(Draft Minutes of the 69th WASH Cluster Meeting)
Date: 21st October 2010 – 1130 Hrs
Venue: LG & RDD, KP, PESHAWAR
The 69th meeting of WASH Cluster KPk (WASH Cluster Flood Emergency/ IDPs meeting) was held on 21-10-2010 at 11:30 am in the LG &RDD, Peshawar. The WASH Cluster Coordinator Mr. Jamal Shah chaired the meeting. The chair welcomed the participants;
after formal introduction in his opening remarks he requested the forum to fill the new 3 W matrix format & forward it to Mr. Abbas on WASH IM Peshawar e-mail id
Agenda Point 1: Updates:
WASH Cluster Coordinator said that updates means issues of concern; we are working on Relief & Early Recovery he added. About Relief he said that 80% of the WASH needs of flood affectees have been addressed & at the moment we as a Cluster are concerned about Tank & D.I.Khan. He said that Handicap International has started activities in Tank; other organizations are also responding including KKT he added. He also said that we as Cluster were covering 100% of the relief areas. UNHCR representative enquired about coverage of Afghan refugees in the relief phase as flood affectees. He was replied that if in a community they are residing then by default they were the beneficiaries but as a separate case load they were not addressed. UNOCHA representative informed about Dabara camp in D.I.Khan for Afghan refugees.
WCC also informed the forum that 600 damaged water supply schemes out of 1300 in KPk has been restored including the Early Recovery activities.
He also said that in Swat, Shangla, Kohistan & Upper Dir access to the areas was still an issue & very few organizations were responding in these areas. He also informed the forum that in KPk 75% of people are getting water through public water supply agencies either through TMA or PHED. He told the forum if WSS were repaired then 75% of the population will be covered. About remaining 25% he was of the view that they either use their own bore wells, dug wells or hand pumps. He requested the forum to focus on these traditional water supply sources. About distribution of WASH NFIs in a target population he was of the view that buckets & jerry cans could only be distributed to people who were fetching water from a distance and same is true for aqua tabs distribution in a population getting unsafe water. He concluded that it’s not like food distribution to every one. Hope87 representative informed the forum about their assessment in Malakand & said that they will start activities in Malakand from next week. To a query about other organizations working in Malakand Mr. Abbas IM WASH Cluster informed the forum that NCHD was working in Malakand.
WINTERIZATION PLAN:
WCC said that winter is also an important aspect in current scenario as during snow fall & land sliding people will face difficulty in getting water. He requested the partners to concentrate on those areas having heavy snow fall. He also remarked that logistics could be an issue in these areas but easy to carry material could be a possible solution to this. He also said that concerned line agencies are important in carrying out rehabilitation activities.
OCHA representative was interested in a deadline for winterization plan from partners. WCC concluded that agencies can support government in different areas in winter contingency plans.
ACTION POINT: It was decided that following Wednesday (27-10-2010) would be the dead line for winterization plan & partners not present that day could also participate.
Agenda Point 3: Strategy Advisory Group:
WCC said that we already have a WASH Cluster Strategy as circumstances were changing we need to revise it. He proposed to the forum to nominate volunteers for the WASH Strategy revision and get registered with Mr. Syed Abbas Ali, IM WASH Cluster. He also said that the draft strategy would be for the following 3-months & could be extended to 6-months.
Agenda Point 4: Technical Working Group:
WCC said that there were technical issues as sending of GI pipes to a certain area & if required replacing them with HDP pipes requires technical opinion, this technical opinion could be assessed by TWIG. Explaining through another example of hand pumps in a certain area is producing contaminated water; TWIG will stop its operation & recommend the depth for bore hole etc he added. He also said that one agency can nominate only one technical person preferably engineer for TWIG; Sanitation, Hygiene promotion & Gender specialist can also be nominated he added.
ACTION POINT: About the TWIG meeting it was decided that early next week they will be meeting to formulate the solutions for the current issues.
Agenda Point 5: Field Coordination:
WCC informed the forum that in Swat, Charsadda, Nowshera, D.I.Khan, Tank, Kohat & Hangu, Dir Upper and now in Chitral WASH Working Groups are activated. Various partners are as OXFAM-GB, ACTED, MERCY CORPS, CESSD, DDMA (Nowshera), AKRSP, WatSan Cell and Line agencies (TMAs & PHED) are involved in coordination mechanisms in various districts. He requested the WASH partners to attend district WASH working groups meetings in their respective areas of interventions. He also said that not only duplication but triplication & tetrilication were observed in some UCs & villages. ACF representative reminded last meeting point of sharing the feedback of WASH W.G with provincial forum by W.G LEADS. The WASH Working Group Upper Dir, Charsadda & Nowshera LEADS inform the forum that regular meeting were being held in there respective districts; attendance were recorded short & partners were not taking interest in these meetings was added.
Agenda Point 6: Updates from World Health Organization (W.H.O):
Dengue Fever:
Mr. Kashif Jan of World Health Organization (W.H.O) informed the forum that Dengue fever cases were reported in the month of October from Haripur, Mansehra, Swat, Buner and Shangla etc and W.H.O responded in the affected areas immediately by distribution of bed nets and other necessary actions. He stressed for collaborative response, awareness campaigns about the dengue fever and distribution of mosquito repellents. WCC was of the view that WASH Cluster advocates the preventive side and if partners have provision should collaborate with W.H.O. Mr. Daniel Ervin from UNHCR said that Dengue fever is caused by Dengue virus (DENV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus. Mr. Kashif Jan said that Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
About Diarrhoea:
Mr. Kashif Jan informed the forum that last week alerts were received from phases 1 & 3 from Jalozai camp. He was of the view that hygiene issues at house hold level were the main causes of alerts and requested WASH partners working in Jalozai to re-visit hygiene promotion activities. He also informed the forum that alerts were received from Madina Colony, D.I.Khan & Mayar; these alerts were single family isolated cases he added. He also said that health & hygiene education sessions were conducted with these families.
WCC compared the AWD data of 2009 with that of 2010 in KPk and deducted that we are almost at the same level. He expressed his gratitude to the WASH Cluster partners for controlling the outbreaks. ACTED representative queried about W.H.O team in Dir Lower & Dir Upper. He was replied that W.H.O team is present in Swat, Dir Lower & Dir Upper.
Agenda Point 7: AoB:
1. UNHABITAT representative said that their WASH needs assessment in district Kohat & Hangu is in progress. He also said that material is being transported from Aza Khel warehouse to D.I.Khan for implementation of WASH IDPs project.
2. UNICEF representative informed the forum that on 15th October, 2010 UNICEF celebrated Global Hand Washing Day in 12 districts; 4, 12000 bathing soaps were distributed he added.
3. OCHA to share updates about spontaneous camps.
4. UNHCR representative informed about rapid protection survey & highlighted sanitation issues.
5. WCC informed the forum about Inter-Cluster mission assessment report of FATA; 46 out of 142 WSS were damaged in Orakzai agency he added. He also said that these 46 WSS needs restoration.
6. TRAININGS:
WCC informed the forum that a series of training will be arranged in the months of November & December for government line agencies (TMAs, PHED, PDA, LAAs & PDMA) and for NGOs (INGOs & NNGOs) in Peshawar. He also informed the forum about the titles of trainings include 2-days training on water supply designing & survey, 2-days training on emergency sanitation & storm water drainage design, 2-days training on Participatory, Hygiene & sanitation Transformation (PHAST) IMC assisted and One-day workshop on emergency preparedness & response. He also said that these are free of cost trainings and nominate who can make a difference. He also told the forum that these trainings could be compared in equivalency to any International training in standard.
NEXT MEETING: will be held on 28-10-2010 at 1130 Hrs in LG & RDD, Peshawar.
Meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.
