Contamination Risk Tool

Globally, at least 1.7 billion people use contaminated drinking water, leading to diseases like diarrhea, cholera and typhoid, and causing around 505,000 diarrheal deaths annually . Access to water for drinking and domestic uses that is safe and acceptable to users is a basic right recognized by the human rights council. The sustainable development goal 6 also highlights to ensure available and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Safely managed drinking water services need to be free from contamination. Poor sanitation and contaminated water are associated with transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, which pose preventable health risks.

Challenge - problem statement

For many refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in refugee camps or densely populated places, access to clean water and sanitation can be extremely difficult or often below minimum standards which increases the risk of diseases and infections. In order to ensure that water and sanitation needs are adequately met, humanitarian teams need evidence based tools/data driven insights/spatial decision support tools to ensure water safety in refugee and IDP settlements.

Need

For many refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in refugee camps or densely populated places, access to clean water and sanitation can be extremely difficult or often below minimum standards which increases the risk of diseases and infections. In order to ensure that water and sanitation needs are adequately met, humanitarian teams need evidence based tools/data driven insights/spatial decision support tools to ensure water safety in refugee and IDP settlements.

Solution

A contamination risk tool utilizing routinely collected WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) data is invaluable for identifying (potential) contamination levels and supporting the development of improvement plans.

By pinpointing safe locations for new latrines and prioritizing latrines that need to be retrofitted, this tool can reduce the risk of water contamination and enhance access to safe water, reducing waterborne diseases in humanitarian crises. Consequently, the tool can support in significantly mitigating water contamination risks, disease spread and environmental pollution.

Contamination Risk Tool

Incorporating the contamination risk tool within the context of providing humanitarian support ensures the leveraging of geospatial data and technologies to support informed management of latrines in refugee and IDP locations.

Benefits of using the tool include:

a) Spatial analysis * Visualization of contamination risk areas: Mapping of contamination hotspots showing the spatial distribution of ground and water features that can increase the risk of a latrine polluting a water source. * Data Integration: Contamination risk is based on the integration of various geospatial datasets (e.g. elevation, water depth, geology) which provides a comprehensive view of contamination risk

b) Informed decision making * Support in prioritization of interventions: Aid decision makers in visually assessing which areas are most at risk of contamination in order to design and prioritize interventions accordingly. For instance, by allocating resources to locations with the highest contamination risk. * Scenario analysis: Simulation of various scenarios, for instance to assess the impact of relocating a latrine or improving latrine design in a particular area. This helps decision makers to evaluate the effectiveness of potential interventions.

c) Context-specific User data input: The tool prompts the user to put in site specific data directly from field reports ensuring that the latest information is available.

d) Resource optimization * Cost effectiveness: Targeted interventions based on accurate data which improves the cost effectiveness of humanitarian efforts. * Design advice: Based on user inputs, the tool can advise on the most cost-efficient sanitation facility design that maintains a negligible contamination risk.

e) Community engagement and education * Interactive maps and dashboards: the maps produced can be used to engage the community by showing them the contamination risks and the planned interventions in their areas, fostering cooperation and awareness. * Training and capacity building: NS staff and volunteers can be trained in the use of the contamination risk tool, empowering them to participate actively in risk management.

f) Data driven strategic planning * Evidence-based strategies: Insights from the contamination risk tool can be used to support the formulation of strategic plans that address contamination risks more effectively and result in the improvement of water, sanitation and health. * Long term planning: Insights from the contamination risk tool can also be used to support long term planning as data is provided on patterns of contamination which is useful in designing sustainable solutions.

g) Coordination and Collaboration * Multi-Agency Coordination: The contamination risk tool can also enhance coordination amongst various humanitarian players (in health, water, sanitation) by providing a shared platform for data and decision-making. * Stakeholder Engagement: The tool enables better collaboration with stakeholders, through shared access to spatial data and risk assessments.

Application

The contamination risk tool has been applied in Rhino camp, a refugee settlement located in North Western Uganda.

Rhino camp is one of the major Uganda camps accommodating southern Sudanese refugees and is situated on the fringe of the country’s largest park. Uganda is hosting over 1 million refugees, with about 131,766 of them settled in Rhino Camp refugee settlement (UNHCR, 2022). The rapid influx of refugees has put pressure on key facilities and services including shelter and WASH infrastructure.

To improve WASH service delivery efficiently and effectively in the settlement, there is a need for accurate and reliable information on which to base programmatic decisions.

Methodology

Assessment of contamination risk involves five steps:

1. Problem definition Defining the problem and the objective of carrying out a contamination risk assessment e.g. identify water sources at risk of contamination from latrines.
2. Data collection & analysis Collection of spatial and non-spatial datasets used for analysis to derive the final contamination risk score. Input datasets include indicators on elevation, water table depth, soil and geological properties.
3. Contamination risk mapping Identifying contamination hotspots based on normalized values per indicator used to generate an aggregated contamination risk score between 0-1.
4. Scenario analysis Simulate what-if scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of potential interventions.
5. Decision support Aid decision makers in identifying areas of risk for the prioritization of interventions e.g. determining latrines that are most likely

Contact details

To learn more about how our contamination Risk Tool can support your organization's efforts, please contact us at [Contact Information]