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VERSION:2.0
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SUMMARY:Public thesis defence - Vitor Pessoa Colombo
DTSTART:20230922T170000
DTEND:20230922T190000
DTSTAMP:20260405T230031Z
UID:03122e8b4ea26eca386f45f23cff080bc8983ebe56f3fc64896a0c72
CATEGORIES:Public Science Events
DESCRIPTION:Vitor Pessoa Colombo\nPublic defence of the thesis entitled "R
 elating health benefits of water\, sanitation\, and hygiene services with 
 the context of urban informal settlements: lessons from Côte d'Ivoire and
  Kenya".\n\nDoctoral student: Vitor Pessoa Colombo (CEAT-EPFL)\nDoctoral s
 upervisor: Jérôme Chenal (CEAT-EPFL)\nThesis co-supervisor: Jürg Utzing
 er (SwissTPH)\n\nThis doctoral thesis is part of the SNSF Sinergia 'Global
  Health Africa' project\, in collaboration with the University of Basel an
 d the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute\, as well as the Centre S
 uisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire and the Kenya Medical 
 Research Institute.\n\nHybrid event\nAttendance will be possible both in p
 erson and online\, via Zoom (for those attending via Zoom\, please contact
  the event organizer to obtain the link).\n\nAbstract\n\nThis thesis is in
 scribed in the recent efforts to reconnect urban planning and public healt
 h. It focused on the context of sub-Saharan African cities\, for they offe
 r invaluable lessons regarding environmental health determinants and poten
 tial solutions to address rapidly growing urban areas characterized by a h
 igh prevalence of "informal" settlements. A major concern is that living e
 nvironments in these areas often exacerbate the risk of several diseases. 
 We addressed these health inequities from a spatial perspective\, investig
 ating how material deprivations that typically affect informal settlements
  and shape their built environment relate to the effectiveness of water\, 
 sanitation\, and hygiene (WASH) services in these vulnerable settings. Dia
 rrhea was the health outcome of interest\, as it is directly related to th
 e quality and accessibility of such services. Moreover\, it remains among 
 the leading causes of death worldwide\, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.\
 n\nThe overarching goal of this study was to understand\, in the context o
 f informal settlements in two African countries\, how the performance of d
 ifferent WASH facilities (measured by the occurrence of diarrhea and conti
 nuity of access to such services) related to the place where they were ins
 erted. Hence\, the thesis contextualized WASH facilities by looking beyond
  the single object\, under the hypothesis that their sole availability is 
 not enough to prevent diarrhea in informal settlements\, as certain charac
 teristics of their built environments are\, per se\, risk factors\, and af
 fect the accessibility to WASH facilities.\n\nMulti-level analyses were co
 nducted at: (i) a broader geographic scale based on secondary datasets\; a
 nd (ii) a local geographic scale based on primary datasets. In this way\, 
 the study critically confronted observations of large-scale analyses (resu
 lting from low-resolution\, aggregated data) to more detailed observations
  (resulting from high-resolution\, primary data collected at the individua
 l level). The study focused on sites in Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya\, two cou
 ntries affected by significant challenges regarding the expansion of WASH 
 services in low-income urban areas and by a high burden of diarrheal disea
 ses.\n\nWe obtained secondary data from 9686 households in Côte d'Ivoire\
 , and primary data from 1147 households in Nairobi\, and 567 in Abidjan. T
 he results suggest that the accessibility and health benefits of WASH faci
 lities in informal settlements are interrelated with the form and composit
 ion of the built environment at different scales\, from the single housing
  conditions to the spatial configurations of the neighborhood. Ultimately\
 , this study provides empirical knowledge suggesting that "unconventional"
  WASH solutions already implemented in informal settlements might be viabl
 e alternatives to expand\, in the short term\, the coverage of these essen
 tial services. Also\, the study highlights the need to consider the built 
 environment as a potential risk factor for diarrhea\, as well as a key par
 ameter to determine the most suitable WASH facility type. More generally\,
  the findings contribute to advancements toward SDGs 3 (good health and we
 ll-being)\, 6 (clean water and sanitation)\, and 11 (sustainable cities an
 d communities).
LOCATION:SG 294.22 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SG%20294.22
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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