Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.4
Journals
IJERPH
Special Issues
Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for...
ijerph-logo
Submit to IJERPH Review for IJERPH Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for All: Achieving Impact at Scale

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 March 2022) | Viewed by 13123

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ricard Giné-Garriga

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Programme Manager, Department of Water and Sanitation, Stockholm International Water Institute, Linnégatan 87A, 100 55 Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: water governance; sustainable WASH services; monitoring and evaluation; human rights to water and sanitation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Guy Hutton

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
WASH Section, Programme Division, United Nations Children’s Fund, Three United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Interests: systems strengthening; enabling environment; economics; financing; knowledge management
Dr. Marcello Basani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank, Montevideo, Uruguay
Interests: water and sanitation governance; integrity; innovation
Prof. Dr. Meera Mehta

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Professor Emeritus and Executive Director, Center for Water and Sanitation, CEPT University, Ahmedabad 38009, India
Interests: water and sanitation governance and financing; urban development; monitoring and assessment
Prof. Dr. Dinesh Mehta

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Professor Emeritus and Executive Director, Center for Water and Sanitation, CEPT University, Ahmedabad 38009, India
Interests: water and sanitation; urban governance; housing; urban planning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The overall objective of accelerating progress towards meeting the global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related goals set by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is to ensure that these services and behaviours continue to deliver benefits to everyone in society long after implementation. Today, despite progress, data suggests that ‘leaving no one behind’ by 2030 would require doubling the current annual rate of progress: billions of people still lack safe water, sanitation and handwashing facilities.

Business as usual is not an option. Increasing number of un-connected customers in urban and peri-urban areas, emerging impacts of climate variability and change on water availability and quality, and poor governance of WASH systems put significant pressure on water and sanitation services. These challenges manifest themselves in poor performance of service providers, high rates of hardware failure, and very low quality-levels of the services.  

To address these challenges, the sector needs to look at innovative solutions to do things better and more efficiently. This Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) discusses about new technologies, innovative models of service delivery and successful scaling up of pilot initiatives that address current and future challenges and help address the existing service drawbacks.

We are looking for papers that present innovative management solutions in both rural and urban contexts, discuss the role of new water and sanitation technologies and Information, Communication and Technologies (ICTs) in water and sanitation services monitoring and governance, and/or explores the enabling environment for scaling-up innovation in WASH services. The focus is on gaining a better understanding of the role and contribution of innovation to better management infrastructure, strategies and governance processes that can lead to improved and sustainable services, achieve universal coverage specifically paying special attention to low-income and vulnerable customers.

We therefore call for original papers from researchers, practitioners, service providers, regulators, and decision-makers who wish to share their experience and reflections about the topic, from different perspectives. New research papers, reviews, case reports and conference papers are welcome to this issue, as well as other manuscript types such as methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries. Papers will be selected through a peer review process by balancing local relevance and academic rigor, with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination and application of research results. Papers from authors in low- and middle-income countries and from women are encouraged.

Authors are encouraged to share an abstract of the paper before its submission, the sooner the better, and send it to any of the guest editors of the Issue. They will then receive rapid feedback and, if applicable, suggestions for improvement.

Dr. Ricard Giné-Garriga
Dr. Guy Hutton
Dr. Marcello Basani
Prof. Dr. Meera Mehta
Prof. Dr. Dinesh Mehta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 1260 KiB  
Article
Regulating Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) in Colombia
by Analía Saker, Andrea Bernal Pedraza and Abishek Sankara Narayan
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5669; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19095669 - 06 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1930
Abstract
The conventional top-down scope of relying only on centralised sewerage has proven insufficient to reach the entire global population with safely managed sanitation and meet Sustainable Development Goals 6.2. and 6.3 by 2030. Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) has emerged as an approach to [...] Read more.
The conventional top-down scope of relying only on centralised sewerage has proven insufficient to reach the entire global population with safely managed sanitation and meet Sustainable Development Goals 6.2. and 6.3 by 2030. Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) has emerged as an approach to accelerate progress by considering different technologies and service provision models within the same city to expand sanitation access equitably and sustainably. However, to generate an enabling environment for CWIS to be implemented successfully, regulatory frameworks must be adapted, as they are often unsuited for non-sewered sanitation solutions. By analysing the Colombian case study through a mixed qualitative methodology comprised of a policy review, semi-structured interviews, and workshops with key stakeholders in the urban sanitation sector, the country’s regulatory framework was evaluated to determine if it is adequate to implement CWIS. Regulations were identified to pose barriers for CWIS and produced a disabling environment for its application. This research proposes recommendations to adapt the regulatory framework to allow CWIS application in Colombia based on the encountered barriers. This is the first comprehensive study on regulations for CWIS in the Latin American context and therefore provides the basis for further research to understand the dynamics related to effective regulations for CWIS globally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for All: Achieving Impact at Scale)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 3314 KiB  
Article
Prevalence and Correlates of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Spatial Distribution of Unimproved WASH in Nepal
by Shalik Ram Dhital, Catherine Chojenta, Tiffany-Jane Evans, Tri Dev Acharya and Deborah Loxton
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3507; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19063507 - 16 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3015
Abstract
This study aims to estimate the prevalence and correlation of household levels of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), including the identification of areas where WASH facilities are unimproved in Nepal. The study population was 11,040 household heads, using the data collected in the [...] Read more.
This study aims to estimate the prevalence and correlation of household levels of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), including the identification of areas where WASH facilities are unimproved in Nepal. The study population was 11,040 household heads, using the data collected in the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Logistic regression analysis was performed and crude odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a 0.05 significance level are presented. Getis–Ord Gi* statistics were used to identify the hot and cold spot areas of unimproved WASH. GPS locations of WASH points were used for spatial analysis. Approximately 95% of households had an improved water source, 84% had improved sanitation facilities, 81% had a fixed place for handwashing, and 47% had soap and water. Education, wealth, and ecology were significantly associated with WASH. The people from the hills were less likely to have an improved water source (OR = 0.32; 95% CI: 0.16–0.64) than those from the plain. Households with a poor wealth index had 78% lower odds of having an improved water source compared to households with a rich wealth index. Respondents from Madhes Province had lower odds (OR = 0.15; 95% CI: 0.08–0.28) and Gandaki Pradesh had the highest odds (OR = 2.92; 95% CI: 1.52–5.61) of having improved sanitation facilities compared to Province 1. Respondents aged 35–44 years had higher odds (OR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.04–1.29) of having soap and water available compared to those aged 45 years and older. Education and geographical disparities were the factors associated with having reduced access to WASH. These findings suggest the need to focus on advocacy, services, and policy approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for All: Achieving Impact at Scale)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1885 KiB  
Article
Safely Managed On-Site Sanitation: A National Assessment of Sanitation Services and Potential Fecal Exposure in Indonesia
by Mitsunori Odagiri, Ann Thomas, Maraita Listyasari, Freya Mills, Robert E. S. Bain, Zainal Muhammad, Tom Slaymaker, Aldy Mardikanto, Anita Gultom, Asri Indiyani, Hasnani Rangkuti and Juliet Willetts
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(15), 8204; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18158204 - 03 Aug 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3429
Abstract
Sustainable Development Goal target 6.2 calls for universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation, setting a more ambitious standard for ‘safely managed sanitation services’. On-site sanitation systems (e.g., septic tanks) are widely used in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the lack of [...] Read more.
Sustainable Development Goal target 6.2 calls for universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation, setting a more ambitious standard for ‘safely managed sanitation services’. On-site sanitation systems (e.g., septic tanks) are widely used in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the lack of indicators for assessing fecal exposure risks presents a barrier to monitoring safely managed services. Furthermore, geographic diversity and frequency of disasters require a more nuanced approach to risk-informed decision-making. Taking Indonesia as an example, the purpose of this paper is to provide insights into current status and practices for on-site sanitation services in the contexts of LMICs. Using a dataset from a national socio-economic survey (n = 295,155) coupled with village census (n = 83,931), we assessed (1) household sanitation practices across Indonesia stratified by city-level population density and meteorological factors, (2) factors associated with septic tank emptying practice, and (3) inequalities in potential fecal exposure as measured by population density and WASH access by wealth quintile. We found a high reliance on on-site sanitation facilities (80.0%), almost half of which are assumed to be ‘uncontained’ septic tanks and one in ten facilities discharging untreated waste directly into the environment. The most densely populated areas had the highest rates of septic tank emptying, though emptying rates were just 17.0%, while in the lowest population density group, emptying was rarely reported. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated an association between flooding and drought occurrence and septic tank emptying practice. Higher groundwater usage for drinking among poorer households suggests unsafe sanitation may disproportionally affect the poor. Our study underscores the urgent need to strengthen the monitoring of on-site sanitation in LMICs by developing contextualized standards. Furthermore, the inequalities in potential fecal exposure require greater attention and tailored support mechanisms to ensure the poorest gain access to safely managed sanitation services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for All: Achieving Impact at Scale)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

14 pages, 1026 KiB  
Article
Exploring Private Sector Engagement for Faecal Sludge Emptying and Transport Business in Khulna, Bangladesh
by Shirish Singh, Ankita Gupta, Muhammed Alamgir and Damir Brdjanovic
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(5), 2755; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18052755 - 09 Mar 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2788
Abstract
In Khulna, Bangladesh, mechanical faecal sludge (FS) emptying and transport (E&T) service is provided by community development committees (CDCs) and the Khulna City Corporation (KCC). Without considering capital expenditure and depreciation, financial analysis for one year revealed that a CDC-1 m3 vacutug [...] Read more.
In Khulna, Bangladesh, mechanical faecal sludge (FS) emptying and transport (E&T) service is provided by community development committees (CDCs) and the Khulna City Corporation (KCC). Without considering capital expenditure and depreciation, financial analysis for one year revealed that a CDC-1 m3 vacutug made a profit of Bangladeshi taka (BDT) 145,780 (USD $1746) whereas a KCC-2 m3 vacutug was in the loss of BDT 218,179 (USD $2613). There is a need to engage the private sector for sustainable service provision. Some of the key elements of enabling the environment for private sector engagement are policy/strategy, institutional and regulatory framework, implementation capacity, and financial viability. Existing policy/strategy/frameworks acknowledged the need and suggested plans for private sector engagement, and decentralised authority to city corporations. With increasing private-public partnership projects and collaboration in the sanitation sector, capacity of the KCC and the private sector are increasing. Financial viability of the FS E&T business is primarily dependent on the number of trips and the emptying fee. For the E&T business to be financially viable, a 2 m3 vacutug should make six trips/day (internal rate of return (IRR)—13%, discount rate—6.5%) with an emptying fee of BDT 750 (USD $9)/m3. Despite the lack of operative guidelines for faecal sludge management (FSM), enabling the environment for private sector engagement in FS E&T business in Khulna seems favourable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Accelerating Progress towards Safely Managed Drinking Water and Sanitation for All: Achieving Impact at Scale)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop