Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter N° 158 / 10 August 2012

A Manual for Economic Assessment of Drinking-water Interventions This manual describes a practical technique for appraising or evaluating small-scale interventions that seek to provide safer and more accessible drinking-water to rural people. It complements the WHO/IWA publication Valuing Water, Valuing Livelihoods. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2012/economic_assessment_manual/en/

* * * Tracking national financing to sanitation and drinking-water: A UN-Water GLAAS Working Paper Just published, this full background document produced for the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-water reviews current experiences relating to tracking financial flows to WASH. It presents a methodological framework which provides a point of departure for global partners to develop and roll out an internationally agreed method. The full document is available here: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/75225/1/WHO_HSE_WSH_12.05_eng.pdf

A first meeting to take forward this initiative will take place 27 August at Stockholm World Water Week. Details available at: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/sa/node.asp?node=1346&selEvent=&selTheme=&selYear=&filter=1&mySchedule=&txbFreeText=UN-water&selRegion=&sa_content_url=%2Fplugins%2FEventFinder%2Fevent%2Easp&sa_title=Tracking+National+Financial+Flows+to+Sanitation%2C+Hygiene+and+Drinking-water&id=5&event=504

* * * Register today for the 2012 Chapel Hill Water and Health Conference!

The 2012 Water and Health Conference: Science, Policy and Innovation, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, 29 October to 2 November, offers participants nearly 40 networking and workshop opportunities, and over 200 verbal and poster presentations around the following themes and more: Monitoring and Evaluation for Sustainability, Ecosystem Protection and Drinking Water Safety, WaSH and Child Health, Beyond 2015: Realizing Universal Access and Human Rights, Household-centered WaSH. Early bird registration rate through August 15 at: http://whconference.unc.edu/register.cfm

* * * Newly released WHO report indicates increase in cholera cases in 2011 A total of 58 countries from all continents reported a cumulative total of 589 854 cholera cases, representing an increase of 85% from 2010. The greatest proportion of cases was reported from the island of Hispaniola and the African continent. These trends reflect the need to shift from basic responsiveness to a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach that works with communities to improve access to safe drinking-water and sanitation, encourages behavioural change and promotes the targeted use of oral cholera vaccines where the disease is endemic.

Access the report online at http://www.who.int/wer/2012/wer873132/en/index.html

*-*-*-* Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development The Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the dissemination of high-quality information on the science, policy and practice of drinking-water supply, sanitation and hygiene at local, national and international levels, published by IWA Publishing.
Click on the links below to view abstracts of some of the papers included in the latest issue of the journal: Potential of community prepared wooden charcoal of Assam (India) for As(III) removal through batch and continuous column studies. Kamal Uddin Ahamad and Mohammad Jawed, 95–102 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.039 http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020095.htm

A conceptual framework to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of water safety plans. Richard J. Gelting, Kristin Delea and Elizabeth Medlin, 103–111 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.079 http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020103.htm Water resources management in central northern Namibia using empirically grounded modelling. M. Zimmermann, 112–123 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.090 http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020112.htm

Applying the Household-Centered Environmental Sanitation planning approach: a case study from Nepal. Mingma Gyalzen Sherpa, Christoph Lüthi and Thammarat Koottatep, 124–132 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.021 http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020124.htm