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Blogs

IRC experts, guest bloggers, WASH sector colleagues share their ideas, observations and expertise through these informal blogs filtered by topic, projects and more.

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Panel members during the session on south-south exchange at the IRC symposium

Promoting strategies for south-south collaboration

Published on: 07/05/2019
Representatives from programmes in Latin America and Asia shared successes and failures.

municipalidad

Local political leadership or a fool-proof system?

Published on: 10/04/2019
Last week, a number of Agenda for Change members that are working on WASH systems strengthening in countries in Latin America came together for a learning and sharing event. A key point of discussion in that event was the importance of political leadership at local level, but also the systemic...

Martin Rivera during IRC 50 interview

50 years of IRC: Interview with Martín Rivera

Published on: 08/03/2019
We talked positive messages, capacity building and holistic approaches with our partner from Honduras, Martín Rivera.

Building block scores Honduras

Weekly WASH Graph: a sneak preview at measuring system strength

Published on: 03/09/2018
The holidays are over, so the Weekly WASH Graphs are back. This week, I will give you a sneak preview of the way we measure the strength of the WASH system at IRC.

Cost projection Marcala

Weekly WASH graph: and the magic number of reaching 'everyone, forever' is...

Published on: 28/05/2018
As countries, regions and municipalities are making plans to reach universal access to WASH services, a frequently heard question is how much does it actually cost to provide services to everyone in the area? This week's "weekly WASH graph" will provide some magic numbers of the costs of reaching '...

"Costeo de los servicios de agua y saneamiento" Workshop

Moving “en derechura” with the costing of water and sanitation services in Honduras

Published on: 16/04/2018
"You are doing well—keep on going 'en derechura'", said a community member of about 70 years old, when we wanted to confirm if we were on the right track with the municipality of Candelaria. I had never heard of the expression "en derechura" before, but it quite accurately expresses what is...

ojo de agua

Leaving no one behind: the scattered rural area of Honduras has been put on the map

Published on: 06/03/2018
The motto of the Sustainable Development Goals is "leaving no one behind". For water and sanitation this implies that all people – including those families who live in the last house on top of the mountain - must have access to water and sanitation services. Water For People and IRC in Honduras...

Drinking water treatment plant in San Matías

A third of the glass is three-quarters full

Published on: 14/07/2017
The results of the water and sanitation SDG baseline report are as surprising as finding safely managed drinking water in rural Honduras. But we should be cautious in jumping to conclusions

Marcala town hall

Behind the clouds, WASH expenditure data are shining

Published on: 26/06/2017
Marcala municipality in Honduras is spending a decent amount on WASH, though not yet enough.

Lempiras

Mythbusters: full cost recovery through tariffs

Published on: 15/10/2016
One of the myths that keeps on going around in the rural water supply sector is the one of 'full cost recovery'. As more data from rural water monitoring systems becomes available, the myth gets busted.

IRC Event March 2016

Reaching universal coverage

Published on: 13/04/2016
Are government-led and private sector approaches mutually exclusive?

Municipal technician checking storage tank

Everyone reached, financing remains forever

Published on: 07/03/2016
For less than US$12 per person per year a town in Honduras can ensure that everyone's water supply keeps working.

El Negrito, Yoro

Making a plan to make a plan

Published on: 27/06/2015
The COMAS – Municipal Water and Sanitation Committee – of the municipality of El Negrito (in the Department of Yoro, Honduras), is strongly committed to providing universal water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to its citizens. But it needs a plan to get there. And it needs to make a plan...

Breaking the pot

Broken pots, not broken pipes

Published on: 15/04/2015
One of the nicest water-related customs in Honduras is the breaking of the pot. When a village gets connected to a water system, part of the inauguration ceremony consists of an old woman from the village symbolically throwing a clay water-pot on the ground, so that it breaks. She will never need...

El paraiso reaches everyone

All quiet on the water front

Published on: 24/10/2014
I am waiting for the moment that the newspapers report it is all quiet on the waterfront.

Figure: monitoring cycle of SIASAR

Error 503: Service not available

Published on: 12/06/2013
During an interview about mapping rural water supply via a web-based system, we hit our first stumbling block.

Seine

Paris, s’éveille – waking up to the Paris Declaration

Published on: 08/06/2013
Jacques Dutronc's song sums up how the WASH sector is waking up to the Paris Declaration, cleaning up the mess of often uncoordinated aid efforts.

Graph 2: Histogram of per capita investments costs of capital maintenance projects

We ate all the meat; there are only bones to chew on now

Published on: 06/06/2013
So said Luis Romero of CONASA (the Honduran water and sanitation policy-making body), in response to the graphs below.

A bit short of a miracle …

Published on: 03/05/2013
What is it that IADB's Max Valasquez Matute in Honduras finds 'only a bit short of a miracle'?

Everyone? Yes, everyone!

Published on: 27/02/2013
Anyone who works in the water sector cannot have missed the consultations and debates on the post-2015 goals for water and sanitation.

Network of plastic/flexible tubes providing untreated water in Chuquiaguillo

Towards sustainable water services in La Paz, Bolivia

Published on: 11/02/2013
A Dutch-funded project aims to bring piped drinking water to peri-urban neighbourhoods of the Bolivian capital La Paz. What will determine its success?

Apples and oranges: a comparative assessment in WASH

Published on: 23/11/2012
A few weeks ago, an interesting email discussion was held on “water point mapping” D-Groupof the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN). Part of the discussion focused on how much it costs to map or monitor all water systems in a country. Various figures were floating around in the discussion. But when...

A single project folder

It's fun to work with the LCCA

Published on: 10/07/2012
I have written before about our work on life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) in Honduras. The idea is to look into the real costs of investment programmes and projects in Honduras, so see which intervention model is the most cost-effective.

Orpheus leading Eurydice back from the underworld

The water sector’s Orpheus complex – and what it costs

Published on: 06/05/2012
Just as Orpheus descended into the underworld to bring his wife Eurydice back to life, the water sector invests heavily in bringing broken-down water supply systems back into function; often to find those same systems slipping back into disuse, as soon as the engineers turn their head to look away...

Chair of the water committee showing the result of the residual chlorine test

A day in the life of... a circuit rider

Published on: 31/03/2012
José Miguel is a circuit rider: a technician responsible for providing technical assistance to a number of water committees in his area around San Vicente in El Salvador. There are around 30 water systems on his circuit which he visits regularly.

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