Environmental Health in Emergencies

Description

Environmental health (EH) hazards are closely associated with disasters and emergencies in a variety of ways. Environmental health activities are interdisciplinary and involve engineering, health sciences, chemistry and biology, together with a variety of social, management and information sciences. In times of disaster and recovery, people from many backgrounds engage in activities designed to monitor, restore and maintain public health. In addition to providing an introduction, this course will discuss physical, biological, chemical and social factors leading to threats in addition to surveillance, health indicators and assessments, preparedness processes, sanitation and vector control, evacuation and temporary settlement, and post-disaster environmental health activities and sustainable development.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

1. Identify and predict environmental health risks in emergency situations
2. Explain public health interventions to manage environmental threats during emergencies
3. Respond to emergencies with appropriate environmental health activities (water supply and sanitation, vector control, etc.)
4. Provide guidance on environmental health priority needs and actions in the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery stages of the disaster-management cycle
5. Coordinate and collaborate between all sectors related to environmental health

Course Outline

1. Introduction to environmental health in disasters
2. Rapid wash needs assessment during emergencies
3. Types of pollutants and safety guidelines
4. Water quality assessments in emergency
5. Emergency sanitation
6. Waste management for better health
7. Hygiene promotion and community outreach
8. Community-Based Water Resource Management (CBWRM) in emergency
9. Monitoring and evaluation of wash activities
10. Wash cluster and coordination

Training delivery methods:

1. In-class method
2. Online method