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Water and Sanitation in El Salvador: For years, the water in El Salvador has been tainted by bad pipelines and unsanitary conditions. Part of the water being unsanitary occurs when intestinal parasites cause infections. Rural El Salvador can find safety against parasites with dry sanitation systems. Water contamination affects all class groups in El Salvador, which is why maintenance to buildings in the area is important because it can prevent water contamination. Something that has helped the water and sanitation is the arrival of the EcoSan toilets. El Salvador has lowered the chances of Hookworm, Giardia and Entamoeba Histolytic-a infections by using the EcoSan toilets. The people want improvement and they need it for the dangers that can happen with their health and physical health. Natural disasters can harm the water systems and infect the citizens creating a national epidemic in El Salvador.

Parasites and other Infections: Some of the parasites that are causing these infections are Ascaris, Trichuris , Hookworm , Giardia , and Entamoeba histolytic-a. A research study was taken for parasitic infection based on age, ranging from 5 years to 40 years of age. It found that Trichuris is more prevalent in people who are 40 years and older, it also infected people younger than 5 years of age the most. Hookworm was the most popular within the ages of 13-18 years, which accounted for almost 30% of this study. In another study in La Libertad, El Salvador the researchers took a sample of 449 participants and it was found that 239 of the participants have had or have intestinal parasites at some point in their lives which is 53.2% of the study. This magnifies the importance of unsanitary water, meaning that if half of the participants are becoming infected than it proves that this is an issue worth looking into. Also it should be noted that intestinal parasites like Hookworm infected 100 participants which was about 22.3% and Trichuris was almost identical with 94 participants which was 20.9%. Hookworm and Giardia are some of the most common type of parasites that you will find in the United States. Helminthic infections was 36.3% and protozoan infections were 25.2%.

EcoSan Toilet Relief: EcoSan toilets are a type of closed system that does not require water. These toilets are predominately in areas with scarce or where the water table is high so you can see in El Salvador that the most places within this description are in the rural areas. This is because the risk of groundwater contamination is increased in rural areas because pipelines leading to these areas are unorthodox due to the mountainous areas. An EcoSan toilet comprises one or two chambers, a pit that does not exceed two meters deep which is sealed with concrete to prevent contact between excreta and soil, a separate pipe for urine, and a vent pipe to trap flies and other insects, and lids on the side, front or back to remove the composted matter. This benefits the people of El Salvador because this prevents insects that carry the certain type of parasites that were discussed earlier. The separate pipelines are something that the people in the rural areas have not experienced before and it better improves their way of life. In a field study of 156 EcoSan toilets in El Salvador, it demonstrated that the primary factors affecting microbial die-off. This study of solar EcoSan toilets in El Salvador indicated that high peak temperatures were effective in destroying Ascaris which is a type of intestinal parasite. The EcoSan toilets are reducing the number of infections and helping the community, overall it has been a beneficial factor in helping the stop of unsanitary water in rural El Salvador.

Building Maintenance: The steps to help prevent infections from unsanitary water can begin with bettering the infrastructure of the buildings in urban cities and the bathroom pipelines in rural El Salvador. Communities with Circuit Rider post-construction support had significantly lower microbiological water contamination, better disinfection rates, higher water fee payment rates, greater transparency, greater rates of household metering, and higher spending for repairs. The CRPCS helps substantially because of the way it is built, the support system provides a better rate of disinfection which reduces the risk of parasites. A study that followed the circuit rider post-construction support in rural areas in El Salvador shows that designing financially feasible projects that have a positive impact on the social conditions in poor communities is possible. This means that because of these improvements, the people who have had these are more willing to pay for it again and that they will pay higher fees of repairs if it can improve their health of themselves and for their families. Can help policy makers in setting water charges in developing economies.

Government Action: Some of the hurtles that have come about from the government has been the centralizing of the management of drinking water systems, limited social participation nationwide, and low likelihood of action by municipal governments. The strategic planning for the major institutions on water and sanitation have challenges to the country, because the government has not made the steps to have a sustainable water and sanitation systems. There is no general law for water or legal framework or appropriate regulatory mechanisms, because of the fact that the government has not set any general laws the water and sanitation sector becomes subject to political forces with limitations to implement administrative which takes away form the people because it put their water in jeopardy of being held as a bargaining chip from the political forces in El Salvador. This affects the finance of the government and leaves no solution for the people with unsanitary water. Cost recovery in local infrastructure development is now crucial for local governments. The Salvadoran government and international donors, are willing to subsidize water programs so that they can be improved. In El Salvador they are aware that the communities are paying high prices for water from private vendors, if they can get the people to avoid privatization then they can try and set up a better support system of water. NGOs have a support plan that will use the government as a broker that will use borrowed funds for the support of potable water and sanitation projects. By doing this they can transfer the funds to the organizations in charge of building the projects in El Salvador.

Bibliography:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas/2014/el-salvador-15-oct-2015.pdf

https://ac-els-cdn-com.csulb.idm.oclc.org/S0148296313000167/1-s2.0-S0148296313000167-main.pdf?_tid=d7c42085-b3be-412c-957e-1941eec5f1e3&acdnat=1540144927_5fa10425aa95373108aeac1073f9764a

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0bb8/d1390895fa513c1cd3381c53d4e461e1bb51.pdf?_ga=2.115625412.336559460.1540144471-2030904689.1539216226

https://sites.tufts.edu/cierp/files/2018/02/Keyser_WaSH_2014.pdf

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01737.x