Renewed research call for faecal sludge secondary treatment options in Bangladesh

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre announces a renewed research call for:

Faecal sludge secondary treatment technologies for challenging settings

This call is part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations.

The planned duration of the faecal sludge research project will be 18 months.

The anticipated cost of the project is EUR 325,000. In addition there is EUR 50,000 available for piloting. (Separate budget needs to be included for this).

To download the guidelines and application form go to: www.irc.nl/page/73136

The deadline for submission of full proposal application forms is: 11 January 2013.

Future research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.

Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.

IRC research calls on BRAC WASH II Programme – extended to 31 Aug 2012

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is happy to announce two research calls in the field of sanitation:

1. Low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high groundwater tables
2. Faecal sludge secondary treatment options

These calls are part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations. The other action research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.

1. Guidelines for research call on low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high groundwater tables

• Application form for low-cost sanitation technologies

2. Guidelines for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge

• Application form for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge

Extended deadline for submission of full proposal application forms: 31 August 2012

Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.

Measuring WASH and food hygiene practices – post 2015 goals

A new paper reviews the case for the importance of hand, food and menstrual hygiene as candidates for post-MDG goal and target setting. Of the three themes, handwashing with soap at key times is the one which has been the subject of most research and therefore is associated with the strongest evidence base.

The paper was written by a team from the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) under contract to USAID. It is an output of the Hygiene Working Group, one of the four Post-2015 Monitoring Working Groups set up by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP). The purpose of the background paper is to stimulate and inform discussion, but not to make any claims for consensus nor suggest that any of the definitions, indicators, goals or targets proposed are final.

In 2013 the United Nations General Assembly will be asked to decide what development goals the international community should seek beyond 2015. The decision will be made based on a proposal that will be submitted to the General Assembly. This proposal will include goals, targets and indicators pertaining to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The indicators proposed will reflect principles associated with the human right to drinking water and sanitation.

Related web sites:

• JMP – Hygiene Working Group
• LSHTM – Hygiene Central
• IRC – Hygiene Promotion
• ICDDR,B

Full reference:

Biran, A., et al, 2012. Background paper on measuring WASH and food hygiene practices : definition of goals to be tackled post 2015 by the Joint Monitoring Programme. London, UK, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Available at: <http://www.irc.nl/page/72911>

Bangladesh: government cuts water and sanitation budget by US$ 121 million

The Bangladesh government has reduced its allocation for water and sanitation by around 10 billion taka (US$ 121 million) in the proposed 2012-13 budget. This is 29 per cent less than in 2011-2012. Just two months earlier at the SWA High Level Meeting in Washington, DC, the government had committed to increase the allocation for sanitation and water supply by 50 per cent. [1]

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Dhaka, WaterAid country representative Md Khairul Islam said that the government should raise the water and sanitation allocation and bridge the disparity between urban and rural people.

Economist Abul Barkat, chief researcher at the Human Development Research Centre, criticised the current development budget for being heavily urban biased, with 90 per cent going to urban areas (including 52 per cent to the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong) and 10 per cent to rural areas.

Both Khairul and Barkat rejected finance minister AMA Muhith’s claim, made in his budget speech on 7 June, that Bangladesh had the highest sanitation coverage – 91 per cent – in South Asia [2]. The two experts said the real figure was only 60 per cent [3], while Sri Lanka has achieved 92 per cent in terms of improved sanitation.

Bangladesh aims to reach 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2013.

[1] Statement of Commitments by the Government of Bangladesh Sanitation and Water for All Second High Level Meeting, 20th April 2012, Washington D.C. Download full text

[2] Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Budget Speech 2012-13, Daily Star, 07 Jun 2012

[3] According to the latest figures from UNICEF/WHO, in 2010 only 56 per cent of the Bangladeshi population has access to improved sanitation (Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update)

Related news: Bangladesh: WaterAid gets Swiss and Swedish grants for WASH projects, E-Source, 27 December 2011

Related web site: WASHwatch.org - Bangladesh

Source: New Age, 13 Jun 2012

BRAC to contribute to Sanitation Updates with sanitation initiatives

In the WASH programme of BRAC adolescent girls get together in a peer cluster meeting once every two months to discuss topics such as menstrual hygiene. Photo: Christine Sijbesma, IRC.

BRAC has an extensive WASH progamme which aims to bring sustainable water and sanitation services to over 37 million people in Bangladesh.

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre has been supporting BRAC’s WASH programmes with technical assistance since 2007. The organization has recently been contracted to support the 2nd phase of BRAC’s WASH Programme with monitoring, action-research and knowledge-sharing for the next five years.

BRAC will be supporting IRC’s contributions to Sanitation Updates, with news and information regarding sanitation initiatives around the world.

Learn more about BRAC’s WASH programme at www.brac.net/content/environment-water-sanitation-hygiene

Read how IRC is supporting BRAC at www.irc.nl/page/69649

The effect of cord cleansing on neonatal mortality in rural Bangladesh

The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 8 February 2012

The effect of cord cleansing with chlorhexidine on neonatal mortality in rural Bangladesh: a community-based, cluster-randomised trial

• Full-text

Shams El Arifeen DrPH, et al.

Background – Up to half of neonatal deaths in high mortality settings are due to infections, many of which can originate through the freshly cut umbilical cord stump. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of two cord-cleansing regimens with the promotion of dry cord care in the prevention of neonatal mortality.

Design – We did a community-based, parallel cluster-randomised trial in Sylhet, Bangladesh. We divided the study area into 133 clusters, which were randomly assigned to one of the two chlorhexidine cleansing regimens (single cleansing as soon as possible after birth; daily cleansing for 7 days after birth) or promotion of dry cord care. Randomisation was done by use of a computer-generated sequence, stratified by cluster-specific participation in a previous trial. All livebirths were eligible; those visited within 7 days by a local female village health worker trained to deliver the cord care intervention were enrolled. We did not mask study workers and participants to the study interventions. Our primary outcome was neonatal mortality (within 28 days of birth) per 1000 livebirths, which we analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00434408.

Results – Between June, 2007, and September, 2009, we enrolled 29 760 newborn babies (10 329, 9423, and 10 008 in the multiple-cleansing, single-cleansing, and dry cord care groups, respectively). Neonatal mortality was lower in the single-cleansing group (22·5 per 1000 livebirths) than it was in the dry cord care group (28·3 per 1000 livebirths; relative risk [RR] 0·80 [95% CI] 0·65—0·98). Neonatal mortality in the multiple-cleansing group (26·6 per 1000 livebirths) was not statistically significantly lower than it was in the dry cord care group (RR 0·94 [0·78—1·14]). Compared with the dry cord care group, we recorded a statistically significant reduction in the occurrence of severe cord infection (redness with pus) in the multiple-cleansing group (risk per 1000 livebirths=4·2 vs risk per 1000 livebirths=1·2; RR 0·35 [0·15—0·81]) but not in the single-cleansing group (risk per 1000 livebirths=3·3; RR 0·77 [0·40—1·48]).

Interpretation – Chlorhexidine cleansing of a neonate’s umbilical cord can save lives, but further studies are needed to establish the best frequency with which to deliver the intervention.

Jay Graham – Bangladesh environmental health photos

Dr. Jay Graham of George Washington University was in Bangladesh and compiled a photo album of his visit at the link below:

• View Photos

Jay Graham, PhD
Assistant Professor of Global Environmental Health
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Department of Global Health
E-mail: jgraham@gwu.edu

Bangladesh: WaterAid gets Swiss and Swedish grants for WASH projects

WaterAid has signed funding agreements with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for two WASH projects in Bangladesh.

Photo: WaterAid/ Abir Abdullah & ASM Shafiqur Rahman

SDC and WaterAid signed a grant agreement on 30 November 2011 for a 316 million Taka (US$ 3.84 million) three year rural WASH programme. SDC will provide 265.5 million Taka (US$ 3.23 million), and WaterAid the rest. If successful, SDC will extend support for another 3 years.

Most of the funding will go the ‘Promotion of water supply, sanitation and hygiene in hard -to-reach areas of rural Bangladesh’ project, which aims to provide safe drinking water to 500,000 rural people, latrines to 1.3 million and hygiene education to another 1 million people. WaterAid’s inclusion and climate change programmes will also benefit.

Child Health Outcomes to Identify Effective Measures of Handwashing

Am J Trop Med Hyg 2011 85:882-892; doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2011.11-0142

Using Child Health Outcomes to Identify Effective Measures of Handwashing

Stephen P. Luby, Amal K. Halder, Tarique M. N. Huda, Leanne Unicomb, and Richard B. Johnston

We assessed which practical handwashing indicators were independently associated with reduced child diarrhea or respiratory disease. Fieldworkers collected 33 indicators of handwashing at baseline in 498 households in 50 villages in rural Bangladesh. Community monitors visited households monthly and asked standard questions about diarrhea and symptoms of respiratory illness among children under 5 years of age.

In multivariate analysis, three handwashing indicators were independently associated with less child diarrhea

• mothers reporting usually washing hands with soap before feeding a child,
• mothers using soap when asked to show how they usually washed their hands after defecation, and
• children having visibly clean finger pads.

Two indicators were independently associated with fewer respiratory infections

• mothers allowing their hands to air dry after the handwashing demonstration and
• the presence of water where the respondents usually wash hands after defecation.

These rapid handwashing indicators should be considered for inclusion in handwashing assessments.

Bangladesh: Sanitation and Hygiene – Challenges and Solutions