Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Program

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Program or WaSH MP is a local initiative that is responsible for monitoring the enduring crisis in the water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

sector in the Palestinian territories

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

(oPt).

Overview

In a region already suffering severe water stress, the ongoing political, economic and social crisis in the oPt has resulted in near catastrophic consequences for the water, sanitation

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

and hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...

(WaSH) situation. Local and international non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

s (NGOs) working in the water sector, in tandem with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), are trying, under restrictive political conditions and within limited budgets, to ensure that all Palestinians are able to access sufficient water supplies and sanitation services.

History

The Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), as the leading Palestinian NGO working in the water sector, has undertaken the responsibility for initiating the program. In June 2002 the WaSH MP was launched in response to the urgent need for increased information, resources and action related to the deteriorating WaSH situation in the West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

and Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip

thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

. The need for quantitative data to support ongoing advocacy and humanitarian initiatives by donors, international NGOs, and local NGOs working in the water sector in the oPt has been the main driving force behind the initiation and further development of the WaSH MP.

Objective

The main objective of the WaSH MP is to respond to the water crisis in the oPt by increasing local and international awareness of the WaSH situation while further encouraging mobilization around the emergency needs of the most vulnerable communities. Additionally, the hope is that this will help to stimulate political and environmental change through the use of timely and pertinent information (data) in order to help remedy the dire WaSH situation. These efforts are inline with achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in relation to water and sanitation (UN MDG 7 – Target 10). As part of the WaSH MP, PHG has taken the responsibility for monitoring the extent to which Target 10 can be realized under these deteriorating conditions in the oPt, and for identifying the limitations in its achievement. In the process of identifying the main constraints facing the realization of this goal, and in addressing water issues and crises afflicted on Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, reliable water related data collection has become of paramount importance.

Program Scope

In the current phase of the program, the WaSH MP managed to collect data from 660 of the 708 Palestinian communities and had disseminated the information through annual, monthly and weekly reports. This program covers the overwhelming majority of communities in the oPt and spans across all governorates throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A total of 660 communities are now surveyed during each annual monitoring period. The remaining 48 communities which are not surveyed as part of the ongoing monitoring process are left out due to various reasons including: religious locality with limited access, East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...

communities (limited access to municipal information), no people due to Israeli planned transfer, seasonal community, and or a community with services that are an integral part of another locality.

Program Indicators

Information quality of WaSH MP data outputs is defined in terms of its "fitness for use" by the end user. The six dimensions of data quality are relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, interpretability, and coherence. The information is collected from the field, by means of a standardized questionnaire, and is checked as part of a quality assurance process by Technical Field Monitors (TFMs) who are located in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In order to provide this service the WaSH MP has further refined its data criteria by creating twelve indicators. The twelve indicators currently used are as follows: status of households with year-round access to a water source, per capita water supply, wastewater network coverage, cesspit

Cesspit

A cesspit, or cesspool is a pit, conservancy tank, or covered cistern, which can be used to dispose of urine and feces, and more generally of all sewage and refuse. It is a more antiquated solution than a sewer system. Traditionally, it was a deep cylindrical chamber dug into the earth, having...

and septic tank

Septic tank

A septic tank is a key component of the septic system, a small-scale sewage treatment system common in areas with no connection to main sewage pipes provided by local governments or private corporations...

coverage, availability of solid waste collection system, prevalence of water-borne diseases, status of operation and maintenance of water supply facilities, cost recovery for water supply services, unaccounted-for water within the water supply system, monthly household income spent on water supply, monthly household income spent on sanitation, as well as a compilation of major community problems and needs. The commitment on behalf of the WaSH MP to the continuous improvement of data will ensure that international organizations, donors, INGO’s, NGO’s, academics and all interested persons receive WaSH-related data that meets the growing needs of the Palestinian people, as well as the development and humanitarian sectors.

Program Deliverables

The WaSH MP has been alerting organizations working in the water sector in the oPt to problems that require urgent and longer-term attention. Furthermore, the WaSH MP has striven in educating those outside the Palestinian water sector nationally and internationally on the WaSH crisis in the oPt. The program also provides a direct channel for WaSH related information regarding the most vulnerable areas to be disseminated to the humanitarian sector and the international community in order for them to stay abreast of emergency needs. As part of the program deliverables an annual report is published along with quarterly based need assessment reports, monthly data sets, and pilot monitoring of selected Palestinian communities. Additionally emergency alerts are posted on a need be basis and are identified as part of the continuous monitoring process. The WaSH MP website comprises an archive of all published material, including reports, alerts and photographs to serve as a reference source.

Obstacles

In the past, WaSH related data collection in the oPt has been difficult to source, disparate in nature, and generally incomplete. The data available failed to describe, accurately, the reality on the ground for many communities — much less has it served as a tool for improving the dissemination of critical information. It also failed to provide a comprehensive indication of the vulnerability of numerous communities, and could not be relied upon to assess whether these communities had the capacity and coping mechanisms to solve WaSH related problems. This can be attributed to the difficulties in acquiring a consistent source of data while under occupation. The unpredictable nature of life in the oPt is primarily due to the lack of control Palestinians have over their own affairs. This creates numerous obstacles to planning and implementing a monitoring program.

External links

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