Stef Smits is a senior programme officer and Co-director of IRC's Growth Hub. He has 20 years of professional experience in water supply and sanitation in over 25 countries in Europe, Latin America, Southern Africa, and South Asia. His main thematic expertise includes: institutional models for water supply, sustainability and enabling environment, monitoring, costing and financing of services and integrated water resources management.
Stef has led numerous projects on these topics, and published about them. In addition, he has ample management expertise: from consultancy assignments to multi-annual programmes, and units within an organisation. He has worked for a range of clients including bilateral donors, development banks, research funders and NGOs. Stef holds an MSc degree in Irrigation and Water Engineering from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
We cannot do it alone. Reflections from the 7th Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Forum. Read more...
In this document we capture the inputs that contributed in improving water supply to households and an assessment of cost approximation by the Water... Read more...
This document presents the experiences of the Himmotthan Water Supply and Sanitation initiative in developing community-managed rural water systems... Read more...
This note presents the approach of the NGO, Vasudha Vikas Sansthan, in Madhya Pradesh in partnership with the State's Public Health Engineering... Read more...
This document assesses the community-managed rural water supply programmes in Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran. Read more...
This document presents the approach of community-based managed of water supply in Mallapuram District, Kerala. Read more...
This case study presents the case of the World Bank assisted Jal Nirmal Project in Karnataka. Read more...
This is a case study on the Water and Sanitation Management Organization (WASMO), the entity dedicated to rural water supply in Gujarat, illustrated... Read more...
This study investigates the decentralized water service delivery system in Kodur Gram Panchayat, Kerala. Read more...
This study assesses the professionally-managed community owned/influenced decentralised drinking water delivery systems in Telangana and Andhra... Read more...
This report details the services provided by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) in Amravati District, Maharashtra which is a Multi-Village Scheme. Read more...
This study assesses a project in Uttarakhand during which water schemes and rural sanitations were developed to address the water crisis in this... Read more...
On the 3rd of March 2016, a seminar was held at the Australian High Commission in London to present the main findings from the Community Water Plus project on support to community-managed rural water supplies in India. This video contains these presentations.
Read more...A country needs to meet a certain development or income threshold before aid can prove to be effective and aid flows tend to have diminishing returns. Read more...
In the context of urban Haiti, household container-based sanitation services (CBS) systems have the potential to satisfy many residents' desire for... Read more...
The costs of a pilot small-scale container-based sanitation service (CBS) were higher than those of large-scale waterborne sewerage, but economies of... Read more...
For less than US$12 per person per year a town in Honduras can ensure that everyone's water supply keeps working. Read more...
The King's speech marks the opening of the Dutch parliamentary year. This year he drew attention to the important position of the Netherlands in the international water sector. The budgets that were presented alongside the speech also reflect this, notably with a 6% increase for the budget for WASH... Read more...
Two years ago, I posted a blog summarizing discussions on whether insuring rural water supply systems is a good idea. But these remained largely theoretical discussions, as there are few examples of such insurances put in place. During field work for the Community Water Plus project in the State of... Read more...