We are delighted that the Proceedings of the 7th RWSN Forum are now available to download and to cite. We hope that this huge body of knowledge and experience will be used to help improve rural water services all over the world.
Suggested citation:
RWSN (2017) Proceedings of the 7th RWSN Forum “Water for All”, 29 Nov – 02 Dec 2016, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Rural Water Supply Network, Skat Foundation, St. Gallen Switzerland.
Dear colleagues / Chers/Chères collègues (texte en français ci-dessous) Some of you may already have seen and used the Africa Groundwater Atlas. This is a new online resource with groundwater information for all African countries. It is linked to the Africa Groundwater Literature Archive – an expanding online repository of documents on groundwater in Africa. […]
via Africa Groundwater Atlas – your opinion / votre avis — UPGro
Thanks to all the RWSN members who took part. Further news on this evaluation should come later in the year.
The reality in much of the world today is that collecting water for the home is a job done by women – so gender issues are central to everything we do in rural water supply – self-supply, pump design, borehole siting, tariff collection, water resource management, business models or using ICT to improve service delivery.
In this week’s webinar we have brought together more inspiring stories from Nicaragua, India and the World Bank. We are taking ‘gender’ from being a tokenistic tick-box to a living, vibrant, practical core of every rural water service.
Join the us next Tuesday 23 May – it an opportunity to have your practical and policy questions answered from world class experts.
Did you miss Part 1? Don’t worry. You can watch and listen to the inspiring experiences from Burkina Faso, India, Ethiopia and Bangladesh on the RWSN video channel:
/////
La réalité dans beaucoup d’endroits dans le monde aujourd’hui est que l’approvisionnement en eau pour les besoins domestiques reste un travail porté par les femmes – donc les questions liées au genre sont au coeur de toutes les activités que nous entreprenons dans le secteur de l’eau rurale: auto-approvisionnement, conception des pompes, emplacement des forages, recouvrement des tariffs, gestion des ressources en eau, ou utiliser les TIC pour améliorer les services.
Le webinaire de la semaine permettra d’entendre des histoires intéressantes du Nicaragua, de l’Inde et de la Banque Mondiale. Nous souhaitons passer d’une compréhension de la notion de genre se bornant à cocher une case, pour mettre en avant les aspects vivants, pratiques et essentiels qui font partie de tous les services d’eau ruraux.
Joignez-vous à nous mardi prochain – ce sera l’occasion de poser vos questions sur la pratique et la politique à des experts du domaine.
Vous n’avez pas pu participer à la première partie de ce wébinaire? Vous pouvez écouter des expériences inspirantes du Burkina Faso, de l’Inde, de l’Ethiopie, et du Bangladesh sur la chaine viméo du RWSN:
Dear Colleagues
2017 marks the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Handpump Technology Network (HTN), which became RWSN in 2006, under the leadership of the late Piers Cross. We are also coming to the end of the current three year strategy period (2015-2017), so during this year we will be developing a new strategy – and be looking for your inputs. However, the purpose of this message is to present an Open Call for Proposals for an evaluation of RWSN.
Please find the Call and links to relevant documents: http://rural-water-supply.net/en/projekts/details/94
The Call is only available in English and only proposals in English will be accepted.
The deadline is Friday 26th May 2017. Send questions to me by 10th May. I will not answer individual questions, an overall response will be posted soon after the 10th. See the Open Call document for more details.
Thanks for your consideration and please re-post and forward to colleagues and other networks.
IWA is well known for its many events and publications, but generally with an urban utility focus. However, the event below is an unusual opportunity to share experiences between urban, peri-urban, small-town and rural water service provides. Thanks to the initiative of Eleanor Allen, CEO of Water for People, the IWA Water and Development Congress invites submissions on the following topics that are relevant to RWSN member experiences – an in particular those who presented at the RWSN Forum:
This is a global event, not just for Latin America, and potentially there is a lot to learn on – and share – on tariff regulation for small rural providers, professionalization of community management, diversity of service delivery models in rural areas, including rural utilities, and asset management for small rural providers.
So please do consider it if you are looking to reach out to a different audience from the normal rural WASH sector – see the message below for more details and links: http://www.waterdevelopmentcongress.org/
All the best
Sean
RWSN Secretariat
We were saddened to learn that Piers Cross passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on 29 March. Piers was a central figure in the WASH sector for many decades, in many roles at WSP and advising IRC, and was a driving force behind the Sanitation and Water for All partnership.
He played a critical role in the development of RWSN, when he was Chair of the network between 2004 and 2008, by re-shaping the Handpump Technology Network (HTN) to the Rural Water Supply Network that we have today.
He leaves a great legacy and his words of wisdom and wit will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him.
Nous sommes désolés d’apprendre que Piers Cross est décédé le 29 mars, entouré de sa famille. Piers était une personne clé du secteur de l’eau, de l’assainissement et de l’hygiène pendant plusieurs décennies, et a tenu de nombreux rôles à WSP et en tant que conseiller de IRC. Il était également une force motrice du partenariat Sanitation and Water for All.
Il a joué un rôle critique dans le développement de RWSN, lorsqu’il était à la tête du réseau entre 2004 et 2008, en assurant la transformation de ce qui était à l’époque le Réseau des technologies sur les pompes manuelles (Handpump Technology Network) au Rural Water Supply Network que nous avons aujourd’hui.
Son héritage perdure et ses mots de sagesse et d’esprit manqueront à tous ceux qui ont eu le plaisir de le connaitre et de travailler avec lui.
P.S. La famille Cross a accès à son compte email dans les mois qui viennent, donc vous pouvez envoyer vos condoléances si vous le désirez à cette adresse email: piers.cross {at} gmail.com
Estamos anunciando la noticia triste de que el día 29 de Marzo Piers Cross falleció, en compañía de su familia. Piers era un personaje clave en el sector de Agua, Saneamiento e Higiene por muchas décadas y en muchos roles, como líder en WSP o como asesor de IRC, y era un motor detrás de la iniciativa Sanitation and Water For All.
El también desempeño un papel fundamental en el desarrollo del RWSN cuando era presidente de la red entre 2004 y 2008 y en el rediseño de lo que era el Handpump Technology Network de aquel entonces hacía el Rural Water Supply Network que somos hoy.
El deja un legado muy grande y su sabiduría y su humor serán extrañados por todos y todas que tenían el placer de conocerle y de trabajar con él.
Kelly Ann Naylor, RWSN Chair
P.S. The Cross family will continue to monitor his email account for a few months, so please feel free to send any well wishes to this email address: piers.cross {at} gmail.com
Tributes to Piers from past and present members of the RWSN Executive Steering Committee – you can leave yours in the comments section below:
‘Piers Cross was at the helm when I first got involved with RWSN, as it transformed from HTN. His passion, commitment and humour were instrumental in inspiring me to became actively involved in the network and ignited my passion for rural water services. He will be sorely missed by the sector as a whole and by those of us who were honoured to call him a friend.’ – Dr Peter Harvey, UNICEF
‘The water community, and specifically many of us individually, are better thanks to his wisdom and passion. As a former employee under him in WSP, I will fondly miss him. We pray that his soul rests in eternal peace.’ – Maimuna Nalubega, African Development Bank
Please join us for this Future Climate for Africa webinar by climate change expert Neil Hart.
Friday 17 March 2017, 11:00-12:00 (London, GMT); 13:00-14:00 (Johannesburg)
Register for the webinar here.
Climate modelling is a key tool in tackling the effects of climate change. Future Climate for Africa is a research programme that aims to generate fundamentally new climate science, and to ensure that this new science has an impact on human development across Africa. The UMFULA research team is using climate models to try and improve information about the future climate of central and southern Africa. Their aim is to provide decision-makers with the best possible scientific knowledge on how rainfall, temperatures and associated conditions like drought are likely to change in the region in the next 5-40 years. The researchers also seek to help decision-makers understand which aspects of the future climate are simply uncertain – and to explore the implications for investments in development planning and infrastructure that could endure for decades ahead.
This webinar by Neil Hart of the University of Oxford will explore in brief some of the research questions that the FCFA teams are pursuing in central and Southern Africa. This webinar is not for climate specialists but for anyone who is interested in how they could be using climate change information to make more climate-resilient development decisions.
Dr Hart will explain in brief and in layperson’s terms how climate models project as clear a view of the future climate as possible, but are often misunderstood or used incorrectly. He will debunk some common misunderstandings about climate models. The seminar will use illustrations from what we already understand about central and southern Africa and discuss the implications for making climate-informed decisions.
Dr Hart will cover the basics in 15 minute or less then open the discussion for participant questions and answers.
Read Dr Hart and his colleagues’ contribution to the report Africa’s climate.
Read the full Africa’s Climate report here: http://2016report.futureclimateafrica.org/
Pumping up water from the sands of Egypt Is solar-powered pumping of groundwater for irrigation a panacea for water and food insecure areas? It certainly can be marketed that way: in India, the use of solar energy for this purpose is helping ease the load on overburdened electricity grids and reduce its carbon footprint. Other…
————————————————————
NEW! WEDC MOBILE NOTES ON WASH for smartphones and tablets
————————————————————
This collection of illustrated mobile notes on aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in low- and middle-income countries has been designed for people on the move.
Composed especially for smartphones and tablets, they can be read online or downloaded free of charge.
The link takes you to the list of currently available titles including the WHO Technical Notes on Drinking-water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Emergencies.
Bookmark the link on your phone as the list updates periodically when new notes are added to the collection.
———————————————————–
NEW! : WATER SAMPLING AND ANALYSIS – A series of four films
———————————————————-
http://wedc.lu/measuring-the-turbidity-of-water
http://wedc.lu/measuring-chemical-concentrations-in-water
http://wedc.lu/membrane-filtration
—————————————————————
WEDC: Developing knowledge and capacity in water and sanitation
—————————————————————
For details of postgraduate opportunities, including distance learning options visit:
http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/learn/index.html
Water, Engineering and Development Centre
School of Civil and Building Engineering
Loughborough University, UK
Rural Water Supply Network - blog 