HOME	ABOUT SANIVAT	NEWS - EVENTS	PROJECT ACTIVITIES	PROJECT PARTNER AND ORGANIZATIONS	STUDY AREA	LINKS	CONTACT US

SANIVAT

About SANIVAT

SANIVAT background

About SANIVAT

WATER SUPPLY, SANITATION, HYGIENE PROMOTION AND HEALTH IN VIETNAM

SANIVAT is a Danida-funded project that supports research in health impacts of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions and how people perceive hygiene, health risks and different types of hygiene promotion. The project also aims to build capacity in relevant national institutions to conduct risk assessment and perception studies on human health and hygiene aspects relating to water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion.

SANIVAT involves key Vietnamese and Danish institutions that will address three major obstacles for doing research on health and hygiene aspects of interventions within water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotions:
1.   Limited technical, methodological and management capacity to conduct needed research;
2.   Limited expertise in conducting large-scale inter-disciplinary operational impact assessment and perception studies within water supply, sanitation, hygiene and human health; and
3.   Limited capacity to effectively disseminate and communicate research results.

Through its Sector Support Programme to Water and Sanitation, Danida will in joint cooperation with AusAID and the Netherlands provide their assistance to the National Target Programme (NTP) for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) in its second phase (2006-2010). The 5-year RWSS-NTPII support programme consists of a 2-year pilot phase commencing last quarter 2006 and a roll-out phase during 2008-2010.

The direct human health benefits from interventions within water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion area often questioned. Little is known in Vietnam about the health impacts and community responses to such intervention. The Danida support (2006-2010) within water, sanitation and hygiene (RWSS-NTPII) provides a unique opportunity to conduct inter-disciplinary operational field research which will generate new knowledge of impact on human health and environmental pollution by the planned interventions. Such knowledge can together with in-depth knowledge of people’s hygiene perceptions and their reactions to hygiene promotion interventions be used to improve and increase the efficiency of current and future intervention programs.

The overall objective of SANIVAT is: “Improved health and living conditions of the rural poor including ethnic minorities through provision of clean water, sanitation, hygiene promotion and protection of the environment”, which is identical to the development objective of the Danish program support to the RWSS-NTPII.

However it is noted that RWSS-NTPII objectives are mainly based on reaching targets with coverage rate of RWSS and thus the outputs and means of verification of the RWSS-NTPII are only to a limited extent dealing with assessment of intervention impact. The planned activities in RWSS-NTPII show that there are needs and opportunities to build research capacity within the framework and pilot provinces of NTPII in particular through health impact assessment and hygiene perception studies that will lead to more efficient interventions within water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion. During its 4 year project life (10/2007-9/2011), SANIVAT will in a cost-effective and synergistic take advantage of this unique opportunity to conduct large-scale inter-disciplinary operational field research within the framework of Danida program support to improvement of water, sanitation and hygiene, thus generating results of direct relevance for improving human health, in particular child health, and reducing environmental pollution. In addition, SANIVAT will strengthen institutional capacities to conduct the required risk assessment and perception studies on human health and hygiene aspects within water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. On the other hand, SANIVAT will also build the needed capacity to effectively disseminate and communicate research findings to the international scientific community as well as end-users and the public in general. At the same time the project will build the capacity enabling Vietnamese partners to obtain significant external funding and being an attractive research partners for national and international research institutions and funding bodies.

All field research activities of SANIVAT will take place in Lao Cai province, one of the nine pilot provinces of the RWSS-NTPII. Two rural communes of Lao Cai city – Ta Phoi and Hop Thanh communes – have been selected as the project study areas where all of the planned intervention activities from RWSS-NTPII will be implemented. Details of the project activities and study areas can be found at the project website: http://sanivat.org.vn.

Principle responsible institutions and contacts:
Professor Anders Dalsgaard
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology
Faculty of Life Science
Copenhagen University
Stigböjlen 4
DK-1870 Frederiksberg C
Tel: +45 35 332720; Fax +45 35 332755
Email: ad@life.ku.dk

Professor Phung Dac Cam
Head of Division of Enteric Infections
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology
1 Yersin Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +84 4 8219074; Fax: +84 4 9719045
Email: cam@fpt.vn