Safe Building Construction

Are high rise buildings in Male' constructed to safety standards? We realise that the designs have been subjected to much scrutiny by the government since Mr. Riffaths time at OPPD. Unfortunately we still get approved drawings which are full of contradictions! worst of all; adherance to design is left to developer who will disappear after the 10 year lease period expires!; so be careful when you by cheap steel! it may not support the weight!!!

"All reinforcing bars(concrete strengthening steel) must be purchased based on the properties of yield strength, tensile strength and elongation values. To ignore these will only be putting your construction at peril. Many civil engineers, even today, assume that ‘TMT’ bars have yield strength of 415 N/mm2 but better elongation than CTD bars. He should know that nothing in the current Indian laws ( i'm using indian steel!!) or regulations prevents the rolling mill to just sell untreated and untwisted deformed bars as TMT bars - even though the strength can be as low as only 300 N/mm2.



"Dr. C. S. Vishwanath of Bangalore and his colleagues have done pioneering work in study of the various “TMT” rebars available in the country today and have published many articles on the subject. His team has already warned the users about how many mills are flooding the market with sub-standard and defective “TMT” rebars. They have found many “TMT” bars of the main producers and secondary mills with a Yield Strength in the range of only 350-390 N/mm². This only strengthens my worry that some civil engineers today assume all rebars are of Grade Fe 415 and so avoid testing."

WORLD WATER DAY 09

WORLD WATER DAY 2009



We Water Care, a non governmental Organisation registered in Maldives (for brief on this org see comments) are holding series of meetings to assist stakeholder groups mark water day this year.

Majeediyya School Nature Club is planning to start the next Thursday, 19th March 2009 with a Talk by a student at the School Assembly on Water Themes relevant for this years World Water Day. Water Care professionals have agreed today with the nature Club to assist the students research and prepare for the days events.

We are planning other activities to mark WWD based on the extent of support available; those members who are inerested to assist please drop us a line- an idea, assist with function arrangement such as meetings, ads to spread the relevant messages of the water day theme for this year will take us a long way in this initiative.

The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2009, the focus of World Water Day on March 22 will be on transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities. UNECE and UNESCO are the lead UN agencies this year.
http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/flash/video/gallery1.html
http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/campaign.html

The event is a series of meetings and discussions on face book http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=81128429256)
and this blog collecting information, ideas etc..it can lead to a ohysical even if we decide to do so...the only physical events are
1. meetings..in majeedhiyya,
2. majeediyya this thursday School Assembly where a rep from nature club will give a speech on water and
3. perhaps another in CHSC

standardisation of labour quarter hygiene

Low-skilled employees in construction sites of Male’ and several islands such as L. Gan as well as resort construction sites are commonly provided with substandard living conditions, including overcrowded apartments or lodging in unsafe and unhygienic ‘labour quarters’ often lacking adequate light, potable water, and adequate cooking and bathing facilities.

Labour quarters need to be cleaned up with the introduction of national standards, spot checks and possibly fines, and force employers into improving their labour record.

Worldwide, rats and mice spread over 35 diseases. Rodent-borne diseases are spread directly to humans through bite wounds, consuming food or water that is contaminated with rodent feces, coming in contact with surface water contaminated with rodent urine, or through breathing in germs that may be present in rodent urine or droppings that have been stirred into the air (a process known as “aerosolization”). Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents. In some cases, the rodents are the reservoirs (carriers) of the diseases, while in other cases the ticks, mites, or fleas act as the disease reservoirs.

Toxoplasmosis in Maldives

How do we get Toxoplasmosis?
It can cause severe illness and blindness .
The most common mode of infection is through consumption of food and drinks contaminated with the bug. In the Maldivian context, cats are probably the main animal host. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings. Common path ways of infection:
1. Rain water collected from roof tops contaminated with cat feces and bird dropping.
2. Household pets such as cats, poor personal hygiene after handling the pet and after cleaning its litter may contaminate food and ingestion of the disease causing bug.
3. Infected pregnant woman passes the infection through the placenta to the unborn child
4. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings.

Toxoplasmosis in Maldives

How do we get Toxoplasmosis?
It can cause severe illness and blindness .
The most common mode of infection is through consumption of food and drinks contaminated with the bug. In the Maldivian context, cats are probably the main animal host. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings. Common path ways of infection:
1. Rain water collected from roof tops contaminated with cat feces and bird dropping.
2. Household pets such as cats, poor personal hygiene after handling the pet and after cleaning its litter may contaminate food and ingestion of the disease causing bug.
3. Infected pregnant woman passes the infection through the placenta to the unborn child
4. Infected cats excrete Toxoplasma bug in their feces. Certain birds may also get infected and pass the bug in their fecal droppings.

POVERTY ELIVIATION

ADB has dedicated itself to a clear and single-minded vision: an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty. All of ADB’s other goals and strategic objectives should contribute to poverty reduction. The Poverty Reduction Strategy sets out the ways in which ADB proposes to pursue this vision.

* Many were bypassed by the growth and transformation that happened in many of the region’s economies
* Economic crises have pitched into poverty thousands who were previously making gains
* Nearly one in four Asians today is poor, surviving on less than $1 per day

The key elements of ADB’s Poverty Reduction Strategy:

* robust, sustained, pro-poor economic growth
* social development, including human development and improvement in the status of women
* better governance

water economics

Economics offers powerful decision and management tools that help to:

* Measure the costs and benefits from water and sanitation investments and policies;
* Assess demand for water and wastewater services and evaluate their relationship to price, income, and other variables;
* Inform decisions regarding the use and targeting of public subsidies, and how to reform tariffs and improve utility finances;
* Evaluate sanitation alternatives and their tradeoffs (choosing, for example, between on-site and off-site systems);
* Assess the costs and benefits of water demand management options, including pricing, leakage reduction, and metering;
* Evaluate the desirability and feasibility of intra- or inter-sectoral water reallocation;
* Assess the efficiency of various modes of service provision (e.g. public vs. private, centralized vs. decentralized);
* Design regulatory and legal frameworks for private sector participation; and
* Evaluate the impact of project or reform on the different actors and stakeholders and devise ways to strengthen institutional frameworks.

Municipal Sewage Regulation

The Municipal Sewage Regulation shall apply to all discharges of domestic sewage.

The Municipal Sewage Regulation may be developed by the ministry of Transportation, Environement and Water to provide clear and effective requirements for (soon to be local governments) and private utilites (soon to be) sewage dischargers in order to protect public health and the environment. Compliance with the regulation would provide authorization (with minimum standards and requirements) for the treatment, reuse and discharge of domestic sewage, wastewater or municipal liquid waste.

The Ministry of Environment may review and potentially revise the Municipal Sewage Regulation. The review process may follows a policy of "continuous improvement" and the ministry's commitment to review the regulation on a regular basis and revise its provisions as appropriate.