Water Security

Unimproved water sources in Myanmar compromise hygiene, sanitation and drinking water availability.  Unfiltered rivers and swamps are contaminated by human and animal waste, chemical pollutants and heavy metals which can quite often be fixed by simple low-technology solutions.

As humanitarian crises have lifted in Sri Lanka, national development has shifted its focus toward building a strong economic core in the private sector and diversifying rural livelihoods.  Demographic transition that has accompanied the drive toward middle-income country status now poses some challenges regarding aged dependency.

Across the rugged terrain of Tajikistan there are scattered communities in great need.  Disability is stigmatized, medical facilities are overrun, the employment base is narrow and drinking water is in short supply. 

South Sudan is the world’s newest country having gained independence from Sudan in September 2011, but it didn’t come easily.  The country is taunted by ongoing civil conflict and religious persecution as more than 1 million nationals reside as refugees or internally displaced people.

In the quarry villages of rural India, poverty manifests in many ways.  It is therefore necessary to tackle the problem with a holistic community development approach, building capacity through participation in every way possible.

Government expenditure on defence and foreign debt servicing have been an enormous strain on the Pakistani budget, leaving only 1.9% spent on health and 2% on education. Healthcare is scarcely regulated and beyond affordability to much of the nation’s most vulnerable.  Likewise, the education sector is frail, with less than half of all students completing primary school.

Unimproved water sources in Myanmar compromise hygiene, sanitation and drinking water availability. Unfiltered rivers and swamps are contaminated by human and animal waste, chemical pollutants and heavy metals which can quite often be fixed by simple low-technology solutions.

As humanitarian crises have lifted in Sri Lanka, national development has shifted its focus toward building a strong economic core in the private sector and diversifying rural livelihoods.  Positive demographic transition has accompanied the drive toward middle-income country status but now poses some challenges regarding aged dependency.

As Indonesia is midway through epidemiological transition, its health system must strain under simultaneous burdens of infectious and degenerative illnesses.  Health inequity is a deep-seeded problem as locational disparities exist in institutional capacity, access to services and prevalence of disease.

Ethnic tension is rampant in Burma.  Skewed spending on defence has stagnated economic growth and development indicators are ubiquitously dubious.  The government refuses basic services to some minorities and the military targets them in ruthless bouts of conflict.  An epidemic of statelessness has emerged whereby many Burmese are internally displaced or have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.

For many years the residents of a remote village in Indonesia have been walking across rugged terrain to collect water from a natural spring.    The return journey presents a burdensome and time-consuming test of endurance as the water load must be carried up a steep mountain face from sea level.

In rural West Papua, villagers are poorly informed about microscopic water borne diseases.  They cook from the same uncovered water hole that they clean and bath in which is closely positioned next to animal pens and sewerage zones.