Drinking water quality governance: A comparative case study of Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi

Human health is greatly affected by inadequate access to sufficient and safe drinking water, especially in low and middle-income countries. Drinking water governance improvements may be one way to better drinking water quality. Over the past decade, many projects and international organizations have been dedicated to water governance; however, water governance in the drinking water sector is understudied and how to improve water governance remains unclear. We analyze drinking water governance challenges in three countries—Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi—as perceived by government, service providers, and civil society organizations. A mixed methods approach was used: a clustering model was used for country selection and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used with direct observation in data collection. The clustering model integrated political, economic, social and environmental variables that impact water sector performance, to group countries. Brazil, Ecuador and Malawi were selected with the model so as to enhance the generalizability of the results. This comparative case study is important because similar challenges are identified in the drinking water sectors of each country; while, the countries represent diverse socio-economic and political contexts, and the selection process provides generalizability to our results. We find that access to safe water could be improved if certain water governance challenges were addressed: coordination and data sharing between ministries that deal with drinking water services; monitoring and enforcement of water quality laws; and sufficient technical capacity to improve administrative and technical management of water services at the local level. From an analysis of our field research, we also developed a conceptual framework that identifies policy levers that could be used to influence governance of drinking water quality on national and sub-national levels, and the relationships between these levers

Translating the Human Right to Water and Sanitation into Public Policy Reform

Abstract The development of a human right to water and sanitation under international law has created an imperative to implement human rights in water and sanitation policy. Through forty-three interviews with informants in international institutions, national governments, and non-governmental organizations, this research examines interpretations of this new human right in global governance, national policy, and local practice. Exploring obstacles to the implementation of rights-based water and sanitation policy, the authors analyze the limitations of translating international human rights into local water and sanitation practice, concluding that system operators, utilities, and management boards remain largely unaffected by the changing public policy landscape for human rights realization. To understand the relevance of human rights standards to water and sanitatio

PERFIL CLÍNICO DE PACIENTES PORTADORES DE SÍNDROME METABÓLICA DE UM PROJETO DE EXTENSÃO EM REABILITAÇÃO CARDIOVASCULAR E METABÓLICA

A Síndrome Metabólica (SM) é uma epidemia associada à alta morbi-mortalidade cardiovascular e ao elevado custo socioeconômico, o que a torna um problema de saúde pública em todo o mundo. Este trabalho consiste em um estudo observacional descritivo, com amostra consecutiva composta por pacientes com diagnóstico de SM participantes de um Projeto de Extensão em Reabilitação Cardiovascular e Metabólica (PERCVM) da Universidade Feevale, que teve como objetivo verificar o perfil clínico de pacientes portadores de SM. Para a coleta de dados, foi utilizada uma ficha de avaliação composta pelas variáveis: idade, sexo, distância percorrida no teste da caminhada de seis minutos, valores da pressão inspiratória máxima e da pressão expiratória máxima obtidas através de um manovacuômetro e frequência cardíaca máxima do teste ergométrico. A amostra foi composta por cinco pacientes, sendo quatro (80%) do sexo feminino. Todos os participantes apresentaram as características clínicas de SM, tendo como prevalência os critérios de obesidade central, hipertensão arterial sistêmica e níveis de HDL-colesterol baixo.Palavras-chave: Síndrome metabólica. Fatores de risco cardiovascular. Exercício

Drinking water quality governance: A comparative case study of Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi

Human health is greatly affected by inadequate access to sufficient and safe drinking water, especially in low and middle-income countries. Drinking water governance improvements may be one way to better drinking water quality. Over the past decade, many projects and international organizations have been dedicated to water governance; however, water governance in the drinking water sector is understudied and how to improve water governance remains unclear. We analyze drinking water governance challenges in three countries—Brazil, Ecuador, and Malawi—as perceived by government, service providers, and civil society organizations. A mixed methods approach was used: a clustering model was used for country selection and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used with direct observation in data collection. The clustering model integrated political, economic, social and environmental variables that impact water sector performance, to group countries. Brazil, Ecuador and Malawi were selected with the model so as to enhance the generalizability of the results. This comparative case study is important because similar challenges are identified in the drinking water sectors of each country; while, the countries represent diverse socio-economic and political contexts, and the selection process provides generalizability to our results. We find that access to safe water could be improved if certain water governance challenges were addressed: coordination and data sharing between ministries that deal with drinking water services; monitoring and enforcement of water quality laws; and sufficient technical capacity to improve administrative and technical management of water services at the local level. From an analysis of our field research, we also developed a conceptual framework that identifies policy levers that could be used to influence governance of drinking water quality on national and sub-national levels, and the relationships between these levers