Combining sanitation and women’s participation in water supply: an example from Rajasthan, India

O’Reilly, K. (2009). Combining sanitation and women’s participation in water supply : an example from Rajasthan. Development in practice ; vol. 20, no. 1 ; p. 45-56. DOI: 10.1080/09614520903436976 (Pay-per view: GBP 23)
Free pre-print version

Abstract

Fetching water in Rajasthan, India. Photo. Dr. Kathleen O'Reilly.

Water supply and sanitation provision are key elements in progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Women’s participation is considered integral to the sustainability of the projects created to meet these two MDGs. Bringing feminist and geographic critiques to bear on gendered approaches to improving sanitation coverage, the research reported on in this article indicates that latrine building and women’s participation may be contradictory goals for sanitation projects, despite the fact that women are the target group for latrine-building interventions. The findings of the analysis suggest that attention must be given to latrine building as both a technical undertaking and a gendered political intervention.

Contact: Kathleen O’Reilly, Department of Geography, 810 O&M Building 3147, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77801-3147, USA, e-mail: koreilly [at] geog.tamu.edu,

Southern Africa: Water Centres of Excellence Initiative finally takes off

A project to boost water resources in southern Africa, first announced in 2003, held its first executive meeting [in November 2009].

The  , started by New Partnerships for Development in Africa (NEPAD) [read the original strategic plan] , aims to promote cooperation and knowledge transfer among water research institutions to secure adequate clean water and manage resources for national and regional development.

It was established after the first African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology in 2003 but an expansion of the centres is only now under discussion.

Centres of water excellence are already operational in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia, and other Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries will be invited to become partners if they have water research programmes.

The first meeting of the committee — held in Stellenbosch, Cape Town on 13 November [2009] — discussed plans for the next three years. They include providing bursaries for staff and postgraduate students to build capacity at water centres, and technology and knowledge transfer at workshops and conferences.

Prof Eugene Cloete

“We want to see improved resource management and policy formulation,” said Eugene Cloete, chair of the executive committee and dean of the faculty of science at Stellenbosch University, which is coordinating the project. High-quality water sources in rural and urban areas and the use of water purification technology are key aims.

“The focus is on people and strengthening networks through disseminating research results and not on funding specific research topics,” he said.

Daniel Nkhuwa, a water expert at the University of Zambia, said the region has some people qualified to deal with water issues, especially groundwater which until now has been neglected.

But he said that there is a need for more training at water centres.

“Some institutions and infrastructure need updating, but funding still remains very low in most of our countries,” Nkhuwa told SciDev.Net, adding that improving knowledge will need more funding for education.

Murray Biedler, programme administrator for the Africa Caribbean Pacific–European Union (ACP-EU) Water Facility, told SciDev.Net that the European Commission (EC) has approved around US$2 million of funding for the network, which will be implemented in 2010 under the EC’s Joint Research Commission.

He said: “From a donor point of view, one development we would hope to see (after three years) is more than one network established in Africa, and then at least the beginnings of South–South collaboration and exchange between networks.”

Source: Munyaradzi Makoni, SciDev.Net, 29 Dec 2009

Impact of drainage networks on cholera outbreaks in Lusaka, Zambia

Scientists from Nigata University, Japan, investigated the association between precipitation patterns and cholera outbreaks and the preventative roles of drainage networks against outbreaks in Lusaka, Zambia.

They collected data on 6542 registered cholera patients in the 2003-2004 outbreak season and on 6045 cholera patients in the 2005-2006 season. Correlations between monthly cholera incidences and amount of precipitation were examined. The distribution pattern of the disease was analyzed by a kriging spatial analysis method. The scientists analyzed cholera case distribution and spatiotemporal cluster by using 2590 cholera cases traced with a global positioning system in the 2005-2006 season. The association between drainage networks and cholera cases was analyzed with regression analysis.

Increased precipitation was associated with the occurrence of cholera outbreaks, and insufficient drainage networks were statistically associated with cholera incidences.

Insufficient coverage of drainage networks elevated the risk of cholera outbreaks. Integrated development is required to upgrade high-risk areas with sufficient infrastructure for a long-term cholera prevention strategy.

Contact: Satoshi Sasaki, Division of Public Health, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, 1-757 Asahimachi-dori Chuo ward, Niigata, 951-8510, Japan, e-mail: ssasaki [at] med.niigata-u.ac.jp

[1] Sasaki, S. … [et al.] (2009). Impact of drainage networks on cholera outbreaks in Lusaka, Zambia. American journal of public health ; vol. 99, no. 11 ; p. 1982-1987. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.151076

Municipal Service Project (MSP)

This is the web site of the Municipal Services Project (MSP), which has been running since 2000 and has now entered its third phase (2008-2013). Phase III of MSP is an inter-sectoral and inter-regional study that systematically explores ‘alternatives to privatisation’ in service delivery, with a thematic focus on health, water/sanitation and electricity and a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.

MSP partners include universities, labour unions, NGOs, social movements and activists from South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, El Salvador, Canada, UK and The Netherlands. MSP is coordinated by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, South Africa and the Southern African Research Centre, Queen’s University, Canada. The MSP is funded in large part by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and in particular the Governance, Equity and Health (GEH) programme

The MSP web site includes all project publications since the start in 2000 and links to related research, publications and web sites. A discussion forum, and lists of events and multimedia are being developed.

MIT scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water

Man-made ponds may be responsible for widespread arsenic contamination of ground water affecting millions of people in Bangladesh, a new study says [1].

Rebecca Neumann hangs off the end of bamboo scaffolding built at the field site. Assisted by a man hired from a nearby village, she is connecting a tube that will run from the surface water in the rice field up to a higher point on the scaffolding. Photo: Sarah Jane White, MIT

Researchers in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists, world health agencies and the Bangladeshi government for nearly 30 years.

The research suggests that human alteration to the landscape, the construction of villages with ponds, and the adoption of irrigated agriculture are responsible for the current pattern of arsenic concentration underground.

In 2002, a research team led by Charles Harvey, the Doherty Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, had determined that microbial metabolism of organic carbon was mobilizing the arsenic off the soils and sediments, and that crop irrigation was almost certainly playing a role in the process. But the exact sources of the contaminated water have remained elusive, until now.

Around 25m people in the country have been exposed to arsenic through water. Experts have described the situation as the worst mass poisoning of a population in history.

Man-made ponds – often dug with the help of international aid agencies – were originally created to protects villagers from unclean water.

The arsenic enters water supplies from agricultural and industrial waste or from natural deposits in the ground.

Around two million people in Bangladesh suffer from arsenic poisoning. Chronic ingestion of small doses has been linked to cancer of the bladder, kidney, lung or skin, while large doses can kill immediately.

Arsenic contamination of ground water is a global problem and has occurred in other countries such as Argentina, Chile, China, India, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

But the gravity of the contamination in Bangladesh is unprecedented. Millions of Bangladeshis knowingly poison themselves because there is often no alternative water source. Harvey estimates that the incidence of death from arsenic-induced cancer will rise to approximately 3,000 cases per year if consumption of contaminated water continues.

Scott Fendorf, a professor at Stanford University who studies arsenic content in soils and sediments along the Mekong River in Cambodia, says Harvey’s previous research, published in 2002, “transformed the scientific community’s outlook on the problem.”

The current work, he adds, has two big ramifications: “It shows that human modifications are impacting the arsenic content in the groundwater; and that while the rice cropping system appears to be buffering the arsenic, the ponds excavated to provide fill to build up the villages are having a negative impact on the release of arsenic.”

Harvard scientist and co-author of the study Rebecca Neumann said that arsenic contamination could be avoided by digging deeper drinking water wells below the ponds.

Charles F. Harvey. Photo: MIT

Harvey and a team of environmental scientists and physicians are making plans for a multi-year study that would provide deep wells for two villages in Bangladesh whose inhabitants suffer from arsenic poisoning. There they would combine continual testing of the well water and hydrogeological modeling of the groundwater system with a study of how the clean water effects the villagers’ health, placing special emphasis on the neurological development of children.

“There are all sorts of studies to show how arsenic hurts people. We’re trying to turn it around and show how removal of the arsenic will help them,” says Harvey.

[1] Neuman, R.B. … [et al.] (2009). Anthropogenic influences on groundwater arsenic concentrations in Bangladesh. Nature Geoscience. Published online: 15 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/ngeo685

Source: BBC, 15 Nov 2009 ; ScienceDaily, 15 Nov 2009; MIT, 15 Nov 2009

Gates Foundation awards $10.9 million to study impacts of sanitation on diseases

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have received a five-year, $10.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to evaluate several interventions to combat diarrheal disease in developing countries.

Dr. Jack Colford

Dr. Jack Colford, professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, will coordinate the project, working with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).

An estimated 2.2 million children under the age of 5 die from diarrheal diseases each year, according to the World Health Organization. Most of these diseases are thought to be preventable with improvements in sanitation, water quality and hygiene.

Due to the high cost of developing and maintaining large infrastructure projects, such as networked water, there is now a movement toward simpler, alternative methods to improve health in rural areas. However, there is almost no evidence that allows direct comparison of the health benefits or cost effectiveness of these simpler interventions, such as improved latrines, household water treatment and hand washing with soap.

The goal of the new project is to determine how sanitation interventions, delivered alone or as part of combined intervention packages, impact child health and well-being. In addition to improved sanitation, the intervention packages will include drinking water improvements and hand washing solutions. The results have the potential to influence how billions of dollars are directed towards long-term improvements in health and economic outcomes for millions of children each year, said Colford.

“Increasingly, foundations, governments, the World Bank and development agencies such as the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) are demanding evidence of effectiveness when awarding development funds,” said Colford. “Right now, it is unknown whether single interventions are as cost effective as combinations of these interventions. This grant will fund the first large-scale, randomized impact evaluation designed to gather rigorous evidence about this question.”

The study will test the impact of these sanitation, water and hygiene interventions using a large-scale, randomized impact evaluation in Bangladesh and Kenya. These two countries are representative of the two regions that account for the majority of the world’s gastrointestinal disease burden: Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers expect to enroll a total of 23,000 children in the trials, which will be monitored by several institutional review boards.

Of the $10.9 million, about $7.9 million will be subcontracted out to the two field sites. Dr. Stephen Luby, head of the Programme on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences with ICDDR,B, and Michael Kremer, Ph.D., a research affiliate with IPA, will lead the trials in Bangladesh and Kenya, respectively. They will be joined by a team of experts from various disciplines, including public health, economics, behavioral change, nutrition, cognitive development and tropical enteropathy.

Source: Linda Anderberg, UC Berkely News, 05 Nov 2009

Call for proposals – Conflict and Cooperation over Natural Resources in Developing Countries [Deadline 03 Nov 2009]

WOTRO Science for Global Development has recently launched the first call of the research programme Conflict and Cooperation over Natural Resources in Developing Countries (CoCooN) – integrated projects.

One of the three themes is: Water resources, conflict and cooperation.

CoCooN is a knowledge, research and innovation programme funded by the Directorate General of Development Cooperation (DGIS) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Its aim is to contribute to sustainable development, poverty reduction and the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (positive change). The objective is to contribute to evidence based policy development and practice in the field of conflict and cooperation over natural resources, and to adequately manage, resolve and learn from conflicts over natural resources.

An Integrated Project (IP) should make clear how it will constitute and operationalise activities and projects for three facilities:

• Knowledge sharing
• Trans-disciplinary research
• Capacity development and training

An IP has to be directed by a consortium and thus the application for an IP has to be submitted by the consortium. A consortium consists of representatives of at least four different partner institutes. These partners include

1. a Southern-based research institute;
2. a Northern-based research institute;
3. a Southern-based non-research institute and
4. a Northern-based non-research institute.

At least one of the institutes should be based in a partner country of Dutch bilateral development cooperation. The consortium nominates a coordinator, who will act as the main applicant.

Read more

Deadline: 03 November 2009

Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions to combat childhood diarrhoea in developing countries

Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions to combat childhood diarrhoea in developing countries

Hugh Waddington, Birte Snilstveit, Howard White, and Lorna Fewtrell
Corresponding author email: hwaddington [at] 3ieimpact.org
August 2009
Synthetic review 001
International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).

Full text

Summary

This report is a synthetic review of impact evaluations examining effectiveness of water, sanitation and hygiene (WSH) interventions in reducing childhood diarrhoea.

The review has been conducted to Campbell/Cochrane Collabo ration standards of systematic review, as well as employing mixed methods of data analysis to assess not only which interventions are effective, or not, but why and under what circumstances. The review provides an update of previous reviews conducted in this area, notably Fewtrell and Colford (2004).

A comprehensive search was conducted of published and unpublished materials. Studies were identified for inclusion which employed rigorous impact evaluation techniques, using experimental (randomised assignme nt) and quasi-experimental methods, and which evaluated the impact of water, sanitation and/or hygiene interventions on diarrhoea morbidity among children in low- and middle-income countries. 65 rigorous impact evaluations were identified for quantitative synthesis, covering 71 distinct interventions assessed across 130,000 children in 35 developing countries during the past three decades. Each study was coded for a range of variables relating to type of intervention, effect size and precision, internal validity (relating to evaluation quality) and external validity (relating to context and behavioural mechanisms). Interventions were grouped into five categories: water supply improvements, water quality, sanitation, hygiene and multiple interventions involving a combination of water and sanitation and/or hygiene. Data were collected and synthesised on both quantitative and qualitative information presented in the evaluations.

The results challenge the notion that water quality treatment in the household (at point -of-use) and sanitation ‘software’ (hygiene) interventions are necessarily the most efficacious and sustainable interventions for promoting reduction of diarrhoea.

While point-of-use water quality interventions appear to be highly effective – and indeed, more effective than water supply or source treatment in reducing diarrhoea – much of the evidence is from trials conducted over small populations and short time periods. More evidence is needed on sustainability, as water quality interventions conducted over longer periods tend to show smaller effectiveness, while compliance rates, and therefore impact, appear to fall markedly over time.

Hygiene interventions, particularly provision of soap for hand-washing, are effective in reducing diarrhoea morb idity, and there does not appear to be evidence that compliance falls over time. The analysis suggests that sanitation ‘hardware’ interventions are also highly effective. However, relatively few studies have been conducted in this area to-date and studies are particularly needed that quantify the possible environmental spillovers from sanitation provision.

Evidence on the combined impact of multiple interventions is mixed. Further primary studies employing factorial design – that is, comparing different interventions using multiple treatment arms – are needed for more conclusiveness on whether water and sanitation/hygiene interventions are substitutes or complements in the health production function.

The study highlights the importance of behavioural factors in determining up-take and sustainable adoption of WSH technologies. Insights from diffusion theory suggest that preventive interventions tend to be adopted more slowly as benefits are difficult to observe and users presumably discontinue treatment as they perceive that the costs of using the intervention outweigh the benefits. These problems are more relevant for interventions aiming to reduce disease prevalence which do not have additional benefits, for example time savings. Unfortunately, few impact evaluations addressing sustainability collect data on the reasons for the levels of compliance and acceptance found among beneficiaries. This information is an essential guide to fostering long-term impact.

Survey of Food-hygiene Practices at Home and Childhood Diarrhoea in Hanoi, Viet Nam

Survey of food-hygiene practices at home and childhood diarrhoea in Hanoi, Viet Nam
Jnl Health, Pop & Nutri, Oct. 2009,  P. 602-611
Full-text

Authors: Kumiko Takanashi, Yuko Chonan, Dao To Quyen, Nguyen Cong Khan, Krishna C. Poudel, and Masamine Jimba

1Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan, 2International Life Sciences Institute Japan Center for Health Promotion, Japan, and 3National Institute of Nutrition, Hanoi, Viet Nam

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the potential factors of food-hygiene practices of mothers on the prevalence of diarrhoea among their children. Mothers who had children aged 6 months–5 years were recruited in a hamlet in Viet Nam. The food-hygiene practices included hand-washing, method of washing utensils, separation of utensils for raw and cooked food, and the location where foods were prepared for cooking. A face-to-face interview was conducted, and data on 206 mothers were analyzed. The risk of diarrhoea was significantly higher among children whose mothers prepared food for cooking somewhere other than the table (typically on the ground) compared to children whose mothers prepared food on the table (adjusted odds ratio=2.85, 95% confidence interval 1.11-7.28). The results indicate that food-hygiene practices of mothers, such as avoiding preparing food for cooking on the ground, has a potential impact in preventing diarrhoea among children in Viet Nam.

Intermittent slow sand filtration for preventing diarrhoea among children in Kenyan households using unimproved water sources

Intermittent slow sand filtration for preventing diarrhoea among children in Kenyan households using unimproved water sources: randomized controlled trial
doi:10.1111/j.1365-3156.2009.02381.x
Published Online: 4 Sep 2009

Sangya-Sangam K. Tiwari 1 , Wolf-Peter Schmidt 2 , Jeannie Darby 1 , Z. G. Kariuki 3 and Marion W. Jenkins 1
1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
2 Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
3 Ministry of Health, Nakuru District, Nakuru, Kenya

Objective Measure effectiveness of intermittent slow sand filtration for reducing child diarrhoea among households using unimproved water sources in rural Kenya.

Methods A randomized controlled trail was conducted among populations meeting a high-risk profile for child diarrhoea from drinking river water in the River Njoro watershed. Intervention households (30) were provided the concrete BioSand Filter and instructed on filter use and maintenance. Control households (29) continued normal practices. Longitudinal monthly monitoring of diarrhoea (seven-day daily prevalence recall) and of influent, effluent, and drinking water quality for fecal coliform was conducted for 6 months.

Results Intervention households had better drinking water quality than control households (fecal coliform geometric mean, 30.0 CFU vs. 89.0 CFU/100 ml, P < 0.001) and reported significantly fewer diarrhoea days (86 days over 626 child-weeks) compared to controls (203 days over 558 child-weeks) among children up to 15 (age-adjusted RR 0.46; 95 % CI = 0.22, 0.96). Greater child diarrhoea reduction due to the intervention (age-adjusted RR 0.23, 95 % CI = 0.10, 0.51) was observed among the sub-group using unimproved water sources all of the time.

Conclusion Intermittent slow sand filtration, a non-commercial technology, produces similar observed effects on child diarrhoea as commercial POU products, adding to the range of effective options for poor populations (chlorination, ceramic filtration, solar disinfection, flocculation/disinfection).