Dear Colleagues:

If it would be useful to Working Group members, each month we would like to compile and distribute a listing of new publications, research, events, etc. related to WASH in Emergencies issues.

Could you please review the listing of recent publications and resources below and let us know if this is useful to you? We also welcome your suggestions for other types of information that would be useful to you.

Recent Reports

Water Management in Fragile Systems: Building Resilience to Shocks and Protracted Crises in The Middle East and North Africa . FAO; World Bank, August 2018. This paper brings together these two issues – water and fragility – to discuss how they are related and how they should be addressed. It describes how institutional failures to address water-related challenges can act as risk multipliers, compounding existing situations of fragility, and how improving water management can contribute to building resilience in the face of protracted crises.

Shedding Light on Humanitarian Sanitation . Proceedings of the 41st WEDC International Conference, July 2018.
Lighting should be provided for WASH facilities in Humanitarian contexts according to several standards. A three-country research project looking at the impact of lighting on WASH use and GenderBased Violence (GBV) required a multi-disciplinary approach, combining OXFAM’s practical implementing expertise with WEDC’s research-orientated approach. The provision of lighting was welcomed by a wide range of stakeholders, but other factors still affect both GBV and WASH outcomes.

Community Engagement in Sanitation: A Landscape Review . Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF); Oxfam, August 2018.
Despite its perceived importance, the evidence suggests that community engagement in all sectors of humanitarian response is often limited and rarely monitored or evaluated. Sanitation projects may involve the community only in the construction phase as a paid labor force, or as a cash-for-work initiative.

Water Supply in a War Zone: A Preliminary Analysis of Two Urban Water Tanker Supply Systems in the Republic of Yemen . World Bank, July 2018.
This discussion paper presents assessments of basic features of urban water supply systems in Sana’a and Aden, a detailed profile of the tanker truck service structure, including supply chain mapping, value chain analysis, and an assessment of changes to the sector since the war began. It also covers institutional support structure for the water sector, well-to-consumer supply chain, water quality, well operations, tanker trucks water delivery services, and household water demand.

Multi-Purpose Cash and Sectoral Outcomes: A Review of Evidence and Learning . UNHCR, May 2018. Little evidence exists on the effectiveness of multi-purpose cash in delivering WASH outcomes – access to water, sanitation and hygiene – in humanitarian contexts.

A Bacteriological Water Quality Issue: Rohingya “Forcefully Displaced Myanmar Citizen” Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh . ICDDR,B, August 26, 2018.
This factsheet is aimed to provide evidence-based information on microbiological and chemical quality of drinking water collected from the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. Throughout the project duration, water samples were collected from 3527 water points (tube wells, tap stands and water trucks).

Water in the Time of Drought: Lessons from Five Droughts around the World . InterAmerican Development Bank, August 2018.
This policy brief examines drought situations, explores successes and pitfalls in the response mechanisms, and extracts valuable lessons to assist decision makers in dealing with droughts, providing practical guidance in terms of urban planning and management.

Journal Articles

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association between Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Exposures and Cholera in Case–Control Studies . American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, August 2, 2018. Improved hygiene demonstrated the greatest reduction in the odds of cholera, whereas open defecation most increased the odds of cholera. Among the predicted protective factors, neither improved water source nor improved sanitation was associated with cholera.

Persistence of Ebola Virus after the End of Widespread Transmission in Liberia: An Outbreak Report . Lancet Infectious Diseases, July 23, 2018.
Investigation of the source of infection for the November 2015 outbreak provides evidence of Ebola virus persistence and highlights the risk for outbreaks after interruption of active transmission. These findings underscore the need for focused prevention efforts among survivors and sustained capacity to rapidly detect and respond to new Ebola virus disease cases to prevent recurrence of a widespread outbreak.

News/Blog Posts

Working with Women in Rohingya Refugee Camps to Make Toilets Safer . Oxfam, August 24, 2018. Freya explained that the preliminary designs use screens to make latrine entrances more private, rather than the doors opening directly into the camps as they do at the moment: “Women told us it’s important for them not to feel stared at when entering or leaving the toilets. We want to make the routes into the toilets and washing facilities less obvious and more private, so that women feel more comfortable to use these facilities.” The two young architects also helped design places where women could keep their menstruation products and encouraged the construction of more single sex toilet facilities.

New Handwashing Stand Being Trialled for Refugees . ECJ, August 24, 2018. The new stand features a drip tray and drainage system to prevent the formation of puddles while the one-touch tap is said to be easy to operate and minimize hand contact. The unit has sturdy tripod legs to support the 30 litre water reservoir and the tap gives out 100ml of water at a time - claimed to be just the right amount to encourage proper handwashing.

Kenyan Nonprofit’s Innovative Aerial Water System Just Won the World’s Largest Humanitarian Prize . Quartz Africa, August 24, 2018. Shofco’s aerial water network consists of overhead pipes supported by wooden poles that connect to 10 water kiosks throughout Kibera, allowing clean water to flow through pipes in the air without fear of tampering by cartels who divert water to private vendors.

Organizations/Websites (Please let us know of additional organizations to include)

Global WASH Cluster (GWC) - The GWC was formed in 2006, building upon the successes of an existing WASH humanitarian sector working group. The GWC is an open and formal platform for humanitarian WASH actors to work together and now consists of 76 members. Some resources on the GWC website include the 22018 Mid-Year Report, January – June 2018 , News and Events and additional information.

Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) Working Group 8 - Emergency & Reconstruction Situations - The objective of this working group is to combine the knowledge from experts in the fields of sanitation with the knowledge from experts in the field of emergency response and reconstruction. Resources on the website include a Factsheet, a Library and other resources.

EAWAG - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Emergencies - The Strategic Environmental Sanitation Planning group is leading various efforts to support the humanitarian sector in terms of emergency WASH. Resources include the Compendium of Sanitation Technologies and the online course Introduction to Public Health Engineering in Humanitarian Contexts.

Emergency WASH Google Group - This group is maintained by the Global WASH Cluster and USAID. Its purpose is to share information among group members about current research, upcoming events, etc. related to water, sanitation and hygiene issues in emergency situations.

Best regards,
Dan Campbell

Very useful fan

Thank you

Yes some of those were helpful. I read the solar lightning one with much interest (both current upcoming work and also since I was involved in the construction of those in norther Uganda). The ones about the Rohingya crisis were also helpful, but I think they were already shared by the working group here in Cox's Bazar.

Of current interest for me were also these two:
documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/88093...r-pumping-the-basics
www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operati...er-pumping-miniguide

How is the WASH program implemented? anyone who can send some more information about the program and different technologies used I will appreciate. It will be a pleasure to implement in my community.

hello , I am Atef Solimam eng , atef thank you for this report ,

Dear Colleagues:

The latest Water Currents issue in on WASH in Emergencies and has more than 20 recent studies, links to websites, etc and the link to the complete issue is:

https://www.globalwaters.org/resources/assets/water-currents-wash-emergencies

Below are excerpts from the Introduction:

Emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is a critical component of USAID’s humanitarian assistance for vulnerable populations, who are much more susceptible to diseases related to inadequate sanitation and water supplies.

USAID responds to emergency WASH needs through the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, including the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), responsible for leading and coordinating the U.S. Government’s response to disasters overseas, and the Office of Food for Peace, responsible for leading the U.S. Government's international food assistance efforts. Combined, these two offices ensure that emergency and life-saving WASH needs of vulnerable populations are met in disaster, conflict, and early recovery operations. Where appropriate, emergency WASH connects to, supports, or aligns with the work that USAID will carry out under its Water and Development Plan to increase water and sanitation access, and is an important complementary result.

This issue contains several reviews and evaluations of WASH in emergency interventions as well as recent manuals and guidelines on appropriate technologies, disease outbreaks, menstrual hygiene management, and other topics. In addition to producing Water Currents, the USAID Water Team also publishes a biweekly bulletin of the latest studies and events related to WASH in emergencies, so contact us if you would like to subscribe to the bulletin. Stay tuned for a new Emergency WASH page on the Globalwaters.org website in the near future.

Dear Colleagues:

Links to the full-text of each of the items below can be found on Sanitation Updates . Please let us know if you have specific Emergency WASH topics that we can feature in upcoming Emergency WASH updates.

Emergency WASH Update – December 14, 2018

Blog Posts

Where are the evidence gaps in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector? Evidence Matters, December 12, 2018.
Going forward, there is still a lot we don’t know and, beyond looking at new, innovative technologies, there are a few gaps (or opportunities) the sector needs to look at if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): More studies on vulnerable populations: We found no studies that looked at (or even captured information on) people living with a disability. We found one rigorous impact evaluation focusing on people living with HIV, two on refugee camps, and one on people living through, or in the immediate aftermath, of a humanitarian crisis.

Sandra Ruckstuhl on Capturing Practical Lessons on Water, Conflict, and Cooperation. New Security Beat, December 14, 2018.
We realized “there was a need for a toolkit on water,” says Sandra Ruckstuhl in this week’s Water Stories podcast, “with a focus of conflict and conflict mitigation, but also peacebuilding.” Ruckstuhl, a consultant for the World Bank who has researched water programs in Yemen and the Middle East, helped the Wilson Center produce USAID’s Water and Conflict toolkit.

Handwashing Station Almost Ready for Action. Elrha, December 2018.
Oxfam’s Promotion and Practice Handwashing Kit is a robust, user-friendly handwashing station that is easily set-up in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, allowing for improved, timely handwashing at critical moments and reducing people’s health risks in emergency displacement camps.

Sharing Experiences and Advocating for Improved MHM Action in Emergencies. Elrha, December 2018.
IFRC’s project aims to improve actions to address the menstrual hygiene needs of women and girls in humanitarian contexts. Evidence-based lessons and resources from operational research in East Africa on innovative ‘MHM kits’, along with other IFRC experiences, will be consolidated and disseminated globally.

Human Rights Day: WASH during Emergencies. CLTS Foundation, December 2018. This article discusses some of the hardware and software innovations for WASH during emergencies.

New Academic Programs in the Field of Humanitarian Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene at GJU. German Jordanian University, December 2, 2018.
The president, Bioforce Institute Director of operations, and the ACF Regional Representative signed a cooperation agreement to launch the preparation phase for a Humanitarian WaSH academic program with funding from USAID/OFDA.

Reports

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Post-Emergency Contexts: A study on establishing sustainable service delivery models. UNHCR and Oxfam, December 2018.
As many humanitarian crises are protracted in nature, emergency WASH services need to be sustained once humanitarian agencies depart. This report aims to review and identify alternative service delivery options, and to provide some pragmatic guidance that can be incorporated into emergency response programs and tested, evaluated and built on in the future.

Book Reviews

Health in Humanitarian Emergencies: Principles and Practice for Public Health and Healthcare Practitioners. 2018. Edited by David Townes, Mike Gerber, and Mike Anderson. 485 pp. Cambridge University Press. There is no doubt that every humanitarian health professional should have this book on their desk when planning, implementing, and evaluating humanitarian interventions.

USAID Water Office Emergency WASH Resources

The USAID Globalwaters.org website has an Emergency WASH page which contains links to key Emergency WASH organizations and publications.

Selected Articles from Global Waters on Medium – USAID Global Waters tells the story of USAID’s water-related efforts around the globe.

- From Satellite to Village, Turning Data into Action
- RESILIM: Addressing the Water Shortage Puzzle in Southern Africa
- Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Unites Communities in War-Torn South Sudan
- Quiet Heroes in the Fight against Ebola

Selected 2018 Issues of Water Currents – Water Currents is a biweekly compilation of recent research on a specific WASH topic.

- Water Currents – Water Utilities, Dec 13, 2018
- Water Currents – Citywide Inclusive Sanitation, Oct 23, 2018
- Water Currents – Global Handwashing Day 2018
- Water Currents – WASH in Emergencies, September 19, 2018
- Water Currents – Water, Ecosystems and Human Development, August 22, 2018
- Water Currents – WASH and Freshwater Conservation, August 7, 2018
- Water Currents – WASH and the Systems Approach, July 10, 2018
- Water Currents – Annual State of Handwashing Research, June 18, 2018
- Water Currents – Menstrual Hygiene Day, May 22, 2018
- Water Currents – WASH & Human-Centered Design, April 17, 2018
- Water Currents – Water & Data, April 3, 2018
- Water Currents – Water Conflict, February 6, 2018
- Water Currents – Fecal Sludge Management, January 17, 2018

Dear Colleagues:

Links to each of the resources below are posted on Sanitation Updates .

We have set up a shared google doc of key Emergency WASH resources to monitor for new reports, studies, webinars, upcoming events, etc. Please review and let us know if you have additional resources that should be added.

Emergency WASH Websites, Online Guides and Other Resources (April 24, 2019 update)

Recent Online Toolkits/Guides/Resource Centers

Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies. EAWAG, 2016. This second, revised edition of the Compendium presents a huge range of information on sanitation systems and technologies in one volume. By ordering and structuring tried and tested technologies into once concise document, the reader is provided with a useful planning tool for making more informed decisions.

Menstrual Hygiene Management in Emergencies - The MHM in Emergencies project is a collaboration between Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the International Rescue Committee. The project has developed an MHM in emergencies toolkit and formative assessments were conducted in two humanitarian response settings.

Humanitarian Innovation Guide. Elrha, 2018. The Guide is written with two audiences in mind: humanitarian practitioners who are seeking to develop a new approach to their work and want to apply an innovation lens to solving problems; and social entrepreneurs from outside the sector who have identified an opportunity to engage with the sector and need a humanitarian framework to contextualise their innovation plans.

Resource Centers

Global WASH Cluster Resource Centre – The GWC Resource includes evidence-based publications and guidance related to WASH interventions for emergency response scenarios. The repository includes 130 of technical emergency WASH documents so far. The number of documents will be regularly incremented.

Humanitarian Library – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – This online library contains more than 400 WASH related reports and studies.

Working Groups/Google Groups

Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) Working Group 8—Emergency & Reconstruction Situations – The objective of this working group is to combine the knowledge from experts in the fields of sanitation with the knowledge from experts in the field of emergency response and reconstruction. Resources on the website include a factsheet, a library, and the report, Preferences for Accessing Emergency WASH Knowledge.

Emergency WASH Google Group – The Global WASH Cluster and USAID manages this information sharing forum. Its purpose is to provide group members with current research, upcoming events, etc. related to WASH issues in emergency situations.

Emergency WASH Organizations and Websites

Action Against Hunger/Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - In 2017, Action Against Hunger's Water, Sanitation & Hygiene programs reached 6.2 million people around the world.

EAWAG—Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Emergencies – The Strategic Environmental Sanitation Planning Group is leading various efforts to support the humanitarian sector in terms of emergency WASH. Resources include the online course Introduction to Public Health Engineering in Humanitarian Contexts.

Elhra - A global charity that finds solutions to complex humanitarian problems through research and innovation.

Elhra – Evidence and Co-ordination for WASH – The demand for a WASH research agenda has recently increased, reflecting the desire to fill the gaps in evidence required for effective and efficient humanitarian interventions. This demand led to our R2HC program convening a meeting in June last year, bringing together fourteen WASH experts representing international response agencies, research institutions and donor organizations active in the field of humanitarian WASH.

Global WASH Cluster (GWC) – The GWC was formed in 2006, building upon the successes of an existing WASH humanitarian sector working group. The GWC is an open and formal platform for humanitarian WASH actors to work together and now consists of 76 members. Some resources on the GWC website include the 2018 Mid-Year Report, January–June 2018, news and events, and additional information.

Globalwaters.org - Globalwaters.org is supported by the USAID Water Team, with the aim of fostering global knowledge and collaboration for sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene access for all. The website contains an Emergency WASH section with reports and links.

Oxfam – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - Our work encompasses public health emergency responses in humanitarian crisis, as well as a holistic, adaptable and sustainable water resource management approach for development projects including governance of water resources.

UNHCR Water Sanitation and Hygiene Technical Website - Guidelines, references, tools and technical designs for refugee settings.

Tufts University Institute of the Environment - WASH in International Development and Humanitarian Response - The WASH track prepares students for careers as water, sanitation, and hygiene professionals in international development and humanitarian response.

UNICEF WASH - UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team works in over 100 countries worldwide to improve water and sanitation services, as well as basic hygiene practices. In times of crisis children are particularly vulnerable; UNICEF responds and provides emergency relief to those in need.

USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)/Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – OFDA is responsible for leading and coordinating the U.S. Government’s response to disasters overseas and responds to an average of 65 disasters in more than 50 countries every year. The latest OFDA Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Sector Update provides a description of OFDA efforts to support WASH programs in more than 40 countries.

USAID/OFDA on Medium – Stories and articles on OFDA projects and initiatives.
WHO – Environmental Health in Emergencies – This website section has links to WHO reports and other resources on Ebola, cholera, household water treatment, technical notes, etc.

WASH EM - Improving Handwashing behavior change programs in humanitarian crises. A software-based decision-making tool that helps humanitarian actors design rapid, evidence-based and context-specific hygiene programs.

Dear Colleagues:

Links to each of the resources listed below are on Sanitation Updates .

REPORTS

User-Centred Design,(UCD) and Humanitarian Adaptiveness. ALNAP, April 2019.
This case study seeks to explore the utility, applicability and effectiveness of UCD in supporting humanitarian adaptiveness, and to understand whether UCD can enable humanitarian actors to be more adaptive. Chapter 4 gives examples of applying UCD in the design of emergency sanitation.

Cesspits and Soakpits. Global Water Pathogen Project, March 2019.
A soak pit is a covered, porous-walled chamber that allows water to slowly soak into the ground. A cesspit (cesspool) is a holding tank (or pit) designed for collection and storage of sewage or other waste for short periods.

Emergency Sanitation Guidelines Beira, updated on the 11th of April 2019. WASH Cluster Mozambique, April 2019.
The objective of this document is to provide technical guidance to partners implementing sanitation emergency programs and interventions in settlements. This document has been prepared by the Sanitation Technical Working Group, under the WASH cluster Beira.

No Time to Wait: Securing the future from drug-resistant infections. WHO, April 2019.
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest threats we face as a global community. This report reflects the depth and scope of the response needed to curb its rise and protect a century of progress in health,” said Ms. Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General and Co-Chair of the IACG.

VIDEOS

Humanitarian WASH Innovation. Elhra, April 2019. 31 videos discuss and describe a wide range of WASH innovations in humanitarian situations.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Community Engagement in WASH Emergencies: Understanding Barriers and Enablers Based on Action Research from Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Water, April 2019. This article presents key findings from Oxfam’s recent responses in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), describing the process of building trust and identifying barriers and enablers to meaningful CE in emergencies.

Evaluation of an Emergency Bulk Chlorination Project Targeting Drinking Water Vendors in Cholera-Affected Wards of Dar es Salaam and Morogoro, Tanzania. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, April 2019. The results suggest high acceptability and use of the chlorine tablets by water vendors. However, given variation in the water source used and longer storage times, dosing could be increased in future programming. Bulk chlorination using chlorine tablets offers an efficient community-level approach to treating water closer to the point of use.

Impacts of Intermittent Water Supply on Water Quality in Two Palestinian Refugee Camps. Water, March 2019. In both camps, average residual chlorine concentrations were higher in the community tanks than in rooftop tanks. The main factor influencing water quality deterioration in rooftop tanks in Aida Camp appears to be air temperature. We recommend more systematic water testing in the camps and greater transparency in reporting test results to camp residents.

Food safety considerations for commercial complementary foods from global operational guidance on infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Nutrition Reviews, February 2019. The aim of this review was to identify and synthesize available food safety guidance on the use of CCF in humanitarian emergencies.

BLOG POSTS

Are Communal Tiger Worm Toilets a sustainable option for camps? Oxfam Policy and Practice, April 11, 2019. We tested Communal Tiger Worm Toilets in challenging conditions in Myanmar, and evaluated their sustainability. The ‘Tiger Team’ talk us through their findings. We have compiled the learning from this project in an easy-to-read manual, which is free to download. It includes the decision tree alongside all our designs.

One Person’s Trash is Another Person’s Treasure. USAID/OFDA on Medium, March 2019. In the Philippines, Marissa Cabalan has found a way to turn garbage into opportunity. There’s also an added bonus: She is helping her whole community prepare for disasters in the process.

Largest-ever sewage treatment plant opens in Bangladesh refugee camp Cox's Bazar. The Telegraph, April 2019. The largest sewage treatment facility ever constructed in a refugee camp has opened in Bangladesh and has been heralded as a huge step forward in the management of humanitarian crises

TRAINING EVENTS

Market-Based Programming for WASH in Emergencies – The objective is to build the capacity of WASH practitioners and sector coordinators to evaluate the relevancy and use of market-based approaches (including CVA) to achieve WASH outcomes. The German WASH Network has decided to support the implementation of the training with kind support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The German Toilet Organization will organize and co-facilitate the two upcoming trainings in South-East Asia and Europe.

New training pack makes learning about the Sphere standards easier for all. Sphere, April 2019.
Sphere has just released an updated version of its comprehensive training pack to support humanitarian professionals wishing to learn more about Sphere and humanitarian standards or deliver training themselves.

Dear Colleagues:

Links to each of the studies, reports, etc. listed below are on Sanitation Updates . Please contact me if you would like to be added to the mailing list for the USAID/OFDA and UNICEF Emergency WASH Google Group.

Please see the note below from Tom Corellis and be sure to check out the website he refers to. We have been asked to compile biweekly updates on specific Emergency WASH topics and issues so starting with this update, the first biweekly update each month will be a webliography of the most recent Emergency WASH studies, reports, resources, etc. The second monthly biweekly update will focus on a specific Emergency WASH topic. We have listed some possible topics below and welcome your suggestions.

Member Update

Tom Corellis, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – Colleagues, Shelter Centre, which I direct, is a long-standing global partner of the WASH Cluster and developed with OFDA support www.humanitarianlibrary.org . To our knowledge, this contains one of the largest collections on WASH. It is crowd-sourced and community moderated, meaning your members can share knowledge onto it and collate that knowledge into collections useful to their work. We have WASH interns working around the world adding to their Collections.

Recent Journal Articles

The link between mental health and safe drinking water behaviors in a vulnerable population in rural Malawi. BMC Psychology, July 8. This research is especially relevant in emergency contexts, as it indicates that mental health measures before any WASH interventions will make them more effective.

Cholera prevention and control in refugee settings: Successes and continued challenges. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Jun. Cholera continues to be a significant problem in humanitarian settings, with recent outbreaks in displaced populations in South Sudan, Yemen, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Haiti, and Iraq. The success of cholera prevention and control in refugee camps over the past 2 decades highlights the possibility of managing this deadly disease, even in complicated humanitarian crises.

Residual Maintenance Using Sodium Hypochlorite, Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate, and Chlorine Dioxide in Laboratory Waters of Varying Turbidity. Special Issue – Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Humanitarian Contexts, June 2019. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) are commonly used for household water treatment (HWT); chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is a potential new HWT option.

Recent Reports

Ready for the Dry Years: Building resilience to drought in South-East Asia. UN ESCAP, June 2019. The study identifies actions that states can individually and collectively undertake to mitigate the impacts of drought and proposes three priority areas of intervention.

Climate change adaptation and resilience and water, sanitation and hygiene: links between SDG 13 and SDG 6. WaterAid, July 2019. Climate change is water change. Climate change is often discussed in terms of carbon emissions, but people feel the impacts largely through water.

Policy Brief on Climate Change and Water launched during High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. UN Water, July 12. In the side-event titled Deep dive: Climate change and water, UN-Water launched an update of its Policy Brief on Climate Change and Water.

Impacts of increasing community resilience through humanitarian aid in Pakistan. International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), June 2019. This impact evaluation sheds light on whether and how vulnerabilities to negative shocks can be reduced.

Epidemiological data analysis for the early warning alert and response network (EWARN) in humanitarian emergencies: a quick reference handbook. WHO, 2019. This handbook is intended for country-level epidemiologists and surveillance officers who work in data analysis and the production of epidemiological reports for dissemination to stakeholders to inform the need for public health interventions, or the effect of ongoing interventions.

Recent Blogs/News

Three things we’ve learned about measuring quality in humanitarian WASH responses. Oxfam Blog, July 10, 2019. Back in January, we introduced the Quality Assurance and Accountability Project (QAAP) – a Global WASH Cluster initiative led by Oxfam, in partnership with Solidarités International, Tufts University, and UNICEF. The project supports humanitarian WASH coordinators to go beyond simple headline indicators to understand – and ultimately improve – the quality of our work.

Bill Frist: Lessons not learned in Congo’s Ebola outbreak. Fox News, July 6. Getting WASH into health care facilities is a solvable problem. When I served as U.S. Senate majority leader, I drafted legislation to formalize U.S. policy addressing the overall lack of safe water and sanitation in developing nations.

24TH Global Wash Cluster Meeting: Successful step to save the right of access to water and sanitation. ReliefWeb, June 2019. 180 representatives from all humanitarian water and sanitation sectors had agreed, during the first two days of the symposium, to identify five priority recommendations to be presented to the Emergency Directors on Thursday, June 20, 2019.

New Resources

Global WASH Cluster YouTube Channel – The channel appears to be new and has 3 videos so far as well as several useful playlists.

Emergency WASH Biweekly Updates, August – December 2019, draft editorial calendar

The first biweekly update each month will be a webliography of the most recent Emergency WASH studies, reports, resources, etc. The second monthly biweekly update will focus on a specific Emergency WASH topic. Below are some topic ideas and we welcome your suggestions:

Brainstorming topics

- Cholera prevention and control
- Disaster Risk Reduction
- Household water treatment in humanitarian situations
- Fecal sludge management in humanitarian situations
- WASH innovations in humanitarian situations
- WASH and nomadic populations in humanitarian situations
- Others?

SIWI has prepared a useful 205 page report that contains a compilation of presentations that have been chosen for this year’s seminars and the link is:

https://admin.worldwaterweek.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/abstract-volume-all-seminars.pdf

Below are highlights and conclusions from 9 presentations that discuss humanitarian WASH-related issues. Just go to the page number to see the complete abstract and additional information about the author:

Page 65 - Business innovations in sanitation for refugee settlements in East Africa
Authors: Dr. Miriam Otoo, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka

The paper shows that different waste-reuse business models have great potential to support the provision of sustainable sanitation service delivery and improve livelihoods of refugee communities, by using generated revenues from recovered resources to bridge financial gaps and complement other supporting mechanisms for waste management, and catalyzing small business creation.

Conclusions and recommendations: Market-driven mechanisms are increasingly being adopted in the sanitation sector to catalyze higher degrees of cost recovery or profit generating to better deliver waste management services, and this applies to refugee settlements and rural host communities. Resource recovery and reuse of waste has an important role to play in the provision of sustainable sanitation service delivery, however limited to no cultural acceptance of production practices and end-use of recovered resources from human waste can hinder business creation in the sector. Capacity development that directly engages both refugee and host communities will be critical to mitigate the effects of these barriers

Page 107 - Water and sanitation, migration and the 2030 Agenda
Authors: Dr. Guy Jobbins, Overseas Development Institute, United Kingdom

This briefing explores the relationships between water, sanitation and migration, and how they may affect the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, we discuss the fact that while water and sanitation do not appear to drive migration, the process of migration can radically shape access to water and sanitation services – particularly for undocumented migrants and people in transit. We question whether attaining universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services is possible without specific measures to address the needs of refugees and other migrants.

Conclusions and recommendations: 1) Migration isn’t driven by a lack of water and sanitation services, but governments which provide services can support successful migration. 108 2) Achieving universal WASH access will not be possible unless all people have access to water and sanitation services, regardless of their migratory status. 3) Challenges stem from failures in governance, not the amount of water available, numbers of migrants or rates of migration; strengthened water governance can help better cope with the impacts of migration. 4) The poor visibility of migrants in data limits understanding of their needs and reduces the accountability of governments and service providers.

Page 109 - Water, Migration and Conflict: A Subnational Analysis
Authors: Mr. Stefan Döring, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala , Sweden

Highlights: Our research scrutinizes linkages between migration, water security, and violent conflict. Employing a subnational approach allows for a more fine-grained perspective. With data on precipitation, flooding, groundwater depth, water pollution, and other water-related variables, the work offers a comprehensive analysis of several factors that are crucial when understanding the links.

Conclusions and recommendations: Governments are positioned to alleviate both issues with migration and water shortages by implementing environmental policies that involve disaster risk reduction, resource conservation, or redistribution. Yet, this also underlines the importance of non-governmental actors which can significantly support policy efforts. This research identifies not only broader regions that are of higher security concerns; moreover, the work 110 highlights where actions are required within a country. Problems with water allocation are not ubiquitous and demand actions depending on the context. This research enables us to differentiate between different sources of conflict and migration, thereby unpacking some of these complexities.

Page 111 - International Laws of Water Access: Experiences of Displacement and Statelessness
Authors: Ms. Carly Krakow, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United States

Highlights: I offer unprecedented analysis of international criminal law’s role for grappling with water access restrictions. - The stateless/displaced/armed conflict zone residents are disproportionately impacted by lack of water, yet uniquely vulnerable under international law. - I propose remedies for international law’s struggle to guarantee the human right to water for refugees/IDPs.

Conclusions and recommendations: Increased dialogue between water and humanitarian law is analyzed (e.g. UN Watercourses Convention, Geneva Conventions). The ICC and ICJ’s roles are evaluated to assess possibilities for making post-conflict reparations to victims of water access denial. The ICC’s 2016 declaration that it would prioritize environmental crimes suggests that the Court is amenable to grappling with water access denial as an international crime—a potentially unprecedented development. I recommend support for the ICC to expand the Trust Fund for Victims to make reparations to water crimes victims, particularly those who are stateless/from states unable or unwilling to make reparations (e.g. Yemen, Syria).

Carly has conducted research in the West Bank, Greece, The Hague, and Geneva, supported by awards including the Gallatin Global Fellowship in Human Rights. For more information about her work please visit: www.lse.ac.uk/law/people/phd/carlykrakow

Page 113 - Addressing the water-migration nexus from a governance perspective
Authors: Fatine Ezbakhe, Mediterranean Youth for Water (MedYWat) network, Morocco

Highlights: - The aim is to contribute to the ongoing debate about water and migration interlinkages. - A ‘drivers for migration’ conceptual framework is used to analyze the triggering factors for Syrian migration. - The analysis highlights the complexity of the water-migration nexus and the need to pay attention to existing water governance frameworks.

Conclusions and recommendations: Although not exhaustive, the analysis of the Syrian migration confirms two key points. First, the complexity of the water-migration nexus requires focusing on all underlying drivers in order to develop effective policies for environmental migration. Second, special attention must be paid to the water governance frameworks in place, as they can constitute both barriers and facilitators to migration. The time is now ripe for more indepth research to better understand the linkages between water governance and migration policy. Furthermore, more dissemination of this research on water and migration is needed to help practitioners and policy-makers address the migration challenge.

Page 115 - Sanctuary: Footing the Bill for the Costs of Migration
Authors: Prof. Luke Wilson, The Center for Water Security and Cooperation, United States

Highlights: This paper/presentation will discuss how the costs of migration are allocated between nations, including who is legally responsible to cover those costs. For many water poor countries, providing basic services to refugees, migrants, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) can be overwhelming. Are they alone in footing the bill?

Conclusions and recommendations: This paper will suggest novel approaches to the idea of internationally wrongful acts that allows receiving states to seek compensation from states that create or foment refugee and migrant crises. These states are exporting economic and political crises, including scarce resources, to receiving states, and the legal regime has evolved to create the possibility of legal redress for this burden. For other states, obligations to assist the receiving state with resources and money is an evolving rule of law, which will be fully addressed in the presentation when the research is completed.

Page 131 - Less to lose?: Drought vulnerability assessment in the disadvantaged regions
Authors: Dr. Caroline King, The Borders Institute (TBI), Africa and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), United Kingdom

Highlights: Fundamental practical and methodological challenges confound assessments of the costs of drought in disadvantaged dryland communities. To overcome these challenges a proactive global vulnerability assessment approach should apply the available methods inclusively and iteratively. The UNCCD offers international coordination for such an approach to assess reductions in vulnerability to drought.

Conclusions and recommendations: Better informed assessments at all levels should help decision-makers to prevent further exacerbation of multi-dimensional global threats and hazards by droughts occurring in the marginal dry areas of developing countries. There is no shortage of methods for assessment of vulnerability to drought. A coordinated international process is needed to ensure that the available methods for drought vulnerability assessment are applied systematically, coordinated and improved so that adaptation can reduce drought impacts on the most vulnerable.

Page 133 - Ensuring flood insurance is socially inclusive: some challenges and solutions
Authors: Mr. Mohamed Aheeyar, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka

Highlights: - Affecting on average over 82 million people annually, floods can undermine numerous Sustainable Development Goals especially in the developing world. - Many affected are rural farmers, with limited ability to withstand crop loss. - This research explores how insurance schemes for flood-based crop loss can be accessible to the most vulnerable groups.

Conclusions and recommendations: Floods affect millions of poor farmer households annually. Flood insurance can build their resilience to losses, but poor finance, social networks, illiteracy, and gendered norms can undermine access to and understand the insurance amongst vulnerable groups. The complex structure of flood insurance requires thoughtful product rollout to build farmer trust and minimize unrealistic expectations. Partners with extensive knowledge of rural social structures, institutional capacity and credibility at village level can help overcome these challenges through a systematic and locally appropriate rollout process. These need to be incorporated from the outset in product design through dialog between the insurer, local partner(s).

Page 204 - Providing Sanitation to Off-grid Areas: a Successful Story from Cambodia
Authors: Mr. Michael White, Asian Development Bank, Philippines

Highlights: Solar septic tank installation in remote, off-grid areas, which are not reached by traditional infrastructure; Innovative technology application in remote communities to address sanitation issues in areas with vulnerable women and children. Use of complete sanitation value chain approach amidst geographical and spatial limitations.

Conclusions and recommendations: This study showed that it is possible to provide complete sanitation services to all areas reaching the 'last mile'. Difficult site conditions can be hurdled by appropriate technologies and methodologies, combined with proper coordination with local communities and government support. Innovative technologies can be encouraged for mainstreamed use after they have demonstrated their effectiveness. Piloting innovative technologies is an effective way to test the suitability of new systems. In addition, training local operators and the larger community on technology operation and maintenance is paramount.

Dear Colleagues:

Links to each of the resources listed below are on Sanitation Updates :

Publications/Research

Water under fire volume 1: Emergencies, development and peace in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. UNICEF, August 2019. The report presents practical and evidence-based water and sanitation solutions that can be replicated and scaled up. It highlights the need for leadership to bring about immediate action to accelerate water and sanitation service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected contexts; prevent water-related tensions between groups and political entities; and ensure the right to water and sanitation for every child. emergencies

WELLSPRING: Source Water Resilience and Climate Adaptation. Nature Conservancy, August 2019. As the pace of climate change quickens, Source Water Protection is now also becoming a critical component to ensuring resilience. Climate change presents a new range of threats, drivers, and uncertainties in how we interact with freshwater ecosystems, but recently developed approaches to cope with climate impacts will ensure that source waters can survive — and thrive — into the future.

WHAT IF THE WATER WE USE AT NUTRITION CLINICS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO HARM? Elrha blog, 2019. What the experience in Ethiopia showed us is that the silence around what constitutes “good enough” water for reconstituting therapeutic products can have potentially fatal consequences for the most vulnerable.

Young social entrepreneurs making waves with water-saving manual washing machine in IDP camps in Iraq. The Washing Machine Project, August 2019. In March 2019, Navjot Sawhney and Alex Hughes, both engineers and co-founders of the fledgling social enterprise The Washing Machine Project conducted research into clothes-washing habits across four IDP camps in Northern Iraq.

The Current Ebola Outbreak and the U.S. Role: An Explainer. KFF, August 2019. The major question for the U.S. government going forward is whether or not it will change its approach and engagement in the DRC in light of the PHEIC declaration and the lack of progress in interrupting transmission of the virus so far.

Urban humanitarian response. ODI, 2019. Chapter 4.4 discusses WASH issues. Included is an interesting section on Cash and WASH. As with other sectors, the use of cash in relation to WASH is increasingly resonating in urban emergencies.

HUMANITARIAN WASH PRESENTATIONS AT WORLD WATER WEEK 2019

A call to action for handwashing behavior change in emergencies – Resources: Resources include links to Mum’s Magic Hands Website and Mum’s Magic Hands: A field guide for rapid implementation of handwashing promotion in emergencies.

Sustainable Sanitation Solutions for Refugees and displaced persons – Includes presentations by: Sustainable sanitation solutions in protracted and conflict situations, Graham Alabaster, UN-Habitat | Faecal Sludge and Wastewater Management in Emergency Settings, Christoph Lüthi, Eawag | New approaches to financing sanitation in the humanitarian, Murray Burt UNHCR | Sanitation solutions for conflict affected and fragile states, UNICEF.

AWARDS

Elrha – Eight Innovation Grants Awarded to Support Wider Adoption of Projects – We have recently funded a collection of grantees, who had previously received funding from our HIF programme at the piloting and implementation stage, to support wider adoption outside of the innovation’s original setting. The WASH-related projects include:

SANITWEAKS: SANITATION RESEARCH DIFFUSION FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT AT SCALE, OXFAM GB
SUPERTOWEL LARGE SCALE MANUFACTURING SETUP, REAL RELIEF
FAIRCAP WATER FILTERS FIELD DIFFUSION, FAIRCAP
LOVE CLEAN HANDS: USING PUPPETRY TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION IN HANDWASHING COMMUNITY INITIATIVES, NO STRINGS INTERNATIONAL
USER-CENTRED EMERGENCY SANITATION DESIGN, SAVE THE CHILDREN UK
OCTOPUS: GUIDANCE ON FAECAL SLUDGE DISPOSAL IN EMERGENCIES, SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

WEBINARS

Why Do Social Connections Matter for Resilience and Recovery? September 5, 2019 – Join Marketlinks on September 5th for a webinar with Alex Humphrey, Jeeyon Kim and Vaidehi Krishnan from Mercy Corps to find out more about the ongoing USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)-funded research in South Sudan. They will discuss their effort to understand and measure how household social connectedness links to resilience, and highlight the implications of research findings for returns and recovery in South Sudan.

Period Posse Presents: New Research Trials – Join us to discuss updates from three key menstrual research trials in Kenya, Uganda, and the Gambia, September 11, 2019 – Penny Philips-Howard, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine: Menstrual research studies conducted among schoolgirls in rural western Kenya | Helen Weiss, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Menstrual health interventions and school attendance among Ugandan students (MENISCUS) | Belen Torondel, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Puberty health interventions to improve menstrual health and School attendance among Gambian adolescents (MEGAMBO)

TRAINING

Training on Faecal Sludge Management in Emergencies, October 1-2, 2019, DSS water and IHE Delft – The course will present an overview of containment, transport, treatment and disposal practices. As reference material the Compendium of Sanitation Technologies in Emergencies is used.