Household Water Newsletter Issue 56
Anthonj, Carmen
Dear Colleagues,
Hope you are all doing well.
Thank you to all of you who submitted announcements, requests and publications for this issue of our HWTS newsletter.
Highlights of this newsletter include
§ UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy. Schedule is online, program includes multiple HWTS-related events, and registration is open.
§ HWTS Network Annual Meeting at 2019 UNC Water & Health Conference at Chapel Hill.
§ UNC WaSH Policy Research Digest Issue #12, July 2019: Health Effects of Carrying Water.
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you would like to share something with the Network. As usual, we welcome material such as recent publications, presentations, events, resources, calls for papers/proposals, etc. If you are seeking assistance with your program planning, you are also welcome to put a request out to the community. Or you may be a researcher and would like to share your research question with others or seek input or contacts for your work.
You may review the guidelines and submit your contribution here: https://hwts.web.unc.edu/newsletter-contributions/.
Best regards,
Carmen Anthonj
Dr. Carmen Anthonj
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
carmen....@unc.edu, 919.966.7644
Save the Dates:
2019 Water & Health Conference, October 7-11 in Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Household Water Newsletter, Issue 56
September 2019
Work and Funding Opportunities
UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy - Record Number of Abstracts and Side Event Proposals Submitted this Year. Online Registration
The 2019 UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy will take place in Chapel Hill, USA from 7th – 11th October, 2019. The conference, organized by the Water Institute at UNC explores drinking water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resources in both the developing and developed worlds with a strong public health emphasis. This year, a record number of abstracts and side event proposals were submitted. The conference focuses on humanitarian WaSH, WaSH financing and markets, climate variability and water security, evidence based WaSH and WaSH and environmental health. Registration for the conference is open. Conference registration, speakers and schedule details can be found on the conference website.
UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy: HWTS-related Side Events
At the 2019 UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy, there are numerous side events, verbal presentations and posters that cover aspects of HWTS which can be found on the conference website. A selection of HWTS-related side events includes:
§
Estimating and Communicating Log Reduction Values for Drinking-water Treatment Technologies
Convened by: World Health Organization (WHO), takes place Monday, 7 October, 8:30-10:00 am.
§
Large Volume Household Water Storage, Tanks, and Cisterns: Synthesizing Current Knowledge, Identifying Knowledge Gaps, and Targeting Risk Mitigation
Convened by: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, takes place Thursday, 10 October, 8:30-10:00 am.
§
Open Forum on Capacity Building and Training Approaches for Water Safety Plans
Convened by: IHE Delft, UNC, WHO, CDC, takes place Thursday, 10 October, 10:30-12:00 pm.
§
Emergency! Filter to the Rescue – But Which One?
Convened by: World Health Organization; Elrha; and University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, takes place Friday, 11 October, 8:30-10:00 am.
§
Ceramic Pot Filters: Current Research, Future Directions and Defining Next Steps
Convened by: Ceramics Manufacturing Working Group, Tufts University, takes place Friday, 11 October, 8:30-10:00 am.
§
Annual Meeting of the International HWTS Network (more information below)
Convened by: HWTS, takes place Friday, 11 October, 10:30-12:00 pm.
HWTS Network Annual Meeting: Advancing Water Safety to the Last Mile in Chapel Hill, USA
The WHO, UNICEF, The Water Institute at UNC and CAWST are hosting the first Annual Meeting of the WHO/UNICEF International HWTS Network in Chapel Hill, USA, during the 2019 UNC Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy, October 7th – 11th, 2019.
The 2019 Annual Network Meeting provides an opportunity to share the latest in research, implementation and policy on HWTS and water safety. This year's meeting will focus on experiences with integration of HWTS into public health programmes. It will also give the opportunity for sub-groups to meet and plan for future activities, and inform participants on changes to Network coordination and updates on key projects (such as the Scheme and the HIF funded research of filters in emergencies). Registration for the UNC Water and Health Conference is open and can be found here.
CAWST and Government of Colombia signed an agreement during Stockholm World Water Week to formalize their work on reaching the entire population with safe water and basic sanitation
CAWST is thrilled to formalize the work we have been doing with the Government of Colombia's Ministry of Housing, City and Territory, in reaching the entire population with safe water and basic sanitation. CAWST’s CEO, Shauna Curry and Jose Luis Acero Vergel, Vice Minister of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation, Ministry of Housing, City and Territory, Government of Colombia signed an agreement during Stockholm World Water Week. This agreement is an opportunity to strengthen nationwide efforts in household water treatment.
This collaboration will strengthen the technical capacities of departmental, municipal, and local authorities on alternative water and sanitation solutions (including, in particular, household water treatment). The memorandum of understanding strengthens efforts to evaluate the application of different technologies and approaches to diverse contexts within the country. In the agreement, the Government of Colombia commits to continuing inter-departmental collaboration and exchange of learning, which has proven successful thus far in their efforts to implement alternative WASH solutions. CAWST commits to transfer knowledge on the adequate use and promotion of WASH technologies, and water quality monitoring, and to develop education and awareness resources on the efficient use of water, and safe management of sanitation.
UNICEF Launches the "Water Under Fire" Report
UNICEF launched the Water Under Fire campaign on 22 March 2019 to draw global attention to three fundamental areas where change – and, in particular, stronger leadership – is urgently needed to secure access to safe and sustainable water supply and sanitation in fragile contexts. This new report Water Under Fire, and first volume of the series, describes the impact of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene on children living in the midst of protracted conflicts and is dedicated to the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, which links the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations sustaining peace agenda and the core responsibilities of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Agenda for Humanity. Find the report here and attached to this newsletter.
WHO Launches Report on Microplastics in Drinking-Water
This report is WHO’s first effort to investigate the potential human health risks associated with exposure to microplastics in the environment, examining the potential health impacts of exposure to microplastics through drinking-water. Learn more in the report, information sheet and press release. Find the report attached to this newsletter.
HWTS Network on Twitter
We are intensifying our HWTS twitter activities and share interesting events, publications, trainings, webinars, infographics, stories, job opportunities and much more every week. We welcome all members’ contributions. Our twitter username is @household_water. We will post urgent information on twitter, so, check in periodically with us on twitter. We look forward to hearing from you, learning more about what you’re doing and what’s going on, and sharing stories with you!
WEBINARS, COURSES , AND EVENTS
Conference: What is the Future of Water in Public Health? December 12th, 2019 at University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
This one-day conference for students, health researchers and water professionals serves to share the latest advances in health-related water topics and network with others in the field.
Topics will cover microbiology, chemical contamination, and engineering measures, and will include a mix of keynote sessions, abstract sessions and poster sessions. More information can be found here.
WORK AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Schlumberger Foundation Fellowships 2020–2021 for Women: Call for Applications
The Schlumberger Foundation faculty for the future program awards fellowships to women from developing and emerging economies to pursue PhD or post-doctoral studies in the physical sciences, engineering and technology at leading universities abroad. The Foundation is accepting new applications for the 2020–2021 Faculty for the Future Fellowships from September 5th to November 7th, 2019. Read more at www.facultyforthefuture.net, and apply at www.fftf.slb.com.
For WASH sector job listings, please refer to the Relief Web Jobs site, or Josh’s Water Jobs site. If you wish to share an education, job, or funding opportunity with the Network, please tell us by email at carmen....@unc.edu or hhw...@who.int.
Effect of in-line drinking water chlorination at the point of collection on child diarrhoea in urban Bangladesh: a double-blind, cluster-randomised controlled trial
In this double-blind cluster-randomised controlled trial, 100 shared water points (clusters) in two low-income urban communities were randomly assigned to have their drinking water automatically chlorinated at the point of collection by a solid tablet chlorine doser or to be treated by a visually identical doser that supplied vitamin C. The trial followed an open cohort design; all children younger than 5 years residing in households accessing enrolled water points were measured every 2–3 months during a 14-month follow-up period. The primary outcome was caregiver-reported child diarrhoea with a 1-week recall, including all available childhood observations in the analyses. Children in the treatment group had less WHO-defined diarrhoea than did children in the control group. Drinking water at the point of collection at treatment taps had detectable free chlorine residual 83% of the time compared with 0% at control taps.
Passive chlorination at the point of collection could be an effective and scalable strategy in low-income urban settings for reducing child diarrhoea and for achieving global progress towards SDG 6.1 to attain universal access to safe and affordable drinking water. Targeting a low chlorine residual (<0·5 ppm) in treated water can increase taste acceptability of chlorinated drinking water while still reducing the risk of diarrhoea. Find this paper by Pickering et al. here.
Estimating Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation: The Need to Account for Uncertainty in Trend Analysis
Nationally representative household surveys are the main source of data for tracking drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) coverage. However, all survey point estimates have a certain degree of error that must be considered when interpreting survey results for policy and decision making. In this article, the authors develop an approach to characterize and quantify uncertainty around WASH estimates. They apply it to four countries – Bolivia, Gambia, Morocco and India – representing different regions, number of data points available and types of trajectories, in order to illustrate the importance of communicating uncertainty for temporal estimates, as well as taking into account both the compositional nature and non-linearity of JMP data. The approach is found to be versatile and particularly useful in the WASH sector, where the dissemination and analysis of standard errors lag behind. While it only considers the uncertainty arising from sampling, the proposed approach can help improve the interpretation of WASH data when evaluating trends in coverage and informing decision making. Find this paper by Ezbakhe and Pérez-Foguet here.
From Water Source to Tap of Ceramic Filters—Factors That Influence Water Quality Between Collection and Consumption in Rural Households in Nepal
This study assessed changes in water quality between the water source and the tap of locally produced low cost ceramic water filters used by a rural community living in hygienically critical conditions in a remote mountainous area in Western Nepal. The effectiveness of filter handling on its performance was assessed through microbiological analysis, structured household interviews and structured observations. The study showed that water quality decreased significantly when source water was filled into transport containers, while the use of the filters improved drinking water quality for about 40% of the households. Highly inadequate filter cleaning practices involving the use of contaminated raw water, hands and cleaning tools stained hygienic parts of the filter. The use of boiling water to disinfect the filters was significantly correlated with improved filter performance and should be further promoted. However, even disinfected filters achieved a very low average LRV for E. coli of 0.4 in the field and performed worse than during laboratory tests. Comprehensive training on adequate filter handling, as well as better filter products, are required to improve the impact of filter use. Find this paper by Meierhofer et al. here.
Removal of E. coli and Salmonella in pot ceramic filters operating at different filtration rates
This study evaluates a model of pot ceramic filters (PCF) impregnated with colloidal silver under three filtration rates (1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 L/h) and three E. coli and Salmonella spp concentrations (104, 103 and 102 CFU/mL). The evaluation was made using spiked water having a turbidity of 29.9 ± 4.4 NTU and conductivity of 176 ± 31.7 μS/cm. The results showed a turbidity removal efficiency of 97% and average effluent of 0.9 NTU. The microbiological efficiency removal was of 2 Log Reduction Value (LRV) for E. coli and 1 LRV for Salmonella spp. There were not found significant statistical differences between the filtration rates and the removal efficiencies for turbidity E. coli and Salmonella spp. It was observed that the microbiological removal efficiency was affected by biofilm formation a phenomenon that was attributed to the presence of Salmonella spp. The combination of chemical and mechanical cleaning methods contributed to the elimination of the biofilm. Find this paper by Pérez-Vidal et al. here.
WaSH Policy Research Digest Issue #12: Health Effects of Carrying Water
The WaSH Policy Research Digest is issued quarterly by The Water Institute at UNC and comprises a review of a recent article or report, and a short literature review on a WaSH topic. It provides objective, concise, and timely information to advise WaSH policy development.
The July Issue of the Digest examines the health effects of carrying water, in particular the impact on women and girls. Find the publication here and attached to this newsletter. To subscribe to the Digest and to get updates on related webinars, please go here.
EVENT CALENDAR
2019 Water & Health Conference: 7th – 11th October, 2019 in Chapel Hill, NC, USA
What is the future of water in Public Health? 12th December, 2019 in Sheffield, UK
For WASH and water-related event listings, please refer to the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Water Policy & Practice Calendar. If you know of an upcoming international, regional or national event which the HWTS/WASH community should be aware of, please tell us by email at hwtsn...@unc.edu.
About this newsletter: This newsletter is produced by the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF as co-hosts of the International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage. Past issues are available at http://hwts.web.unc.edu/newsletter/. For further information or to unsubscribe, please contact Dr. Carmen Anthonj at hwtsn...@unc.edu
Submissions: Contributions to the newsletter are welcome. Please refer to the guidelines on the Water Institute website.
Disclaimer: This publication does not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of the World Health Organization or the United Nations Children’s Fund. Any mention of specific companies or manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization or the United Nations Children’s Fund.