USAID/Afghanistan – Latrine & Sanitation Options Manual

Latrine & Sanitation Options Manual, 2010. USAID/Afghanistan Sustainable Water Supply & Sanitation Project. 

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OBJECTIVE OF THIS MANUAL

Poor sanitation is endemic across Afghanistan and exacts a heavy toll on public health. In response, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), multiple donors, the United Nations, several implementers, and USAID are engaged in providing funding and technical leadership to sanitation programs and facility construction throughout the country. These resources are sorely needed, but money and technologies alone cannot solve the problem. Donors and implementers must agree to promote, and uniformly apply sound social development, public health, marketing, finance, and technical guidance to the health-focused planning of new investments and the delivery of sustainable sanitation services.

This Manual aims to meet these needs by serving as a practical guide for Component 2 of USAID‘s Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project (SWSS) and the selection of sanitation technology options to satisfy local desires and meet national needs. While this Manual is developed specifically for SWSS, it is hoped that it will be a living document for the professionals and organizations working to address fecal contamination across Afghanistan.

INTENDED USERS OF THIS MANUAL
This Manual has been written for both engineering and non-engineering field practitioners responsible for the design, construction, and sustainable operation of sanitation programs and facilities. It is primarily intended as a guide for all aspects of SWSS‘ sanitation programs and facility improvements. The Manual is designed to be used by SWSS, its partners from across the United States Government (USG), and its Afghan collaborators to make appropriate choices and engage effectively with engineers working in the field.

USAID/Afghanistan – Afghan Sustainable Water Supply & Sanitation (SWSS) Project

Afghan Sustainable Water Supply & Sanitation (SWSS) Project, 2012. Sustainable Health Outcomes Unit, Project Final Report.

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USAID/Afghanistan

Introduction
The USAID Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (SWSS) project, led by Tetra Tech ARD, was designed to improve the sustainability of rural infrastructure and the health of rural populations through a balanced commitment to providing water supply and sanitation facilities and improving community hygiene behaviors. It built upon the significant work done in the water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector in Afghanistan over the previous five years. A national policy framework was in place, engineering standards were set, and over 100 projects had provided facilities in rural communities.

Despite this high level of investment, extremely low percentages of rural Afghans used improved water supplies or sanitation facilities. Widespread utilization of water systems, sanitation facilities, and a core set of hygiene behaviors is the foundation for achieving health impacts. Without health impacts, especially among women and children under the age of five, rural water and sanitation (WatSan) projects were not reaching their goal of reducing the time and money spent by farming families on treating diarrheal diseases, allowing them more time for activities that improve their economic well-being.

WASHplus Weekly: WASH and Household Energy Entrepreneurs

Issue 72 September 28, 2012 | Focus on Entrepreneurship in WASH and Household Energy 

This issue contains some of the latest news and announcements about the role of entrepreneurs in providing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and household energy products and services. This includes several winners of the Social Entrepreneurs 2012 award by the Schwab Foundation and USAID support for commercializing hand washing and establishing markets for cookstoves in Haiti. Also included is a link to cookstove market assessments by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which provide suggestions for removing barriers that prevent the creation of a cookstove market for more than 20 countries.

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U.S. Department of State and Partners Solicit Creative Waste Management Solutions

U.S. Department of State and Partners Solicit Creative Waste Management Solutions - April 3, 2012

The U.S. Department of State and partners from the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste Forum announce a challenge to identify ten game-changing innovations with the potential to transform current waste management systems and practices. LAUNCH: Beyond Waste seeks transformational solutions to the problem of waste through disruptive innovation, behavioral change, systems design, as well as improved policy and stewardship. 

The challenge, which will be open from April 1 to May 15, 2012, asks creative minds to formulate innovative ideas for minimizing waste or transforming it into new products. As the global population increases and consumption trends continue to rise, the importance of sustainable materials management practices cannot be ignored. Safe and environmentally-sound management of waste is essential to conserving natural resources and preventing pollution, improving the health and well-being of global citizens and the environment and helping to prevent conflicts that can stem from resource inequality and poverty.

WASHplus Weekly – WASH and Humanitarian Assistance

This WASHplus Weekly contains 2010 and 2011 resources about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues in disaster or emergency situations. Please contact WASHplus if you have new or upcoming resources to add to this for future issues. Some of the resources in this Weekly include updates of WHO technical notes for WASH in emergencies, the 2011 SPHERE manual on WASH standards, links to USAID and other relevant websites.

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WASH update – Clinton Global Initiative

Catching the WASH Wave: The Growing Momentum for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) at the Clinton Global Initiative

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As global leaders, philanthropists, Nobel Prize laureates and CEOs convened at the Clinton Global Initiative last week, multi-national corporations and non-profits made substantial commitments to provide millions of people with access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

Procter & Gamble led the corporate charge by committing to bring safe drinking water to more than 2 million people in the Horn of Africa through its Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. According to the UN, at any given time, more than half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from waterborne diseases. The Procter & Gamble commitment is estimated to prevent more than 10 million days of illness in the region and represents a total investment of more than $3 million. http://bit.ly/oJHZbA

Through P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, Target is also providing one million days of safe drinking water, and the United States Agency for International Development is providing one million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa with safe drinking water.

“At the Clinton Global Initiative, we have a wide variety of members from business, government, and the nonprofit world who are working together to address this critical issue,” President Clinton said. “P&G is doing more than almost any other corporation to save kids’ lives by providing clean drinking water.”

USAID and Gates Foundation – Innovative Solutions for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene

July 19, 2011 – USAID and Gates Foundation Collaborate to Seek, Test, and Scale Innovative Solutions for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene

WASHINGTON, D.C. – To support promising new approaches in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with co-funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is announcing WASH for Life.

Over the next four years, the $17 million partnership will use USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program to identify, test, and help scale evidence-based approaches for cost-effective and sustained services in developing countries.

WASH for Life is particularly interested in interventions that operate in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, and Nigeria; address issues in the sanitation and hygiene sectors in particular; and target beneficiaries earning under $2 a day.

DIV seeks promising projects with the potential to significantly improve development outcomes. DIV supports innovators by creating partnerships, providing staged financing, rigorously testing and refining new approaches, and transitioning to scale successful innovations.

For more information and to apply to WASH for Life, visit: www.usaid.gov/div/washforlife.

TALC – Sanitation Marketing for Managers

Designed by the United States Agency for International Development’s Hygiene Improvement Project programme in Uganda, this manual  provides guidance and tools for designing a sanitation marketing programme. It allows professionals in the fields of santitation and marketing to comprehensively assess the current market for sanitation products and services and use the results to design a multi-pronged sanitation marketing strategy.

Order info – http://www.talcuk.org/books/sanitation-marketing-for-managers.htm

USAID/Liberia efforts in water supply, sanitation and hygiene

March 25, 2011

Around the world on March 22nd, people recognized World Water Day. The day serves as a reminder of the vital importance of access to clean water and the large numbers of people who live without that access.

Flashback: USAID mission Director, Patricia Rader hands over 350,000 mosquito nets to Deputy Minister of MOH Bernice Dahn.

Nearly 900 million people around the world lack access to an clean water source, and 2.6 billion people lack access to proper sanitation. The dearth of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene is linked to over 2 million deaths every year mainly from diarrhea and diarrhea-related malnutrition.

The impact of water on all aspects of development is undeniable. The health, economic, and social consequences of water deficits in both quantity and quality for all users, as well as for the environment, are enormous and linked to many U.S. foreign assistance priorities in tangible and substantive ways. As a result, forging a water-secure world is an essential step in all of USAID’s development goals.

The people of the United States are dedicated to helping Liberia address water and sanitation challenges. Through USAID programs in the country, we are actively engaged in improving Liberian’s access to clean, safe drinking water and use of water for enhanced hygiene.

USAID’s Rebuilding Basic Health Services (RBHS) program includes activities to prevent water-borne and water-washed diseases by providing adequate quantities of good quality water, access to adequate sanitation, and the promotion of sound hygiene practices in schools and health facilities in rural communities across Liberia.

USAID also has a separate, new multi-year, multi-million dollar water and sanitation program that will seek to improve water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), as well as the enabling environment for WASH, in target areas within the six counties of Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Lofa, Nimba, Bong and River Gee in Liberia and the selected communities of Bensonville and Duport Road in Greater Monrovia.

We are also strongly committed to improving the lives of women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by the lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Sanitation is a critical gap and, in many countries, has lagged behind improving water supplies in terms of investment, political commitment, and progress. This is beginning to change, and USAID supports state-of-the-art approaches to sanitation that focus on behavior change, market development, and facilitating access to sanitation products and services.

In 2009 USAID activities world-wide gave about 6.4 million people access to safe drinking water and 3.4 million people to better sanitation.

In commemoration of World Water Week, USAID reaffirms its commitment to helping Liberians gain access to clean, safe water and vital sanitation and hygiene practices.

Source – Liberian Observer, March 25, 2011

USAID Global Waters: Our Urban Era – World Water Day 2011

USAID Global Waters: Our Urban Era – World Water Day 2011

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Contents

• Welcome to Global Waters!
• Our Urban Era – World Water Day 2011
• The Sta. Ana Public Market Wastewater Treatment Plant Sustainable Green Technology in the Philippines
• Environmental Services Program Spurs Water Innovation for the Urban Poor
• USAID’s African Cities for the Future Program Improving WASH for Urban Africa
• Innovative Funding Removes Barriers to Water and Sanitation in the Philippines
• WADA Works to Improve Water Supply and Sanitation
• Resource Center