How to get involved in the International Year of Sanitation?

Q: Ours is a research and development center for the youth under the aegis of the ministry of youth affairs and sports of the government of India. We want to participate in the international year of sanitation and also for the programmes and we want to promote the programme in our area. (Institute of National Instruments, India)

Answer:
If you are interested in getting involved in the International Year of Sanitation, please visit the official site of the IYS. There you will find some ideas to get you started. Go to the section Get Involved for more information.

Diarrhoea impact indicator for water and sanitation performance

Q. I remember that some consensus has developed about best indicators for measuring impacts on diarrhoeal disease. If I remember correctly it was asking about the number and type of people (especially children under 5) in the family who have had loose stools in the previous two weeks. Do you have more info on this?
(IRC staff member)

Answer: In 1999 the Academy for Educational Development (AED) developed the following impact indicator for USAID water and sanitation programmes:

Percentage of children less than 36 months of age with diarrhoea in the last two weeks

This indicator is the period prevalence of diarrhoea based on the two-week recall of the child’s primary caretaker (usually the mother). It is defined as the proportion of children in a given sample who have diarrhea at the time the information is collected or who have had it anytime in the two preceding weeks. Diarrhoea is defined as more than three loose stools passed in a twenty-four hour period. Age is calculated in completed months at the time the information
is collected from the caretaker. A child who is 20 days old is considered zero months of age, and a child of 50 days is considered one month old.

Source: Bendahmane, D.; Billig, P. and Swindale, A. (1999). Water and sanitation indicators measurement guide. Washington, DC, USA, Academy for Educational Development. http://www.fantaproject.org/downloads/pdfs/watsan.pdf

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed “Indicators to improve children’s environmental health”, which include mortality, morbidity and recurrence rates for diarrhoeal diseases.

The WHO indicator for diarrhoea morbidity is:

Incidence of diarrhoea morbidity in children aged 0-4 years.

Terms and concepts

Diarrhoea: three or more watery stools in a 24-hour period, a loose stool being one that would take the shape of the container (WHO 1996), or local definition of diarrhoea.

Episode of diarrhoea: An episode of diarrhoea begins with a 24-hour period with three or more loose or watery stools. An episode of diarrhoea isconsidered to have ended after 48 hours without three or more loose watery stools within a 24-hour period.

Incidence of diarrhoea morbidity: total number of episodes of diarrhoea during a 1-year period amongst the children surveyed.

Total population of children aged 0-4 years: number of children less than five years of age in the survey, at the time of survey.

 

Pumps and operation details

Q: I would like to get the details of various pumps IWWA (Indian Water Works Association) is using and its operation detail. I need to know more about it, please provide me the details.
(Senior Engineer in an India Manufacturer Company)

Answer: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is not related to IWWA. However, we can provide you with some web sites and documents which have information on pumps:

PUBLICATIONS

The publication: “Linking Technology Choice with Operation and Maintenance for Low-Cost Water Supply and Sanitation (2.40 MB)” provides 50 illustrated fact sheets on various low-cost water supply and sanitation technologies. See part II of this guidance manual. Download the PDF file (2.4 MB)

NWP et al. 2004). Smart water solutions : examples of innovative, low-cost technologies for wells, pumps, storage, irrigation and water treatment. Delft, The Netherlands, Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP).
This booklet provides examples of small-scale innovative technologies to increase access to safe drinking water. It includes technologies such as the use of sunlight to purify water, effective low-cost water filters, low-cost drip irrigation and locally produced hand pumps that are five times cheaper than imported pumps.

ORGANISATIONS and NETWORKS to contact for more information on pumps:

ATatWork, a Dutch network of professionals from government, academia, NGOs and the private sector who are interested in the large-scale market introduction of appropriate water and sanitation technologies.

Lifewater Canada, a non-profit group training nationals to drill safe drinking water wells and build handpumps.
See their Water wells tutorial , an on-line tutorial providing technical instructions needed to construct safe drinking water wells. In-depth instructions are provided on using the LS-100 drill machine and Bush (modified Zimbabwe) handpumps. The Handpumps Resources section provides information on and links to over 25 handpumps for shallow and deep wells.

Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN)
Formerly called the “Handpump Technology Network”(HTN) aims to facilitate the provision of safe water and sanitation to the poor and deprived through the promotion of sustainable technologies – primarily hand-pump technology – that are affordable and responsive to the needs of the users.
RWSN Secretariat
Skat Foundation
Vadianstrasse 42
CH-9000 St.Gallen
Switzerland
- Telephone: +41 71 228 54 54
- FAX: +41 71 228 54 55
- E-mail: rwsn@skat.ch

RWSN has published “Handpumps, Mechanised Pumps, Surface Water – Technology Options”, a small compendium of technology options for rural water supply. Briefly describing the various types of most common handpumps and providing information on motorised pumps.

Pump Aid, Water for Life
Founded in Zimbabwe, Pump Aid works to relieve poverty in Africa using appropriate and sustainable technology to provide clean water for drinking and irrigation.
- Address: 52 Priory Road
Loughborough
LE11 3PP Leicestershire
United Kingdom
- Telephone: +44 1283 713902
- E-mail: IanThorpe@pumpaid.org, karenmercer@pumpaid.org

Further good info on pumps can be get from Practica Foundation based in the Netherlands. They facilitate research, development and commercial application of technology in the field of water and energy in developing countries. Practica works with a network of partner organisations that produce, promote and sell improved rural products.

More information on documents and organisations dealing with village level handpumps can be found at the Ask IRC page.

Community-Led Total Sanitation

Q: Community-Led Total Sanitation is very popular and the approach seems to be copied by many countries. What is your opinion of the CLTS approach?
(Indonesia Sanitation Sector Development Project (ISSDP))

Answer: (by Christine Sijbesma, senior programme officer at IRC)
Please find herewith the (to my knowledge) lastest paper on the Community Led Total Sanitation Campaign. It´s an IDS working paper by Kamal Kar and Petra Bongartz, published in 2006: Update on some recent development in Community-Led Total Sanitation. [2,6 MB]

Although CLTS is a good campaign approach and may also work well in closely knit urban communities, it can in my view be improved:

• Gender and a gender equity approach are absent – who take part in e.g. the initial inventory, in discussion and information on latrine options, in decision-making on choice of technology and design, in local leadership, in training of local leaders, in expansion to other communities (one program pays local leaders USD 8 per day to train and guide other communities), in recognition? All data I saw were non-sex disaggregated.
• Although cases of solidarity with the very poor have been reported, there is no systematic approach to assist the them, although the methodology does allow this. It only excludes external subsidy as non-sustainable, often inequitable and discouraging action. There are proven ways for systematic solidarity with the poor through internal help in kind/cash in various forms which could be included in CLTS. The PRA tools of classifying and mapping welfare levels (which are in the toolsfile) help planning and accountability of support to the worst-off.
• While problem identification and action are community-led, knowledge sharing could be more systematic. It is now up to each individual household to make/improve designs – sharing know-how and technical skils is not a systematic component. I noted the same in Payakumbuh. People did not visit each others’ toilet, design and building were still a private matter. It would be good to systematically include knowledge sharing on design and construction e.g. through discussing designs and ways of building in male and female FGDs and inter-household visits from households (couples!) who are still planning their toilets to households who have already constructed;
• Durability (and so sustainability) of the cheapest models is frequently low – while the approach can easily include planned upgrading of initial models over time, this issue seems not to be addressed systematically;
• The emphasis is on outputs (100% toilets/no more open defecation) – there is no systematic monitoring and reporting of outcomes (e.g. hygienically used and maintained toilets, water collected by all family members for flushing and handwashing; toilet brush, handwashing soap present, potties for infants, infant and baby stools enddisposed in toilet) , nor consolidation and independent checking of data at above-community level.
• Although a key issue, toilets are not the only area for action – other hygiene aspects can be linkedFor more information on CLTS, take a look at the Livelihoods Connect Hot Topic ´Community Led Total Sanitation´. This site is part of the research project Going to Scale? The Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation, managed by the Institute of Development Studies.

Water and sanitation glossary

Q: I am about to develop a glossary of common terms to be placed under the umbrella of water and environmental health. I seek generally agreed interpretations of these two terms plus interpretations or definitions of other water and sanitation terms. Do you know if such a glossary already exists?
(researcher, INGO, Ireland)

Answer:
For an overview of glossaries and (multilingual) thesauri in the field of water and sanitation, take a look at the IRC web page on glossaries and thesauri.
This selection is taken from web sites and from publications which are available online.

 

Health impact of water and sanitation interventions

Q: Could you advise me on the latest research on the health impacts of WSS interventions particularly water quality, water quantity, sanitation and hygiene?
(Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Viet Nam)

Answer:

“The impact of sanitation on human health is the most widely recognised benefit of good sanitation and hygiene practices.”

This is taken from the Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) Enhancing livelihoods through sanitation. (2007). By Borba, M.L., Smet, J. and Sijbesma, C.

The figures in Table 1 below confirm this.

Table 1. The impact of sanitation, water and hygiene on morbidity by diarrhoea

Water and Sanitation measures and % decrease in cases of diarrhoea:

Water and sanitation 30
Sanitation (improved excretal disposal) 36
Improved hygiene 33
Quantity of water 20
Water quantity and quality 17
Water quality 15

It is clear from these data, that when sanitation is taken by itself, health improves at a higher level than through provision of water alone. The same can be said about hygiene interventions.

See also Section 5 of the same TOP: Stories from the field: a review of practices presents case-studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America, where efforts are made to improve human excreta management and their impact on people’s livelihoods.

In a working paper of the Harvard University Centre for International Development, Alix Peterson Zwane and Michael Kremer review the research on what works in preventing and treating diarrheal diseases in developing countries. They review the evidence on individual behavior change interventions that can prevent diarrhea, including handwashing and point-of-use water treatment systems.

The paper also discusses the outstanding question of how to induce people to adopt these methods. It then reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of source water quality improvements and sanitation investments.

Rural infrastructure maintenance is another challenge being discussed in their article: while rural water facilities can be long-lived if properly serviced, they often fall into disrepair quickly due to poor maintenance, and though many different approaches to maintenance have been advocated, there is little evidence on their relative effectiveness.

Another document by Guy Howard and Jamie Bartram, entitled Domestic water quantity, service level and health, describes the relationships between water, sanitation hygiene and diarrhoea as well as other infectious diseases, such as trachoma.

“Despite the evidence pointing to the benefits of increased quantities of water on health, the relationship is not simple and most research has made significant assumptions about water use. Hygiene is not solely related to availability of water, but also to specific hygiene behaviours such as hand washing at critical times, for instance before eating and cooking and after defecation.”

And “A number of studies suggest that hand washing with soap is the critical component of this behaviour and that hand washing only with water provides little or no benefit (Cairncross, 1993; Ghosh et al., 1997; Khan, 1982; Oo et al., 2000). Hoque and Briend (1991) showed that whilst less effective than when using a rubbing agent, such as soap, mud or ash, some reductions in contamination were found when washing with water alone, but that use of alternative rubbing agents (mud or ash) provided the same benefits as soap. Hoque et al. (1995) also found that use of mud, ash and soap all achieved the same level.”

Read the full documents yourself:

Peterson Zwane, A. and Kremer, M. (2007). What works in fighting diarrheal diseases in developing countries? (CID Working Paper No. 140). Cambridge, United Kingdom, Harvard University. Available at: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidwp/pdf/140.pdf

Howard, G. and Bartram, J. (2003). Domestic water quantity, service level and health. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. Available at: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/wsh0302/en/

 

 

 

 

Sanitation policies and gender

Q: I am looking for recent sanitation policies that have gender mainstreamed. Do you know any recent policy/ies that I could use?
(senior programme officer, NGO, the Netherlands)

Answer:
[1] An analysis of sanitation policies in Southern Africa: The case of gender policies in sanitation in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe’, University of Southampton: Southampton, by Martin Mulenga, Gift Manase and Ben Fawcett, 2006 Full document.

[2] Assessing Sanitation Policy: A series of WEDC Briefing Notes

This series of Briefing Notes Assessing Sanitation Policy is based on lessons learned from national sanitation policy assessments carried out in Ghana and Nepal, together with the review and assessment of sanitation policy in these and other countries. The Notes provide concise guidance on the importance of sanitation policy and what can be done to ensure that it is widely supported, relevant and implemented effectively.

These Notes will be particularly useful for government institutions, donors, I/NGOs and private sector organizations who are involved in contributing to the sanitation policy debate, or promoting good sanitation practice.

Briefing Note: Overview – Sanitation policy: Why is it important and how to make it work
Briefing Note: Ghana – National sanitation policy in Ghana: A case for improved co-ordination?
Briefing Note: Nepal – Implementing national sanitation policy in Nepal: Challenges and opportunities
Briefing Note: Review – Comparing national sanitation policy content: An initial review of nine country profiles

Training guideline for sanitation clubs in schools

Q: We are about to develop a training guideline on water, sanitation and
hygiene for environmental clubs in schools . We are wondering where to
get a copy for reference that we could use.
Sector professional, The GambiaAnswer: (by Annemarieke Mooijman)
For information on sanitation clubs, the following case studies might be of interest:

 

• Children’s health clubs in schools; opportunities and risks. Many school programs for water, sanitation and hygiene have organized special children’s groups. This paper discusses some of the benefits and risks of these school groups. (2006).
• India – The School Health Clubs Project in Kerala, by Snel, Marielle and Kochurani, Mathew (2004).
• Kenya – School Health Clubs: Can they change hygiene behaviours? By Snel, Marielle and Rop, Rosemary (2004).

For hygiene education materials, there are several methodologies depending on where and how you want to use it.

A document which I recently purchased and which I would recommend is: Children for Health: children as partners in health promotion. See:
It is fairly cheap and can be purchased through TALC (Teaching-aids At Low Cost), a charity based in the UK.

Another option would be to use the materials used for CHAST in Somalia, see http://www.schools.watsan.net/page/326

More case studies and other information can be found on the WASH in schools website: http://www.schools.watsan.net

Environmental audit for Benedictine communities

Q: Do you know where I can find the book “Listening to the Earth”? It is a manual for Benedictine communities to set up an environmental audit, and includes inventories for drinking water quality and for sanitation and waste.
(policy maker, The Netherlands)

Answer: Thank you for bringing our attention to this book. You can find the book here:

Bartlett, W. et al. (2006). Listening to the earth : an environmental audit for Benedictine communities. London, UK, Earth Force, Inc. Available at: http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/Listening%20to%20the%20Earth%20(English).pdf [1.2 MB]

Also available in Spanish and Portuguese.

For those who do not know this book yet, a short description (taken from the preface of the book): The main intentions of this manual are to (1) educate the reader about environmental problems and crises being faced by the world’s populations today, (2) to provide the communities that utilize the manual with a means of assessing how their daily practices may contribute to these problems, and (3) offer ideas and resources regarding better practices.

Water and Sanitation and waste are two of the five subject areas covered in the manual. It includes many cheap, effective solutions for low-income monasteries and their lay and surrounding communities. The book ends with guidelines on how to develop an action plan.

While most of the explanatory text focuses on the conditions of the LAC region, the main environmental principles that underlie the regional-specific information are applicable to any region of the world.

Events on water and sanitation

Q: I am looking for an overview of water and sanitation events in the coming months.

Answer: IRC has an such an overview on the Ask IRC page, which includes the Source Conferences and Events Calendar and several other good water calendars. To avoid having to update two locations, I did not copy it here. Please take a look at this page.

If you have an event on water, sanitation and hygiene you would like to have listed, do not hesitate to contact Cor Dietvorst, the editor of Source.