Environmental Health
Environmental Health
Solid waste and faecal sludge management in situations of rapid mass displacement are important to public health and providing for a better environment. Despite this, both have been neglected in WASH programmes, which tend to have a focus on water. However increasing efforts are being made to find solutions to challenges in solid waste and… Read more
This rapid review report has identified the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) options used in emergency settings, with decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) and mobile wastewater treatment units performing most effectively and with minimal costs. Examples are taken from refugee camps and internally displaced people (IDP) settlements due to the Iraq war, the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and… Read more
K4D is facilitating a learning journey on pollution and poverty. This learning journey is designed to raise awareness of the huge impact of pollution across different sectors of international development and to encourage the integration of pollution control solutions into policymaking and programming, in a multidisciplinary approach. The journey starts by raising awareness of the… Read more
Dr Helen Elsey is from the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, University of Leeds. In this HEART Talks she talks through the urban health HEART reading packs that she has put together with Dr Siddharth Agarwal from the Urban Health Resource Centre in India. The three reading packs are: A) Data and evidence,… Read more
Resilience is an interactive concept that refers to a relative resistance to environmental risk experiences, or the overcoming of stress or adversity. As such, it differs from both social competence positive mental health. Resilience differs from traditional concepts of risk and protection in its focus on individual variations in response to comparable experiences. Accordingly, the… Read more
The Sphere Humanitarian Charter states that: All people should have access to health services that are prioritised to address the main causes of excess mortality and morbidity. There are a number of handbooks to aid prioritisation in crisis situations (highlighted in section 2 of this report): The Johns Hopkins and Red Cross Red Crescent public… Read more
A public health emergency operations centre (EOC) is a central location for coordinating operational information and resources for strategic management of public health emergencies and events. EOCs provide communication and information tools and services and a management system during a response to an emergency or event. They also provide other essential functions to support decision-making… Read more
Findings on health and nutrition management of protracted population displacement include: A synthesis of food assistance programme evaluations finds unacceptably high numbers of refugees were food-insecure, women more so than men. A review of nutrition indicators evaluating performance of nutrition programmes in more than 90 camps in 18 countries found supplementary and therapeutic feeding programmes… Read more
This document summarises the evidence and information related to water and health, encompassing drinking-water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and the development and management of water resources. It collects the ingredients that support policy decisions, namely the disease burden at stake, the effectiveness of interventions, their costs and impacts, and implications for financing. It finds that one… Read more
Evidence and comments suggest that CLTS has been successful in some cases in Africa, however it is difficult to find strong data to support this. Claims to have achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status have often been exaggerated and estimates of numbers of ODF communities inflated. Verification systems need to be improved. Another problem is… Read more
This report gives an overview of climate change and health and provides information on relevant, documents, publications and websites. WHO overview Research documents on Eldis Relevant publications Relevant websites Key facts Climate change affects the fundamental requirements for health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. The global warming that has… Read more