WASH by numbers: the latest on cost benchmarks, economic returns and handwashing

One of the most quoted WASH statistics was recently “downgraded”. For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, not $8 but “only” $4 is returned in economic returns through increased productivity. This recalculation [1], says the World Health Organization, is mainly a result of higher investment cost estimates and the more complete inclusion of operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

Providing a better insight into O&M costs has been one of the achievements of the WASHCost project of the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. WASHCost has published minimum benchmarks for costing sustainable basic WASH services in developing countries [2]. The project collected data from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Andhra Pradesh (India) and Mozambique.

The main message is that spending less than the minimum benchmarks will result in a higher risk of reduced service levels or long-term failure. NGOs claiming that “US$20 can provide clean water for one person for 20 years” have clearly forgotten to include annual recurrent costs for operation and maintenance, capital maintenance and direct support.

The real cost for 20 years of basic water supply from a borehole and handpump would be, per person, between US$ 20 and US$ 61 for construction plus US$ 3-6 every year to keep it working. In total for the 20 years this would amount to US$ 80 to US$ 181 per person.

Similarly, for the most basic sanitation service, a traditional pit latrine, the combined costs would be US$ 37 – 106 per person over 20 years.

HSBC launches US$ 100 million water partnership with WaterAid, WWF and Earthwatch

British multinational bank HSBC has launched a new US$ 100 million, five year partnership with WaterAid, WWF and the Earthwatch Institute. The HSBC Water Programme will bring safe water and improved sanitation to over a million people; tackle water risks in river basins; and raise awareness about the global water challenge.

The programme is backed-up by report [1] commissioned by HSBC, which warns that the predicted high-growth rate in several of the world’s most populous river basins may not materialise because of  their unsustainable water consumption . The report also highlights “the powerful economic rationale for improving access to freshwater and sanitation, at a time when total aid for water access and sanitation has actually declined”.

Study quantifies link between poor sanitation and child, maternal mortality

In countries with the poorest sanitation, child mortality is nearly 7 times higher than in countries with the best access to sanitation. This is one of the findings of a new study [1] by Canadian-based researchers who say they are the first to quantify the impact of unsafe water and poor sanitation on child and maternal mortality.

Researcher June J. Cheng. Photo: McMaster University

Researchers at the United Nations University and McMaster University analysed data on access to safe water and adequate sanitation across 193 countries and compared them with maternal and child deaths.

Dividing the countries into four tiers (“quartiles”), they found that countries ranked in the bottom 25% in terms of adequate sanitation had about 6.6 more deaths per 1,000 children under five years old compared to countries in the top 25% tier.

Similarly, when judged on access to safe water, countries ranked in the bottom quartile, child mortality was 4.7 higher than in the top quartile.

Relating adequate sanitation provision and maternal death rates (death within a year of childbirth), the paper says the odds of dying increase 48% from the top tier to each lower tier of countries; the corresponding odds with respect to unsafe inadequate sanitation: 42%.

[1] Cheng, J.J. et al., 2012. An ecological quantification of the relationships between water, sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality. Environmental Health, 11 (4). Available at:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-11-4 [accessed 17 Feb 2012]

Related news:

• Diarrhoeal diseases: study predicts decline in global deaths, E-Source, 20 April 2011
• Health impact: effect of water quality, hygiene and sanitation in preventing diarrhoea deaths, E-Source, 22 Jun 2010

Related web sites:

• UNU-INWEH – Water-Health Nexus
• WHO – Water Sanitation and Health (WSH) – Burden of disease and cost-effectiveness estimates

Contact: June J Cheng (june.cheng@medportal.ca), Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Program, Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University and United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Canada

Source: United Nations University, EurekaAlert!, 14 Feb 2011

Towards better monitoring: taking drinking water equity, safety and sustainability into account

While current figures indicate that access to improved drinking water has increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent between 1990 and 2008, the real percentage of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water is likely to be significantly lower. This is one of the conclusions of a new report [1] that the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) released on 20 December 2011.

If the maximum acceptable time needed to collect water is taken as 30 minutes per round trip, then drinking water coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa drops by eight percentage points, the report says. Similarly, if you include water quality as an indicator, then the 2008 JMP estimates of access to safe drinking water would go down by 16% for Nicaragua, 11% for Ethiopia, 10% for Nigeria and 7% for Tajikistan.

The new report analyses existing JMP statistics in more detail and includes increased disaggregation of water service levels and analyses of trends across countries and regions. It focuses on the three key challenges of equity, safety and sustainability. Disparities in terms of geography, wealth and gender are explored, as well as the role of household water treatment and safe storage in water safety, and the unique threats posed by climate change to the sustainability in rural and urban contexts.

National and global monitoring will require a major evolution, concludes the report, to meet demands for targets and indicators that take equity, safety and sustainability into account.

[1] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), 2011. Drinking water equity, safety and sustainability. (JMP thematic report on drinking water ; 2011). New York, NY, UNICEF ; Geneva, World Health Organization. 62 p. : 40 fig., 2 tab. 23 ref. <Available at: http://www.unicef.org/media/files/JMP_Report_DrinkingWater_2011.pdf>

Related news:

• Monitoring: new tools meet demand for more transparency in the water sector, E-Source, 05 Dec 2011
• Angelica de Jesus, First consultation on developing post-2015 monitoring indicators, Berlin: Refocusing the monitoring approach, E-Source, 02 Aug 2011

Related web site: WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation – http://www.wssinfo.org/

Source: UNICEF, 20 Dec 2011

Drawing the threads together: sustainable services and behaviour changes

Agencies, donors and NGOs alike need to regard sustainability as a critical mission and to re-think fundamentally their role in the sector, conclude the organisers of the WASH Conference 2011. The conference, which was held in Brisbane, Australia, from 16-20 May 2011, attracted 237 people from 40 countries.

The recently published WASH 2011 synthesis report provides an overview of the key messages on: functional and environmental sustainability; institutional sustainability; behavioural change and social sustainability; and financial sustainability.

The first key message, brought in by the IRC-led Triples-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) initiative, was that the focus on ‘coverage’ should be reduced in favour of a move to a service delivery approach. Related to this was the need to move gradually from community management to professionalised service delivery (the community management PLUS model) and to move from counting infrastructure to monitoring services.

Partnering with the private sector can play an important role in scaling-up sanitation as well as behaviour change. Enabling local entrepreneurship to flourish through the sanitation marketing approach has proved successful in Cambodia. In Indonesia a public-private partnership for hand-washing with soap made the partnership win-win for each group.

[1] International WaterCentre (2011). WASH Conference 2011, Brisbane, Australia : towards sustainability in water, sanitation and hygiene : conference report. 20 p. Download full report

Related web sites:

• WASH Conference 2011
• IRC – Water Services that Last

Related news:

• Leading sector organisations launch Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sustainability Charter, E-Source, 04 Oct 2011
• Costing sustainable services training is successful, Brisbane, E-Source, 04 Aug 2011

Source: International WaterCentre, 26 Sep 2011

Slum dwellers should be a priority for water and sanitation investment, WaterAid manifesto

Investment in water and sanitation in the rapidly urbanising cities of the developing world is key if we are to avoid uncontrollable poverty and ever worsening slums, says WaterAid in a manifesto released on 3 October 2011.

The manifesto’s author Timeyin Uwejamomere of WaterAid said:

“Water and sanitation have proved time and time again to be a critical factor in health and economic development. We only need to look at the development of the ‘Asian Tigers’ to see that long-term, reliable funding into urban water and sanitation infrastructure has a powerful impact on economic productivity, as well as driving down poverty.”

Medical waste, bad for your health and bad for your rights, warns UN expert

A new UN report says the international community has to date paid little attention to the growing problem of medical waste around the world, especially in developing countries. The report was released in September 2011 by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and toxic waste Calin Georgescu.

“Some 20 to 25 per cent of the total waste generated by health-care establishments is regarded as hazardous and may create a variety of health and environmental risks if not managed and disposed of in an appropriate manner,” warns the independent expert designated by the UN Human Rights Council to report on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights.

Hazardous health-care waste includes infectious waste, sharps, anatomical and pathological waste, obsolete or expired chemical products and pharmaceuticals, and radioactive materials. Medical waste is often mixed with general household waste, and either disposed of in municipal waste facilities or dumped illegally.

A significant amount of chemicals and pharmaceuticals is disposed of through hospital wastewater.

In countries where no wastewater treatment facilities exist, effluents from health-care facilities are discharged directly in rivers and other water streams, and risk contaminating surface and groundwater resources used for drinking and domestic purposes. [...] Because they are designed to have a biological effect, pharmaceuticals can also have a significant adverse impact on fish and seafood used for human consumption.

In his report, Mr. Georgescu makes a number of specific recommendations, including raising awareness of the human and environmental risks of hazardous medical waste, the development of a comprehensive international legal framework for medical waste management, and the replacing incineration of medical waste by more environmentally-friendly and safe methods of disposal, such as autoclaving.

Read the full report

Related web site: WHO – Healthcare waste management (HCWM) – www.healthcarewaste.org

Source: OHCHR, 14 Sep 2011

New book offers insights into the sustainability challenge for rural water sectors

Supporting Rural Water Supply takes a critical look and asks why are 30 to 40% of rural water systems failing in developing countries? And how can we support the adoption of a service delivery approach – one that moves beyond implementing infrastructure projects to delivering a reliable and indefinite service? This book brings together findings from 13 country studies conducted by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre as part of the Triple-S initiative. Download the book or read the summaries or full reports for Benin, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, India, Mozambique, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA, and Uganda.

A hard copy version of the book is available from Practical Action Publishing.

New book offers lessons for improving water management in tomorrow’s cities

As sustainability concerns regarding water management in cities continue to increase, the challenge facing cities is for them to do more with less. SWITCH, an EU-funded programme, was a five year experiment focused on some of the key sustainability challenges in urban water management. In a number of cities around the globe, it set out to test what was needed to transition into more sustainable urban water management through a combination of demand-led research, demonstration activities, multistakeholder learning and associated training and capacity building.

The book- SWITCH in the City: putting urban water management to the test brings together experiences from 12 cities involved in the SWITCH project from four continents (Accra, Alexandria, Beijing, Belo Horizonte, Birmingham, Bogotá, Cali, Hamburg, Lima, Lodz, Tel Aviv and Zaragoza) with a set of guidelines focused on promoting stakeholder engagement in such processes.

If you are interested in undertaking demand-led research, promoting multi-stakeholder engagement, and scaling up research impacts, not only in urban water management but also in other areas where we find such complex problems, then download or order your copy now through IRC- International Water and Sanitation Centre.

WWF proposes water solutions for megacities

A new WWF study says water shortages in megacities can be tackled by: protecting important freshwater ecosystems, managing and using water supplies better, and planning for the impacts of climate change.

Presented in Stockholm during the World Water Week, the new WWF report ‘Big Cities, Big Water, Big Challenges’ warns of severe water shortages worldwide by the middle of this century, when 70% of the world’s people will be living in urban areas – often in ‘megacities’. In many of the world’s biggest cities, water management is already poor, WWF says.

The report looks in detail at the water situation in five megacities: Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Nairobi, Kenya; Karachi, Pakistan; Kolkata, India; and Shanghai, China.