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.
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 '...
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...
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...
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
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.
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.
Reaching universal coverage
Published on: 13/04/2016
Are government-led and private sector approaches mutually exclusive?
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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.
Monitoring: critical mass or critical mess?
Published on: 10/09/2011
Chinda is a small rural municipality, of some 5000 people, spread out over 15 hamlets in Western Honduras. This week I had the opportunity to carry out a case study of the work of the NGO Water For People (WFP) in this municipality.
Output-Based Aid: an OBA Facility for the water and sanitation sector in Honduras
Published on: 10/12/2009
Results and lessons learned from a pilot Output-Based Aid (OBA) facility are presented in a new note by the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA).
Sector learning: the Resource Centre Network approach in Honduras
Published on: 02/12/2009
Sector learning is a new thematic area of the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Sector learning seeks to systemise the capture and sharing of experiences in the WASH sector and to develop the sector's capacity to reflect on the lessons. It provides a framework at the national level to...