Were you at the #RWSN7 Forum in Abidjan? Watch out for the Forum report showcasing all the work presented and lessons learnt, now available in English and French:
Thanks to all the delegates, sponsors and organisers who contributed to making this RWSN Forum a success!
How do we raise capacity for borehole drilling and its management globally? If everyone is to have access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, detailed attention is required for the siting, drilling and installation of boreholes in every single project in every country. Alas, this is not always the case. The result is that many boreholes fail within a very short time.
RWSN members are telling us that they want more in-country training. The article linked below provides some suggestions. Do you have ideas or incentives for government and private enterprises invest in skill development in the groundwater sector, and in the rural water sector at large?
To find out more:
http://www.geodrillinginternational.com/geodrilling/issue/1179329/getting-groundwater-ground
Save the date: Tuesday 17 October 2017
What has happened so far?
The issue of community management of rural water supplies has attracted some interesting debate recently. An RWSN blog post by Ellie Chowns, at that time a researcher at the University of Birmingham, prompted a lively discussion in the RWSN online Sustainable Services and Equality, Non-Discrimination & Inclusion communities.
In parallel to this The Water Institute at UNC, in consultation with RWSN, chose a recent paper by Ellie Chowns as the publication to review for the most recent WaSH Policy Research Digest. This was accompanied by a short literature review written by Harold Lockwood of Aguaconsult, based on work he was doing for the World Bank on a multi-country review of rural water service sustainability.
How you can get involved
The Water & Health Conference at the University of North Carolina is an excellent opportunity to continue this conversation and bring it to an even larger audience. UNC and RWSN will host a one-hour panel discussion and will live stream this as a webcast so that a number of people not attending the conference can take part. Short moderated interventions from panelists will be followed by questions from the audience received both in person and online. The panel discussion will be designed to bring out diverse points of view (for instance, community management has not worked and should be abandoned vs. that it is still a viable model) but also to explore the nuances of the circumstances under which well-supported community management can be successful.
The panel discussion will also be recorded and made available on the RWSN and The Water Institute at UNC websites.
You can start right away by posting questions to the Sustainable Services community – just send them in an email to ManagementSupport_rwsn@dgroups.org
Unfortunately, the webcast will only be available in English, but questions in other languages can be accepted, if submitted beforehand for translation. Be aware that there will be limited time and a lot of interest so it unlikely that everything can be covered.
Format
Panel:
Moderator: Clarissa Brocklehurst, Adjunct Professor, Water Institute, UNC
Online host: David Fuente, Assistant Professor, School of Earth, Ocean & Environment, University of South Carolina
US: +16465588656,,204142462# or +16699006833,,204142462#
Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833
Webinar ID: 204 142 462
International numbers available: https://uncsph.zoom.us/zoomconference?m=87U9Ga7fnXMIha5ZeJDhjyNMar78REQd
Rural Water Supply Network - blog 