Implementation of Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH-FIT) in 16 HCFs in Bangladesh

Period: February 2024 - April 2024

Water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), and waste management services in health care facilities (HCFs) are key components of infection prevention and control (IPC) practices for assuring patient safety and quality of treatment. Such services are also necessary for fostering an atmosphere that promotes the dignity and human rights of all caregivers, particularly mothers, babies, and children. However, in low- and middle-income countries, the majority of HCFs do not have access to piped water on their premises, lack improved sanitation, do not have adequate facilities for handwashing with soap and water, and lack proper services for managing medical waste. Considering the grave impact of improper WASH services in HCFs, the WHO and UNICEF released a compendium of eight pragmatic measures aimed at enhancing and maintaining WASH services and behaviors in healthcare establishments. The fourth step of the process involves the utilization of the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) and other tools that are based on risk assessment to enhance and uphold infrastructure. WASH FIT aims to improve (i) environmental sustainability and climate resilience; (ii) infection prevention and control; (iii) outbreak response and resilience; (iv) gender, equality, disability, and social inclusion; and (v) quality of care in HCFs. In this regard, by applying WASH FIT, WASH section, UNICEF, Bangladesh, wanted to assist the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to implement a project titled ‘Strengthen WASH infrastructure and services (including IPC) in 16 HCFs’ under the supervision of Upazilla Health Care Operational Plan and Hospital Service Management. A total of 16 HCFs, including 10 Upazilla Health Complexes (UHCs) and 6 District Hospitals, were selected under this project. ITN-BUET, as a partner of the WASH section, UNICEF, Bangladesh, conducted the WASH FIT analysis in all of the 16 HCFs. ITN-BUET team organized 6 district-level sensitization workshops on WASH FIT, formed a WASH FIT team for each of the respective HCFs, and inspected every HCF for a successful WASH FIT analysis. After rigorous assessment, the ITN-BUET team identified the current WASH conditions of those HCFs, ranked the detected problems according to their severity and likelihood following the WASH FIT guideline, and finally prepared a detailed improvement plan for the HCFs based on the WASH FIT analysis.

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More Projects

Review of Policies and Institutional Landscape on Solid Waste Management in Urban Settings of Bangladesh

With the rapid pace of urbanization in Bangladesh, the daily generation of solid waste in urban cities is increasing day by day. This huge amount of waste poses significant challenges for cities in terms of environmental degradation, public health risks, economic losses, and overall quality of life. In an effort to address these issues and protect the well-being of approximately 1.8 million people in 12 cities and towns, SNV, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has been awarded a new project in Bangladesh called “Transitioning to Sustainable Urban Water Cycles in Bangladesh.” The project aims to improve urban issues including solid waste management by enhancing access to safe and essential urban services. One of the key objectives is to strengthen the capacities of cities in providing comprehensive, inclusive services by enhancing the professionalism and financial viability of urban sanitation and solid waste services. To achieve this, SNV intends to conduct an in-depth analysis of existing policies, acts, laws, strategies, and institutional arrangements related to the solid waste management (SWM) system in urban areas, with a specific focus on their project cities. In order to accomplish this task, ITN-BUET is responsible for providing technical input and expertise.

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July 2023 to December 2023

Co-Composting of Fecal Sludge and Tannery Liming Sludge: A Novel Approach

For managing both the fecal and tannery liming sludges by making an agriculture grade compost through their mixing, ITN-BUET has commenced a research project on conversion of fecal and tannery waste to resource (compost). Dr. Md. Abul Hashem, Associate Professor, Department of Leather Engineering of KUET will lead this research as Principal investigator. This research will focus on both laboratory scale investigation and field level application. Compost produced through this research will be applied in the field to investigate the seed germination capacity of the crops. Plant growth and uptaking of metals and nutrient will be assessed. The proposed research is expected to reduce the volume of fecal and tannery wastes and find out a suitable alternative use.

Major Objectives:

To find out the suitability of using fecal sludge and liming sludge for making agricultural grade compost
To examine physicochemical characteristics of the compost e.g., nutrient NPKS (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, and Sulphur) and metals content, etc.
To evaluate the seed germination capacity of the prepared compost

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Md. Abul Hashem, Associate Professor, Department of Leather Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET)

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Electrode-integrated bioreactor and floating constructed wetland as decentralized wastewater treatment systems

‘Electrode-integrated bioreactor and floating constructed wetland as decentralized wastewater treatment systems’ is 10-months long laboratory-scale research, which will investigate the integrated impact of fuel cell-based bioreactor tank with constructed wetland systems for the treatment of domestic wastewater from septic tanks. Fuel cell-based bioreactor tank achieve high pollutants removal rates under low wastewater retention time, through degradation of organic pollutants and production of bio-energy. The treatment system will function to remove environmental pollutants, macro-pollutants, metals and pathogenic parameters and quantify the bio-energy production that will act as a catalyst for the system function. The proposed research is expected to develop guidelines for a simple, novel wastewater treatment systems in institutions and/or domestic wastewater treatment in urban, semi urban areas of Bangladesh.

Major Objectives:

To investigate environmental parameters (pH, ORP), macro pollutants (TKN, NH4-N, NO2-N, NO3-N, TN, Ortho P, TP, BOD, COD, TOC, TSS, Sulfate) metals (Cr, Cd, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Hg, Fe, Mn) and coliform removal performances of the fuel cell integrated bioreactor septic tank.
To observe the integrated impact of fuel cell-based bioreactor tank-constructed wetland systems for producing effluent quality fulfilling discharge limits.
To quantify bioenergy production rates across the developed systems.
To develop design guidelines of such novel systems for onsite wastewater treatment in urban, semi-urban area of Bangladesh.

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Tanveer Ferdous Saeed, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Asia Pacific

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December 2022 to ongoing

Wastewater

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Implementation of Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH-FIT) in 16 HCFs in Bangladesh