Study design and baseline to evaluate water service provision among peri-urban communities in Kasai Oriental, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We present a study design and baseline results to establish the impact of interventions on peri-urban water access, security and quality in Kasai Oriental province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In standard development practice, program performance is tracked via monitoring and evaluation frameworks of varying sophistication and rigor. Monitoring and evaluation, while usually occurring nearly concurrently with program delivery, may or may not measure parameters that can identify performance with respect to the project's overall goals. Impact evaluations, often using tightly controlled trial designs and conducted over years, challenge iterative program evolution. This study will pilot an implementation science impact evaluation approach in the areas immediately surrounding 14 water service providers, at each surveying 100 randomly-selected households and conducting water quality assessments at 25 randomly-selected households and five water points every three months. We present preliminary point-of-collection and point-of-use baseline data. This study is utilizing a variety of short- and medium-term monitoring and impact evaluation methods to provide feedback at multiple points during the intervention. Rapid feedback monitoring will assess the continuity of water services, point-of-consumption and point-of-collection microbial water quality, household water security, household measures of health status, ability and willingness to pay for water and sanitation service provision, and service performance monitoring. Long-term evaluation will focus on the use of qualitative comparative analysis whereby we will investigate the combination of factors that lead to improved water access, security and quality.

User-centered design of an air quality feedback technology to promote adoption of clean cookstoves.

BACKGROUND: Recent work has examined behavioral reactivity associated with personal awareness of electronic sensors monitoring the use of environmental health products, including cookstoves. These studies suggest that sensors could be used as behavior change tools. OBJECTIVE: We present a human-centered design approach toward the development of a household air quality feedback technology intended to improve consistent and exclusive use of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stoves provided as part of a health efficacy study. METHODS: We found through a consultation process that households may be behaviorally triggered by reminders of the health and environmental impacts of cooking practices and may respond to both auditory and visual feedback. Based on these insights, we designed and validated a system linking air particulate monitoring with persistent visual feedback and a dynamic audio alarm. RESULTS: Data collected over 14 days in participants households show that the system is able to detect sudden rises in household indoor air pollution and to communicate that information to household members. SIGNIFICANCE: This device could be used as a tool to raise awareness of air pollution associated in order to stimulate adoption of cleaner cooking technologies.

Evaluating Cellular Instrumentation on Rural Handpumps to Improve Service Delivery-A Longitudinal Study in Rural Rwanda.

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, where handpumps are common, 10-67% are nonfunctional at any one time, and many never get repaired. Increased reliability requires improved monitoring and responsiveness of maintenance providers. In 2014, 181 cellular enabled water pump use sensors were installed in three provinces of Rwanda. In three arms, the nominal maintenance model was compared against a "best practice" circuit rider model, and an "ambulance" service model. In only the ambulance model was the sensor data available to the implementer, and used to dispatch technicians. The study ran for seven months in 2014-2015. In the study period, the nominal maintenance group had a median time to successful repair of approximately 152 days, with a mean per-pump functionality of about 68%. In the circuit rider group, the median time to successful repair was nearly 57 days, with a per-pump functionality mean of nearly 73%. In the ambulance service group, the successful repair interval was nearly 21 days with a functionality mean of nearly 91%. An indicative cost analysis suggests that the cost per functional pump per year is approximately similar between the three models. However, the benefits of reliable water service may justify greater focus on servicing models over installation models.