External Program Evaluation: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Program in Ethiopia

USAID/Ethiopia commissioned this study to evaluate an ongoing Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) program and to generate findings that could assist in developing monitoring and evaluation indicators for future use. As of 2008, MWA was implementing eight WASH projects in 28 districts, with stated goals of improving access to sustainable and adequate water, improving access to sanitation services, increasing community awareness, and promoting safe hygiene practices. The evaluation calls MWA's progress encouraging overall, but notes that the one to two year planning horizons used were not enough to cause internalized behavior change. Furthermore, the authors recommend investing more in research and development; adopting harmonized approaches and best practices as well as innovative methodologies; building capacity of district water, health, and education offices; and linking the MWA program with other government, USAID, WSP and UNICEF programs

Prevalence of Iodine deficiency disorder in a highland district in Tigray

A cross-sectional community based goiter prevalence survey was conducted in February 2003 in Neksege Sub District in Tigray to collect baseline data on the magnitude of Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) and the demand for iodinated salt supplementation. The community prevalence of goiter was 71.4%, with 59.5% in males and 80.2% in females. Adjusted community goiter prevalence was 57.2%. The lowest estimated rates of cretins were 37.7 per a thousand people. Goiter is rampant and epidemiological estimates of other IDD manifestations are unacceptably high and call for urgent intervention. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 20(1) 2006: 58-5

WATER CONSUMPTION OF COMMON PLANTS IN THE SOUTHWEST U.S

Farmers and plant biologists make extensive use of evapotranspiration estimates to determine the amount of water needed for plant growth and survival. Hydrologists and water resource managers use such knowledge to estimate the amount of water lost from the soil, bodies of water, and vegetated areas through plant uptake. In the latter case, evapotranspiration (ET) is a measure of how much water is used by the plants for transpiration and tissue building. It is expressed as volume per unit area, or depth over a particular area. The total ET for a crop or plant is usually the total amount of water lost from the plant from the period of its planting to its harvesting time. Because such water is considered permanently lost by the plants, the process is also known as consumptive use. A good understanding of this process is important to determine the amount of water needed to grow a particular plant or to develop a large -scale agricultural project in a certain area. It also helps to ensure optimal water use -where it is most productive and needed-especially in the face of scarcity. This paper provides a compendium of estimates of water consumed by various crops, grasses, fruit trees, shrubs, and some forest trees of the U.S. Southwest, as determined by various researchers. The most important factors contributing to the amount of consumptive use are identified, followed by a discussion of common wayw to estimate water consumption by plants. Although the data presented are for short periods of time, the information may be valuable for providing farmers, foresters, gardeners, and other water users and managers with a good estimate of the ET values of various plants. In the absence of such information, the different groups may also use the BlaneyCriddle method, which is discussed in some detail, to estimate the average ET value of a plant, or the consumptive use of water by plants. 1School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff STUDY AREA Because evapotranspiration is highly influenced by both the climate and topographic characteristics of an area, it is appropriate to provide a description of the different aspects of climate and other factors that affect ET in the Southwest. The most important of these climatic characteristics are precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and solar radiation The information gathered for this study is from Arizona and neighboring areas in the Southwest. The climate of the study site is arid with an average annual rainfall of about 20 cm. The regional topography is highly variable, with plains in the lower elevations and along the coasts and rugged mountains along the Mogollon Rim, the western part of the Colorado Plateau, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Coastal Ranges. These physical features have some influence on moisture availability and the rates of evapotranspiration. The consumptive use values for the different crops and other vegetation types presented in this paper represent these features and the climatic conditions in the region. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Estimates of daily evapotranspiration values are used extensively to determine plant water requirements, and knowledge of the consumptive use of different plants is useful in determining plant water needs as well as designing the most appropriate irrigation-scheduling scheme. The latter, i

Assessing exclusive breastfeeding practices, dietary intakes and body mass index (BMI) of nursing mothers in Ekiti State of Nigeria

Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the infants. The benefits of breastfeeding practices to infants and mothers are well documented. However, information on breastfeeding practices and its effect on body mass index (BMI) of mothers are scarce, particularly in Ekiti State of Nigeria. Therefore, the present study is designed to assess breastfeeding practices and its association with BMI of mothers. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted among breastfeeding mothers that attended postnatal clinic of the state specialist hospitals and maternity centers in the study location. The specialist hospital and two-third of the nine maternity centers were purposively selected because of their health facilities and personnel. The mother-child pairs (200 respondents) were randomly selected from the study locations. Information on demographic characteristic, socio-economic parameters, nutritional knowledge of breastfeeding and dietary intakes of mothers were collected using questionnaires. BMI of mothers was determined as described by World Health Organization. Age distribution of mothers was between 25-34 years; and almost half of respondents had good educational background and were engaged in different occupations. The respondent monthly income ranged between = N = 3500 - 26000 ($26.92 -$200); and their dietary intakes varied between starchy and protein-based food. The result also showed that the respondent consumed enough nutrients to meet up the recommended daily allowance for protein, carbohydrate, fat, zinc, magnesium, sodium and phosphorous requirements. The BMI classifications showed that over three-fifth of respondents were normal, while the remaining were underweight (6%) and overweight/obese (26.5%). Also, large proportion of respondents engaged in exclusive breastfeeding and with good knowledge of breastfeeding practices. Statistically, exclusive breastfeeding practices had no correlation between the BMI and frequency of breastfeeding. The study, therefore, concluded that mothers had good knowledge of breastfeeding practice; and that there was no association between breastfeeding practices and BMI

Multicriterion modeling of wastewater management : a comparison of techniques

Multicriterion modeling of wastewater management problem is presented in order to select the most preferred wastewater scheme. The Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant which serves the binational cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora is used as case study in the modeling process. The process includes identifying of objectives, specifying of treatment alternatives and defining criteria to relate the objective satisfactum level to the alternative schemes. Six different multicriterion decision making techniques are applied to analyze and obtain preference ordering among the alternative treatment schemes. Analyses on the individual techniques and comparison among them are performed to arrive at the following conclusions: (1) all the techniques except one can be confidently used to obtain complete ordering of alternatives, (2) there is inter-model consistency in the ordering process, (3) in performing this function, the techniques are fairly robust with respect to parameter changes, and (4) only two treatment alternatives of fifteen considered are consistently ranked higher than the rest.hydrology collectio

Choice of multicriterion decision making techniques for watershed management

The problem of selecting a multicriterion decision making (MCDM) technique for watershed resources management is investigated. Of explicit concern in this research is the matching of a watersned resources management problem with an appropriate MCDM technique. More than seventy techniques are recognized while reviewing the area of MCDM. A new classification scheme is developed to categorize these techniques into four groups on the bases of each algorithm's structural formulation and the possible results obtained by using the algorithm. Other standard classification schemes are also discussed to better understand the differences and similarities among the techniques and thereby demonstrate the importance of matching a particular multicriterion decision problem with an appropriate MCDM technique. The desire for selecting the most appropriate MCDM technique for watershed resources management lead to the development of 49 technique choice criteria and an algorithm for selecting a technique. The algorithm divides the technique choice criteria into four groups: (1) DM/analyst-related criteria, (2) technique-related criteria, (3) problem-related criteria and (4) solution-related criteria. To analyze the applicability of MCDM techniques to a particular problem, the levels of performance of the techniques in solving the problem are, at first, evaluated with respect to the choice criteria in each criterion group resulting in four sets of preference rankings. These four sets are then linearly combined using a set of trade-off parameters to determine the overall preference ranking of the techniques. The MUM technique selection process is itself modeled as a multiobjective problem. In this research, for example, a set of 15 techniques, the author is familiar with, are analyzed for their appropriateness to solve a watershed resources management problem. The performance levels of the 15 MCDM techniques in solving such a problem are evaluated with respect to a selected set of technique choice criteria in each criterion group leading to a set of four evaluation matrices of choice criteria versus alternative techniques. This technique choice problem is then analyzed using a two-stage evaluation procedure known as composite programming. The final product of the process resulted in a preference ranking of the alternative MCDM techniques.hydrology collectio

Water Consumption of Common Plants in the Southwest U.S.

From the Proceedings of the 2004 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 12, 2004, Midwestern University, Glendale, ArizonaThis article is part of the Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest collections. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science and the University of Arizona Libraries. For more information about items in this collection, contact [email protected]

Determinants of Weaning Practices

A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted on 334 mother-child pairs of 0-2 year old children in a semi-urban sub-district of Adigrat, Tigrai, Ethiopia. A cluster sampling technique was used to select clusters. The study was undertaken to assess weaning practices in the area and to identify the determinants. A questionnaire comprising both open and close-ended questions was used to collect information. This study has shown early commencement of weaning. The median age at commencement of supplementary diet was three months, and the age range was 1-6 months. More than two-thirds of mothers started supplementary diet before the age of four months. Working mothers had higher chance of early weaning compared to housewives (OR=3.5; 95%CI=1.61,8.14). Similarly, better income mothers had higher chance of early weaning compard to poor mothers (OR=2.2; 95%CI=1.17, 4.06). The most commonly and frequently used foods for child weaning were adult diet (ingera, Kitta, and bread), followed by porridge-gruel and egg. Feeding was so infrequent that about half of the children were fed only once and 95% of them 1-3 times in the previous day. Consumption of vegetables and fruits was very rare. In this study the prevalence of bottle-feeding in infants was 20%. Mothers working outside home had about three times higher chance of bottle-feeding compared to housewives (OR=2.87, 95%CI 1.16, 7.101). (Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, 2000, 14(2): 183-189

Multiobjective Wastewater Management Planning in a Semiarid Region

From the Proceedings of the 1986 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Association, Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science and the Arizona Hydrological Society - April 19, 1986, Glendale Community College, Glendale, ArizonaThis article is part of the Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest collections. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science and the University of Arizona Libraries. For more information about items in this collection, contact [email protected]

Hydrologic Effects of Wildfire

From the Proceedings of the 2006 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 8, 2006, University of Arizona, TucsonThis article is part of the Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest collections. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science and the University of Arizona Libraries. For more information about items in this collection, contact [email protected]