IWMI Projects on Malaria

Malaria risk mapping, Sri Lanka

Project duration: 2000 - 2002 

Objective: To create a malaria risk map for Sri Lanka that can be used for targeting malaria control interventions and developing an epidemic forecasting system for Sri Lanka.

Field research location: The entire island of Sri Lanka, with focused studies in the wider Ruhuna river basin (an IWMI Benchmark Basin), south eastern Sri Lanka.

Partner:

  • Sri Lanka Ministry of Health (Anti-Malaria Campaign)

Project description:
Detailed entomological, epidemiological and environmental studies carried out by IWMI, the Anti-Malaria Campaign of Sri Lanka and the University of Peradeniya form the basis for the development of a risk map of malaria for Sri Lanka. This map will be based on annual and monthly parasite incidence at the level of Divisional Secretary Divisions (DSD), administrative units in Sri Lanka.

The risk map will serve as a practical tool for identifying areas and populations at risk and assist in identifying risk factors for malaria. Several variables will be tested for correlation with vivax and falciparum malaria incidence, such as environmental variables from the IWMI World Water and Climate Atlas and from remote sensing tools for soil moisture estimation, land use cover and climate. Other variables include critical distance from waterways, elevation, hydrology but also socio-economic variables such as population density and children's nutritional status.

The risk map could also be used to identify an appropriate cost effective mix of interventions to reduce malaria. This will help in the monitoring and evaluation process of malaria control. It is a first step towards the development of an early warning or epidemic forecasting system for malaria in Sri Lanka.

Recent publications:

Klinkenberg, E., van der Hoek, W. and Amerasinghe, F.P. 2004. A malaria risk analysis in an irrigated area in Sri Lanka. Acta Tropica 89(2), p. 215-225

Briet, O.T.J., Gunawardena, D.M., van der Hoek, W. and Amerasinghe, F.P.; 2003. Sri Lanka malaria maps. Malaria Journal 2: 22 (22 July 2003, available from www.malariajournal.com)

Klinkenberg, E. van der Hoek, W., Amerasinghe, F.P., Jayasinghe, G., Muthuwatta, L. and Gunawardena, D.M. et al. 2003. Malaria and agriculture, a risk analysis in southern Sri Lanka. IWMI Research Report 68

View complete listing of reports, books and journal articles

Donors: This work is receiving support from the Government of Japan and IDRC.

Contact person: Olivier Briet

Malaria risk mapping, Volta Region

Project duration: on-going

Objective: The overall project objective of the GLOWA Volta project is to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for policy makers in both Ghana and Burkina Faso to optimize water allocation within the Volta basin.

Partner:

  • ZEF, through GLOWA Volta Project

Project description: Water management policies also have an impact on environmental health and, therefore, this aspect has to be incorporated into the DSS. Malaria is linked to environmental water availability and is the most important health problem in the West African region. The health component of the DSS will first focus on impacts of changes in water management policies on malaria transmission. To be able to predict changes in the population that is at risk of malaria through environmental modifications for different water management scenarios, it is necessary to assess the geographic distribution of the disease in the Volta basin, and this is the aim of the present project.

2004 Activities:

Two approaches will be explored to produce a malaria risk map for the Volta basin.

a). Spatial statistical modeling, using data of the MARA/ARMA project on parasite prevalence in children, and long-term averages of monthly rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), drainage density and population density. The current data set has few data points located in and around the Volta basin, and an effort will be made to collect more secondary data on prevalence. Additional primary data may be collected at selected locations with low coverage in small parasitological surveys. These data will then be included into the new model to increase the accuracy of the prediction for the Volta basin.

b). An approach using incidence of severe malaria and malaria related deaths, based on hospital  data to map the malaria risk. Such data do not reflect overall malaria morbidity, but may serve as indicators for malaria caused suffering. In Ghana, data are collected at subdistrict level from both government hospitals and private clinics and compiled at district and regional levels and sent to the Ministry of Health in Accra. For Burkina Faso the availability of hospital data remains to be explored.

Depending on the results of a search for parasite prevalence data and the quality of hospital data collected during the first phase of the project, a choice will be made on which approach to pursue. During the second phase, environmental and socio-economic data collected by the GLOWA Volta project will be tested for correlation with malaria for scenario prediction.

Donors: Govt. of Netherlands

Contact person: Olivier Briet

Water management for malaria control
in tank cascade irrigation systems

Project duration: 2000 - 2002

Objective: To identify successful environmental management interventions for controlling malaria vectors, especially interventions linked to the management of water in streams used to convey water between irrigation reservoirs.

Field research location: Huruluwewa river basin, Yan Oya sub-basin, North Central Sri Lanka

Partners:

  • Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka
  • Sri Lanka Ministry of Health (Anti-Malaria Campaign)
  • University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Project description: Sri Lanka is well known for its extensive network of small multipurpose water reservoirs (tanks), of which there are approximately 15,000-20,000 spread throughout the dry zone of the country. The agricultural systems and the natural streams and constructed canals making up this production system of small reservoirs are the focus of this project.

The project started in 1994 and included detailed studies on larval and adult anopheline ecology, malaria epidemiology, and socioeconomic aspects of the disease by a multidisciplinary team of irrigation engineers and health experts. Since 2000 the project focused mainly on testing specific interventions based on previous findings in the area, such as clearing obstacles from the streambed and smoothening the profile. These measures are being implemented with the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka. Activities in 2002 will concentrate on monitoring the effects of the interventions on water flow and stability of the stream bed and the banks, on pooling, on mosquito breeding and new malaria cases. 

Recent publications:

Amerasinghe FP, Konradsen F, van der Hoek W, Amerasinghe PH, Gunawardena JPW, Fonseka KT. (2001) Small irrigation tanks as a source of malaria mosquito vectors: A study in Northcentral Sri Lanka. IWMI Research Report 57.

Konradsen F, Amerasinghe FP, van der Hoek W, Amerasinghe PH. (2001) Malaria in Sri Lanka: Current Knowledge on Transmission and Control, IWMI Book.

View complete listing of reports, books and journal articles

Donors: This project has received support from the Government of Japan and DANIDA. It is currently receiving WHO funds through the Government of Sri Lanka.

Contact person: Eline Boelee

Large-scale irrigation systems and malaria

Project duration: 2000 - 2001

Objective: To identify water management options to control malaria in large-scale canal irrigation systems in South Asia

Field research location: Hakra 6R Irrigation System, Punjab, Pakistan

Partners:

Project description: This project focuses on water management options to control malaria in large-scale canal irrigation systems in South Asia, which includes studies on vector ecology within large irrigation systems. Also, in a number of studies secondary information, obtained through the government health departments or previous research studies, for large irrigated areas have been used in a geographical information system to link water management and cropping patterns with indices of malaria.

Currently the work is focused in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Studies were done on vector ecology and malaria transmission in Hakra 6R, an established large-scale system in the Punjab, Pakistan. These included field level experiments with drainage interventions to reduce vector breeding close to human settlement within irrigated areas.

Recent publications:

Amerasinghe FP, Mukhtar M, Herrel N (2002) Keys to Anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera: Culiciade) of Pakistan. Journal of Medical Entomology 39:28-35.

Herrel N, Amerasinghe FP, Ensink J, Mukhtar M, van der Hoek W, Konradsen F (2001) Breeding of Anopheles mosquitoes in irrigated areas of South Punjab, Pakistan. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 15: 236-248.

View complete listing of reports, books and journal articles

Contact person: Felix Amerasinghe

Environmental control of malaria vector in paddy rice

Project duration: 2000 - 2001

Objective: To develop and test and operational routine for alternate wet and dry irrigation in paddy rice that improves agricultural production and reduces vector breeding.

Partners

Project description: Using alternate wet and dry irrigation in rice cultivation for the control of vectors of malaria and Japanese encephalitis has been tested in a number of countries especially in Asia and only a few trials in Africa. Originally, alternate wet and dry irrigation was used to save water and to increase rice yields.

IWMI is working with partners in India, Kenya and Sri Lanka to develop an alternate wet and dry operational routine that will serve both agricultural and health objectives.

Publications

Forthcoming:
Krishnasamy S, Amerasinghe FP, Sakthivadivel R, Ravi G, Tewari SC, van der Hoek W. Strategies for Conserving Water, Increasing Food Security and Effecting Mosquito Vector Control in Rice Ecosystems: a Case Study from Tamil Nadu, India. IWMI Research Report. View summary

Available on-line:
Van der Hoek W, Sakthivadivel R, Renshaw M, Silver JB, Birley MH, Konradsen F (2001) Alternate Wet / Dry Irrigation in Rice Cultivation: A Practical Way to Save Water and Control Malaria and Japanese Encephalitis? IWMI Research Report No. 47.
Follow link to access on-line version. To order the print version: send your request and postal address to iwmi.publications@cgiar.org.

View complete listing of reports, books and journal articles

Donors: Work in Kenya has received support from the African Development Bank (AfDB)

Contact person: Felix Amerasinghe

Urban malaria in West Africa

Project duration: 2002 - 2005

Objective: To investigate to what extent urban agriculture increases the risk of malaria in West African cities and to develop recommendations to minimize any potential risk.

Field research location:
Current: Ghana (Accra, Kumasi),
Planned: Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou), Senegal (Dakar), Benin (Cotonou), Togo (Lomé), Mali (Bamako)

Project description/background:
Malaria is in general considered a rural disease as the Anopheles mosquitoes, that transmit malaria, are known to prefer relatively clean water for breeding. Such habitats are usually lacking in the more polluted city environments. However, urban cities are quickly expanding, especially in West Africa, where today in the humid forest zone, more people live in cities than in rural areas and in 20 years' time two out of three West Africans is projected to live in urban centers. For the growing city population urban agriculture (UA) is often been promoted as a means to increase food security and at the same time improve nutrition and alleviate poverty.However, there is a concern that irrigated urban agriculture could increase the malaria risk in urban areas, by creating 'rural spots' where malaria mosquitoes can breed. With rapidly expanding urban areas, there is an urgent need to establish the possible risks to human health of urban agriculture in terms of increased malaria transmission and to develop, if necessary, appropriate measures to reduce this risk. Therefore IWMI and collaborators launched a project under the System Wide Initiative on Malaria and Agriculture to investigate the impact of UA on malaria transmission in West Africa. A pilot project in the city of Kumasi, Ghana showed higher Anopheles biting rates in night catches and significant more reported malaria cases in urban areas with agriculture compared to urban areas without agriculture (Afrane et al. 2004). Together with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine an epidemiological and sociological baseline study was conducted in areas close to and more distant from urban agriculture sites in the cities of Accra and Kumasi, Ghana for which data analysis is still ongoing. Entomological studies are ongoing for the cities of Accra and Kumasi in Ghana and a second epidemiological survey plus intervention study is planned for 2004. In addition larval ecological studies are ongoing to investigate the suitability of urban agriculture related water sources for the breeding of Anopheles mosquitoes. More information.
A proposal is developed to expand the research to other West African cities with different irrigation practices and located in different agro-ecological zones.

Specific objectives
1. Quantify to what extent urban agriculture contributes to malaria in the selected cities in comparison with rural farm areas and normal inner-city housing areas without irrigated urban agriculture.
2. Identify those urban agriculture irrigation practices and water conditions that support malaria vector breeding.
3. Develop practical recommendations towards effective (technical, regulatory) malaria prevention for urban agriculture in the different cities.

Project images: click here

Partners: Kumasi Center for collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine School of Biological Science, KNUST, Kumasi; School of Medical Science, KNUST, Kumasi; Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Accra; Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK
For planned studies: Malaria Research and Training Centre, Bamako; Mali; Centre de Recherche Entomologique, Cotonou, Benin; IITA, Benin; Centre National de la Recherche et de la Formation pour le Lutte contre le Paludisme, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; National Malaria Control Program, Senegal; Institut Africain de Gestions Urbain (IAGU), Senegal;

Recent Publications:
Afrane, A.A., Klinkenberg, E. Drechsel, P., Owusu-Daaku, K., Garms, R. and Kruppa, T. 2004. Does irrigated urban agriculture influence the transmission of malaria in the city of Kumasi, Ghana? Acta Tropica 89(2), p. 125-134

Klinkenberg, E. and Amerasinghe, F.P. Risk assessment of malaria in urban and peri-urban agriculture. Paper prepared for workshop on "Health risks and benefits of urban and peri-urban agriculture and livestock (UPA) in Sub Saharan Africa, Nairobi, June 2003. workshop proceedings, IDRC (in press).

Donors: This work is receiving support from EHP, Dutch Government, Malaria Knowledge Program. The pilot study was co-funded by FAO.
Donors to extend the project to other cities in West Africa are needed.

Contact person: Eveline Klinkenberg

Alternate wet and dry irrigation of rice for malaria control

Project duration: 2000 - 2002

Objective: To develop and test an operational routine for alternate wet and dry irrigation in rice cultivation that improves agricultural production and reduces breeding of carrier mosquitoes.

Partners

Project description: Using alternate wet and dry irrigation in rice cultivation for the control of carrier mosquitoes of malaria and Japanese encephalitis has been tested in a number of countries especially in Asia and only a few trials in Africa. Originally, alternate wet and dry irrigation was used to save water and to increase rice yields. IWMI is working with partners in India, Kenya and Sri Lanka to develop an alternate wet and dry operational routine that will serve both agricultural and health objectives.

In the Mwea rice irrigation scheme in Kenya a broader approach to human health is applied, aiming at agro-ecosystem management for community-based integrated malaria control. Participatory methods were used to assess the socio-economic as well as biophysical determinants of human health in crop - livestock systems. Zoo-prophylaxis is being evaluated as an option for the reduction of malaria risks in such systems.

Recent publications

Forthcoming:
Krishnasamy S, Amerasinghe FP, Sakthivadivel R, Ravi G, Tewari SC, van der Hoek W. Strategies for Conserving Water, Increasing Food Security and Effecting Mosquito Vector Control in Rice Ecosystems: a Case Study from Tamil Nadu, India. IWMI Research Report. View summary

Available on-line:
Van der Hoek W, Sakthivadivel R, Renshaw M, Silver JB, Birley MH, Konradsen F (2001) Alternate Wet / Dry Irrigation in Rice Cultivation: A Practical Way to Save Water and Control Malaria and Japanese Encephalitis? IWMI Research Report No. 47.
Follow link to access on-line version. To order the print version: send your request and postal address to iwmi.publications@cgiar.org.

View complete listing of reports, books and journal articles

Donors: Work in Kenya has received support from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and is currently receiving funds from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Contact person: Felix Amerasinghe

Impacts of climate variability on malaria transmission and the development of an early warning system

Project duration: 2003 - 2005

Objective: To analyze the impacts of climate variability on malaria transmission in Sri Lanka and develop an early warning system for malaria in an endemic setting.

Partners

  • International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), USA
  • The Earth Institute, USA
  • Columbia University, USA
  • Anti Malaria Campaign (AMC), Sri Lanka
  • Partner at University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka (USJ), Sri Lanka, moved to:University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka (UK), Sri Lanka

Project description: Malaria is the major public health problem in Sri Lanka and many other developing countries. It is well established that the disease has climatic determinants and more recently climate variability has been shown to be important in explaining its occurrence. However, at present, there are no practical tools to predict the occurrence of malaria based on climate forecasts in Asia. Such tools would be extremely useful in making efficient use of the limited resources that are typically available in developing countries for malaria control.
In this project, personnel attached to the International Water Management Institute, Anti-Malaria Campaign, University of Sri Jayawardenapura (currently at the University of Kelaniya) and the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction including Columbia University partners have formulated a program to incorporate climate variability and forecast information into malaria risk maps for the malaria-endemic Uva Province in Sri Lanka. The availability of long, dense and reliable records of climate, hydrological, entomological, malaria incidence and malaria control activity data, as well as cross sectional data on socio-economic status for the Uva Province, provides a unique opportunity to study the interactions. Based on these rich data, models will be developed to forecast malaria risk using climate forecasts, remote sensing and spatial analytic techniques. Results from the small area study will be used in the development of a prototype early warning system for the entire island.
The active involvement of the malaria control agency of Sri Lanka makes it possible to access entomological and epidemiological data and directly implement the tools that will be developed. The effectiveness of these risk-maps in communicating climate induced malaria risks and economic costs and benefits of malaria incidence and control and the use of the new techniques will be identified. The ultimate objective is to develop a practical methodology with a view to disseminating it in Sri Lanka and to other regions of low to moderate endemicity in South and Southeast Asia with similar transmission conditions.

Recent publications: At the moment, we are still in the data collection phase. Great progress on Uva data entry was made.
The project was presented at the "Synthesis Workshop on the Health Impacts of Climate Variability and Climate Change in Small Island States, Bandos Island, Maldives, December 1-4, 2003".
A kick-off workshop was organised for stakeholders in Passara, Sri Lanka, on 9 December 2003. Before this workshop, a user-needs survey questionnaire was distributed among RMO's, which received 7 responses
Assistance from of Biostatisticians from STI through PhD supervision was discussed in Basel 17-18 December and agreed upon. This has resulted in a training arrangement for the project leader at the University of Basel.

Donors: Joint Program on Climate Variability and Human Health, supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and EPRI (formerly known as the Electric Power Research Institute), USA

Contact person: Olivier Briet

  

 

last updated: 17 April, 2004

On this page:
Malaria Risk Mapping, Sri Lanka

Malaria Risk Mapping, Volta Region
Malaria Control in Tank Cascade Systems

Large-scale Irrigation Systems and Malaria

Environmental Control of Malaria in Paddy Rice

Urban Malaria in West Africa

Wet & Dry Irrigation to control Malaria

Impacts of Climate Variability
on Malaria Transmission

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