An environmental health assessment* of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Village and Water Sanitation (VWS) Program in the West Bank has been completed. The Environmental Health Project (EHP), in collaboration with Save the Children, carried out the assessment in Jan-Feb 2002, under very difficult conditions. The purpose of the VWS Program is to provide safe and sustainable water and sanitation services to an estimated 140,000 people living in 46 underserved communities in the West Bank - areas west of Hebron and south of Nablus. The assessment focused on access to and types of water supply and sanitation facilities, willingness and ability to pay for new infrastructure, knowledge and practices affecting household and community water and sanitation management, prevalence of waterborne and sanitation-related disease among children under five years old, and quality of domestic drinking water. The findings have been presented at a USAID debriefing. The assessment is the first in a series of operational research activities intended to provide information for the design phase of the VWS Program for improvements in infrastructure and household hygiene practices.

*EHP Brief, no. 5, May 2002, http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB5.pdf. (PDF file, 531 KB)

Contact: hafnercr@ehproject.org

Source: EHP News, Jun 2002