A few years ago I was surprised by an ourworldindata.org graph on diarrheal disease deaths by age, and a conversation today prompted me to look deeper into it. The data show that more over-70s die of diarrhoea than under-5s worldwide, and the trend has only got stronger with the new GBD 2023 data. On the… Continue reading More over-70s die of diarrhoea than under-5s
New meta-analysis – handwashing promotion reduces respiratory infections by 17%
Our study was just published in the Lancet, a great collaboration between a team from LSHTM*, WHO, UBC/IHME, and Emory. It’s a meta-analysis of interventions promoting handwashing with soap (HWWS) and their effectiveness in preventing acute respiratory infections (ARI) in low-income and middle-income countries (L&MICs). Our key result is that HWWS can reduce cases of… Continue reading New meta-analysis – handwashing promotion reduces respiratory infections by 17%
The intrinsic and instrumental value of water & sanitation
Value is a critical concept in economics and philosophy. Economics is a discipline concerned with resource allocation informed by the value placed on alternative uses of those resources. In welfarist economics, value is taken as the strength of preference for a good or service (Brouwer et al., 2008). In that paradigm, strength of preference can… Continue reading The intrinsic and instrumental value of water & sanitation
Adapting WASH services to climate change – the “low-regrets” principle and benefit-cost analysis
Summary: the severity of climate impacts on WASH services is uncertain. “Low-regrets” investments or interventions are those which generate net economic benefits under a range of the most plausible scenarios of climate impact severity. The concept is explored in Figure 1, which illustrates relationships between net benefits and the severity of climate impacts for different… Continue reading Adapting WASH services to climate change – the “low-regrets” principle and benefit-cost analysis
What counts as a “handwashing facility” in global monitoring?
I've previously written about defining hygiene. In this post, I discuss what counts as a "handwashing facility" (HWF) for global monitoring purposes. Points arising that may not be obvious include: (i) an on-plot water point can be considered a HWF if that's where handwashing is most often practised (e.g. tubewell with handpump, yard tap); (ii)… Continue reading What counts as a “handwashing facility” in global monitoring?
Planetary health and WASH: causes and consequences
What is planetary health? Humanity is emitting too much CO2 and using ever-increasing amounts of energy and water. The human population is set to swell for the foreseeable, requiring both more food and the water to grow it. At the same time, climate change is threatening progress across the board. These trends have spurred a… Continue reading Planetary health and WASH: causes and consequences
Human capital and WASH – a note
Possible mechanisms by which WASH increases human capital In labour economics, human capital is a worker’s stock of knowledge and skills which contributes to their productivity and earnings. Human capital accumulation is a process of developing skills within and beyond cognitive domains, in which the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are crucial. In… Continue reading Human capital and WASH – a note
What is hygiene?
My rough Venn diagram of aspects of hygiene I’ve been doing a fair amount of work on hand hygiene since November, e.g. this piece on the economics of hygiene for the Hygiene Hub and some costing work for WHO/UNICEF. It bothered me that definitions were not clear, so I put together this Venn diagram. It… Continue reading What is hygiene?
What is transformative WASH?
Figure 1: Transformative in respect of what? This post summarises a note I have drafted on the definition of "transformative WASH", available here, with references. There has been a lot of talk about “transformative” WASH since the WASH-B, SHINE and MapSan results came out. I have previously written about those results here. The argument runs… Continue reading What is transformative WASH?
Quality of what? From whose perspective? Thoughts on measuring sanitation quality
Yesterday I was on a panel at the UNC Water and Health conference side-event entitled “What is “Quality” Sanitation? Investigating Service Standards and User Experience in Rural and Urban Settings”. You can watch back the event here (if registered for the conference, which is free). Below follows some of my views on the measurement of… Continue reading Quality of what? From whose perspective? Thoughts on measuring sanitation quality
WASHeconomics.com 