Find out about what IRC is doing and what is going on in the world of water, sanitation and hygiene. Use the filters to narrow down your search.
“We will complement each other and create a win-win situation through this collaboration”, said IRC Director Nico Terra when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Akvo Foundation on 13 March at the 6 th World Water Forum in Marseilles. Read more...
A new film shows how composting toilets are helping to address the serious water issues facing Tuvalu. The tiny Pacific island nation of just 10,500 inhabitants recently experienced a devastating drought. Septic tank systems are polluting the groundwater and destroying … 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...
WaterHackathon—a collaborative event between software developers and designers to solve water problems—blogged about the benefits and limitations of Field Level Operations Watch (FLOW). Representatives of Water For People, the World Bank, and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre shared... Read more...
One of the key challenges contributing to non-functionality of rural water sources is the time lag between the identification of faults and the rehabilitation. This lag, in WASH parlance, is called service down-time, mainly caused by drawbacks in information flow. To reduce these information gaps... Read more...
“The goal of universal access to clean water is far from complete”, says IRC's Stef Smits on CNN International. "Reaching the last 10% of the population -- those living in remote rural areas and on the fringes of big cities - will become increasingly difficult and expensive," he explains in “Going... Read more...
Monitoring of water services delivery is a key factor for sustainability and water for all. This was the key theme of the monitoring and evaluation session at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille in March 2012. It was observed that most approaches to monitoring focus on coverage measured in terms... 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...
Management Information Systems (MIS), SenseMaker and the Quality Information System (QIS) keep track of progress across nearly half of Bangladesh. Read more...
Nearly half of India's 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home, but more people own a mobile phone, according to the country's latest census data. Only 46.9% of the 246.6 million households have toilets while 49.8% defecate in the open. The remaining 3.2% use public toilets. Read more...
“We will complement each other and create a win-win situation through this collaboration”, said IRC Director Nico Terra when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Akvo Foundation on 13 March at the 6 th World Water Forum in Marseilles. Read more...
The lack of clearly delineated roles can undermine sustainable services at scale. 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...
IRC is testing out FLOW in three districts in Ghana. FLOW helps the user assess whether or not facilities are functioning or are on the verge of disrepair. In this video IRC staff discusses the presentation given by Marieke Adank and Nicolas Dickinson which highlights the experiences and lessons... Read more...
How can you easiliy assess and monitor functionality of water services? IRC is testing out FLOW in three districts in Ghana, as part of the Triple-S project. FLOW helps the user assess whether or not facilities are functioning or are on the verge of disrepair. Check out this video in which Marieke... Read more...
This paper describes the major operational approaches of the BRAC WASH programme including monitoring, evaluation and some results. To carry out this study on water safety practices, use of sanitation facilities and self-reported water-related disease prevalence, a comparison was made between... Read more...
While current figures indicate that access to improved drinking water has increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent between 1990 and 2008, the real percentage of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water is likely to be significantly lower. This is one of the conclusions of a new report... 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...
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...