Bangladesh Urban Health Survey 2013: Preliminary Results, October 2014.
National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT); MEASURE Evaluation, icddr,b Funded by:
US Agency for International Development, , Bangladesh, Department for International Development (DFID).
Key Findings
Child Mortality
- During 2009-2013, one in eighteen children in slums dies before reaching the fifth birthday.
- In slums, U5MR declined by 30% during the last seven years whereas IMR declined by 22%. While child mortality (CM) and neonatal mortality (NN) declined substantially during this period, post-neonatal mortality (PNN) remained largely unchanged.
Child Health
- More than half of under-five children with symptoms of ARI in slums are taken to a health facility or a medically trained provider for treatment compared to two-thirds in non-slums. However, skilled care seeking for childhood ARI improved only in slums during 2006-2013.
- Higher proportion of under-five children with ARI receives antibiotics in slums than non-slums in 2013 (47% vs. 40%).
Child Feeding and Nutrition
- Exclusive breastfeeding of children under six months approached 60 percent both in slums and non-slums, and slightly higher in other urban (66%). In both slums and non-slums, there has been a substantial increase in exclusive breastfeeding from the 2006 level.
- Only one in four children of age 6-23 months in slums are fed with proper IYCF practices, which is 40 percent for non-slums.
- Half of under-five children in slums were stunted (height-for-age below -2SD), which is around one-third for non-slums and other urban areas. Underweight among under-five children in slums (43%) is considerably higher in non-slums (26%) and other urban areas (30%).
- In the last seven years, there has only been a slight improvement in nutritional status in both slums and non-slums.
- In all urban domains, overall wasting rate surpassed the WHO specified emergency level (15%). In both slum and non-slum areas, wasting has increased in the last seven years
Ecohealth Approach to Urban Waste Management: Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and Health Risks in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, Oct 2014, 11(10).
Authors: Parfait K. Kouamé, Kouassi Dongo, et al.
We undertook trans-disciplinary research within an Ecohealth approach, comprised of a participatory workshop with stakeholders and mapping of exposure patterns. A total of 492 randomly selected households participated in a cross-sectional survey. Waste deposit sites were characterised and 108 wastewater samples were subjected to laboratory examinations. The physico-chemical parameters of the surface water (temperature, pH, conductivity, potential oxidise reduction, BOD5, COD, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, ammonia and total Kendal nitrogen) did not comply with World Health Organization standards of surface water quality.
Questionnaire results showed that malaria was the most commonly reported disease. Diarrhoea and malaria were associated with poor sanitation. Households having dry latrines had a higher risk of diarrhoea (odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–2.7) compared to latrines with septic tanks and also a higher risk for malaria (OR = 1.9, 95% (CI) 1.1–3.3). Our research showed that combining health and environmental assessments enables a deeper understanding of environmental threats and disease burdens linked to poor waste management. Further study should investigate the sanitation strategy aspects that could reduce the environmental and health risks in the study area.
Emerging contaminants in urban groundwater sources in Africa. Water Research, Available online 13 August 2014.
Authors: J.P.R. Sorensen, D.J. Lapworth, et al.
Highlights
• First study to do broad screening for emerging contaminants in water in Africa.
• DEET is omnipresent in groundwater.
• Less frequently detected compounds include triclosan, trihalomethanes and pesticides.
• Contaminants were most prevalent in hand-dug wells in low income residential areas.
• Seasonal changes in DEET highlight its mobility and aquifer vulnerability.
The occurrence of emerging organic contaminants within the aquatic environment in Africa is currently unknown. This study provides early insights by characterising a broad range of emerging organic contaminants (n > 1000) in groundwater sources in Kabwe, Zambia. Groundwater samples were obtained during both the dry and wet seasons from a selection of deep boreholes and shallow wells completed within the bedrock and overlying superficial aquifers, respectively. Groundwater sources were distributed across the city to encompass peri-urban, lower cost housing, higher cost housing, and industrial land uses. The insect repellent DEET was ubiquitous within groundwater at concentrations up to 1.8 μg/L. Other compounds (n = 26) were detected in less than 15% of the sources and included the bactericide triclosan (up to 0.03 μg/L), chlorination by-products – trihalomethanes (up to 50 μg/L), and the surfactant 2,4,7,9-tetramethyl-5-decyne-4,7-diol (up to 0.6 μg/L). Emerging contaminants were most prevalent in shallow wells sited in low cost housing areas. This is attributed to localised vulnerability associated with inadequate well protection, sanitation, and household waste disposal.
The five-fold increase in median DEET concentration following the onset of the seasonal rains highlights that more mobile compounds can rapidly migrate from the surface to the aquifer suggesting the aquifer is more vulnerable than previously considered. Furthermore it suggests DEET is potentially useful as a wastewater tracer in Africa. There was a general absence of personal care products, life-style compounds, and pharmaceuticals which are commonly detected in the aquatic environment in the developed world. This perhaps reflects some degree of attenuation within the subsurface, but could also be a result of the current limited use of products containing emerging contaminants by locals due to unaffordability and unavailability. As development and population increases in Africa, it is likely a wider-range of emerging contaminants will be released into the environment.
The Limits and Possibilities of Prepaid Water in Urban Africa: Lessons from the Field, 2014.
Authors: Chris Heymans, Kathy Eales and Richard Franceys. Water and Sanitation Program.
This study explores the potential of prepaid meters for serving urban poor communities. It provides urban utilities, oversight agencies, and other stakeholders in Africa with a basis for decision-making on the suitability, introduction, and management of such meters. The need for the assessment emerged from prepaid meters.
Of the three applications, prepaid public standpipes seem most likely to enable water utilities to serve poor households better and offset investment and running costs. This capability is contingent on a distribution network with adequate pressure, the existence of convenient credit purchase points, and a strong customer service component to address faults promptly.
This report identifies and discusses key areas in which policy reform, improved regulation, and innovative operational practice could help make the use of prepaid water systems conducive to serving poor people. Key suggestions about the way forward include:
Be clear about the priority: Reaching people without their own connections. Prepaid systems’ core potential is in addressing the fact that many urban Africans still do not have their own water connections and remain outside the reach of subsidy regimes. Prepayment does not offer an obvious answer to these challenges, but some of these systems’ attributes may provide a tool for addressing them in certain circumstances.
Running water in India’s cities : a review of five recent public-private partnership initiatives, 2014. World Bank.
Authors: Kacker, Suneetha Dasappa; Ramanujam, SR; Miller, Tracey.
India is home to more than 370 million people in urban areas. Historically, almost all water supply provision has been managed by the public sector through municipal or state-level departments or parastatals. Benchmarking initiatives show that coverage through piped water supply ranges between 55 percent and 89 percent in urban areas. Per capita availability is fairly high, at 90 to 120 liters per day, but no city yet offers continuous water supply. Daily supply averages four hours, with many cities alternating supply every other day.
These challenges occur in a context of weak management systems and little data on existing assets, which makes it difficult to assess investment needs and time lines to improve service levels and operational efficiencies. While investment requirements are likely to be significant, it is recognized that investments alone will not be effective unless the country simultaneously addresses related issues such as complex and fragmented institutions with little accountability; lack of capacity to run utilities efficiently and meet performance standards; weak commercial orientation; interference in utility operations by external entities; and the absence of a regulatory framework focused on customer service and financial sustainability.
Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Urban Slums: Experiences from Nairobi, Kenya. Journal of Urban Health,
August 2014.
Authors: E. W. Kimani-Murage, L. Schofield, F. Wekesah, S. Mohamed, B. Mberu, R. Ettarh, T. Egondi, C. Kyobutungi, A. Ezeh
This study describes the food security situation among slum residents in Nairobi, with specific focus on vulnerability associated with the 2007/2008 post election crisis in Kenya. The study found high prevalence of food insecurity; 85 % of the households were food insecure, with 50 % being severely food insecure. Factors associated with food security include level of income, source of livelihood, household size, dependence ratio; illness, perceived insecurity and slum of residence. The qualitative narratives highlighted household vulnerability to food insecurity as commonplace but critical during times of crisis.
Respondents indicated that residents in the slums generally eat for bare survival, with little concern for quality. The narratives described heightened vulnerability during the 2007/2008 post election violence in Kenya in the perception of slum residents. Prices of staple foods like maize flour doubled and simultaneously household purchasing power was eroded due to worsened unemployment situation. The use of negative coping strategies to address food insecurity such as reducing the number of meals, reducing food variety and quality, scavenging, and eating street foods was prevalent.
In conclusion, this study describes the deeply intertwined nature of chronic poverty and acute crisis, and the subsequent high levels of food insecurity in urban slum settings. Households are extremely vulnerable to food insecurity; the situation worsening during periods of crisis in the perception of slum residents, engendering frequent use of negative coping strategies. Effective response to addressing vulnerability to household food insecurity among the urban poor should focus on both the underlying vulnerabilities of households due to chronic poverty and added impacts of acute crises.
Levels & Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2014. UNICEF.
Substantial global progress has been made inreducing child deaths since 1990. The number ofunder-five deaths worldwide has declined from12.7 (12.5, 12.9)1 million in 1990 to 6.3 (6.1, 6.7)million in 2013. While that translates into around17,000 fewer children dying every day in 2013than in 1990, it still implies the deaths of about17,000 children under age five every day in 2013.
The leading causes of death among childrenunder age five include preterm birth complications (17 percent of under-five deaths),pneumonia (15 percent), intrapartum-relatedcomplications (complications during labour anddelivery; 11 percent), diarrhoea (9 percent) andmalaria (7 percent). Globally, nearly half of under-five deaths are attributable to undernutrition.
The global under-five mortality rate is fallingfaster than at any other time during thepast two decades. The global annual rateof reduction has steadily accelerated since1990–1995—more than tripling from 1.2percent to 4.0 percent in 2005–2013.
Designing the next generation of sanitation businesses: a report by HYSTRA for the Toilet Board Coalition, 2014.
Fortunately, a number of market-based models have emerged in both rural and urban areas to address the sanitation crisis. They all serve the Base of the Pyramid in a sustainable manner by offering improved solutions, at a price that the poor are willing and able to pay. In this Report, we analyze two models that combine an aspirational value proposition for low-income families and a strong potential for financial sustainability: projects that facilitate the creation of a local, sanitation market in rural areas and enterprises servicing home mobile toilets in urban areas.
Based on an in-depth analysis of 12 projects representative of these two models, the Report suggests strategies to overcome challenges to sustainability and scale. Finally, the Report explores how these models would benefit from corporate and industrial expertise and resources, opening up opportunities for large corporations to contribute to solving the sanitation crisis.
Population and Health Dynamics in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements, 2014. African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).
This report documents the living conditions and health risks of slum-dwellers across Nairobi’s informal settlements a decade after the Nairobi Cross-sectional Slums Survey of 2000 (NCSS 2000). It aims to not only highlight the needs of slum-dwellers but also inform policymakers on the changes that have occurred in the living conditions of Nairobi’s urban poor since 2000, considering development interventions by the Government of Kenya (GoK) and its development partners. The primary objective of the NCSS 2000 report was to document population and health problems among the residents of Nairobi’s informal settlements and to compare these with indicators from national surveys for other sub-groups of the Kenyan population. The survey report, Population and Health Dynamics in Nairobi‘s Informal Settlements, for the first time brought to light the plight of slum residents in Kenya.
Hitherto, this plight had remained hidden in national data systems and urban averages. In particular, the survey brought to focus the excess mortality and disease burden among the urban poor compared to any other subgroup in the country; their limited access to health care and family planning services; and the debilitating environment that characterizes their physical living conditions, including inadequate access to water and sanitation, poor housing conditions, poor livelihood opportunities and the near-absence of public sector services. A decade after the NCSS 2000, it became critical to revisit the slums of Nairobi to take stock of the changes that had taken place since 2000. The current report is guided by these key questions:
- Are the needs of the slum-dwellers still the same?
- What has really changed since the last report?
- What are the new areas of focus to improve the well-being of the slum-dwellers?
Urbanization and health in developing countries: a systematic review. World Health Popul. 2014;15(1):7-20.
Authors: Eckert S, Kohler S. Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany.
BACKGROUND: Future population growth will take place predominantly in cities of the developing world. The impact of urbanization on health is discussed controversially. We review recent research on urban-rural and intra-urban health differences in developing countries and investigate whether a health advantage was found for urban areas.
METHODS: We systematically searched the databases JSTOR, PubMed, ScienceDirect and SSRN for studies that compare health status in urban and rural areas. The studies had to examine selected World Health Organization health indicators.
RESULTS: Eleven studies of the association between urbanization and the selected health indicators in developing countries met our selection criteria. Urbanization was associated with a lower risk of undernutrition but a higher risk of overweight in children. A lower total fertility rate and lower odds of giving birth were found for urban areas. The association between urbanization and life expectancy was positive but insignificant. Common risk factors for chronic diseases were more prevalent in urban areas. Urban-rural differences in mortality from communicable diseases depended on the disease studied.
CONCLUSION: Several health outcomes were correlated with urbanization in developing countries. Urbanization may improve some health problems developing countries face and worsen others. Therefore, urbanization itself should not be embraced as a solution to health problems but should be accompanied by an informed and reactive health policy.
