Climate adaptation for rural water and sanitation systems in the Solomon Islands: A community scale systems model for decision support.

Delivering water and sanitation services are challenging in data poor rural settings in developing countries. In this paper we develop a Bayesian Belief Network model that supports decision making to increase the availability of safe drinking water in five flood-prone rural communities in the Solomon Islands. We collected quantitative household survey data and qualitative cultural and environmental knowledge through community focus group discussions. We combined these data to develop our model, which simulates the state of eight water sources and ten sanitation types and how they are affected by season and extreme events. We identify how climate and current practices can threaten the availability of drinking water for remote communities. Modelling of climate and intervention scenarios indicate that water security could be best enhanced through increased rainwater harvesting (assuming proper installation and maintenance). These findings highlight how a systems model can identify links between and improve understanding of water and sanitation, community behaviour, and the impacts of extreme events. The resultant BBN provides a tool for decision support to enhance opportunities for climate resilient water and sanitation service provision.

Improving community health through marketing exchanges: A participatory action research study on water, sanitation, and hygiene in three Melanesian countries.

Diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) are major causes of mortality and morbidity. While pursuing marketing approaches to WaSH to improve health outcomes is often narrowly associated with monetary exchange, marketing theory recognises four broad marketing exchange archetypes: market-based, non-market-based, command-based and culturally determined. This diversity reflects the need for parameters broader than monetary exchange when improving WaSH. This study applied a participatory action research process to investigate how impoverished communities in Melanesian urban and peri-urban informal settlements attempt to meet their WaSH needs through marketing exchange. Exchanges of all four archetypes were present, often in combination. Motivations for participating in the marketing exchanges were based on social relationships alongside WaSH needs, health aspirations and financial circumstances. By leveraging these motivations and pre-existing, self-determined marketing exchanges, WaSH practitioners may be able to foster WaSH marketing exchanges consistent with local context and capabilities, in turn improving community physical, mental and social health.