This report presents, for the first time, a global assessment of the extent to which health care facilities provide essential water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Drawing on data from 54 low- and middle-income countries, the report conclud
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es that 38% lack access to even rudimentary levels of water, 19% lack sanitation and 35% do not have water and soap for handwashing. When a higher level of service is factored in, the situation deteriorates significantly. A number of areas require urgent action and WHO will work with UNICEF, Governments and other partners to develop a global plan to address the most pressing needs and ensure that all health care facilities have WASH services.
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Mainstreaming Gender in Water and Sanitation
Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement
Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensi
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ve and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, more often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.
Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”
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This manual is part of a series of guides devised by the Oxfam Public Health Engineering Team to help provide a reliable water supply for populations affected by conflict or natural disaster. Storage
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tanks are required for collection of water from springs or water produced from continuous flow water treatment systems, e.g. from upflow clarifiers or slow sand filters. There should be sufficient storage volume to store all water produced overnight, as this is unlikely to be collected by users during the night. Storage tanks also have secondary functions such as ensuring a constant water supply to treatment processes, providing a level of treatment by settlement of larger suspended solids and maintaining pressure in distribution systems
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Azraq refugee camp located in Zarqa governorate was established in April 2014. As of June 2023, the camp continues to hosts 40,600 Syrian refugees, with 61% of the population children, and 25% of all households female-headed (UNHCR, 2023).
The water
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supply system in Azraq has been operational since 2017 across the four villages of the camp and consists of 300 tap stands, two boreholes and two storage locations (each with 16 T-95 steel tanks).
Based on data from UNICEF (2022), the community is provided on average 2100 cubic meters of safe, treated water a day, which is distributed across the camp via a gravity flow system. A distribution schedule is in place, with water pumped during two shift times each day in the morning and evening. Monthly data reported through ActivityInfo (2023) shows a range 53.5-76.3 million liters per month provided through the network in 2022 for an average of 57 liters/person/day – well above the locally agreed minimum standard of 35 liters/person/day and the SPHERE standard of 15 liters/person/day.
Latrine and shower facilities in the camp are organized through communal WASH blocks shared typically between three households and connected to water and greywater networks. However, based on an ACF and World Vision assessment (2022), 60% of the surveyed households are using private latrines (50% self-constructed latrines, and 10% constructed by WASH actors), 24% of households used communal latrines as private latrines not shared with other families, and 16% reported the use of communal latrines shared with other families.
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PlosOne May 7, 2012 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036735 ; Safe drinking water is critical for health. Household water treatment (HWT) has been recommended for improving access to potable
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water where existing sources are unsafe. Reports of low adherence to HWT may limit the usefulness of this approach, however.
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The training is targeted at all professionals involved in the management of drinking-water safety. The handbook is divided into three parts:
• Part 1 – Overview of the training approach, training structure and mode of training assessment
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• Part 2 – Module learning material, which includes module objectives, delivery information, key points and exercises
• Part 3 – How the material can be adapted to different utility contexts
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This report, which involved input from across WaterAid, in particular from the Programme Support Unit (PSU) of WaterAid UK, includes case studies from a variety of countries, including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Nepal, each demonstrating what must be done now to i
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mprove WASH services and address current challenges, in order to increase community resilience to climate change.
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A companion to the Child Friendly Schools Manual
WASH in Schools aims to improve the health and learning performance of school-aged children – and, by extension, that of their families – by reducing the incidence of water and sanitat
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ion-related diseases. Every child friendly school requires appropriate WASH initiatives that keep the school environment clean and free of smells and inhibit the transmission of harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites.
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This content is from the Advance Chapters of the NEW Where There Is No Doctor
Oxfam Water Supply Scheme for Emergencies. This manual is part of a series of guides devised by the Oxfam Public Health Engineering Team to help provide a reliable water supply for populations affec
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ted by conflict or natural disaster. Wherever possible, water supplies in emergency conditions should be obtained from underground sources by exploitation of springs, tubewells, or dug wells. No filtration will then be needed. However, if sources are not available or cannot be developed, the use of surface water from streams, rivers, lakes or ponds becomes necessary. Usually these surface sources are polluted. The level of faecal contamination can be measured by use of the Oxfam/Delagua Water Test Kit (see Section C). Where a serious level of faecal pollution exists, it is essential firstly to try to reduce the cause of contamination, and secondly to treat the water to make it suitable for human consumption. The Filtration equipment provides a simple, long-term physical and biological treatment system that requires no chemicals (except small amounts of chlorine required during filter cleaning) and needs only simple regular maintenance
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UNICEF trucks water to the camps where people displaced by the conflict have temporarily settled. UNICEF also installed latrines, showers and water storag
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e tanks in the camps and distributed family hygiene kits to protect children against waterborne diseases.
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The emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) gap analysis project was funded by The Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), a program managed by Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) in partnership with the
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Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), and is a component of a larger initiative to identify and support innovations in emergency WASH. This paper gives an explanation of the background, methodology, and findings of the program.
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The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Improvement Training Package is intended to support the training of local outreach workers and their subsequent work in communities to promote improved water, sani
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tation and hygiene (WASH) practices to reduce diarrhea
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This water safety plan (WSP) template was developed to support the integration of climate risks into the WSP approach in rural areas of the United Rep. of Tanzania. Examples are presented on how to complete the template, and the information should b
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e considered and customized to the local context.
This resource was developed as part of the Department for International Development (DFID, UK)-funded project on “Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through resilient WASH” which was implemented from 2013-2018 in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal and Tanzania.
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2nd edition
WASH FIT is a risk-based, continuous improvement framework with a set of tools for undertaking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) improvements as part of wider quality improvements in health care facilities. It is aimed at small prima
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ry, and in some instances secondary, health care facilities in low and middle income countries.
An app, for front line data collection is also available in the Android Google Play store or as a web app
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Design Parameters and Construction Details