Case Studies

The project is carried out at sites in four countries in Africa and South East Asia: Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Bangladesh. These countries were selected because of their relevant WATSAN features: All of them face a critical WATSAN environment in terms of water supply and sanitation, which is reflected by high levels of water-related diseases and, except Ghana, high levels of malnutrition. Furthermore, these countries are characterized by factors that directly affect the WATSAN environment such as climate change - where consequences are particularly severe in Bangladesh (through frequent floods) and Ethiopia (through drought), a fast increasing population and rapid urbanization in Ethiopia, which is putting the WATSAN environment under pressure for peri-urban poor households. Rapid industrialization and urbanization in India and Ghana are impacting on local WATSAN environments. Besides, irrigated agriculture plays an important role in these four countries and thus links between water-sanitation and agriculture are relevant to explain the WATSAN environment. The project activities are mainly “field based”. Sites or hotspots were systematically selected where water is used for multi-purposes, where drinking water, sanitation services, and hygiene conditions are seriously deficient, and where health and nutrition situations are particularly adverse.