Author: RWSN Secretariat

RWSN is a global network of rural water supply professionals. Visit https://www.rural-water-supply.net/ to find out more

In Memoriam: Hon. Maria Mutagamba

It is with great sadness that we have heard of the passing of the Honorable Maria Mutagamba, former Minister for Water & Environment, Uganda.

by Sean Furey, RWSN Secretariat

It is with great sadness that we have heard of the passing of the Honorable Maria Mutagamba on 24 June, at the age of 64. Mrs Mutagamba was an economist and politician, who according to Wikipedia:

…was born in Rakai District on 5 September 1952. She studied at St. Aloysius Senior Secondary School in Bwanda, Kalungu District for her O-Level studies (1967–1970). She then attended Mount Saint Mary’s College Namagunga in Mukono District for her A-Level education (1971–1972). She attended Makerere University from 1973 until 1976, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She also held a Diploma in computer programming from the ICL Computer School in Nairobi, Kenya, obtained in 1980, and a certificate in executive leadership from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, obtained in 1997.[5] In 2013, she was presented with an honorary doctorates in law from the Canadian McMaster University.[6]

DSC_0177She served in various posts in the Government of Uganda, most recently as Minister for Tourism. However, she is best known to RWSN members as the State Minister for Water Resources, from 2000, and then Minister for Water and Environment between 2004 and 2012. During this period she served as President, African ministers’ council on water (AMCOW), (2004–2012).

Under her leadership, the Ministry of Water & Environment became internationally recognised as leading actor in African water management issues, with a capable civil service team and an open attitude to innovation and collaboration with international partners.  Annual processes of Joint Sector Reviews and Sector Performance reporting became the gold standard of improving coordination, reporting and accountability across the WASH and water resources sectors.

I had the pleasure of meeting her when she came to open the 6th RWSN Forum in 2011 – of which she was a great supporter – and then again at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille. I was struck by how humble and thoughtful she was, yet also strong and with a keen intellect.  She had a particular passion for rainwater harvesting, which she saw as an opportunity that was being missed.

According to the New Vision and other news sources, she had been suffering poor health for some time and died of liver cancer.  Uganda has sadly lost a great water champion.

Photos: Hon. Maria Mutagamba opening the 6th RWSN Forum, Kampala, 2011

 

 

Rural Water Supply and sustainable rural groundwater development – recent academic papers

Low-cost water-lifting from groundwater sources: a comparison of the EMAS Pump with the Rope Pump

 Michael F. MacCarthy, Jacob D. Carpenter, James R. Mihelcic

Hydrogeological typologies of the Indo-Gangetic basin alluvial aquifer, South Asia

H. C. Bonsor, A. M. MacDonald, K. M. Ahmed, W. G. Burgess…Download PDF (22174KB) View Article

Improving the groundwater-well siting approach in consolidated rock in Nampula Province, Mozambique

 F. J. Chirindja, T. Dahlin, D. Juizo
Download PDF (3373KB) View Article

Groundwater science in water-utility operations: global reflections on current status and future needs

 Stephen Foster, Rob Sage

Future research needs involving pathogens in groundwater

 Scott A. Bradford, Ronald W. Harvey

Low-cost water-lifting from groundwater sources: a comparison of the EMAS Pump with the Rope Pump

 Michael F. MacCarthy, Jacob D. Carpenter, James R. Mihelcic

Hydrogeological typologies of the Indo-Gangetic basin alluvial aquifer, South Asia

H. C. Bonsor, A. M. MacDonald, K. M. Ahmed, W. G. Burgess…Download PDF (22174KB) View Article

Improving the groundwater-well siting approach in consolidated rock in Nampula Province, Mozambique

 F. J. Chirindja, T. Dahlin, D. Juizo
Download PDF (3373KB) View Article

Groundwater science in water-utility operations: global reflections on current status and future needs

 Stephen Foster, Rob Sage

Future research needs involving pathogens in groundwater

 Scott A. Bradford, Ronald W. Harvey

Measuring sporadic gastrointestinal illness associated with drinking water – an overview of methodologies

 John Bylund; Jonas Toljander; Maria Lysén; Niloofar Rasti; Jannes Engqvist; Magnus Simonsson

Systematic risk management approach of household drinking water from the source to point of use

Lutendo S. Mudau; Murembiwa S. Mukhola; Paul R. Hunter
Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development 2017 Jun, 7 (2) 290-299; DOI: 10.2166/washdev.2017.029

The 2017 RWSN Webinar series closes

The 2017 RWSN early webinar series has ended, after 9 weeks of weekly bilingual (and even trilingual!) online meetings dedicated to rural water supply. We had two great participatory webinars on gender and rural water supply, with stories contributed from RWSN members; a webinar which looked at the intersection between WASH in development and in emergency contexts; and webinars on topics as varied as corruption in the rural water sector, the human right to water, country-led monitoring of the WASH sector and how to measure the sustainability of water supply. We even took a foray into the urban world by discussing the impact of burgeoning private wells in Africa on groundwater resources and the resilience of communities.

What makes these webinars so interesting is that speakers and participants share knowledge, information, and stories that could never be found in a report. If you missed a topic of interest, do not worry – all the materials, recordings and presentations can be accessed here.   Feel free to share with your colleagues!

Proceedings of the 7th RWSN Forum published

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.

Africa Groundwater Atlas – your opinion / votre avis — UPGro

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

The most important stories in rural water supply // Les histoires d’approvisionnement en eau en milieu rural les plus importants

Making water work for women – inspiring stories from around the world

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:

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L’eau au service des femmes – des histoires inspirantes

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:

 

 

OPEN CALL: Evaluation of RWSN – Call for proposals (ENGLISH ONLY)

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.

 

Call for submissions: IWA Water and Development Congress, Argentina – an opportunity to connect rural and urban

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:

  • Raising gender profile in urban/rural (basin) interactions.
  • Developing leadership – diversity, inclusiveness and vision
  • Defining the role of regulation in meeting the SDGs
  • Strengthening the capacity of entrepreneurs to offer water and sanitation services in rural and peri-urban areas
  • Implementing pro-poor approaches
  • Defining tariffs, balancing affordability and cost recovery
  • Initiating and maintaining multi-stakeholder collaboration to achieve improved services
  • Fostering political & social engagement in water issues
  • Ensuring financial sustainability to achieve universal access and service goals.

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

Continue reading “Call for submissions: IWA Water and Development Congress, Argentina – an opportunity to connect rural and urban”

In Memoriam: Piers Cross

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.Cross Piers 0708 Stockholm WWW PCross

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