WaSH CQI: Applying continuous quality improvement methods to water service delivery in four districts of rural northern Ghana.

Continuous, safely managed water is critical to health and development, but rural service delivery faces complex challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We report the first application of continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods to improve the microbial quality of household water for consumption (HWC) and the functionality of water sources in four rural districts of northern Ghana. We further report on the impacts of interventions developed through these methods. A local CQI team was formed and trained in CQI methods. Baseline data were collected and analyzed to identify determinants of service delivery problems and microbial safety. The CQI team randomized communities, developed an improvement package, iteratively piloted it in intervention communities, and used uptake survey data to refine the package. The final improvement package comprised safe water storage containers, refresher training for community WaSH committees and replacement of missing maintenance tools. This package significantly reduced contamination of HWC (p<0.01), and significant reduction in contamination persisted two years after implementation. Repair times in both intervention and control arms decreased relative to baseline (p<0.05), but differences between intervention and control arms were not significant at endline. Further work is needed to build on the gains in household water quality observed in this work, sustain and scale these improvements, and explore applications of CQI to other aspects of water supply and sanitation.

Public­private partnerships in solid waste management: sustainable development strategies for Brazil.

An often overlooked issue in the discussion of sustainable development is that of municipal solid waste management. Yet solid waste management is pervasive in all sustainable development objectives: its management, or lack thereof, can have major implications for the health of the environment, economy and society. This article argues the need for a governance dimension in the sustainability model, taking into account implementation strategies, monitoring and institutional controls. This focus heavily relies on integrated public­private partnerships and deliberative democracy approaches in order to achieve sustainability within the solid waste management sector. In this article, national and local policies in Brazil are analysed, primarily focusing on the inclusion of informal waste collection into municipal solid waste management schemes. The city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, which is world-renowned for its innovative sustainable development policies, is used to frame and illustrate the case.

From source to sink: "official" and "improved" water in Delhi, 1868­1956.

This article examines the making of a modern colonial city through the rhetoric of 'improvement' and 'progress' in relation to water. The reference is to the history of water in the city of Delhi and what may be called 'the first science of environment' in a colonial urban context, with a focus not so much on the 'extent' of water supply and drainage, and its (in)adequacy in the colonial city, as on concerns around the '(im)purity' of water, narratives of pollution, technologies of purity and the transformations they effected in a colonial context. In doing so it hopes to build upon a rich tradition of writings on urban water, its modernisation as also its location within a colonial regime, being suggestive of a framework in which we may consider water both as infrastructure and as environment, as much a network of pipes and drains as matters of pollution and well-being, as much a story of the search for and protection of the source as of the fate of the sink into which it ultimately flows.

Effectiveness of water saving devices and educational programs in urban buildings.

In this study different water saving measures (structural and non-structural) were implemented in different urban buildings. A monitoring program of water consumption was carried out to verify and compare the effectiveness of high-efficiency plumbing fixtures and educational programs in different types of buildings (two residential houses, two Middle Schools and two Sport Centres) located in a drought experienced region (Sicily, Italy). In all cases, relevant water conservation percentages were achieved with prominent values in public buildings. The highest water conservation (up to 60%) was observed in two Middle Schools, where a large amount of water was wasted. Overall, the structural measures led to high water conservation, while the educational programs did not always improve the water saving effectiveness. These results highlight that in some urban areas the awareness of water conservation is not well established and large volumes of water are wasted, especially in public buildings, due to faulty plumbing fixtures. Governments and Environmental Agencies should promote with more effort water saving measures in order to support green building policy and global sustainability.

A balancing act: the consulting engineers' pragmatic view of process modelling.

Modelling: what do we know, what do we want to know and why? The practical application of models to real projects is often circular because these questions weren't asked prior to making the decision to model the plant under study. Modelling wastewater treatment plants can provide insight into the inner workings of the process that might not be attainable any other way, but is that added process knowledge always needed or necessary and what criteria does one use to determine the level of effort required? These complex modelling decisions require education, communication, and improved understanding amongst both modellers and clients. This submission explores the use of models by consultants for consulting purposes and the balancing acts (time versus knowledge and cost versus benefit) that the consulting engineer must manage when embarking on any modelling project.