The newest project in my town is massive improvements to the public water supply. I haven´t been able to find out for sure who is funding it, but it appears to be through public and private funds domestic and abroad.
The idea behind the project is to provide the population with a reliable 16 hour a day water supply from 6 am to 10 pm. It is supposed to be completed in August of this year. Until then our dusty streets have been torn up, and on the right side is a 2.5 foot wide trench (as prone to falling as I’ve become I’ve yet to fall into this!)
But of course with all things there is a catch. Yesterday I was sitting in the muchly appreciate air-conditioned library talking to one of the mayor´s office tech guy. I asked him if they were planning a sewage system to deal with the new influx of water. He stopped what he was doing, calked his head to the side a little contemplating my question and responded almost surprised that they don’t have plans to but perhaps in the future.
While having a reliable and healthy source of water will improve to quality of life for all by reducing water hauling allowing washing to be done when convenient rather than being restricted to 5 am when there is water, it also has a huge potential for hygienic disaster.
As the system is set up currently I have a general idea. People´s toilets and latrines go into personally dug holes, while as dirty wash water for the most part gets thrown out into the street, thrown on patios to keep dust down, or onto plants. Kids play in it, animals walk all through it then traipse the dirt into the house. Already we have dirty water running in the streets, with only 2 hours of water almost daily. Currently residents can be fined if they are caught throwing grey water into the street or other public places, but the residents don’t always have an option depending on their living situation. And with 14 more hours of water daily, I’m concerned that we´ll have more excess water, aka more breeding places for dengue/malaria carrying mosquitoes (I accidently said the other day rather than dengue and malaria I said meringue... see what happens when you don´t speak English for a while!(well I thought it was funny at least)).

We´ll see how this all turns out, if anything it will give me a new branch of work in the up coming months.