WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Officer Interview Preparation Guide

CLTS is a grassroots approach originated in Bangladesh and uses community involvement to increase sanitation coverage. Based on Participatory Rural Appraisal tools and approaches, CLTS emphasizes the importance of self respect and dignity to help communities achieve open defecation free status. Its application implies a shift from counting latrines to counting sanitized communities, abandoning the use of subsidies. CLTS was developed by Kamal Kar with support from WaterAid and the Bengali NGO Village Education Resource Center.

The scale, named after Rensis Likert, requires respondents to a survey to indicate their level of agreement to a given questionnaire item. The scales use a bipolar scaling method, measuring positive or negative responses to the item. In its most typical form, it has five items: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree.

This is a statistical procedure that helps determine how well a set of variables measure a latent construct. It is commonly used as a measure of internal consistency in a scale constructed from different items that presumably measure one construct.

A statistical method used in social and behavioral sciences to reduce variables in a variable set by combining two or more variables into a single factor. Factor analysis assumes that data on different attributes can be reduced to a limited number of dimensions as the attributes may be interdependent.

Coliform bacteria that can multiply at certain temperatures. Because some coliforms such as E. coli can be found in the lower intestines of humans, optimal temperature for growth is 37.5 degrees Celsius.

The first challenge for most countries is to define what sanitation really means. The second challenge is to decide what aspects are most important. Sanitation as a whole is a "big idea" covering everything from safe collection, and disposal of human excreta (faeces and urine); to the management of solid wastes (trash or rubbish.) Each community, region or country must understand the most sensible and cost-effective way of thinking about sanitation, both in the short and long term, then establish appropriate national plans and priorities, and last but not least - implement!

Lack of improved sanitation is a global crisis directly impacting the health, education, productivity and economic status of a household and often becoming the catalyst towards propelling a family out of poverty.
Improved sanitation and hygiene education will speed the achievement of all MDG's, helping eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child-mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV and AIDS; malaria and other diseases; as well as ensure environmental sustainability.

Inadequate sanitation, particularly in the context of urbanization, allows for sewage or waste to flow directly into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands, affecting coastal and marine ecosystems, fouling the environment and exposing millions of children to disease. Improved sanitation reduces environmental burdens, increases sustainability of environmental resources and allows for a healthier, more secure future for the population.

Analysis of data that includes two variables. It generally implies looking for relationships between the two variables. For example, whether sex and education are related or whether the practice of hand washing with soap is related to either sex or education.

These are variables that may be measured quantitatively and that can take an infinite number of values. The most commonly used continuous variables in social science are interval variables. In interval scales, differences between two values are meaningful and equivalent. For example, the difference between 100 and 90 and the difference between 90 and 80 are identical. In interval variables, there is no absolute zero value. Examples of interval scales include attitude and opinion scales requiring an individual to express a level of agreement regarding a statement such as "My husband wants me to wash my hands before I cook."