USAID and Dispensers for Safe Water Announce $5.5 million Partnership

May 21, 2013 · 1 comment

USAID and Dispensers for Safe Water Announce $5.5 million Partnership

by Alexandra Fielden

Women in the remote village of Markuny in Kenya are taking the lead and treating their families’ drinking water. This was not always the case; Markuny used to be one of the many places in the world where waterborne diseases are commonplace. Globally, diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five.

To address the global challenge of sickness from cholera, diarrhea and typhoid, Innovations for Poverty Action developed the chlorine dispenser system – a low-cost technology proven to dramatically increase rates of household water treatment, decreasing the burden of waterborne disease.  Today, USAID’s Administrator, Rajiv Shah, announced an award from USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) to support the scale-up of the Dispensers for Safe Water program. The $5.5 million grant, supported by DIV’s WASH for Life partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is DIV’s first Stage 3 award. Stage 3 funding is reserved for innovative solutions that have credible and rigorous evidence of development impacts at significant scale. Stage 3 projects transition an innovation from large scale implementation to widespread adoption; this grant will help Dispensers for Safe Water provide five million people with access to dispensers. 

Chlorine dispensers are installed next to communal water sources, and supported by community education activities to encourage use, and a consistent supply of chlorine. To treat their water, community members simply turn the valve to release a metered dose of chlorine, then fill their container as they normally would with water from the source. The chlorine disinfects the water and provides ongoing protection from recontamination for up to 72 hours.

The dispenser allows community members to conveniently and easily treat their water, and its physical presence provides a visual reminder to do so.  A randomized trial in Western Kenya found 50 – 61% of households in the treatment group adopted the water treatment, compared with only 6 – 14% in the control group. Impressively, the program has been able to maintain high usage, seeing 43% adoption rates at scale.

Director of Programs for Dispensers for Safe Water, Eric Kouskalis, said “we are thrilled to be partnering with DIV on the scale-up of dispensers. DIV’s objective is to find, test, and scale interventions that get the biggest bang for the buck, and at a cost of less than $0.50 per person per year at scale, dispensers fit the bill perfectly.”

Dispensers for Safe Water critically evaluates the program to drive improvements throughout the expansion. DIV and Dispensers for Safe Water will measure success along metrics such as the number of dispenser users (by gender), the percentage of households with chlorine present in their drinking water, the percentage of individuals who understand the benefits and correct usage of dispensers, and the dispenser manufacturing and chlorine delivery costs. This data will provide valuable feedback to help the program maximize adoption, sustain dispenser usage, and increase operational efficiencies.

Maura O’Neill, Chief Innovation Officer at DIV, congratulated DSW on the award. “Results based on rigorous evidence is the hallmark of DIV. Through this award with Dispensers for Safe Water, we will avert 3.3 million cases of diarrhea, save 3,200 children’s lives and that is just in the first three years.”

UNICEF – Cholera Toolkit 2013

May 17, 2013 · 1 comment

To tackle the alarming resurgence of cholera, UNICEF has launched a new comprehensive Cholera Toolkit on 15 May 2013.

The toolkit launch [...] will be the culmination of a thorough review of existing guidance and global consultation with UNICEF at all levels and from all divisions in Africa, along with main partners in the fight against cholera, such as the World Health Organization as the lead agency.

There are 3-5 million cholera cases each year, killing 100,000 to 120,000 people, half of whom are children under 5 years old. Only 5-10% of cases are reported. In Western and Central Africa, there were more than 80,000 cases of cholera in 2012 resulting in nearly 1,500 deaths.

The Toolkit provides the health and WASH sectors an integrated approach to cholera prevention, preparedness and response. In addition it includes specific content linked to education, nutrition, communication for development (C4D), child protection and other relevant sectors.

UNICEF Cholera Kit, p. 41 UNICEF Cholera Kit, p. 41

“What the toolkit does is harvest the best and most up-to-date knowledge in the field and brings it together in one location,” said UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera. “It looks at the evidence. It looks at practices that have produced results.”

Download the Toolkit at: www.unicef.org/cholera

Related websites:

Source: UNICEF, 15 May 2013

Progress on sanitation and drinking-water 2013 update

May 15, 2013 · 0 comments

Progress on sanitation and drinking-water – 2013 update: Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.

JMP 2013 update presents country, regional and global estimates for the year 2011. Drinking-water coverage in 2011 remains at 89% – which is 1% above the MDG drinking-water target. In 2011, 768 million people relied on unimproved drinking-water sources. The report covers the following chapters: 

  • Global sanitation trends 1990-2011
  • Trends in open defecation 1990-2011
  • Global drinking-water trends 1990-2011
  • Towards a post-2015 development agenda
  • The JMP method.

CAWST Education and Training Resources

May 15, 2013 · 0 comments

New WASH resources website: http://resources.cawst.org

CAWST just launched a new website to make all of its education and training resources available.

WASH Education & Training Resources

In an effort to provide practicable and accessible WASH Education & Training resources to implementers, CAWST – The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology has launched a new website with resources in English, French and Spanish.  These resources have been used to educate and training over 1.5 million people worldwide.

Key resources include:

The website will soon include trainer resources on how to use these materials and deliver effective training on various WASH subjects with NGO & Government field workers.All of CAWST resources are free and licensed under the Creative Commons by Attribution, meaning you can share, remix and adapt the content provided you attribute CAWST for the original work.

The full website is also available on USB flash drive, for offline use and low internet bandwidth countries. CAWST provides training, education and consulting support to over 400 WASH organizations in over 63 countries. For more information visit http://www.cawst.org

WHO – Water Quality and Health Strategy 2013-2020

May 15, 2013 · 0 comments

Water Quality and Health Strategy 2013-2020. WHO

This strategy, centred on primary prevention of waterborne and water-related diseases, has the following five strategic objectives for the period 2013 to 2020:

1. Obtain the most rigorous and relevant evidence regarding water quality and health

2. Provide up-to-date, harmonized water quality management guidelines and supporting resources

3. Strengthen capacity of Member States to most effectively manage water quality to protect public health

4. Facilitate implementation of water quality and health activities through partnerships and support to Member States

5. Monitor the impact of these activities on policies and practice to more effectively inform decision making

Prevalence of rotavirus and adenovirus associated with diarrhea

May 15, 2013 · 0 comments

Prevalence of rotavirus and adenovirus associated with diarrhea among displaced communities in Khartoum, Sudan. BMC Infectious Diseases 2013, 13:209.

Wafa I Elhag, et al.

Background – Diarrheal diseases represent a major worldwide public health problem particularly in developing countries. Each year, at least four million children under five years of age die from diarrhea. Rotavirus, enteric adenovirus and some bacterial species are the most common identified infectious agents responsible for diarrhea in young children worldwide. This study was conducted to determine prevalence of rotavirus and adenovirus associated with diarrhea among displaced communities in Khartoum state, Sudan.

Methods – A total of seven hundred and ten patients, children and adults, suffering from diarrhea were examined. The clinical history, socio-demographic characteristics, physical examination findings and laboratory investigations were recorded. Stool samples or rectal swabs were collected and tested for rotavirus and adenovirus antigens using the immuno-chromatography test (ICT). Characterization of the identified Rotaviruses, as a major cause of diarrhea, was then made using real time-reverse transcription PCR. To make the study legal, an ethical clearance was obtained from Sudan Ministry of health- Research Ethical Committee. Written consent was taken from adult subjects, and also from children mothers. The participants were informed using simple language about the infection, aim of the research and the benefits of the study.

Results – Out of the 710 patients, viral pathogens were detected in only 99 cases (13.9%). Of the 99 cases of viral diarrhea, 83 (83.8%) were due to rotaviruses while 16 (16.2%) attributed to adenovirus. Of the 83 rotaviruses identified, 42 were characterized by RT-PCR, of these 40 (95.2%) were proved as type A (VP6), and 2 (4.8%) type C (VP7). Type C (VP7) rotavirus was detected in samples collected from children under 5years only.

Conclusions – In conclusion, most cases of viral diarrhea are found to be caused by rotavirus especially among children less than five years. Most of the identified rotavirus belonged to type A (VP6). It was also evident that most patients are those who drank untreated water obtained from donkey carts source and who had no access to latrines, and lived in poor environmental conditions would acquire diarrheal infection.

DfID – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Evidence paper

May 8, 2013 · 0 comments

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Evidence paper, May 2013. DfID.

This paper was commissioned by the DFID Water and Sanitation and Research and Evidence Division (RED) Teams and undertaken by the DFID-funded Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) research programme consortium.

Specifically, and in line with general aims described above, this WASH Evidence Paper aims to:

  • Provide an accessible guide to existing evidence including a conceptual framework for understanding how WASH impacts on health and well-being and a description of methods used for ascertaining the health, economic and social impacts of WASH
  • Present the available evidence on the benefits and cost-effectiveness of interventions on WASH
  • Identify what we do know and also what we do not know, and assess the robustness of the available evidence relating to the impact of WASH interventions.
  • Disaggregate the benefits, where possible, by gender and poverty and the distribution of the global impacts across regions and economic status of countries.

This WASH Evidence Paper does not make specific recommendations on what DFID should or should not do, but instead identifies key lessons for consideration in evidence-based policy-making in the following areas:

1. evidence of impact

2. evidence of what works

3. evidence on cost-effectiveness and value for money

4. remaining knowledge gaps

Improving service delivery of water, sanitation, and hygiene in primary schools

May 8, 2013 · 0 comments

Journal of Water and Health, 2013| doi:10.2166/wh.2013.213

Improving service delivery of water, sanitation, and hygiene in primary schools: a cluster-randomized trial in western Kenya

Kelly T. Alexander, et al.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs in schools have been shown to improve health and reduce absence. In resource-poor settings, barriers such as inadequate budgets, lack of oversight, and competing priorities limit effective and sustained WASH service delivery in schools. We employed a cluster-randomized trial to examine if schools could improve WASH conditions within existing administrative structures. Seventy schools were divided into a control group and three intervention groups. All intervention schools received a budget for purchasing WASH-related items.

One group received no further intervention. A second group received additional funding for hiring a WASH attendant and making repairs to WASH infrastructure, and a third group was given guides for student and community monitoring of conditions. Intervention schools made significant improvements in provision of soap and handwashing water, treated drinking water, and clean latrines compared to controls. Teachers reported benefits of monitoring, repairs, and a WASH attendant, but quantitative data of WASH conditions did not determine whether expanded interventions out-performed our budget-only intervention.

Providing schools with budgets for WASH operational costs improved access to necessary supplies, but did not ensure consistent service delivery to students. Further work is needed to clarify how schools can provide WASH services

Why do Water and Sanitation Systems for the Poor Still Fail?

May 8, 2013 · 0 comments

Environ Sci Technol. 2013 May 1.

Why do Water and Sanitation Systems for the Poor Still Fail? Policy Analysis in Economically Advanced Developing Countries.

Starkl M, Brunner N, Stenström TA.

The results of an independent evaluation of 60 case studies of water and sanitation infrastructure projects in India, Mexico and South Africa, most of them implemented since 2000, demonstrate an ongoing problem of failing infrastructure even in economically advanced developing countries. This paper presents a meta-analysis of those project case study results and analyses whether the design of existing policies or other factors contribute to failures. It concludes that the observed failures are due to well-known reasons and recommends how the implementation of the Dublin-Rio Principles can be improved. (They were introduced twenty years ago to avoid such failures by means of a more sustainable planning.).

Determinants of reduced child stunting in Cambodia

May 2, 2013 · 1 comment

WHO Bullletin, May 2013

Determinants of reduced child stunting in Cambodia: analysis of pooled data from three Demographic and Health Surveys

Nayu Ikeda, Yuki Irie & Kenji Shibuya

Objective – To assess how changes in socioeconomic and public health determinants may have contributed to the reduction in stunting prevalence seen among Cambodian children from 2000 to 2010.

Methods – A nationally representative sample of 10 366 children younger than 5 years was obtained from pooled data of cross-sectional surveys conducted in Cambodia in 2000, 2005, and 2010. The authors used a multivariate hierarchical logistic model to examine the association between the prevalence of childhood stunting over time and certain determinants. They estimated those changes in the prevalence of stunting in 2010 that could have been achieved through further improvements in public health indicators.

Findings – Child stunting was associated with the child’s sex and age, type of birth, maternal height, maternal body mass index, previous birth intervals, number of household members, household wealth index score, access to improved sanitation facilities, presence of diarrhoea, parents’ education, maternal tobacco use and mother’s birth during the Khmer Rouge famine. The reduction in stunting prevalence during the past decade was attributable to improvements in household wealth, sanitation, parental education, birth spacing and maternal tobacco use. The prevalence of stunting would have been further reduced by scaling up the coverage of improved sanitation facilities, extending birth intervals, and eradicating maternal tobacco use.

Conclusion – Child stunting in Cambodia has decreased owing to socioeconomic development and public health improvements. Effective policy interventions for sanitation, birth spacing and maternal tobacco use, as well as equitable economic growth and education, are the keys to further improvement in child nutrition.

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