WSH course overview

Joe Brown, TA, KCMG, OBE

Take home messages so far:

• WSH and health are inextricably linked

• This burden is not equally distributed around the world: poor people suffer

• The situation is complex

• References: Prüss-Üstün et al. (2004, 2007)

Premises

• The problem requires action at the global and local levels

• Given the many strategies for achieving WSH-related health goals, we must be able to think critically about each

• Improving public health: the allocation of scarce resources

We are going to:• Learn how these burdens and effects of

interventions/infrastructure are measured– Monitoring and evaluation– Exposures (microbiology) and outcomes

(health/diarrheal disease)

• Draw on our tools: QMRA and epidemiology

• Learn about technologies and practices and how they are assessed

• Critically evaluate these assessments

You should be asking yourself

• What criteria and methodologies should we use in evaluating WSH interventions/infrastructure to achieve health goals?

• What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of current technologies and methods?

• How do health priorities for WSH enter into development, globally? Where can we make improvements?