Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis report attempts to draw out the main messages covered during a session on "Approaches to Resource Management for the Nexus" (International conference on Sustainability in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. Synergies and Tradeoffs: Governance and Tools at various Scales held in Bonn, Germany, on 19th and 20th of May 2014). In this session, the audience was reminded of the importance to think about geography and topography to understand trade-offs in the WEF Nexus, and in particular to consider transboundary linkages across nations and ecosystems. Building on a large body of case studies, another presenter put forth the necessity to implement resource management across traditional (FAO) sectors (water, land use …) and along common guidelines. A framework was introduced to that effect. The remaining two speakers introduced new technical tools in resource allocation. Their common denominator is that they integrate models and model approaches of different disciplines.

We investigated the impacts of piped water on water quality, sanitation, hygiene and health outcomes in marginalized rural households of north-western Bangladesh using a quasi-experimental analysis. A government organization - the Barindra Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) - established a piped water network to provide these rural households with improved water as they have poor access to potable water. Using propensity score matching, the study compares a treatment and a control group of households to identify gains in water-sanitation, hygiene and health outcomes. We found that the BMDA piped water infrastructure had a positive impact on access to improved water and significantly reduced the distance traveled for and time spent on collecting drinking water. However, we found no improvement in the drinking water quality, which was measured by the extent of fecal contamination (E. coli count per 100 ml of water) at the point of use. The hygiene status of food utensils also did not show any improvement; food utensils were tested positive for E. coli in both the control and treatment group. Although access to BMDA piped water in the premises involves cost, it didn´t improve hygiene behavior: handwashing with soap after defecation and before feeding children. The treated households own larger water containers which implies that the intervention has had a clear impact on the quantity of water used for household purposes. However, we did not find evidence of health benefits, such as decreased diarrhea incidence of in under-five children, improved child anthropometrics stunting, underweight and wasting of children due to piped water use.

Les ménages agricoles qui prennent des mesures pour s'adapter au changement climatique ont-ils un revenu plus élevé que ceux qui ne le font pas ? Cet article vise à répondre à cette question dans le contexte des revenus des cultures et du bétail dans la région des savanes au Togo. À cette fin, nous construisons un modèle bioéconomique basé sur le modèle de ménage agricole. En utilisant les données d'enquête recueillies auprès d'un échantillon de 450 ménages agricoles au cours de l'année agricole 2012-2013, nous identifions les types de ménages agricoles par l'analyse des « clusters » et les appliquons dans le modèle de simulation. D'après les résultats, nous concluons qu'à leurs coûts actuels, les techniques de conservation des sols et de l'eau et l'irrigation peuvent en moyenne fournir des revenus plus élevés même sous le changement climatique. Le message de politique économique qui en découle est d'encourager les techniques de conservation des sols et de l'eau et l'irrigation en tant que stratégies judicieuses pour des revenus plus élevés dans un contexte de changement climatique dans la région.