This brief provides an estimation of the annual costs of professional water services for 1,700 primary and secondary schools and 300 healthcare centres in Bangladesh’s Khulna district, based on observed data from a pilot in 171 schools and 33 healthcare centres in eight unions.
Water Quality
Costs and benefits of improving water and sanitation in slums and non-slum neighborhoods in Dhaka, a fast-growing mega-city
This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey focusing on slum and non-slum residents’ experiences with urban water supply, water pollution and flood risks and associated costs of illness (COI).
Participatory water resource management
A para-hydrology initiative in two regions of Ethiopia trained citizen scientists to collect quantitative data on rural hydrological systems. The data has been successfully used in several peer-reviewed studies to predict and assess the impact of sustainable land management interventions.
Story of Change: Protecting groundwater for climate resilience and water security in Turkana
In Turkana County, research by the University of Nairobi around Lodwar’s underlying aquifers is addressing critical data and knowledge gaps. Groundwater quality mapping indicates areas with poor groundwater quality to inform water infrastructure investments. This work contributing to new policy and practice to protect the Lodwar Alluvial Aquifer System and enhance resilience to climate risks.
REACH Exit Strategy
REACH’s Exit Strategy scopes out actions to promote the legacy of the programme, highlighting opportunities to sustain, scale-up, and scale-out our work.
Story of Change: Improving water security through Sustainable Land Management
This Story of Change discusses the role of Sustainable Land Management activities in securing water for livelihoods and household use.
Addis Ababa’s water crisis: challenges and opportunities
This brief lays out options to better monitor and manage groundwater use, and to improve the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater to support sustainability for Addis Ababa’s water supplies.
Effects of chronic exposure to arsenic on the fecal carriage of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli among people in rural Bangladesh
Antibiotic resistance is a leading cause of hospitalization and death worldwide. Heavy metals such as arsenic have been shown to drive co-selection of antibiotic resistance, suggesting arsenic-contaminated drinking water is a risk factor for antibiotic resistance carriage. By collecting drinking water and stool from mothers and their children (<1 year), the study aimed to determine the prevalence and abundance of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli among people and drinking water in high and low arsenic-contaminated areas of Bangladesh. The positive association detected between arsenic exposure and antibiotic resistance carriage among children in arsenic-affected areas in Bangladesh is an important public health concern that warrants redoubling efforts to reduce arsenic exposure.
When Water Quality Crises Drive Change: A Comparative Analysis of the Policy Processes Behind Major Water Contamination Events
This paper explore the delayed policy response to the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh through comparison with water contamination crises in other contexts
Evaluation of System-Level, Passive Chlorination in Gravity-Fed Piped Water Systems in Rural Nepal
This article presents a nonrandomized evaluation of two passive chlorination technologies for system-level water treatment in use in western Nepal. Our findings suggest that whilst safe storage, service delivery models, and reliable supply chains are required, passive chlorination technologies have the potential to radically improve rural household access to safely managed water.