Solid Waste Management in Asian Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities

August 16, 2012 · 0 comments

J. Appl. Environ. Biol. Sci., 2(7)329-335, 2012

Solid Waste Management in Asian Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities

Yeny Dhokhikah, et al.

In developing countries the rapid population, industrialization, urbanization and growth of economic contribute to increasing solid waste (SW) generation. This paper reviews the existing management of SW and the current problem of collection, transportation and disposal processes in Asian developing countries. We provide alternative solutions.

SW generation is between  0.4-1.62 kg/capita/day; the  composition of biodegradableorganic waste in is range  of  42 to  80.2%.  The trend of plastic waste continues to  increase. The common problems are: no separation at source, complicated collection processes, open dumped landfills, and no control of  gas emissions  and leachate  in landfills.

Classification of developing countries was based on World Bank criteria. This paper reviewed the  existing  conditions and current problems of solid waste management (SWM) in Asian developing countries, and find alternative solutions to reduce waste generation. Solid waste management (SWM) was assessed by mean of technical and social approaches. It was found that SWM was country specific, and decentralization is the most appropriate management approach.

India outlines plans for National Urban Health Mission

August 14, 2012 · 0 comments

India outlines plans for National Urban Health Mission, The Lancet, Volume 380, Issue 9841, Page 550, 11 August 2012

Soumyadeep Bhaumik

The Indian Government is planning to launch a new urban health-care programme in its latest step towards universal health-care coverage in the country. 

In a recent speech at one of India’s premier medical institutes, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talked publicly about the government’s plans to launch a special programme aimed at improving the health of the urban population. Termed the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), the initiative will follow on from the flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched 7 years ago to improve access to health care in rural parts of India. The Prime Minister also expressed hope that the two programmes together will in the future lead to a unified National Health Mission.

In 2005, the NRHM launched with the aim of improving the then abysmal health-care delivery system across rural India. The NRHM, though marred with issues of poor governance and corruption, has been instrumental in improving several health indicators particularly with respect to maternal and child health. However, unlike the millions who benefited from the rural programme, the urban poor, owing to the absence of any comprehensive health programme, have largely been left to fend for themselves. NUHM is set to cover the country’s seven big metropolitan areas and 772 cities with a population of more than 50 000 people. The government plans to invest more than INR225 billion into the health-care sector via NUHM.

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Sanitation facilities in Kampala slums, Uganda: users’ satisfaction and determinant factors.

August 10, 2012 · 0 comments

Int J Environ Health Res. 2012 Aug 9.

Sanitation facilities in Kampala slums, Uganda: users’ satisfaction and determinant factors.

Tumwebaze IK, Orach CG, Niwagaba C, Luthi C, Mosler HJ.

Access to improved sanitation is a key preventive measure against sanitary-related gastro-enteric diseases such as diarrhoea. We assessed the access to sanitation facilities and users’ satisfaction in 50 randomly selected slums of Kampala through a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2010. A total of 1500 household respondents were interviewed. Sixty-eight per cent of the respondents used shared toilets, 20% private, 11% public toilets and less than 1% reported using flying toilets or practising open defecation.

More than half of the respondents (51.7%) were not satisfied with their sanitation facilities. Determinants for satisfaction with the facilities used included the nature and type of toilet facilities used, their cleanliness, and the number of families sharing them. The study findings showed that slum dwellers had high access to sanitation facilities. However, most of them were shared and majority of the respondents were not satisfied with their facilities, primarily due to cleanliness and over demand.

Urban slums and children’s health in less-developed countries

August 9, 2012 · 0 comments

URBAN SLUMS AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH IN LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, 2012.

Andrew K Jorgenson, James Rice

We utilize first-difference panel regression analysis to assess the direct effect of urban slum prevalence on national level measures of under-5 mortality rates over the period 1990 to 2005. Utilizing data on 80 less developed countries, the results illustrate increasing urban slum prevalence over the period is a robust predictor of increasing child mortality rates. This effect obtains net the statistically significant influence of gross domestic product per capita, fertility rate, and educational enrollment.

Cross-sectional analyses for 2005 that include additional controls provide further evidence of the mortality/urban slum relationship. The results confirm urban slum prevalence growth is an important contextual dynamic whereby the social production of child mortality is enacted in the less developed countries.

Effects of distance from a heavily transited avenue on asthma and atopy in a periurban shantytown

August 9, 2012 · 0 comments

J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2011 Apr

Effects of distance from a heavily transited avenue on asthma and atopy in a periurban shantytown in Lima, Peru.

Baumann LM, Robinson CL, Combe JM, Gomez A, Romero K, Gilman RH, Cabrera L, Hansel NN, Wise RA, Breysse PN, Barnes K, Hernandez JE, Checkley W.

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.

BACKGROUND: Proximity to roadways increases the risk of asthma in developed countries; however, relatively little is known about this relationship in developing countries, where rapid and uncontrolled growth of cities has resulted in urban sprawl and heavy traffic volumes.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the effect of distance from a heavily transited avenue on asthma symptoms and quantitative respiratory outcome measures in a periurban shantytown in Lima, Peru.

METHODS: We enrolled 725 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years who were administered a survey on asthma symptoms and measured spirometry, response to allergy skin testing, and exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). We calculated distances from the main avenue for all households and measured indoor particulate matter in 100 households. We used multivariable regression to model the risk of asthma symptoms, risk of atopy, eNO levels, and FEV(1)/forced vital capacity ratio as a function of distance.

RESULTS: Compared against 384 meters, the odds of current asthma symptoms in households living within 100 meters increased by a factor of 2 (P < .05). The odds of atopy increased by a factor of 1.07 for every 100-meter difference in the distance from the avenue (P = .03). We found an inverse relationship in prebronchodilator FEV(1)/forced vital capacity and distance to the avenue in female subjects (P = .01) but not in male subjects. We did not find an association between eNO or household particulate matter levels and distance.

CONCLUSION: Living in close proximity to a high-traffic-density avenue in a periurban community in Peru was associated with a greater risk of asthma symptoms and atopy. Regulation of mobile-source pollutants in periurban areas of developing countries might help reduce the burden of asthma symptoms and atopy.

A Policy Analysis of the implementation of a Reproductive Health Vouchers Program in Kenya

August 9, 2012 · 0 comments

BMC Public Health. 2012 Jul 23;12(1):540.

A Policy Analysis of the implementation of a Reproductive Health Vouchers Program in Kenya.

Abuya T, Njuki R, Warren C, Okal J, Onyango F, Kanya L, Askew I, Bellows B.

BACKGROUND: Innovative financing strategies such as those that integrate supply and demand elements like the output-based approach (OBA) have been implemented to reduce financial barriers to maternal health services. The Kenyan government with support from the German Development Bank (KfW) implemented an OBA voucher program to subsidize priority reproductive health services. Little evidence exists on the experience of implementing such programs in different settings. We describe the implementation process of the Kenyan OBA program and draw implications for scale up.

METHODS: Policy analysis using document review and qualitative data from 10 in-depth interviews with facility in-charges and 18 with service providers from the contracted facilities, local administration, health and field managers in Kitui, Kiambu and Kisumu districts as well as Korogocho and Viwandani slums in Nairobi.

RESULTS: The OBA implementation process was designed in phases providing an opportunity for learning and adapting the lessons to local settings; the design consisted of five components: a defined benefit package, contracting and quality assurance; marketing and distribution of vouchers and claims processing and reimbursement. Key implementation challenges included limited feedback to providers on the outcomes of quality assurance and accreditation and budgetary constraints that limited effective marketing and led to inadequate information to clients on the benefit package. Claims processing and reimbursement was sophisticated but required adherence to time consuming procedure and in some cases private providers complained of low reimbursement rates for services provided.

CONCLUSIONS: Voucher schemes can be implemented successfully. For effective scale up, strong partnership will be required between the public and private entities. The government’s role is key and should include provision of adequate funding, stewardship and look for opportunities to utilize existing platforms to scale up such strategies.

Gender Responsive Budget Analysis in Water and Sanitation

August 1, 2012 · 0 comments

Gender Responsive Budget Analysis in Water and Sanitation: A Study of Two Resettlement Colonies (Jhuggi Jhopri Clusters) in Delhi, 2012.

Gyana Ranjan Panda; Trisha Agarwala

Following the methodology of Budget Analysis and PETS, the paper studies the Gender Responsive Budgeting in the fields of urban water and sanitation in Delhi region, with a focus on two resettlement colonies as primary areas of inquiry, in order to ascertain the hypothesis that the budgeting and planning significantly and disproportionately impacts the lives of women and girls as compared to men and boys. The study finds that various policies and schemes pertaining to urban water and sanitation in India can be categorised as ‘gender blind’ since these do not recognise the gender-based disadvantages in accessing safe water supply and also accessing sanitation, sewerage and drainage.

The analysis of Budget of Delhi suggests that though the State Government has recognised water and sanitation services in the region as the most prioritised area of government interventions after transport in its Five Year Planning, however, its budgetary allocations in the real sense have gone down over the years. It is also observed that the overall budgetary allocation for water and sanitation in the resettlement colonies and for Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters is grossly inadequate and not in sync with the needs and effective level of
service delivery in the urban settlements. Inadequacy of funds for these areas is surely a cause of concern.

The problem is also compounded due to ownership and accountability issues pertaining to the development of water and sanitation facilities in the relocation colonies of Bawana and Bhalaswa. There is utter confusion and the lack of effective collaboration and consultation among various implementing agencies on the level of service delivery. Finally, the paper finds that the efforts of bringing out a ‘Gender Responsive Budgeting’ in India have been a cosmetic exercise so far.

Study Reveals Alarming Prevalence of Gender-Based Violence in Dhaka’s Slums Report

August 1, 2012 · 0 comments

Study Reveals Alarming Prevalence of Gender-Based Violence in Dhaka’s Slums Report

Source: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, July 2012.

A baseline study undertaken by icddr,b and Population Council in the slums of Mohakhali, Mohammadpur and Jatrabari reveals that women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights are consistently being violated, with gender-based violence occurring at alarming rates. According to the study, 76% of the women surveyed had endured physical or sexual abuse during the past 12 months, with 43% having suffered both physical and sexual abuse. 85% reported that their husbands restricted their access to health care.

The findings were shared at a seminar organised by the action research project Growing up Safe and Healthy (SAFE): Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Violence against Adolescent Girls and Women in Urban Bangladesh, which was held on Thursday, 12 July 2012 in the Sasakawa Auditorium. In her closing speech, Chief Guest, Advocate Tarana Halim, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh commented that “We must implement existing laws to give the women of Bangladesh their rights.”

Dr. Ruchira Tabassum Naved, Principal Investigator of the SAFE project and Research Group Coordinator of the Gender, Health, Human Rights & Violence against Women Research Group (under the Centre for Equity and Health Systems) said, “Our findings clearly demonstrate high rates of child marriage and denial of other sexual and reproductive rights of the women and girls in the slums. We hope SAFE will be able to show which interventions are useful and which are not.”

Mapping Urban Malaria and Diarrhea Mortality in Accra, Ghana

August 1, 2012 · 0 comments

JOURNAL OF URBAN HEALTH, 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s11524-012-9702-x

Mapping Urban Malaria and Diarrhea Mortality in Accra, Ghana: Evidence of Vulnerabilities and Implications for Urban Health Policy

Julius N. Fobil, Christian Levers, Tobia Lakes, Wibke Loag, Alexander Kraemer and Juergen May

Historic increase in urban population numbers in the face of shrinking urban economies and declining social services has meant that a large proportion of the urban population lives in precarious urban conditions, which provide the grounds for high urban health risks in low income countries.

This study aims to identify, investigate, and contrast the spatial patterns of vulnerability and risk of two major causes of mortality, viz malaria and diarrhea mortalities, in order to optimize resource allocation for effective urban environmental management and improvement in urban health. A spatial cluster analysis of the observed urban malaria and diarrhea mortalities for the whole city of Accra was conducted. We obtained routinely reported mortality data for the period 1998–2002 from the Ghana Vital Registration System (VRS), computed the fraction of deaths due to malaria and diarrhea at the census cluster level, and analyzed and visualized the data with Geographic Information System (GIS, ArcMap 9.3.1).

Regions of identified hotspots, cold spots, and excess mortalities were observed to be associated with some socioeconomic and neighborhood urban environmental conditions, suggesting uneven distribution of risk factors for both urban malaria and diarrhea in areas of rapid urban transformation. Case–control and/or longitudinal studies seeking to understand the individual level factors which mediate socioenvironmental conditions in explaining the observed excess urban mortalities and to establish the full range of risk factors might benefit from initial vulnerability mapping and excess risk analysis using geostatistical approaches. This is key to evidence-based urban health policy reforms in rapidly urbanizing areas in low income economies.

WSUP – Mozambique Communal Sanitation in Mozambique Video

July 26, 2012 · 0 comments

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