Ministerial delegations from 40 countries have announced serious commitments to tackle the global water and sanitation crisis. Read more...
In 2011 the Uganda Ministry of Water and Environment started to promote the formation of Hand Pump Mechanics Associations (HPMAs) as a way of enhancing sustainability of rural water services. This briefing note highlights the key issues emerging from the process thus far. Read more...
Many African countries, including Uganda, are increasingly replacing the point source with the handpump. In order to support this change in infrastructure, water and sanitation actors in Uganda are applying the Water Supply and Sanitation Board (WSSB) model as an answer to the traditional community... Read more...
During the London Sustainable WASH learning event, which took place on 31 January 2012, representatives of 44 WASH organisations made commitments to support the service delivery approach. They acknowledged that making changes within their respective organisations is important for collectively... Read more...
The lack of clearly delineated roles can undermine sustainable services at scale. Read more...
In the search for more effective coordination mechanisms, WASH actors in Kabarole district (Uganda) ventured into sub-county level planning and review meetings. Although it is still in its infant stages, this approach is already showing signs that it could improve some aspects of sector... Read more...
Who says traditional African community mobilisation approaches have died out? The application of the Omuhiigo approach to the Community Based Management System (CBMS) of water sources in Kabarole district, is a good case of the revival of seemingly-forgotten traditional community mobilisation... Read more...
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has appealed to donor agencies to introduce anti-corruption policies and tools in all their water sector activities. Read more...
On 25 October 2011, IRC together with other SWA partners in Honduras conducted a meeting to inform the Honduran WASH sector on the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) global partnership and to seek the country’s interest to engage with this global partnership and to participate in the next biennial... Read more...
Various stakeholders implementing water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in Ghana currently use different approaches in implementing the project cycle to deliver their facilities. This has been identified as a challenge to the involvement of local government in enhancing the long-term... Read more...
“I love what I do as an area mechanic because in my own small way I ensure that community boreholes are constantly working, providing regular supply of water to the people to improve their standards of living and their health.” Read more...
Governance for equity requires stronger multi-sectoral partnerships, more collaboration between the Government, civil society and media and a recognition that Government cannot work by itself. Read more...
Around 30 percent of the national budget of Rwanda is made available to district authorities. Read more...
Residents of Elwany Village in Uganda enjoy a bountiful supply of water. They fetch from a shallow well, located in an area endowed with high water yields. The distance from their homes to the well is convenient as most live within one kilometre of the well. On the Friday we visited this well, in... Read more...
This paper summarises findings from a recent study of the status of rural water supply in some thirteen countries, which aimed to identify commonalities in both challenges and opportunities to rural water supply in countries as diverse as the USA, India, Honduras and Ghana. It spans a developmental... Read more...
The SWITCH project was a five year experiment focused on some of the key sustainability challenges in urban water management. In a number of cities around the globe, it set out to test what was needed for a transition to more sustainable urban water management through a combination of demand-led... Read more...
Water For People adopted the "Everyone, Forever" approach. IRC carried out a case study to learn lessons on scaling-up rural water and sanitation services. Read more...
Assessing Sanitation Service levels: A New Approach is the article by Alana Potter, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, that was published in: Sanitation Matters, Issue 2, 2011. Read more...
The World Bank Institute has published online an earlier Christine Sijbesma, Suma Mathew, and K. Balachandra Kurup case study Community-Managed Sanitation in Kerala, India: Tools to Promote Governance and Improve Health . WBI did this in a 12- page analysis dated January 2010 of IRC and SEUF work... Read more...
Supporting Rural Water Supply takes a critical look and asks why are 30 to 40% of rural water systems failing in developing countries? And how can we support the adoption of a service delivery approach – one that moves beyond implementing infrastructure projects to delivering a reliable and... Read more...