Personal stories
Ensuring clean water and sanitation services in Sri Lanka's troubled East
For many of the victims of Sri Lanka’s long-drawn-out civil war, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, pose a serious risk of outbreaks of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A.
According to the World Health Organisation waterborne disease is the world’s leading killer. It is estimated that 1.8 million children die every year due to lack of access to safe drinking water and poor water sanitation practices. This is close to 5,000 children every day. Ensuring access to safe water and improving sanitation services is therefore a crucial part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
In Sri Lanka, the ongoing conflict between government forces and armed rebels in the Northern and Eastern regions of the country, makes local communities and over 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease transmitted via water.
In this interview we speak to Mr. R. Prashanthan, a Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Officer with the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), an international relief agency based in Batticaloa, the State Capital on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka.
He talks to us about the challenge of improving water and sanitation services in rural villages and camps for IDPs and how attending RedR’s training programme on Sphere Minimum Standards in Disaster Response has helped him in his daily activities.
Why did you decide to take part in the workshop?
When I heard about the training course from the RedR District Learning Support Officer, I immediately put in a request with the Water and Sanitation Co-ordinator to attend. I thought the course content would greatly help with the work we are doing in camps for IDPs and in our development work with local communities in villages. Also, we knew it would assist with community assessments for WATSAN requirements.
To what extent did the course make use of practical examples to make it more relevant to the participants’ daily work?
About 80% of the course involved practical work, so this was really the major part of it. We also looked at theories about norms and cultural values, and about the role of stakeholders such as the Government and local communities.
How has being on the course helped you in your daily work?
The workshop has especially helped us with assessment work in the field and at the pre-design and implementation stages of a project. We’ve also found the Sphere Handbook really helpful, and the way the course facilitator explained how to use it was great. We are now using the handbook whenever we’re in doubt about a task. This workshop has really helped me in many ways as a Technical Officer.
How do you think what you have learned will benefit the local communities you work with?
It’s definitely had an impact. We’ve since reviewed the distribution of resources, such as taps for bathing, and adjusted the quantity of water to be supplied in IDP camps and local villages, with the help of things we learnt on the course. In the Urani camps, for example, we recalculated the required quantity of water by assessing the specific needs of different groups - men, women and children - living here. This was something which previously had not been done and which can lead to a shortage of water.
How else have you used what you learned?
In another camp for IDPs we have been able to improve sanitation services for women and men. Men will often ask for the same number of latrines as women; however they do not require the same facilities. This again was something we learned about on the RedR course.
What are your future career plans?
I very much enjoy working in this sector as a WATSAN Officer but I do not have proper qualifications and I would like to improve my skills with the help of RedR. I am looking forward to participating in future training sessions and to helping local communities. I would also like the opportunity to use the skills I’ve gained to do field work abroad in future.
Vital training and support to relief workers
RedR provides high-level technical expertise in emergency water and sanitation services and has a longstanding reputation for training both national and international relief workers. In the period from mid-May to mid-October 2008, a third of all queries directed at RedR’s free online Technical Support Service were directly related to WATSAN issues in the field.
The Sphere Minimum Standards in Disaster Response is a code of conduct which sets out the minimum standards of assistance that people caught up in disasters have the right to expect. RedR’s training course on Sphere Minimum Standards aims to improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian work and sets out standards common to all sectors, including WATSAN.
Having trained and experienced humanitarian workers in decision-making positions at the earliest stages of disaster relief, makes it possible to ensure equipment and staff are directed to saving lives and using relief money to its greatest impact.
Since 2007 RedR has also been responsible for the selection and training of coordinators for the international water and sanitation cluster (WASH).
The cluster approach is aimed at strengthening international preparedness and capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies. This is done through increased cooperation and coordination between organisations involved in humanitarian response, to ensure beneficiaries are reached in a more effective and timely manner.
RedR has managed the process of selection and the training of 56 cluster coordinators and has developed and delivered emergency three WASH technical training courses in Indonesia, Nepal and Kenya. We also continue to support the Emergency Shelter Cluster.
For more information about RedR’s UK and international training programmes, please contact the Learning and Development Team or for technical support services, please fill out an online enquiry form.
For direct enquiries about RedR courses in Sri Lanka, please contact srilanka@redr.org.uk or telephone + 94(0)11 257 4182. RedR also has the following Sphere Minimum Standards courses in Sri Lanka planned for the first quarter of 2009 Sphere Minimum Standards in Shelter and Settlement Planning 9 -10 February and Sphere Humanitarian Practice in Water and Sanitation 16 - 17 March.
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