2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

CIVE5050M The Management of WASH Projects

15 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Dr Paul Hutchings
Email: p.hutchings@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

Module replaces

CIVE5035M - Engineering for Public Health

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

The module takes a holistic problem-solving approach that relates potential Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) engineering interventions to real-life public health challenges. The module will be taught primarily from the perspective of real incidence of diseases in low and middle-income countries, with an emphasis on the practical design and implementation of programmes.

Objectives

This module aims to equip students with the skills to select and design appropriate programmatic responses to prevailing public health challenges, including a range of engineering and subsidiary interventions. The module has a particular focus on environmental health in low and middle-income country contexts and therefore places emphasis on typical health challenges such as epidemic outbreaks of cholera, endemic diarrhoea, the particular public health challenges of complex emergencies and the long-term delivery and management of sustainable WASH.

Learning outcomes
On completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. Understand and interpret public health, social, policy and economic data relevant to WASH (e.g. faeco-oral disease; water-related disease) (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M1, M2 and M3);

2. Select appropriate engineering and associated responses (e.g. policy reform, behaviour change programmes) to address prevailing public health problems (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M4 and M5);

3. Understand the requirements for designing sustainable public health responses taking into account technical, social, institutional, and financial issues (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M2, M5 and M7);

4. Understand the global institutions involved in WASH, their history and future trends (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M4);

5. Assess project and programme outcomes and evaluate progress (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M2 and M3);

6. Exhibit a high level of professional and ethical conduct in designing public health engineering programmes (AHEP Learning Outcomes: M8 and M11).

Skills outcomes
Work ready skills:
a). Communication: The ability to (both within verbal and written communication) be clear, concise and focused; being able to tailor your message for the audience and listening to the views of others;

b). Problem solving and analytical skills: The ability to take a logical approach to solving problems; resolving issues by tackling from different angles, using both analytical and creative skills. The ability to understand, interpret, analyse and manipulate numerical data;

c). Creativity: The ability to generate ideas, demonstrate originality and imaginative thinking, including the concept of ‘thinking outside the box' ;

d). Critical thinking: The ability to gather information from a range of sources, analyse, and interpret data to aid understanding and anticipate problems. To use reasoning and judgement to identify needs, make decisions, solve problems, and respond with actions;

e). Decision making: The ability to consider options, use and apply your judgement, to create possibilities and solutions. The ability to make decisions, potentially under pressure.

Sustainability skills:
f). System thinking: Recognises and understands relationships; analyses complex systems (environmental, economic and social systems and interdependencies across these); considers how systems are embedded within different domains and scales; deals with uncertainty; uses analytical thinking;

g). Strategic practice: Develops and implements innovative actions that further Sustainable Development at the local level and further afield; manages and promotes change;

h). Information searching: the ability to search for, evaluate and use appropriate and relevant information sources to help strengthen the quality of academic work and independent research.


Academic skills:
i). Academic writing: the ability to write in a clear, concise, focused and structured manner that is supported by relevant evidence;

j). Academic language: the ability to use the oral, written, auditory, and visual language proficiency needed to be able to learn effectively and demonstrate understanding;

k). Academic integrity: the ability to engage in good academic practice. This involves essential academic skills, such as accurately reporting research findings and abiding by relevant policies;

l). Referencing: the ability to know when, why and how to acknowledge someone else’s work or ideas.


Technical skills:
m). Interdisciplinary thinking: the ability to understand links between different disciplines in a multifaceted complex engineering problem and have sufficient understanding of each discipline to explore problem from several lenses;

n). Project design and management skills: understand risk and safety, identify trade-offs and make judgements regarding cost-effective interventions and their potential benefits;

o). Data analysis skills: the ability to understand and be able to interpret health, social, policy and economic data relevant to WASH, in order to identify appropriate public health engineering interventions.

Syllabus

Designing appropriate programmatic responses based on knowledge acquired in CIVE5055 lectures (environmental classification of diseases; major WASH related diseases and their modes of transmission; environmental microbiology for use in design and management of public health engineering interventions; understanding and interpreting health risks and making trade-offs between interventions on the basis of costs and benefits; the management of endemic excreta-related diseases; public health management in complex emergencies); management of water-related diseases; management of urban sanitation; assessing demand, costing and pricing interventions; international institutions, targets, and incentives; equity in WASH programmes; project planning and tendering; formative research methods.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	9	3.00	27.00
Private study hours			123.00
Total Contact hours			27.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			150.00

Private study

- Background reading

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Coursework assignments - written feedback with the returned coursework via the VLE.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Project	Project Report	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/04/2024 16:12:17

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