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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Laura Orlando, MPA, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, T2E, Boston, MA 02118, 617-524-7258, lorlando@bu.edu

Background: Public works is a political and economic concept that describes internal improvements, such as waste management and water supply, in municipalities. The adequate provision of public works is the "what's next" after declaring resources like water a human right.

Health statistics document the terrible consequences of inadequate sanitation, but they are recited with such regularity they lose their urgency. 1.1 billion people in the world are without safe water and 2.6 billion without adequate excreta disposal - hence the deaths of four children every minute of everyday. 40% of the world's 400 million school-age children have intestinal worms. One in ten school-age African girls does not attend school during menstruation or drops out all together because of the lack of toilets in her school.

Methods: RILES, a Boston-based nonprofit, and the Boston University School of Public Health are in the first year of a multi-year project in Chemax, Mexico, that will demonstrate how ecological public works programs can be implemented on a scale that has a measurable impact on public health and the environment. A baseline health survey has been conducted in this Mayan community, in anticipation of implementing ecologically-sound sanitation systems in Chemax. Results of the survey and examples of improved sanitation carried out to date will be presented.

Conclusion: Ecological public works emphasizes the relationship between the built environment, human health, and environmental integrity in the context of basic municipal services. Its successful application is fundamental to the realization of clean water and sustainable sanitation for all.

Learning Objectives: