Marieke is a WASH expert with over 18 years of experience in the sector. She has a special interest in small town WASH, participatory strategic planning processes and evidence-based decision making in WASH.
After graduating as an Irrigation and Water Engineer from Wageningen University, Marieke joined IRC as a Junior Professional Officer (JPO) in 2003. As JPO she was stationed with NGO Forum (Bangladesh) and with TREND Group (Ghana). In 2006, she joined the IRC team in the Netherlands.
Marieke has led and participated in action-research studies in Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe on issues like monitoring sustainable WASH service provision, small town water supply, Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM), multiple-use water services, and cost recovery and financing.
Marieke has experience in working closely with ministries (e.g. the Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation and electricity in Ethiopia) and government agencies (e.g. Community Water and Sanitation Agency in Ghana) in identifying and addressing sector challenges. She has supported knowledge management and sector learning processes in various contexts and countries (e.g. support to the establishment and development of Learning Alliance Platforms in Ghana and Ethiopia and the Resource Centre Network Ghana).
Marieke is supporting the Accountability and Adaptation team, responsible for monitoring, with special emphasis on monitoring service level and financial indicators. She is also supporting various action research projects, with special focus on monitoring and sustainability issues. She is leading the development of a District WASH Master Planning Facility.
Recommendations for hand hygiene in public places and institutions; hand hygiene in the local governance process; hand hygiene promotion strategy;... Read more...
Political commitment to sanitation can be translated to results on the ground through: prioritisation throughout all government departments and... Read more...
The diversion of focus from water towards sanitation, comes at the cost of cutting down allocations in rural water or 'adjusting' funds from one... Read more...
In Chennai, India, stakeholders support the establishment of an independent state groundwater authority to secure sustainable water supply. Read more...
Small-scale informal entrepreneurs can provide a valuable and financially viable urban sanitation service for consumers without a sewerage connection... Read more...
In general, women still have limited opportunities to influence the design and operation of domestic water supply projects for their productive uses... Read more...
This study on the health aspects of waste collection and recycling was conducted in India, and is a follow-up on a literature study done on the same... Read more...
Although the Netherlands is still regarded as belonging to the group of like-minded countries, increasing doubts were apparent about the... Read more...