Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is a common disinfection option for water treatment in the developed world. There are a few systems installed in developing countries for point-of-use treatment, but the low-pressure mercury lamps currently used as the UV irradiation source have a number of sustainability issues including a fragile envelope, a lifetime of approximately one year, and they contain mercury. UV light emitting diodes (LEDs) may offer solutions to many of the sustainability issues presented by current UV systems. LEDs are small, efficient, have long lifetimes, and do not contain mercury. Germicidal UV LEDs emitting at 265 nm were evaluated for inactivation of E. coli in water and compared to conventional low-pressure UV lamps. Both systems provided an equivalent level of treatment. A UV-LED prototype was developed and evaluated as a proof-ofconcept of this technology for a point-of-use disinfection option, and the economics of UV-LEDs were evaluated.

BackgroundContinued management of sanitation and hygiene services, post-intervention, is a global challenge, particularly in the school-setting. This situation threatens anticipated impacts of school sanitation and hygiene investments. To improve programming and policies, and increase the effectiveness of limited development resources, we seek to understand how and why some schools have well-managed sanitation post-intervention, while others do not.MethodsBased on in-depth qualitative data from 16 case schools in Meherpur, Bangladesh, we employ fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions, or combinations of conditions (referred to as pathways), that lead to either well-managed or poorly managed school sanitation. We include posited sustainability determinants from the literature and factors that emerged from the cases themselves in the analysis.ResultsWe identified three distinct pathways sufficient to support well-managed services, providing multiple options for how well-managed school sanitation could be encouraged. Two of these are applicable to both government and non-government schools: (1) quality construction, financial community support and a champion; and (2) quality construction, financial government support, a maintenance plan and school management committee involvement. On-going financial support for operations and maintenance was identified as a necessary condition for continued service management, which was absent from many schools with poorly managed services. However, financial support was insufficient alone and other conditions are needed in conjunction, including quality construction and incentivizing conditions, such as school management committee involvement in sanitation specifically, a sanitation champion, and/or one teacher clearly responsible for toilet maintenance. Surprisingly, the number of students per toilet (ranging from 18–95 students) and toilet age (ranging from 8–32 months) had no significant effect on sanitation conditions.ConclusionsFindings corroborate those from a similar study in Belize, and comparison suggests the need for financial community support and the possibly tenuous reliance on local champions in the absence of adequate government support for operations and maintenance. Sub-determinants to the necessary conditions are also discussed which have implications for school sanitation in Bangladesh and may have broader relevance for other low-income countries though further research is needed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), through the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), are responsible for global monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The SDGs represent a fundamental shift in household WASH monitoring with a new focus on service levels and the incorporation of hygiene. This article reflects on the process of establishing SDG baselines and the methods used to generate national, regional and global estimates for the new household WASH indicators. The JMP 2017 update drew on over 3000 national data sources, primarily household surveys (n = 1443), censuses (n = 309) and administrative data (n = 1494). Whereas most countries could generate estimates for basic drinking water and basic sanitation, fewer countries could report on basic handwashing facilities, water quality and the disposal of waste from onsite sanitation. Based on data for 96 and 84 countries, respectively, the JMP estimates that globally 2.1 billion (29%) people lacked safely managed drinking water services and 4.5 billion (61%) lacked safely managed sanitation services in 2015. The expanded JMP inequalities database also finds substantial disparities by wealth and sub-national regions. The SDG baselines for household WASH reveal the scale of the challenge associated with achieving universal safely managed services and the substantial acceleration needed in many countries to achieve even basic services for everyone by 2030. Many countries have begun to localise the global SDG targets and are investing in data collection to address the SDG data gaps, whether through the integration of new elements in household surveys or strengthening collection and reporting of information through administrative and regulatory systems.

Despite an increasing focus on school-based water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions in less-developed countries, we lack an understanding of what combinations of conditions are sufficient for their continued maintenance post-implementation. We use a novel method, qualitative comparative analysis, to determine what pathways lead to well-maintained school toilets, as an indicator of continued maintenance of WASH services. Results from 15 case schools in Belize reveal five pathways to well-maintained school sanitation, and three pathways to poorly maintained services. Common conditions in the pathways to well-maintained toilets include local involvement upfront, quality construction, and the presence of a local champion; while conditions common in the pathways to poorly maintained toilets include the absence of the aforementioned conditions, in addition to vandalism and a lack of community support for maintenance. The familiarity of the technology is as common in the pathways to well-maintained toilets as poorly maintained toilets, suggesting that though technology choice is important, quality construction and social conditions may have a stronger influence on maintenance. Qualitative information is presented to support further discussion of the six conditions, including factors linked to their presence that may support improvements in Belize and have implications for school WASH services in other low-income settings.

The inclusion of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in non-household settings in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) elicits the need for data to track progress over time. This review focuses on schools and health care facilities, and seeks to: (1) assess the availability of SDG baseline data for ten case study countries; (2) evaluate the extent to which existing national data allow monitoring against the SDG criteria; and (3) identify opportunities to improve the availability and quality of data for SDG monitoring. While none of the ten countries could provide all of the data needed to establish comprehensive SDG baselines, every country had information on at least some of the indicators. Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) currently provide the majority of national data on WASH in schools and, in many cases, could be aligned with the SDG criteria with only minor changes. Far fewer data are available for health care facilities. Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) provide a potential entry point for national monitoring. However, where HMIS are administered monthly, annual data collection instruments, such as facility inventory surveys, may be more appropriate. These findings have implications for monitoring WASH in other settings, such as workplaces and prisons.