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Elder Joe is the proud secretary of a water committee managing a handpump on the outskirts of Odumase town in Ghana. But the committee would rather manage a different type of system. Read more...
The costs of getting spare parts for handpumps can sometimes be higher than the costs of the parts. But a new SMS-based system might help. Read more...
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in Ghana is developing a framework for assessing and monitoring water services. Read more...
In March 2012, UNICEF and WHO announced that the Millennium Development Goal for water had been met. But that's just the start. Read more...
USAID and Rotary International's development and adoption of the powerful Sustainability Index Tool is great news. Read more...
The USAID water strategy has had the gestation period of an elephant, but now that it's finally out, has it been worth the wait? Read more...
A mid-term assessment of Triple-S showed real progress… and real challenges ahead. Read more...
The most recent Global Water Challenge (GWC) webinar hosted at sustainablewash.org gave another useful opportunity to highlight the findings of the Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) policy and practice research that has been disseminating during this (slightly cold) first part of 2013. Read more...
Tunisian sector experts launch a new coordination mechanism for flagship Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative. Read more...
Reflections on the Fourth WASH Sustainability Forum how effective the forum was, from inside the beltway. Read more...
Harold Lockwood explores some of the themes and messages likely to emerge from next week's sustainability forum in Washington DC. Read more...
Recently I have been on a continent-hopping tour through a different range of meetings and events, from which I have seen a pattern emerging, or at least a series of questions in my own mind, as I carry out my work in the WASH sector at an international level. Read more...
The WASH sector is in consensus labelled as a complex system. Interventions need to cope with wicked problems and solutions strive for adaptive management as exit strategy. The bulk of the WASH projects deliver on the short-term. In three year Hygiene projects populations / schools / communities... Read more...
Two weeks ago, the “management and support” working group of the RWSN had its first meeting. This meeting focused specifically on management models and support arrangements for piped water supply in small towns. Read more...
Coming up with a convincing elevator pitch for our Sustainable Services at Scale Triple-S project has long been a challenge. Which, given the complexities of the rural water sector itself, is possibly not that surprising. Whether defining ourselves (at least in part) as a complexity informed water... Read more...
I mentioned some cool new outputs from IRC’s Ghana programme in my previous post. These factsheets present a rich picture of water services and their governance based on a total survey in our three Triple-S focus districts in Ghana. The fact sheets aren’t cool due to their content – which is... Read more...
It’s always difficult call these things, but I think (and hope) that the last couple of weeks may, in retrospect, come to be seen as a watershed on the long and painful road to achieving universal access to water and sanitation services worthy of the name. Read more...
We all know how successful team GB was at the London Olympics with 29 golds and 65 medals overall. This was a fantastic achievement and the result of years of preparation and putting into practice a comprehensive sports policy for the UK. It wasn’t just investment in the athlete or their equipment... Read more...
On the 20th of August the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre organised an in-house debate on the pros and cons of adding a sustainability clause in contracts between donors and implementers in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes. Despite challenges in terms of creating a chain... Read more...
Sustainability is on top of the list of countries, of development partners and of IRC. Now that we know about the high break down rates of pumps and pipes, we are alarmed. And we should be! Not only because breakdowns are a waste of investment and a waste of tax payers’ money, but because people... Read more...