UNICEF Struggles to Solve
Sanitation Problems in N. Korea

UNICEF official discloses the stark reality of the North's sanitation & hygiene conditions

North Korea is suffering from a severe lack of safe water, a UNICEF official working in Pyongyang said on Nov. 23 on the sidelines of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association (WTA).
Eighty-two percent of North Koreans have taps in their houses, but 59.1 percent have access to pipe water supply during less than six hours per day said Murat Sahin, UNICEF's water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) specialist staying in the North.
He said that 94.3 percent of North Koreans use the traditional pit latrine, followed by 3 percent with a pouring-flush latrine and 2.7 percent with a flush-to-sewage system.
Sahin said the findings were based on a baseline assessment in three focus countries, conducted by the UNICEF office, which was established in North Korea in 1997.
According to UNICEF's findings, improved sanitation covered 60 percent, although it is likely to be compromised in the absence of water in urban areas as well as the absence of water, soap and disinfectants in rural areas.
Mr. Sahin said North Koreans had 100 percent access to water resources in the 1970s, but the declining economy and a lack of investments in infrastructure caused access to water resources to fall to 59 percent. A majority of North Koreans depend on pipe water systems that run for less than six hours per day mainly due to a lack of electricity, and they depend on the traditional pit latrine, a breeding ground for insects and flies, which poses health hazards.
With regard to the establishment of the World Toilet Association, he expressed the hope to boost sanitation improvement projects in North Korea.
Sahin said UNICEF worked together with the North Korean government to implement the Country Program Cycle 2007-2009. The three-year program contained four projects: health, nutrition and care; the sanitation and hygiene project, dubbed "WASH": basic education/quality; and advocacy and planning. He leads the WASH sanitation and hygiene project in Byeogye, North Korea.
UNICEF works for North Korean children under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declared by the United Nations.
The problem is that 62 percent of the urban population depends on electrical pump-based, aged water supply networks from the 1970s.
UNICEF solved a water shortage problem in Shingye in North Hwanghae Province by replacing outdated pump systems with a Gravity Fed System (GFS), a good example to tap fresh, safe water from the many hills and mountains of North Korea, Sahin said.
In an effort to solve a waste water problem in semi-urban and urban populations due to a lack of electricity and pumps, he said, UNICEF has adopted the Decentralized Waste Water Treatment Systems (DEWATS).
Sahin said UNICEF has focused on promoting sanitation and hygiene in rural settings where there are simple sub-standard pit latrines and the use of fresh excreta as fertilizer. The UN agency has implemented sanitation and hygiene promotion steps, including the distribution of booklets publicizing hygiene promotion through schools and hygiene promotion through a family doctor system.
Mr. Sahin said the challenges UNICEF faces are an unpredictable funding environment and a special working environment with limited access to data, users and technical staff. There are also no available frameworks for sanitation in rural settings among the North Korean government agencies, including health and environmental authorities. nw

Murat Sahin, UNICEF's water sanitation & hygiene specialist in North Korea, inspects the WASH sanitation & hygiene project in the Stalinist regime.