Evaluating Condominial Sewerage Programs: Technology and Community Engagement Page 1 of 36 Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Global Public Health. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 19 April 2024 Evaluating Condominial Sewerage Programs: Technology and Community Engagement Patrícia Campos Borja, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Earthea Nance, Texas Southern University, and Luiz Roberto Santos Moraes, Universidade Federal da Bahia https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190632366.013.413 Published online: 27 February 2024 Summary Condominial sewerage is a socio-technical system used in many parts of the world. It has the potential to expand service coverage due to its low cost and adaptability. However, the results and effectiveness of projects that have been implemented and their evaluation methods have been little studied. The aim of this article is to discuss experiences of evaluation of this technology, which have focused on use, functioning, social participation, and health impacts. Other aims are to propose an evaluation scope and to present a comprehensive framework to support future evaluations. Keywords: sanitation, condominial sewerage, simplified sewerage, wastewater, community participation, evaluation, Brazil Subjects: Global Health, Public Health Policy and Governance Introduction The condominium becomes not only a physical unit of service provision, but a social unit for facilitating collective decisions and organizing communal actions. Members of the condominium must select the appropriate design of the condominial service and commit themselves to complementary actions ranging from sanitary education to direct participation in the construction and/or maintenance process. (Melo, 2005, p. 7) Access to adequate water and sanitation in developing and underdeveloped countries remains dire. As of 2020, 2 billion people lacked safe drinking water, and 3.6 billion people lacked access to basic sanitation services (United Nations, 2021). Universal access to water and sanitation services is essential to eliminating poverty and disease in underdeveloped and developing countries. There has been a steady improvement in global access to water (access increased by 4.1% from 2015 to 2020) and sanitation (access increased by 6.9% from 2015 to 2020), which demonstrates that this problem is solvable (United Nations Statistics Division, 2021). However, the United Nations warns that achieving universal access to safely managed sanitation by 2030 will require a quadrupling of current rates of progress. (United Nations, 2021, p. 38) Patrícia Campos Borja, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Earthea Nance, Texas Southern University, and Luiz Roberto Santos Moraes, Universidade Federal da Bahia