Recent Events at the UNC Water and Health Conference in Chapel Hill, USA – October 2012
From October 29 to November 2, 2012, the Water and Health Conference was held in Chapel Hill, USA. During the week, the HWTS Network held its annual meeting and a number of side events related to HWTS took place. These proceedings are briefly summarised below.
2012 Network Annual Meeting
Convened by WHO, UNICEF, and UNC-Water Institute
Monday, October 29, 8:30am – 5:30pm
During the 2012 Annual Meeting HWTS Network, participants discussed critical issues on HWTS: the challenges of achieving scale in coverage, integration with other household environmental health interventions, monitoring & evaluation, successes and failures from the field, the recently released WHO performance evaluation guidelines, and the newly convened Network working groups. Presentations from the meeting are available for download below. You may also download the agenda.
Presentations from the Annual Meeting
- Maggie Montgomery – Welcome and meeting overview | Download
- Ryan Rowe – Update of Network activities in 2012 | Download
- Maggie Montgomery – Strengthening national policies | Download
- Edema Ojomo – Review of enabling environment for HWTS | Download
- Laura McLaughlin – SE200s in schools: STEM education and safe water | Download
- Hans Mosler – Behavioural determinants for safe water practices | Download
- Michael Ritter – User adoption of HWTS with different distribution models | Download
- Navneet Garg – Delaying HIV-1 progression via an integrated campaign | Download
- Rob Quick – Integrating household hygiene and maternal health in Kenya | Download
- Rick Johnston – Evaluating distribution/sales models for gravity driven filters | Download
- Glenn Austin – Perspectives: market based approaches to HWTS | no slides
- Liz Blanton – Increasing access through microfinance institutions | no slides
- Sjef Ernes – Adapting to the demands of innovative finance | no slides
- Ryan Rowe – Plans for 2013 and Network communications | Download
- Maggie Montgomery – Delivering on Network commitments and targets | Download
Side Events
Country Challenges, Technical Issues and Opportunities in Implementing WHO Recommendations on Evaluating Household Water Treatment Performance
Convened by WHO, UNC-Water Institute and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Tuesday, October 30, 8:30am – 12:15pm
As governments increasingly address the use of household water treatment (HWT) in national policies and health programmes and while manufacturers continue to promote and distribute various technologies, there is a real need for increased evaluation and regulation of these technologies to ensure expected health gains are achieved. In order to better inform the selection of HWT options by governments, implementers and consumers, WHO published criteria and guiding principles for evaluating and assessing the performance of HWT (Evaluating household treatment options: health-based targets and microbiological performance specifications, 2011). Following publication and distribution of the document, many questions have been raised on how to put the recommendations into practice, especially given the limited technical and financial resources in the countries where HWT is most widely needed and used. The overall aim of this side event will be to provide a forum for discussing the current status of implementation of the recommendations and how to best educate stakeholders on the key tenets of the recommendations and increase adoption of this risk-based approach.
- HWT Test Protocols: 40 Years of Testing HWT Systems – Lessons Learned by Nikki Beetsch | link
- WHO Recommendations for HWTS Technology Performance Evaluation: The Nuts and Bolts by Mark Sobsey | link
- Strengthening National Performance Evaluation and Regulation of HWT: Ethiopia by Waltaji Terfa | link
- Design of a Low-cost Highly Efficacious, User Friendly Water Treatment Technology by Nathan Cai | link
Scaling-up and Sustaining HWTS Practices: The Enabling Environment and Market-based approaches for HWTS
Convened by PATH, UNC-Water Institute and UNICEF
Thursday, November 1, 1:15pm – 5:00pm
The purpose of this session is to inform HWTS Network members and other interested participants of the results of two HWTS projects: (1) the UNC “enabling environment for HWTS” project announced at the 2011 Water and Health conference and funded by PATH and UNICEF; and (2) the PATH Safe Water Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The main components of the HWTS Enabling Environment half of the workshop included presenting major findings from the project, demonstrating to participants how to employ the assessment tool developed during the enabling environment study, distributing assessment tools/links to assessment tools that participants can employ when assessing HWTS interventions, and getting insights/critiques on the methods and results of the enabling environment project. In the second half, PATH facilitated an interactive session exploring key insights from the Safe Water Project and introduced tools participants can use to develop more robust HWTS markets. Topics includes: 1) Key findings from the Safe Water Project Perspectives magazine; 2) Getting WASH products right: PATH Product Design Guidelines, the role of enabling environments, and products for the Base of the Pyramid; 3) Supporting local entrepreneurs and community-based organizations: improving operations for sustainability, innovative financing, and a demo of a commercialization toolkit; and 4) Working where there is no market.
- PATH’s Safe Water Project Perspectives: Harnessing Business for WASH by Glenn Austin | link
- Defining the Enabling Environment for WASH using the IAD Framework by Edema Ojomo | link
Ceramic Pot Filters: Current Research, Future Directions and Defining Next Steps
Convened by Ceramic Filter Manufacturing Working Group, PATH and Tufts University
Friday, November 2, 8:30am – 10:15am
This session is a follow-up to two similar and highly successful workshop sessions specifically discussing household water treatment with ceramic filters held at Disinfection 2009 and Disinfection 2011. The session included 1 hour of presentation followed by 45 minutes of formal discussion, and then followed by informal discussion for the remaining available time. The topics discussed in this session included: 1) development of quality assurance/quality control protocols for factory production standardization; 2) recent research on impacts of manufacturing variables on microbiological efficacy; 3) scaling-up of factories in a timely and effective manner; and, 4) contributing factors to factory sustainability. An overarching theme of the session was to define future research directions and next steps for implementation in order to meet demand. The session was open to all interested. Please email Daniele Lantagne (daniele.lantagne@tufts.edu) and Justine Rayner (jsrayners@yahoo.com) for more information.
- Ceramic Pot Filters: Current Research, Future Directions and Defining Next Steps by Justine Rayner | link
- Ceramic Disk Filter Study by Kristen Jellison* | link
- Silver research by Vinka Oyanedel-Craver* | link
- Potters for Peace and Filter Factory Start‐up by Kaira Wagoner | link
*Final report associated with Presentations 2 and 3 by Justine Rayner, Vinka Oyanedel-Craver and Hongyin Zhang |link
Building Blocks for Healthy Communities: Integrating WASH and Nutrition interventions for Improved Health Outcomes
Convened by WHO, UNICEF, USAID and the FHI 360/USAID WASHplus Project
Friday, November 2, 8:30am – 12:15pm
Tackling under-nutrition and poor WASH conditions do not require new technology; proven interventions exist. However, millions still die because those most at risk are not reached, services are piece-meal, and different approaches/lexicons inhibit effective collaboration. Drawing on an upcoming WHO/UNICEF/USAID publication, the session will: 1) propose and solicit feedback on framework for integrating nutrition and WASH; 2) share effective integration approaches and delivery models; and 3) collectively discuss challenges and propose solutions for integration in national policy and implementation arenas. In addition to formal presentations, session participations will formulate “buzz groups” to address major integration challenges including vertical policies, initial funding and investment, staffing resources, and effective intervention bundling to achieve “whole health” solutions resulting in lasting development gains.
- Integrating WASH into an At Scale Nutrition and Infant Feeding Program by Julia Rosenbaum | link
- Integrating HWTS into Nutrition Therapy by Greg Allgood | link
- Integrating Nutrition and WASH: Two Models from Kenya by Rob Quick | link
