Health impact assessment of a watershed development project in southern India: a case study

A "Health in All" approach has been encouraged by India's National Health Policy to address cross-sectoral health concerns. To illustrate how health concerns can be systematised in food system planning, we pursued a health impact assessment (HIA) of a watershed development (WSD) project in semi-arid Kolar district, India. The planned WSD project included measures for soil and water conservation, improving agricultural productivity, and enhancing livelihoods of landless and poor households. An HIA approach previously employed for an agricultural project in a tropical setting was adapted for the current HIA, to accommodate for (i) the project implementing agency being a non-profit and (ii) the HIA being conducted in-parallel with the baseline socioeconomic assessment . The HIA revealed that the WSD project might result in a range of positive (e.g. nutrition, sanitation and water quality) and negative health impacts (e.g. vector-borne diseases, pesticide exposure, drowning and zoonosis). HIA of these projects holds promise to influence health in remote drought-prone areas and build-up HIA capacity through application in non-controversial project environments.