Opinions and voices for change
Navigate the blogs from our experts, water, sanitation and hygiene sector colleagues and guests. Narrow down your search by using the filters.
Imagine a future where every child in South Ari Woreda/District has clean water to drink, a safe toilet to use, and the knowledge to wash their hands properly. This is no longer a dream, rather it is a mission in motion. In 2019, South Ari Woreda embarked on a journey to achieve Sustainable... Read more...
This is a story of South Ari Woreda's pioneering kebeles, showcasing their efforts in developing and implementing a water safety plan that has enhanced the safety, quality, and service delivery of their water and sanitation. Read more...
Sharing, learning and collaborating at the University of Colorado annual WASH Symposium. Read more...
Marcala municipality in Honduras is spending a decent amount on WASH, though not yet enough. Read more...
Increasing interest in the Agenda for Change and investments in the systems approach. Read more...
We cannot do it alone. Reflections from the 7th Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Forum. Read more...
The long road to data savviness. Read more...
For less than US$12 per person per year a town in Honduras can ensure that everyone's water supply keeps working. Read more...
Two years ago, I posted a blog summarizing discussions on whether insuring rural water supply systems is a good idea. But these remained largely theoretical discussions, as there are few examples of such insurances put in place. During field work for the Community Water Plus project in the State of... Read more...
In the context of the devolution of political powers and responsibilities to the counties in Kenya, planning for water and sanitation services has to step up. Read more...
Saraswati Halder, the president of the Durganagar Kanchantala water committee, shows me the committee's bank booklet. It shows only one transaction: 100 Rupees (about 1.50 US$) deposited in 2011, more than 3 years ago. Read more...
Value-for-money analysis should be a bottom-up process and managers of WASH programmes should embrace it to transparently track the progress of their project and to demonstrate results. Read more...
Most public agencies are ill-equipped at the moment to make rational investment decisions. They need better metrics to evaluate performance. Read more...
Water provision is one of the most complex services to be provided and maintained in a refugee camp. Given the fact that water is essential for people's health, it is very important for donors and implementing partners to guarantee a proper level of water service to everyone everyday. Read more...
If rural water supply provided under the development heading is in fact more a relief and water supply through relief creates development but in pockets, then what does that teach us? Read more...
M&E are key to improving both the performance and the sustainability of WASH services. But how much do they cost and how should it be paid for? Read more...
It would be easy, and wrong, to say that global conferences rarely deliver results, for sometimes they offer brand new ways of seeing things. Read more...
Sagar is an island at the mouth of the river Ganges where it meets the Bay of Bengal. Every year in January, about half a million pilgrims visit the island to worship at the holy Ganges. The hundreds of mobile toilet units standing on the empty festival terrain during the rest of the year are... Read more...
Driven amongst others by the mobile phone applications, more and more statistics are becoming available on the state of water services. These go well beyond the coverage data we were used to in the JMP reports (and which this year gave us some reason to be mildly optimistic). The new stats provide... Read more...
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... Read more...