Follow events at SACOSAN IV

A comprehensive list of resources relating to SACOSAN IV.

News

Inspiring Sri Lanka- Lajana Blog 

Lajana Manandhar, FANSA steering committee member and Country Convenor, reflects on her experiences at this year's SACOSAN.

CSO coalition response to SACOSAN-IV Colombo Declaration

Freshwater Action Network (FANSA), WaterAid and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) welcome The Colombo Declaration, which outlines ministerial commitments made in the SACOSAN-IV, and are pleased to see that it reflects much of the declaration of the Pre-SACOSAN-IV Consultation Meeting of CSOs.

Make this conference count

Governments must make good on their commitments

As the fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN IV, 4-7 April 2011) kicks off in Colombo, Sri Lanka, FANSA and coalition partners WaterAid and WSSCC are presenting a unified call to South Asian governments to take concrete steps to address the life threatening state of sanitation and hygiene affecting the nearly one billion most marginalised and voiceless people in the region.

Rainbow toilet queue highlights South Asian sanitation crisis

On 2 April 2011, over a hundred civil society members, community leaders and grassroots activists from across the region queued behind a giant toilet, in a rainbow of national dress, to highlight the nearly one billion people living without access to adequate sanitation in South Asia in the run up to the fourth South Asian conference on sanitation.

Pakistan’s Failure on SACOSAN Commitments 

Three years back, Pakistan had made commitment at the 3rd South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) to improve access of the people to safe water and sanitation and hammer out and put in place policies and programmes to achieve this. But, the country is way behind as far as implementation of the commitments is concerned.

Grassroots call for urgent action to end the sanitation crisis in South Asia

Just two days before the fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation in Sri Lanka (SACOSAN IV, 4-7 April 2011) FANSA and its coalition partners WaterAid and WSSCC have organsied a civil society meeting of leading civil society groups and international organisations from across South Asia to urge their governments to take real steps in addressing life-changing sanitation and hygiene issues.

Downloads

CSO coalition response to SACOSAN-IV, Colombo Declaration (PDF 120Kb)

South Asian Ministers declaration SACOSAN-IV, Colombo (PDF 1Mb) Also in Nepali (PDF 1 Mb), Malayalam (PDF 500Kb), Tamil (PDF 200Kb), Telegu (PDF 40Kb) Sinhala (PDF 145Kb, translated by Center for Environmental Justice (CEJ)) Hindi (PDF 46Kb) Marathi (PDF ) Bangla (PDF 165KB)

SACOSAN IV Opening address - Tom Palakudiyil, WaterAid (PDF 40Kb)

Declaration of the Pre-SACOSAN IV Consultation Meeting of CSOs (PDF 111Kb) Also in Nepali (PDF 176Kb)

Traffic Lights discussion paper (PDF 200Kb)

South Asian People’s Perspective on Sanitation executive summary (PDF 290Kb)

Peoples' perspectives on sanitation Sri Lanka (PDF 2Mb)

Download a high res image of toilet queue - photo credit: Anil Sthapit

Photos

Photo gallery of pre CSO meeting and SACOSAN IV

Blogs - grassroots voices

The confidence of a young sanitation activist: story of Sita

Sita is just twenty years old. She has faced discrimination throughout her life because the village she comes from is the settlement of so-called low caste indigenous people. She told me her inspirational story on the first day of our pre-SACOSAN conference civil society gathering and I would like to share it with you.

Community voices at SACOSAN pre-meeting: Himani Mistry's story

Yesterday, on the first day of the civil society meeting in preparation for the official SACOSAN, I spoke to Himany Mistry, community leader from Bangladesh, who was there to share her experiences of sanitation in Bangladesh.

Community voices at SACOSAN pre-meeting: Women power

The residents of Gangadevpalli village in a southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh acknowledged the wisdom and dedication of women folk decades ago. The result is that today Gangadevpalli is India’s one of the rarest model villages, which has won two national and over a dozen district level awards for best governance and sanitation practices.

Twitter 

Read through all the tweets relating to the event from us as well as others taking part.