MEDIA 21 ON WATER : A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH Water: a matter of life and death Investigating the global sanitation and water crises This Media21 journalist workshop was organized jointly with PATH, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, United Nations Office to Support the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005-2015, Water Advocates, Water and Sanitation Programme, Water Supply and Sanitation Colla- borative Council, World Water Council 5th World Water Forum, Istanbul, March 16-22, 2009 Fieldtrips India and Ethiopia: March 22-28, 2009 List of Participating Journalists 1. Mr.ADI PRABOWO Aryo Indonesia SCTV 2. Mr.AGMEGNIGNON François Koami Togo Radio Zephyr 3. Ms.AL-SAKKAF Nadia Yemen Yemen Times 4. Ms.ATYYAT Farah Jordan Al-Ghad Daily Newspaper 5. Mr.BAKKAL Ismail Turkey Ilhas Press Agency 6. Ms.DIMMOCK Jessica USA International Center for Photography 7. Mr.DOWELL William USA/Switz The Global Post online 8. Ms.EICHENSEHER Tasha USA National Geographic 9. Mr.FERGUSON Kevin USA Grist Mag./Ooska News, Business Week, New York Times 10. Ms.GREGORY Salome Tanzania Mwananchi Communications Limited 11. Ms.GUREZ Lilia Moldova Infotag news agency 12. Mr.ISLAM Saiful Bangladesh BSS News Agency 13. Mr.JAWOKO Kennedy Canada Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 14 Ms.KHALID HUSSEIN Khadija USA PBS, CNN, ABC 15. Mr.LA MARCA Chris USA International Center for Photography 16. Ms.METAXA Maia Moldova Imedia - Committee for Freedom of the Press 17. Ms.MEZINI Valbona Albania Albanian Public Television, TVSH 18. Mr.MUFTI Shehryar Pakistan DAWN News 19. Ms.MUNAWAR SHOHINOVNA Boeva Tajikistan Tajik Television, Furughi Oriono Studio, Radio of Tajikistan 20. Mr.OKONGO Edwin Kenya/USA Frontline World TV 21. Ms.ONYIMBO Winfred Kenya Trans World Radio 22. Mr.RAMOS BANEGAS Alberto Honduras Prensa Verde monthly 23. Ms.RAZZAQ Shabina Pakistan Jang Group 24. Ms.REHMAN Teresa India Tehelka Mag. 25. Mr.ROCHA REVILLA Alvaro Peru Somos/El Comercio 26. Ms.ROWLEY Jacqueline USA/Canada BBC, PBS, ZDF, Al Jazeera 27. Mr.RUBIN Joseph USA Frontline World TV 28. Mr.RUFFINO ARTAGNAN Frans Indonesia Trans TV 29. Mr.SAUER John USA online blogs 30. Mr.SAWYER Jon USA Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting 31. Mr.STONEHILL, Alexander USA Forex, Frontline World TV 32. Ms.TOURBE Caroline France Science & Vie 33. Mr.TREASTER Joseph USA Miami University, New York Times 34. Mr.WAITITU Ernest Kenya Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting 35. Mr.WEISER Matt USA Sacramento Bee 36. Ms.XIONG Manlin China Central China Television 37. Mr.ZANDI Reza Iran Shahrvand Merroz Weekly Newsmagazine Editorial Board: Fabrice BOULÉ, Edward GIRARDET, Yoga RANGATIA, Daniel WERMUS. Coordinator: Flavio LUCCHESI Editorial Partnership: Crosslines Essential Media Ltd. 2 On Assignment #8, March 2009 2.5 Billion People World Water Council, PATH development assistance International , Water Advo- without involving the media Want to Use the cates , Water Aid, UN Office is not only irresponsible but Toilet (and 900 for the international 'Water missing the point. ―People for Life' Decade and the have the right to be in- million have a WSSCC , will bring in more formed and a media that drinking problem) than 40 editors, reporters, understands what is going photographers and produc- on represents the most By Edward Girardet ers from all over the globe. effective tool for achieving Sixteen of these will take this.‖ An estimated 2.5 billion part in two separate field The Istanbul workshop plus people (40 percent) of the trips, one to India, the other the field trips will have a world‘s population lack to Ethiopia, to provide them specific focus on health, but access to clean water, with a chance to report first- will also explore the impact of toilets or proper sanitation. hand the broader chal- water and sanitation on Another 600 million must lenges of providing people poverty, development, and survive without regular with clean water and ac- human rights. It will seek to water. At the same time, cessible sanitation. draw attention to relatively two in five childhood deaths The Media21 initiative, simple and inexpensive are caused by water-related which focuses on key global forms of intervention, wheth- diseases and infections. themes, such as climate er by governments, aid The Geneva-based non- change to peacekeeping agencies or the private governmental organization and security, humanitarian sector, for improving the Media21 is seeking to relief, human rights and quality – and use - of water. provide greater public access to health, is de- Another aspect is whether awareness of this dire signed specifically to pro- the planet will finally place a worldwide situation by vide journalists with a proper value on water, holding the first of its broader and more global increasingly viewed as the principal 2009 Global awareness of these issues. ―new petroleum,‖ but in a Journalism Network work- It also provides journalists manner that will achieve a shops next week in Istanbul with a practical platform to more equitable and sustain- (16-22 March) in conjunc- interact informally with key able distribution of this tion with the 5th World players, whether govern- increasingly scarce resource, Water Forum. Some 20,000 ment officials, UN agencies, whether for drinking, agricul- international aid, NGO, private sector, NGOs or ture or industry. government, private sector military. Media21 will publish online and other participants are Daniel Wermus, head of and in print a compilation of expected to attend this key Media21, maintains that it is selected articles, broadcast global gathering overlooking crucial to recognize the role reports and photographs in the Bosphurus. Over the of the media as a player. its next special edition of ON next several weeks, The ―Unless there is more ASSIGNMENT. This can be Essential Edge will highlight informed, critical and con- found on the Media21 some of these crucial issues sistent independent report- website. through its own reporters ing of these issues, there plus dispatches contributed will be no proper accounta- With Fabrice Boulé and Daniel by journalists participating in bility or transparency vis a Wermus the Media21 workshop. vis the public-at-large.‖ He The Media21 initiative on added that for the interna- the value of water, which is tional community to under- www.media21geneva.org being co-organized with the take humanitarian and www.essentialgeneva.com 3 MEDIA 21 ON WATER : A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH Foul Air In The Gardens former MLA Padmanath Kairee feels the tea estate management can do much Thursday, 14 May 2009 more in creating awareness about the disease and clamping down on the By Teresa REHMAN, Tehelka online availability of spurious liquor and tobacco Tuberculosis is rife among Assam‘s on the estate premises. But what Kairee Adivasi tea estate workers, but everyone and the health officials miss in their is blaming the workers themselves. prescriptions is that winning the battle NOWHERE IS the scourge of tuberculosis against TB will require, above all, a cure crueler than in Assam‘s tea gardens. for the workers‘ wretched poverty. Barely a few meters from a government health centre that promises a free, six- http://www.tehelka.com/story_mai month ―100 percent‖ cure, the disease has n38.asp?filename=Ne290308foul claimed a young man‘s life after reducing air.asp him to a skeleton. Three years ago, it had killed his father. His 13-year-old sister has been taking the same medicines for the A novel method to shame past four months — despite the deaths, the shameless in Tripura she has seen them cure her mother‘s TB. Lakheswari Bhumij says her brother Ganesh would throw away the drugs The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday, 14 May 2009 prescribed under the government‘s declared TB a global health emergency in By Teresa Rehman, Tehelka online Directly Observed Treatment — Short 1993, and its new Stop TB Partnership A hilarious cartoon put up in a village Course (DOTS). ―He found the medicines has formulated a plan to save 14 million square of a family found defecating in the nauseating and complained they made lives between 2006 and 2015. In Assam, complete with the names and addresses him even sicker,‖ she says. That has the Central government runs 65 specia- of the offenders. Well, this scenario is the made her even more careful about her lized TB centers and 332 microscopy labs reality for people in Tripura‘s S.N. Colony illness. ―I have segregated my utensils in addition to over 5,000 units that offer Gram Panchayat. This novel method to and bed sheets and I cover my sputum the DOTS package. But most officials shame people who s(p)oiled the village with soil.‖ claim they are hard-pressed to check the surroundings was part of a resolution Lakheswari‘s neighbor Sumitra Rajput is a disease‘s spread because the patients passed in 2004 by the panchayat in S. N. mother of five. She completed the DOTS don‘t follow the prescribed course, refuse Colony village in Jirania Rural Develop- course last year but Ganesh‘s death has to abstain from tobacco and alcohol, and ment Block in West Tripura district, 18 km left her apprehensive. ―I still feel weak and prefer treatments from witch-doctors and from Agartala. The panchayat‘s order there‘s a pain in my chest when I cough. I faith healers. Nakul Kurmi, an Adivasi who worked and this village with 670 house- don‘t know why I got the disease. Nobody teaches at a school in Sonitpur, says the holds was free from open defecation and in my family ever suffered from TB,‖ she tea workers live insular lives and haven‘t was also awarded the Nirmal Gram says. Assam‘s tea industry is extremely come to terms with modernity.