Provision of Water Supply in Emergency Response: Evaluation of Current Practices and Recommendations for the Future
[Thesis]
Sikder, Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal
Lantagne, Daniele
Tufts University
2020
230 p.
Ph.D.
Tufts University
2020
The scale and intensity of humanitarian crisis are increasing and affecting a growing number of populations. Supplying safe drinking water in humanitarian emergencies is critical to human survival, dignity, and to control infectious disease. While drinking water supply interventions are commonly implemented in emergency responses the evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions are limited. Understanding the effectiveness of drinking water supply interventions will support aid agencies and donors to make informed decisions for response and utilized the scarce resources effectively. This dissertation built a set of new evidences by compiling results from multiple drinking water supply intervention implemented in short-term and protracted humanitarian responses. The field evaluation data from two commonly implemented interventions filled the gap of limited evidence on water trucking and source water chlorination in humanitarian emergencies (Chapter 2). Additionally, we studied the effectiveness of drinking water chlorination interventions implemented in the protracted emergency response in southern Syria (Chapter 3). These works identified priority intervention areas and documented the lessons learned that responders can improve in ongoing and future responses. Finally, microbial water quality is widely applied criterion to study drinking water interventions in both humanitarian emergencies and non-emergences. Accurate and consistent data preparation and reporting are critical to utilize the results. To standardize this, we reviewed the current practice of data reporting and suggested a checklist to assist researchers to increase the validity and reproducibility of the work (Chapter 4). Overall, the three Chapters of this dissertation contributed to the limited evidence of drinking water supply interventions in protracted and short-term humanitarian emergencies and strengthen reporting.