ever we look, despite its paramount importance.
As they can never hope to measure both the level of service and the systems necessary to sustain those services, these indicators will exist basically to create political will and spur increased investment. From my perspective, a reasonable proxy for this would be to include perhaps one simple metric for water, sanitation and hygiene services each plus one metric on investment levels (perhaps an amount/pupil/year?) that can spur funding allocation decisions.
Side: Yes they are
WASH activities should be included as Individual Goal, unlike that included as a part of Goal No-7 in earlier MDGs. Researchers have already established that the fact that improved WASH activities are the prime need in all fronts including Household and Community level to create far reaching impacts on HUMAN health.
So WASH activites should be a new Goal with renewed focus on the following :
(a) Water Safety and Security including Water Quality Monitoring and necessary precationary / remediation measures.
(b) Priority water scarce / quality affected regions.
(c) Monitoring mechanism for use and maintenance of Sanitation facilities to address bottlenecks leading to slipping back from coverage pattern.
(d) Total Environmental Sanitation including the proper Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities.
(e) Facilitating Operation and Maintenace for WASH infrastructures in households as well as Instititions like, Schools, Community oriented facilities etc. eventually to ensure sustainability.
(f) Instituionalised approach for capacity development to establish social equity / norms for the alround development of the communities with special thrust for the marginal sections.
(g) Massive approach on Hygienic practices for personal / food Hygiene.
(h) Aiming on effectiveness of WASH in Schools, the teachers / students community should be targetted as a major stakeholder with enhanced capacity / involvement.
(i) Necessary efforts / action plan during EMERGENCY SITUATION causing large scale displacement of human habitat. Adequate WASH activities must be prioritised for such displaced population.
(j) Impacts of regions specific Climate Change
(k) Lastly and not the least, the political WILL and SUPPORT for establishing the desired mandate.
Nripendra Kumar Sarma
Public Health Engineering Department, Assam(India)
Side: Yes they are
Dear Nripendra, your argument does not focus on the topic of this debate: are the specific indicators on WASH in Schools, as formulated by the JMP Working Groups, a step in the right direction. You can find a list of the proposed WASH in Schools indicators at http://www.washinschools.info/page/2034
Side: No they are not
I agree that the Indicators put forward by the JMP Working Group are one step in right direction.
But the point, I like to highlight here is that the WASH Activities should be included as Specific GOAL, under which the Wins might be included as a sub Goal.
I tried to emphsise on different lines of focus to be considered as agenda under the specific GOAL of WASH Activities. So that the lines of action will be pinpointed to achieve the desired direction.
Side: Yes they are
Today, I first time read the list of proposed indicators on WASH in schools. How happy was I to see that WASH in schools is considered important, even so important that a list of separate indicators has been developed. Considering that in the original version of the MDGs, water was mentioned and sanitation and hygiene was forgotten… and considering that WASH in schools was not covered at all… I realize a lot has been achieved!
At the same time looking at the proposed indicators, I was wondering if this is a Wish-list or a realistic vision on what can be achieved in the next decade or so.
Having visited many WASH in school programmes in all parts of the world, even the best WASH in schools interventions I have seen, do not comply with the list of indicators. Schools are part of society, schools are part of the community… how can we expect that all schools have access to water and sanitation when the surro