Electricity and power grid has been a commodity for almost 150 years with the advent of the light bulb motorised vehicles. Current AI revolution puts reliable and sustainable energy sources into the top spot.

Energy has been always a concern during the protracted armed conflict in Ukraine. The electricity stations and power grid have been suffered a barrage of attacks since early 2022 with single aim – to reduce Ukrainian economic output and disrupt the logistics and critical infrastructure.

To ensure the uninterrupted delivery of health services, most of the Health and WASH partners distributed, installed and connected reserve power sources, significantly improving the resilience of the healthcare system.

WASH FIT Assessment of Sanitation of 38 Health Facilities

Our project has trained and assessed 38 health facilities in conflict-affected regions of Ukraine using the WASH FIT methodology.

WASH FIT is a risk-based quality improvement tool covering the aspects of WASH and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in the Health Facility:

1. Water Supply
2. Sanitation
3. Hand Hygiene
4. Waste Management
5. Environmental cleaning
6. Energy and Environment
7. Human Resource and Facility Management

This article will outline the key findings of the Energy Domain and summarise the 3-year effort of the Health and WASH partners to ensure uninterrupted health services.

Sanitation Domain Analysis – Methods

We assessed the “Energy and Environment” of health facilities across 13 standard WASH FIT indicators, each of which is scored 0, 1, or 2 depending on the criticality of the issue:

• 0: Gap (Non-functional)
• 1: Partially addressed
• 2: Fully functioning

To get the relative final score, we devided absolute score by max value of 26 (13*2) and multiplied by 100% (as a percentage of the maximum).

For example, if the facility scored 13 points, the relative score is 50% (13/26*100%).

Analysis: Criticality and Context

We break down that percentage into three criticality categories:

• Severe (<50%),
• Moderate (50–70%),
• Mild (>70%).

Looking at the first chart

The Energy and Environment as Worst and Best performing Domain

Finally, we contextualize against the other six domains in the WASH FIT assessment (such as water supply or sanitation). We analyze whether Energy lands in a facility’s “Top 3” or “Bottom 3” performing areas.

The Analysis leaves very little room for doubt:

Energy and environment has benefited from the collective efforts of the local and international NGOs and UN agencies in provision of reliable back-up power source.

It almost always ranks among the Top 3 best-performing domains across all geographical areas in Ukraine.

The bottom line:

When you assess the Energy domain with the WASH FIT tool, there is high chance it will outperform all other domains

Energy and Environment vs Waste Management