Recent sanitation/WASH research.
Behavioral antecedents for handwashing in a low-income urban setting in Bangladesh: an exploratory study.
Provision versus promotion to develop a handwashing station: the effect on desired handwashing behavior.
We conducted a three-month pilot intervention to evaluate two options for setting up handwashing stations: i) provide a handwashing station, or ii) help the family to make their own from available materials.
Impact of Community Health Clubs on Diarrhea and Anthropometry in Western Rwanda: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.
FASEB Jnl, May 2017.
Our results raise questions about the value of implementing this intervention at scale.
Diet Quality, Water and Toilets Remain a Lingering Challenge for Undernutrition in India.
(Abstract/order) – Teacher training and installation of water stations resulted in observed improvements in pupils’ hygiene, particularly when water stations were located Consistency of Use and Effectiveness of Household Water Treatment Among Indian Households Claiming to Treat Their Water.
Adding a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Intervention and a Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplement to an Integrated Agriculture and Nutrition Program Improved the Nutritional Status of Young Burkinabé Children.

Patagonia’s Clean Color collection features plant-based dyes.
In a radical move away from synthetic dyes, the Clean Color line features soft earth tones made from food waste, silkworm excrement, and dried beetles.
Take a quick glance at Patagonia’s new Clean Color clothing collection, and you’ll notice that there’s not a lot of variation when it comes to color.
All the pieces are either green, brown, pink, gray, cream, or a combination.
This is because they’ve been dyed with natural ingredients – palmetto and mulberry leaves, pomegranate rinds, citrus peels, cochineal beetles, silkworm excrement, and leftover fruit – which restricts the color palette but produces beautiful soft hues that are cleaner and safer than their synthetic counterparts.
Patagonia has always been one to push the limits of innovative and environmentally responsible manufacturing, and this is just one more example of its forward-thinking approach.
In the company’s 2016 guide, “The Responsible Company,” founder Yvon Chouinard wrote about some of the problems with the dyeing industry: “The textile industry is one of the most chemically intensive industries on earth, second only to agriculture, and the world’s largest polluter of increasingly scarce freshwater.
The World Bank estimates nearly 20 percent of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment.
"Wastewater that goes – often illegally – untreated or partially treated returns to a river, where it heats the water, increases its pH, and saturates it with dyes, finishes, and fixatives, which in turn leave a residue of salts and metals that leach into farmland or settle into the viscera of fish.” Patagonia currently uses a company called Swisstex California to dye its fabrics, with a special process that uses half as much water as an average dyehouse in the United States and treats all wastewater fully before releasing it.
But clearly the company wants to take it further with their introduction of these natural dyes.

2 Billion People Drink Contaminated Water, Says WHO.
The most serious threats are in impoverished and developing areas.
Although there has been a push for safe drinking water by the UN General Assembly, which led to a 4.9 percent increase in budgets worldwide, most countries say it is not enough.
The report found that 80 percent of countries are not adequately meeting the UN standards.
In a statement WHO said when people can’t provide the most basic necessities, like repairing infrastructure, water safety and reliability is sacrificed first.
"This is a challenge we have the ability to solve," Guy Ryder, chair of UN-Water and director-general of the International Labour Organization, said.
"Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind."
This is a heavy burden on local communities, but as Ryder said, it is possible.
To really meet UN standards, the world budget for drinking water would have to triple, that’s $114 billion annually, to provide underserved areas.
Governments can also step up their game by increasing and sustaining WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) access for vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas.

Tripling infrastructure investment will make global water access a reality.
Countries are not investing in infrastructure fast enough to meet water and sanitation targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report published by World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio,” Dr Maria Neira, director of the department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health at the WHO said.
“Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma,” she added.
Global water budgets The report stressed that countries would not meet global goals of universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
Yet, 80% of countries report that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally defined targets for WASH services.
Lack of infrastructure The report showed that in many developing countries, current national coverage targets are based on achieving access to basic infrastructure, which may not always provide continuously safe and reliable services.
While the infrastructure funding gap remains vast, 147 countries have already showed their ability to mobilise the resources required to meet the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without an improved source of water, while 95 countries met the corresponding target for sanitation.
These include taxes, tariffs (payments and labour from households), and transfers from donors.
“This is a challenge we have the ability to solve,” Guy Ryder, UN-Water chair said.

‘Multiple sources’ may be to blame for Parlee Beach water contamination.
But "from what I’m hearing … there seems to be multiple sources."
On Wednesday, the government announced Canadian recreational water quality guidelines will be adopted for Parlee Beach, starting this summer.
Changes will include more frequent testing at more locations, easier to understand signage, and results being posted online.
Asked whether he will consider a moratorium on development in the area until the sources of contamination are identified, Rousselle said he is waiting to hear from the steering committee.
Rousselle declined to divulge his personal opinion.
"I will keep it to myself, as I did with the Canadian monitoring," he said, explaining he believed two months ago the province should adopt the federal guidelines.
Tim Borlase, who owns a home in Pointe-du-Chêne and is a member of a group of concerned citizens called the Red Dot Association Shediac Bay, called adoption of the federal guidelines "a really important first step."
In the meantime, the group has come up with some of its own solutions to possible sources of contamination, including dog owners not cleaning up after their pets, said Borlase.
"We view the wetlands as kind of the kidneys" that clean the water system, he explained.

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The boil water advisory for Ridgewood Water customers has been lifted, officials announced Friday.
The advisory had been in place since Wednesday afternoon after Ridgewood Water officials notified residents that E.coli bacteria and fecal indicators had been found in a groundwater sample taken from the utility’s low pressure zone, which services all of Glen Rock and parts of Ridgewood and Wyckoff.
The positive water sample was taken from groundwater, meaning it was not in the utility’s main water supply.
Samples collected throughout the low pressure zone were tested and free of E.coli, Ridgewood Water said in a statement Friday.
The lab that collected the contaminated sample Tuesday, but did not inform Ridgewood Water of the contamination until Wednesday, officials said.
Officials will also review how the utility notifies customers.
"The health and safety of our customers in paramount."
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