The need for replacement and repair to Colombo's water supply and sanitation was noted by Ms Rita O'Sullivan, Country Director, Sri Lanka, Asian Development Bank (ADB) when she addressed delegates from six South Asian countries at the inauguration of the three day workshop on 'Gender and Urban Poverty in South Asia held in Colombo this week.
She stressed this need because much of this infrastructure for water supply and sanitation dates back to the British colonial era. She said that due to a constant influx of usually poor people to Colombo, there is a heavy strain on these amenities. She said that in addition to the influx of poor people, Colombo has over 1,600 under-served settlements which need improvements in relation to physical infrastructure, water supply and sanitation and power supply, etc.
Ms O'Sullivan said that Sri Lanka has made significant investment in the urban sector to upgrade and improve urban basic services and the portfolio includes the Local Government Infrastructure Improvement Project ($50 million - ADB, $12 million from the Government and $4.7 million - local authorities) in 2005 and the follow-on Local Government Enhancement Sector Project ($59 million) in 2011.
She said that there are also many projects in the water supply and sanitation sector, including the ongoing Secondary Towns Rural Community-Based Water supply and Sanitation project, the Dry Zone Urban Water and Sanitation project, the Greater Colombo Waste water Project, and the Jaffna-Killinochchi Water Supply and Sanitation Project. She said that they also have recently launched the City Cluster Economic Development operation (CCED) Phase III as a private public partnership with ADB technical assistance and AusAID financial support. Ms Sumithra Rahubadda, Secretary, Ministry of Child Development and Women's Empowerment said that the workshop was on sharing the emerging good practices in gender and socially-inclusive design of urban infrastructure and development and to learn gender equality results from ADB projects. In accepting the lapses on their part on the issues under discussion, Ms Rahubadda said "I hope this meeting will be an eye-opener for us on how to design women-friendly cities and gender incorporated projects".
She said that according to the World Bank Global Poverty Monitoring, nearly 40% of the world's poor who earn less than one dollar per day live in South Asia. She said that according to the World Health Organization there should be one public toilet for every 100 people and observed that poverty-stricken women in urban areas have no choice but to share public toilets, sometimes with men.
Ms Rahubadda said that the women who work in market places suffer urinary tract infections and kidney stone ailments, as they limit their daily intake of water to avoid going to the toilet. She said that in every city there should be clean public toilets and most importantly there should be separate toilets for women, because their reproductive cycle demands the need for clean water.
At the tea recess, the Business Times (BT) asked Ms Rahubadda why toilets in the city of Colombo built during colonial times had been destroyed and replaced by shops. The sparingly few toilets that have now been built charge Rs 10 per person and whether it was fair to levy a fee mostly the poor, for a public utility that the government should provide?
She did not answer but referred the BT to Ms Bhadrani Jayawardhane, Municipal Commissioner, Colombo Municipal Council who said the fee was necessary to maintain the toilets.
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