campaign was organized by the Ministry of Public Health and Population in cooperation with the World Bank and World Health Organization.

This phase of the campaign costs more than YR 90 million. It involved training more than 2,516 people, including 1,504 volunteers, mostly teachers, and 968 medical specialists. Volunteers and medical staff were provided with 155 cars, around two million tablets for the treatment of bilharzia, and more than 715,000 doses for the treatment of soil-borne parasites in addition to the supportive iron medicines at an estimated cost of up to YR 46 million with government funding.

Source: Yemen Observer, 11 Nov 2008

Yemen: poverty and water discussed in recent analysis

A workshop entitled Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) of Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reforms was attended by around 90 participants on October 28, 2008. PSIA is the analysis of the distributional impacts of policy reforms on the well-being or welfare of different stakeholder groups, with a particular focus on the poor and vulnerable. PSIA also examines vested interests to assess and address the political economy of reform, issues of sustainability and risks of policy reform.

The mortality of children under the age of 5 years in Yemen is twice that of other countries in the Middle East and the North Africa region, and half of these deaths are due to diarrhea. The gender and educational enrolment impacts are also considerable, with women and girls spending large parts of each day fetching water.

The workshop was conducted by the Technical Secretariat (TS)/ Reform of the Institutional Framework in the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in cooperation with the Yemeni-German Technical Cooperation Water Sector Program and the World Bank.

Read more: Yemen Observer, 11 Nov 2008

See also the World Bank 2007 report “Yemen’s water sector reform program – a poverty and social impact analysis“

Iraq: still thirsting for water that’s safe to drink

Every day, a man driving a tanker truck filled with water comes to Nashat al Chamamla’s village in southern Iraq , and every day the people line up to fill their jugs and jerry cans.

“The water we buy from the tanker isn’t clean. You can see the dirt in it,” Chamamla said. “But we drink it anyway.”

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq in recent months, but the fight for a better life is just beginning. From electricity and health care to education and the economy, Iraq has many needs, and safe drinking water is among the most urgent.

“The water situation in Iraq is a crisis,” said Bushra Jabbar al Kinani , an Iraqi lawmaker and a member of the parliament’s services and public works committee. “We see the consequences in the health of our people, and they are very bad.”

Read more: Corinne Reilly, McClatchy Newspapers / Yahoo! News, 03 Nov 2008