WASHplus Weekly – Focus on Child Feces Disposal

Issue 140 April 4, 2014 | Focus on Child Feces Disposal

A recent blog post by the SHARE project states that the feces of children may be particularly important in fecal-oral transmission since children are more susceptible to diseases such as diarrhea and often defecate in areas where other children could be exposed—the ground of a compound or in the house. This issue contains recent studies on child feces disposal practices in India and articles on child-friendly toilets. Also included are studies and reports on how infants and children are affected by fecal contamination caused by domestic animals.

WEBSITES

WASH Benefits Study/Bangladesh & Kenya - (Website)
The WASH Benefits Study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will provide rigorous evidence on the health and developmental benefits of water quality, sanitation, hand washing, and nutritional interventions during the first years of life. The study includes two cluster-randomized controlled trials to measure the impact of the intervention among newborn infants in rural Bangladesh and Kenya. Both will be large in scope and measure primary outcomes after two years of intervention. 

2014 STUDIES/PROTOCOLS

Interventions to Improve Disposal of Child Faeces for Preventing Diarrhoea and Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection. (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Apr 2014. F Majorin. (Order info)
The objectives of this study are to assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve the disposal of child feces for preventing diarrhea and soil-transmitted helminth infections. The interventions can include the provision of hardware (for example, nappies [diapers], potties, fecal collection devices, cleaning products to hygienically remove feces, child-friendly squatting slabs or latrines used by children), software (for example, promotion of safe disposal practices), or both. It will include interventions that combine the safe disposal of child feces with other interventions, such as hygiene promotion interventions, and employ subgroup analysis to investigate the impact of these additional interventions.

Child Feces Disposal Practices in Rural Orissa: A Cross Sectional Study. PLoS One, Feb 2014. F Majorin. (Link)
This study conducted surveys with heads of 136 households in 20 villages. It describes defecation and feces disposal practices and explores associations between safe disposal and risk factors. Respondents reported that children commonly defecated on the ground, either inside the household for pre-ambulatory children or around the compound for ambulatory children. Twenty percent of pre-ambulatory children used potties and nappies; the same percentage of ambulatory children defecated in a latrine. The study concludes that in the area surveyed, India’s Total Sanitation Campaign has not led to high levels of safe disposal of child feces.

Why is Child Faeces Disposal Important? 2014. SHARE. (Link)
Fiona Majorin of the SHARE project is currently conducting formative research in urban and rural settings in Orissa, India. The findings from this work will lead to the design of an intervention that will aim to improve safe child feces disposal.

Child Feces Disposal. A Presentation at the Handwashing Behavior Change Think Tank, 2014. (Link)
This brief presentation, given by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of The World Bank, explores how to safely manage child feces. WSP and UNICEF are collaborating on 25 country profiles focusing on child feces disposal. The presenter appealed to colleagues at the Think Tank and to the WASH community to share any research, programs, or policies they know of that address child feces disposal by emailing them toerand@worldbank.org.

Toys and Toilets: Cross-Sectional Study Using Children’s Toys to Evaluate Environmental Faecal Contamination in Rural Bangladeshi Households with Different Sanitation Facilities and Practices. Trop Med Intl Health, Mar 2014. J Vujcic. (Abstract)
This study examined fecal contamination in 100 rural households with and without access to toilets/latrines using toys to measure the level of contamination. In rural Bangladesh, improved sanitation facilities and practices were associated with less environmental contamination. Whether this association is independent of household wealth and whether the difference in contamination improves child health merit further study. The variation found was typical for measures of environmental contamination, and requires large sample sizes to ascertain differences between groups with statistical significance.

“Cleaner, Healthier, Happier” Campaign Unveils New Muppet in Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria. Sesame Workshop India, Mar 2014. (Link)
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, unveils the world’s newest Muppet friend, Raya, who will engage children with important messages surrounding proper latrine use and sanitation throughout Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria as part of its Cleaner, Healthier, Happier campaign.

Interventions to improve disposal of child faeces for preventing diarrhoea and STH infection

Interventions to improve disposal of child faeces for preventing diarrhoea and soil-transmitted helminth infection, (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,  2014, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD011055. DOI:10.1002/14651858.CD011055.

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Authors: Majorin F, Torondel B, Ka Seen Chan G, Clasen TF.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve the disposal of child feces for preventing diarrhoea and soil-transmitted helminth infections. 

Interventions: Interventions can include the provision of hardware (for example, nappies (diapers), potties, fecal collection devices, cleaning products to hygienically remove feces, child-friendly squatting slabs or latrines used by children) software (for example, promotion of safe disposal practices), or both. It will include interventions that combine the safe disposal of child feces with other interventions, such as hygiene  promotion interventions, and employ subgroup analysis to investigate the impact of these additional interventions.

Save the Date: April 11 Webcast from Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting

On April 11, the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership will hold its High Level Meeting 2014 in Washington, D.C. SWA is a global partnership of over 90 developing country governments, donors, civil society organizations and other development partners working together to catalyse political leadership and action, improve accountability and use scarce resources more effectively. Partners work towards a common vision of universal access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

Interested individuals can participate in the meeting virtually, in two ways. First, you can watch the live webcast from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (18:00 – 20:30 GMT) on April 11 at this link http://live.worldbank.org/sanitation-water-for-all-high-level-meeting. Secondly, you can submit questions to panelists via a form found at the same link.

To find out more about the meeting, including the latest on commitments in water and sanitation from some 50 countries, visit http://sanitationandwaterforall.org.

Below are some additional details about the meeting.

WHO:          Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General
                     Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group
                     H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, Chairman, Sanitation and                                           Water for All Partnership
                     Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF
                     Prof. Judi Wakhungu, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of                                                 Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Republic of Kenya
                     Dr. Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist, World Bank
                     Hon. Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Ethiopia
                     Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
Ministers of finance, development, water, health and sanitation                                     from 50 countries
International and national NGOs and development organizations

WHAT:          Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) in conjunction with the 2014 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group

WHEN:       Friday,April 11, 2014 , 1400 – 1630  EST  (DC time)

WHERE:       World Bank Group, IFC Auditorium, 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, DC

WHY:              1 in 3 people (2.5 billion) around the world still do not have access to safe sanitation, including 1 billion who must  defecate in the open. Almost 600,000 children under five died from diarrhoeal diseases, or about 1,600 per day, in 2012.   Three-quarters of a billion people do not have a source of improved drinking water and billions more use unsafe water. These, along with poor sanitation and hygiene, contribute to malnutrition and stunting in 165 million children globally.   Top economists agree that the return on investments in water and sanitation is 5 to 1. Two years ago, 48 countries made 415 commitments toward expanding access to safe water and sanitation. This year, countries will assess their progress and make new efforts to continue that momentum.

THE URBAN PROGRAMMING GUIDE: How to design and implement a pro-poor urban WASH programme

Improving water, sanitation and hygiene services to low-income urban areas is a highly challenging and complex task. Traditional approaches have often failed to work. We need new approaches and fresh thinking. We need governments, donors and sector professionals genuinely committed to improving services in slum settlements. It’s challenging but it can be done! This guide offers some solutions based around WSUP’s experience: all you have to do is put them into practice!

The guide provides an introduction to urban WASH programming: how to design and implement a pro-poor urban water, sanitation and hygiene programme.

Who is this guide for?
This guide is primarily designed for WASH professionals working in governments, development agencies, funding agencies or civil society organisations. It will also be useful for professionals working for service providers including water utilities, local authorities and in the private sector.

How to use this guide
The guide provides an overview of some key strategies and service delivery models. It’s not intended to be encyclopaedic: it’s a rapid-reference document with the following intended uses:

• To aid the planning, design and implementation of urban WASH programmes.
• To assist with investment planning by service providers.
• To point the reader towards further sources of information and guidance.

The guide is free to download from WSUP’s website: http://www.wsup.com/resource/the-urban-programming-guide

Waste not: Egypt’s refuse collectors regain role at heart of Cairo society

Waste not: Egypt’s refuse collectors regain role at heart of Cairo society | Source/complete article: The Guardian, March 27 2014 |

Excerpts - Zabaleen waste pickers are finally being re-integrated into the city’s services, a decade after they were sidelined.

A family at work in the Mokattam area of the Egyptian capital Cairo, where zabaleen collect, separate, sell or reuse rubbish. Photograph: Bernat Armangue/AP

For the waste pickers that have traditionally made a living sifting through the mountain of discarded litter that blights the streets of Cairo, there has been scant cause for celebration these past 10 years. Marginalised by a 2004 Mubarak goverment directive that placed household waste collection in the hands of multinationals, their existence has been one of ever increasing struggle for steadily declining return.

But change is afoot. Government acceptance that the corporatisation of waste disposal in Egypt‘s capital has been a resounding failure has paved the way for the formal integration of the zabaleen – who, for more than half a century, went door to door gathering the vast majority of household waste in Cairo – into the city’s official refuse collection system.

For a community that has served Cairo well, the government’s U-turn offers a deserved chance to change their lives for the better. Before 2004, the zabaleen would take the rubbish they collected back to their homes on the edge of the city, sort through it, and make a living from selling the salvaged materials to factories and wholesalers. The remaining organic waste would be fed to their pigs, whose meat also brought them a steady income.

But 10 years ago, this informal arrangement came to an abrupt end when the Mubarak government contracted four corporate firms to do the work instead – cutting the 65,000 zabaleen out of the process, and wrecking their collective livelihood. The aim was to professionalise the capital’s waste management.

Government officials now admit that approach was flawed from the start, and for the first time are starting to make the zabaleen‘s role official, giving them uniforms and vehicles.

“The others have failed, be they the government or the foreign companies, and now [the zabaleen] should get a turn, having been sidelined for so long,” said Laila Iskandar, Egypt’s environment minister, who has prioritised the issue since her appointment in July. “They are the people who have the longest experience in refuse collection.”

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2014 WASH Sustainability Forum

The fifth in the series of WASH Sustainability Forums will be held on June 30th & July 1st at the RAI in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As past Forums have focused on concepts of sustainability, this event will advance progress by engaging with practical approaches and tools for applying sanitation, hygiene and water sustainability principles.

Find out more about the Forum

 

BRAC WASH releases video on faecal sludge management

The BRAC WASH programme has released a short video about their ongoing study in Bangladesh on the use  of faecal sludge from double pit latrines as organic fertiliser.

The final evaluation of BRAC WASH I programme identified pit emptying and the safe final disposal of sludge as a key ‘second generation’ challenge for the near future. To address this, BRAC is undertaking action research to ensure the safe reuse of faecal sludge in the BRAC WASH II programme, answering the following questions:

• Does the faecal sludge comply with the WHO Guidelines on microbiological quality after one year of storage?
• What is the nutrient content of the faecal sludge?
• Is it possible to make faecal sludge-based organic fertiliser production commercially viable?

In 2013, the UK-based School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds won a BRAC WASH II research call for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge. Their project is called Value at the end of the Sanitation Value-chain (VeSV).

The University of Leeds is working together with three other partners: Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), NGO Forum for Public Health (Bangladesh), and IWMI International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka).

More information:

• IRC – Introducing the VeSV project
• BRAC WASH Programme – Innovation and Learning