Heather Galada

Attitudes toward post-earthquake water and sanitation management and payment options in Leogane, Haiti

The Haitian government passed a law in 2009 to decentralize water utility management and improve cost recovery. This study identifies the attitudes of the public towards payment for and management of water and sanitation, several months after the 2010 earthquake, through a survey (N = 171) and semi-structured interviews (N = 19) in Leogane, Haiti. A majority of survey respondents were willing to pay for water and sanitation, which aligns with the fee-based approach of the 2009 law. Significant differences were found between geographic locations, suggesting that a neighbourhood-level approach to water and sanitation is appropriate.

Assessing preferences regarding centralized and decentralized water infrastructure in post-earthquake Leogane, Haiti

BackgroundThough the benefits of centralized water systems (e.g. improved publichealth, environmental protection, streamlined operations, economy of scale, reliability) are well known, these systems are not always feasible or appropriate. In developing world settings there has been growing interest by infrastructure experts,researchers, and international lending institutions in decentralized means of improving access to drinking water. While decentralized water systems with independent components may be less vulnerable to systemic failures, hazards, and extreme environmental events, centralized water systems are often associated with a higher quality of life. This study investigates stakeholder preferences regarding water infrastructure issues in Leogane, Haiti (population ~300,000), a town situated at the epicenter of the January 2010 earthquake.MethodsThe methodology included a paper survey, semi-structured interviews, and a participatory workshop.ResultsWhile most of the study participants relied on decentralized water sources prior to the earthquake, a majority also expressed a preference for a centralized water system going forward. However, the study participants articulated an integrated vision for the future of local water management. Study participants indicated an interest in alternative decentralized solutions, for example featuring artesian wells with homewater treatment, and saw linkages between water supply decisions and local environmental protection, agriculture, and deforestation.ConclusionsThese results are discussed within the context of sustainable infrastructure reconstruction efforts in Haiti, specifically as an example of how local preferences can be integrated into the visioning of infrastructure design.

Participatory engineering for recovery in post-earthquake Haiti

Participatory engineering has been called for after major catastrophes, yet is often bypassed due to countervailing implementation of ‘quick fixes’. While immediate expert-driven solutions may be attractive, in the long-term they may be ineffective and inconsistent with the goals and capacities of local stakeholders. This article discusses the findings of National Science Foundation research by a team of three engineers and one social scientist who visited Haiti twice, four and seven months after the January 2010 earthquake, to investigate community participation in water and sanitation engineering processes in Léogâne. Methods included interviews with local inhabitants, water-sector actors, and government agencies; inspections of the engineering of the existing water and sanitation system; surveys of the affected population; and a participatory workshop to which numerous community-based organizations were invited. The research tests the potential for engineers to develop stakeholder-based participatory processes in a post-disaster context, which is hypothesized to produce better outcomes than traditional top-down authoritative planning processes. Focusing on the sanitation sector within a multi-stakeholder arena, the article analyzes the potential for various kinds of interactions amongst actors during unfolding decision-making processes at multiple scales, and assesses how each might contribute to better post-disaster engineering and ultimately more sustainable water and sanitation systems.

Site Specific Risk Assessment Tools for Land Applied Biosolids

This project compiled information on the fate, transport, and risk presented by pathogens in land-applied biosolids into a spreadsheet based risk assessment model. The model was applied to an example field. This report describes the integration of knowledge to assess microbial risks from the land application of biosolids. This knowledge has been incorporated into an environmental dispersion, exposure, and risk model, known as the Spreadsheet Microbial Assessment of Risk: Tool for Biosolids (“SMART Biosolids”). The SMART Biosolids model includes a users manual that enables wastewater utilities, land applicators, and regulators, to estimate microbial risk from biosolids land application under a variety of scenarios and thereby gain insight into effective management practices. In addition, this project conducted field monitoring to assess the fate and transport of microbes from land application during wet weather events. The field monitoring did not find detectable quantities of pathogens after transport through several feet of soil in the field. However, the study did quantify some desorption of pathogens and indicators into ponded surface water, suggesting that runoff from biosolids amended fields may have trace amounts of pathogens. The risk assessment model was applied to quantify the risks such runoff might pose to surface waterbodies on a site-specific basis. The example scenarios run suggest that microbial risk due to contamination of surface waters from land application runoff would be below existing risk standards for recreational surface waters. The risk modeling estimated that exposure due to the incidental ingestion of soil appears to be the pathway of most concern and adenovirus was found to be the organism presenting the highest risk over the different pathways considered. Adenovirus is a common pathogen that is not associated with life threatening illness. The results are based on extremely limited monitoring for adenovirus (N=5). An important goal of knowledge integration efforts such as this is to identify and help prioritize knowledge gaps. The need for better information on the occurrence and persistence of adenovirus in land-applied biosolids is a key research need identified by this study. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series . ISBN: 9781843392590 (eBook)

Calibrating the SMART Biosolids Model and Applying It to Fault Scenarios

This report calibrates the groundwater transport pathway of the SMART biosolids model to data obtained from field monitoring of wet weather events. The calibrated model is then applied to a wide variety of fault scenarios developed from an expert elicitation exercise. The estimated risks associated with scenarios are compared with estimated frequencies of occurrence found by a survey of biosolids land application practitioners to identify the scenarios of greatest concern. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series . ISBN: 9781780404530 (eBook)