Adaptation of WASH Services Delivery to Climate Change and Other Sources of Risk and Uncertainty

This report urges WASH sector practitioners to take more seriously the threat of climate change and the consequences it could have on their work. By considering climate change within a risk and uncertainty framework, the field can use the multitude of approaches laid out here to adequately protect itself against a range of direct and indirect impacts. Eleven methods and tools for this specific type of risk management are described, including practical advice on how to implement them successfully

Arrangements and Cost of Providing Support to Rural Water Service Providers

This paper is about the costs of providing direct and indirect support to rural water service provision. It provides an overview of the features such support entails, how these features can be organized, what they cost and how they can be financed. It also provides recommendations to countries for strengthening support. The paper is based on a desk review of existing literature from seven countries and an analysis of primary cost data collected by the WASHCost project in Andhra Pradesh (India), Mozambique and Ghana in 2010 and 2011. Support to service providers in the form of monitoring, technical assistance and (re)training of service providers is called direct support whereas indirect support refers to aspects such as macro-level planning and policy making. Direct support can be provided in different forms: by specialized agencies, by local government or even by an association of service providers. However, the nature, scope and frequency of such support are often not sufficiently defined. There is, therefore, still little quantitative evidence that supports the premise that direct support has a positive impact on the quality and sustainability of services

Revisiting the history, concepts and typologies of community management for rural drinking water supply in India

Community management has been widely criticized, yet it continues to play a significant role in rural drinking water supply. In India, as with other ‘emerging’ economies, the management model must now adapt to meet the policy demand for ever-increasing technical sophistication. Given this context, the paper reviews the history and concepts of community management to propose three typologies that better account for the changing role of the community and external support entities found in successful cases. It argues that external support entities must be prepared to take greater responsibility for providing ongoing support to communities for ensuring continuous service delivery

Global study on sustainable service delivery models for rural water: evidence from 16 countries

An assessment of rural water supply sustainability was commissioned by the World Bank in 16 countries utilizing five building blocks and a taxonomy of prevailing service delivery models. Results show a mixed picture in progress towards establishing optimum conditions for sustainability. Institutional capacity has advanced most markedly. Financing and monitoring score second highest, with good examples in countries such as Nicaragua and the Philippines. Consistently lower scores are found for asset management and water resource management. Community-based management is still the predominant management model, often formalized in policy, but not systematically supported or regulated. A greater differentiation of other service delivery models is found, with a trend - especially in urbanizing, middleincome countries - towards the delivery of services by utilities, private operators and/or through the aggregation of multiple rural schemes under one management entity. Dispersed rural populations continue to rely on either poorly supported community-based management or self-supply

Community water plus: assessing the plus of successful community-managed rural water supply in India

In the community management model significant support from government and other entities is needed to ensure sustainable rural water services. The Community Water plus project investigates the nature and resource implications of such support in twenty community-managed rural water programmes that have been deemed to be successful in India. This paper presents the research framework and discusses the emerging findings from the first nine case studies. Contrary to the research hypothesis, which is that in these successful cases a significant amount of on-going specialist support will be found, the findings to date are showing a considerable level of support in the project implementation stage but a limited amount of specialist support in the service delivery and capital maintenance phases. However, in many of the cases, the close integration of community management in the prevailing system of local government, particularly the Gram Panchayats, creates an underlying mechanism for support during the service delivery phase. Whilst this arrangement has pragmatic benefits, it also raises questions about the boundaries between what constitutes community management and public service provision, as well as about the lines of accountability between communities, service providers and local governments

Comparison of Six Commercial ELISA Kits for Their Specificity and Sensitivity in Detecting Different Major Peanut Allergens

Six commercial peanut enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits were assessed for their ability to recover peanut from the standard reference material 2387 peanut butter and also for their specificity in detecting four major peanut allergens, Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3, and Ara h 6. The percentage recovery of peanut from peanut butter differed across different kits as well as at different sample concentrations. The highest recovery was observed with the Romer and R-Biopharm kits, while four other kits were found to underestimate the protein content of the reference peanut butter samples. Five of the kits were most sensitive in detecting Ara h 3 followed by Ara h 1, while hardly recognizing Ara h 2 and Ara h 6. The other kit showed the highest sensitivity to Ara h 2 and Ara h 6, while Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 were poorly recognized. Although Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 are known to be heat stable and more potent allergens, antisera specific to any of these four peanut proteins/allergens may serve as good markers for the detection of peanut residues

Release of Major Peanut Allergens from Their Matrix under Various pH and Simulated Saliva Conditions—Ara h2 and Ara h6 Are Readily Bio-Accessible

The oral mucosa is the first immune tissue that encounters allergens upon ingestion of food. We hypothesized that the bio-accessibility of allergens at this stage may be a key determinant for sensitization. Light roasted peanut flour was suspended at various pH in buffers mimicking saliva. Protein concentrations and allergens profiles were determined in the supernatants. Peanut protein solubility was poor in the pH range between 3 and 6, while at a low pH (1.5) and at moderately high pHs (\u3e8), it increased. In the pH range of saliva, between 6.5 and 8.5, the allergens Ara h2 and Ara h6 were readily released, whereas Ara h1 and Ara h3 were poorly released. Increasing the pH from 6.5 to 8.5 slightly increased the release of Ara h1 and Ara h3, but the recovery remained low (approximately 20%) compared to that of Ara h2 and Ara h6 (approximately 100% and 65%, respectively). This remarkable difference in the extraction kinetics suggests that Ara h2 and Ara h6 are the first allergens an individual is exposed to upon ingestion of peanut-containing food. We conclude that the peanut allergens Ara h2 and Ara h6 are quickly bio-accessible in the mouth, potentially explaining their extraordinary allergenicity

¿Cómo institucionalizar sistemas de monitoreo del servicio de agua en zonas rurales? Lecciones de Honduras, El Salvador y Paraguay

En los últimos años, varios países de América Latina han comenzado a monitorear la prestación del servicio de agua en zonas rurales con el objeto de: 1) inventariar la infraestructura de agua existente en zonas rurales para la planificación de inversiones, y 2) orientar mejor el apoyo post-construcción de la infraestructura. Para que dichos sistemas de monitoreo no enfrenten desafíos de sostenibilidad, es necesario establecer arreglos institucionales y financieros claros. El Centro Internacional de Agua y Saneamiento (IRC), el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), y la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), a través del Fondo de Cooperación para Agua y Saneamiento (FCAS), han apoyado el diseño e implementación de dichos sistemas de monitoreo en El Salvador, Honduras y Paraguay. En coordinación con las agencias sectoriales locales, se diseñó y sometió a prueba una metodología para la definición de un marco institucional para el monitoreo. Este documento ofrece una descripción general del enfoque implementado en los tres países, incluyendo ejemplos y estimaciones de costo.

The Impact of Support to Community-Based Rural Water Service Providers: Evidence from Colombia

There is widespread recognition of the importance of support to community-based water service providers for sustainability of rural water supplies. However, there is little quantitative evidence to back this claim and a very limited understanding about the characteristics of support agents that are most significant in providing effective support. This paper presents the results of a study on support to service providers in Colombia, including a quantitative analysis of the impact of different support agents on service levels, performance of service providers and functionality of infrastructure assets. The methodology included: 1) characterisation of seven different support agents and their performance, 2) analysis of service levels, performance of service providers and functionality of infrastructure for 29 service providers that received structured support, and 3) analysis of the same factors for 11 service providers that did not receive structured support. Nearly all service providers in this study were found to receive some type of support, but sometimes this was unstructured and irregular. The providers receiving support in a structured and frequent manner performed better against a list of expected functions than the ones receiving ad hoc support. However, there was no clear effect found between support and the level of service that users received or the asset status. The paper also concludes that there is scope to improve the effectiveness of support agents, with key factors identified which explain that effectiveness; these key factors are the frequency of support, the institutional capacity of the support agent and the targeting of support to different types of communities

Trends in Rural Water Supply: Towards a Service Delivery Approach

Behind headline successes in providing first-time access to water lie a number of pressing challenges to the dominant approach to rural water supply in developing countries, namely community management following a demand-responsive approach. These challenges manifest themselves in poor performance of service providers, high rates of hardware failure, and very low levels of service. The papers in this special issue argue that tackling these challenges requires a shift in emphasis in rural water supply in developing countries: away from a de-facto focus on the provision of hardware for first-time access towards the proper use of installed hardware as the basis for universal access to rural water services. The outline of the main actions required to achieve this shift are becoming clearer. Chief amongst these are the professionalisation of community management and/or provision of direct support to community service providers; adoption of a wider range of service delivery models than community management alone; and addressing the sustainable financing of all costs with a particular focus on financing capital maintenance (asset management) and direct support costs. This introductory paper provides an overview of these issues and a guide to the other articles, which demonstrate these points