This weekend two mainstream Dutch newspapers carried features leading into this week’s high-level Round-Table discussing the mixed achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. It will be held from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on Wednesday, 22 September 2010, at the UN headquarters in New York, United States. This session will be Webcast live via: http://www.un.org/webcast.

Dick Wittenberg in the NRC Weekblad of 18 September reported on his going back to Dickson village in Malawi where his first feature five years ago had started a readers fundraising action to help this poor village. “Use of treadle pumps increased the income in this village”, he writes.

Kees Broere in de Volkskrant of 18 September reports on improvements in water and sanitation from the Kibera slum in Kenya. “The number of flying toilets in Kibera is going down”, he writes.

Flying toilets; throwing away the problem

What is a flying toilet? Any ideas? A modern design in aeroplanes? A portable toilet at concerts? Unfortunately, it’s nothing as mundane. A flying toilet is the name given to a plastic bag filled with excreta that is flung away after use. It’s causing big problems in some of the poorest areas in the world […] See more on flying toilets search results from the IRC site, where I work.

Treadle pumps increase net income of 2 million families

Already in August 2003 I reported in the Lessons learned section of our electronic Source newsletter  that the treadle pump and low-cost drip irrigation had helped “two million small-holder families to increase their net income by an average of US$ 100 (EUR 92) per year for an initial investment of about US$ 30 (EUR 27.6)”. See for more on treadle and an other village pumps the IRC site.