Category: RWSN Forum

Why is Groundwater Data important?

by Dr Fabio Fussi, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

The role of groundwater data in rural water supply has changed markedly in over the last few year:

6th RWSN Forum in Kampala, 2011: Some pilot projects of groundwater data collection and organization is presented. Uganda is presenting its groundwater atlas, a promising example for other countries.

7th RWSN Forum in Abidjan,  2016: there were entire sessions dedicated to groundwater data collection, mapping, analysis and application, with presentation of country programs from national water institutions, some example of international projects to create continental or world groundwater database (e.g. the groundwater atlas of Africa from the British Geological Survey) and application of groundwater data analysis.

What has raised the interest up to this level? There are several factors:

  • Data collection has become easy, with IT tools available in portable devices and smartphones for water point mapping. The increased availability of information has allowed to use these data to take decision about groundwater development and monitoring.
  • Depletion of groundwater resources (both in quantity and quality) requires the definition of sustainable groundwater development strategies and monitoring the effectiveness and impact of their implementation.
  • International donors have an increased interest to support countries to create groundwater information system, and national water institutions have, in several cases, understood the importance to put effort in this.

This seems a promising path for the future to support an effective and sustainable use of groundwater. However there are critical factors that must be taken into consideration:

  1. An increasing amount of data are available, but still there is lack of control in their quality. National databases are full of information, but limited effort is spent to revise them and depurate from mistakes. If this aspect is not properly considered, the risk of incorrect interpretation is high, leading to the formulation of incorrect strategies.
  2. Despite of the huge amount of information and the availability of powerful tools to process it, the level of data analysis to deepen our understating of groundwater system and give a practical support for complex decisions seems still basic. At this time we need creativity, technical capacity and collaboration between decision makers and scientist to unlock the potential of massive groundwater databases.
  3. An unbelievable amount of information is available, held by national water authorities and organizations involved in groundwater development. Most of this information is in hard copy, almost unused, not yet transformed into numeric database. This task is huge and time consuming, but if we can support it, we avoid the risk to loose relevant data and in they can be easily used to take decisions.

In the coming years the effect of climate change and the increase in water needs (due to population growth and improved living conditions) will lead to a more intense exploitation of groundwater resources, whose feasibility and sustainability must be carefully evaluated by a detailed interpretation of reliable data.

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.

Self-supply highlights from 2016

This is a review of the 2016 highlights from a Self-supply point of view: Events, papers, presentations, policy breakthroughs, etc.

We are well into 2017 already, but it is still a good moment to look back to some highlights of 2016 from the point of view of Self-supply:

  • In the first half of 2016, the UNICEF-funded studies of Self-supply in Zambia and Zimbabwe were completed. The studies showcase these two experiences at scale, and they are the fundament for making an economic case for Self-Supply , demonstrating that using Self-supply as part of the strategies to reacp1430235h full coverage can be very cost-effective.
  • In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a 2nd national meeting on Self-supply was organized bringing together dozens of national stakeholders involved in the scaling up of Self-supply at country level through the national ONE WASH Programme.
  • The 2016 edition of the WEDC conference also saw its share of Self-supply: A paper presented by Annemarieke Maltha (on experiences of the SMART Centre approach in Tanzania) and one by Sally Sutton on the experiences in Zambia, among others.
  • The RWSN mini-series of webinars in the autumn 2016 included an event on Self-supply, focusing on the economic analysis of country strategies in Zambia and Zimbabwe (see recordings of the webinar here).
  • Self-supply also made a splash at the 7th RWSN Forum in Abidjan (29.11 – 03.12.2016), with 7 sessions related to Self-supply (see a list of Self-supply papers here). Apart from the frequent appearance of the Self-supply Theme in the sessions it also was notable to see how often the term came up in discussions and in plenary speeches, including within the panel of the closing ceremony.
  • At the same event, a bottom-up, spontaneous initiative of a small group of people helped to engage in conversations with many of the participants of the Forum and resulted in 150 signing a paper confirming their personal approval and support of the Self-supply approach.
  • As one possible way of implementing Self-Supply, the initiative of SMART Centre Group emerged and gained traction throughout the year. SMART Centres are business incubators which foster the local private sector in the WASH sector. Currently, there are SMART Centres in 5 countries formally recognized as such (see smartcentregroup.com), but many other organizations are implementing similar concepts around the world, and it will be interesting to see how these different initiatives can support each other and create synergies – or even merge – in the future.

Overall, it has been a fantastic year for Self-supply. Especially if we consider that the term “Self-supply” did not even exist before 2004 (when it was created by RWSN), it is remarkable that after a relatively slow process of foundation building we are now witnessing the moment when Self-supply is getting into mainstream – and hopefully we will see a wider use and further development of the concept in the near future. On behalf of RWSN, and particularly Skat as the lead agency for the Self-supply theme, we are encouraged by the results achieved so far and look forward to the next phase of development – and to another year of progress, exchange and learning with our RWSN partners.

If you are interested in Self-supply, you may want to subscribe to the Self-supply Dgroup (https://dgroups.org/rwsn/selfsupply_rwsn), or check out the respective part of the RWSN website: https://dgroups.org/rwsn/selfsupply_rwsn.

 

Matthias Saladin is the Theme leader of Accerating Self-supply at the Rural Water Supply Network. You can leave comments or questions here or write to him: matthias.saladin@skat.ch.

 

Can Self-Supply Save the World?

Some highlights from the RWSN Forum and thoughts on 12 years of a learning journey, by Matthias Saladin, Skat

Of course the title is a rhetorical question – no one really expects one specific approach to transform the whole water sector, let alone save the world. Nevertheless, Self-supply as a concept is gaining traction and prominence in the sector as I witnessed during the 7th RWSN Forum, which took place from November 29 to December 02 in Abidjan. Just a couple of years ago, the term “Self-supply” did not even exist. In fact, it was coined within RWSN as part of a strategic planning exercise in 2004, where Self-supply was defined as one of the flagships of RWSN. Of course, people providing water for themselves (“Self-supply”) is a process which has been going on for millennia and all over the planet (for example, some 44 million people in the US today rely on Self-supply for their drinking water), but Self-supply as a term was born in 2004, and the idea that this approach can (and should) be fostered by specific activities and frameworks both by government and other actors still is relatively new to many people, even within the water sector.

In this blog entry, I would like to reflect on some aspects of this learning journey of the past 12 years, and I invite you to reply, discuss, disagree, criticize or support, whatever suits you best.

Flashlights on Self-supply at the 7th RWSN Forum

But first things first: The 7th RWSN Forum was a massive success, both in terms of participation and outreach, but also specifically for the Theme of Self-supply: I identified at least 7 sessions where papers related to Self-supply were presented, some of which I was not even aware of before the Forum. For example, Sara Marks of Eawag (Switzerland) presented some results of a study from Burkina Faso (feel free to read the respective paper and presentation) where they looked into the various benefits of a project implementing a (subsidized) Self-supply approach to facilitate multiple-use water services (MUS). Among other things, they found that the water of households who had invested in an upgraded private well and equipped it with a Rope Pump was of better quality than that of unimproved wells.

Meanwhile, session 6A was designed to provide an update on the “state of the art” in Self-supply, including an overview paper of André Olschewski, a case study from Sally Sutton on Self-supply in some African countries, an overview of how Self-supply can be accelerated in Ethiopia, and an example of how capacities in the private sector can be strengthened through SMART Centres (or watch the movie on the SMART Centre in Zambia here).

In several other sessions, specific aspects of Self-supply were analyzed in more detail, for example by Patrick Alubbe of water.org, who made a case for micro-credit as a scalable intervention who can help more people gaining access to higher level of drinking water services (see the paper of Gupta and Labh and Patrick’s presentation).

Making a Splash – and causing allergic reactions

Apart from this wide and deep presence of Self-supply in the thematic sessions, the concept also made a splash at key moments of the RWSN Forum: For example, it was prominently mentioned by the final remarks of Mr. Jonathan Kamkwalala, a senior manager of the World Bank, during the closing ceremony. Moreover, more than 150 people signed an informal “Call to action”, which suggests that Self-supply deserves more attention on behalf of governments, donors, civil society organizations, researchers, and other key players. The undersigned expressed a “strong interest in developing support for Self-supply within our own spheres of activity and urge all development partners to explore this approach and reach its considerable potential”. Given this strong support by a large number of people, I hope that we will see a lot of action in this field in the weeks and months to come – for example by starting to monitor and report on Self-supply within organizations, regions,  and eventually countries and globally. As we know, we do not manage what we do not measure, so measuring definitively would be a good start.

In spite of these highlights and an overall strong presence of Self-supply during the Forum, not everything is rosy in regard to Self-supply. On one hand, I observed that while many people recognize the important role Self-supply already plays and will have to play to reach the SDGs, with another group of people it creates almost allergic reactions. Having listened to some of these people, I think I identified three areas of conflict, which are related to three misconceptions around Self-supply:

1.       Self-supply means abandoning the poor.

2.       Self-supply means that government has no role to play.

3.       Self-supply is incompatible with the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation.

For the moment, I will only respond to the third misconception.  It can readily be clarified, simply by listening of the presentation of the UN Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation during a webinar hosted by RWSN last year (e.g., read this summary), where he makes it clear that Self-supply is in line with the progressive realization of these Human Rights. And this hint also helps clarifying the first misconception: Self-supply does not imply abandoning the poor, but supporting them in a different way – rather than the government itself providing services, it facilitates and strengthens the private sector (and civil society organizations) to provide them. Thus, rather than abandoning the poor, what Supported Self-supply does is actually empower them and enable them to take on a more active role in moving up the ladder of water services.

Importantly, the Government has to play a role in Supported Self-supply – in fact, it is a crucial role consisting of several functions (adequate policy framework, building up capacities, oversight of the private sector, etc.), but this will be the topic of my next blog. So for the moment, I leave it there, confirming that the Government is a key actor in Supported Self-supply.

Striking a balance

Overall, the concept of Self-supply clearly has an important role to play if we want to provide some (even if it’s just basic) level of services to everyone – there simply is no alternative in reaching specific target groups, especially in the remote rural areas. However, we also have to be aware that Self-supply has its limitations, and that there are aspects related to Self-supply which have to be addressed with a lot of care (e.g., quality of the services installed, potential over-exploitation of water resources by private households). I also perceived that several people and organizations are looking for shiny examples of countries where Supported Self-supply was implemented at scale, which then could be replicated elsewhere (the “Blueprint Fallacy” which unfortunately is quite common in the water sector, particularly among global players).

However, at the moment there are only a few such examples (e.g. manual drilling in Nigeria/Lagos, Domestic Rainwater Harvesting in Thailand, the Upgraded Family Wells in Zimbabwe), and many of these cases refer to contexts where government services were weak or collapsing – which do not make for a good example for promotion, particularly with government agencies. With all due respect, but which government agency would like to copy the experience of Zimbabwe in the 1990s? Thus, the examples are not as shiny as we wish.

Nevertheless, the fact is that Self-supply actually took off in some places while government services, institutions and the whole economy was collapsing – a clear hint to the power of this approach, even under difficult conditions. But we also need to figure out how governments can foster the approach – that is, how to better Support Self-supply.

The way forward

In spite of all the progress made I think there still is a lot of work to be done both within RWSN and beyond. Here are just a few areas of work a group of “Self-Suppliers” identified during an informal conversation at the Forum:

  • Revisit the basic terms, definitions and concepts and make them more intuitive to understand.
  • Help people, particularly within government and funding agencies, understand better the key role government has to play to support Self-supply
  • In cooperation with research institutions, improve our understanding of the potential and limits of Self-supply, and the variety of benefits it can generate (not only in health, but also in productivity, income-generation, equality and non-discrimination, inclusiveness, well-being, cost-savings to government agencies, etc.).
  • Keep up the dialogue with people and organizations who think that Self-supply is a nightmare and should be hindered wherever possible. Their arguments will help us guide future research and for making a better case where and why Self-supply has a role to play.
  • Engage with actors (particularly non-profit organizations) who undermine existing and flourishing markets by giving away stuff for free. Giving away products and services for free is not Self-supply, does not build up capacity with anyone and damages existing supply chains.

Thus, looking back to the first 12 years of promoting Self-supply, I think we have come a long way. Given that before 2004 the term did not even exist, the change is truly remarkable – and RWSN was the lead agency of making this sea change in public awareness possible. At the same time, we still need to work on the fundaments, the walls and the windows of the Self-supply house, and we need to make them strong enough to keep growing in the coming 12 years and beyond. I hope that many of you will be part of this journey, and I invite you – as a small first step – to subscribe to the Dgroup on Accelerating Self-supply, which is a platform for discussion, exchange and mutual learning, and to contribute to the dialogue on that platform. I look forward to hearing from many of you there!

Onwards and Upwards,

Matthias

RWSN Forum Programme Announced Today! Le programme du Forum RWSN est annoncé aujourd’hui!

We are delighted to announce that the programme of the 7thRWSN Forum (29 Nov-2 Dec in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire) is now available.  As you can see, it is a very diverse programme, covering rural and small towns’ water access from policy, financial, practice and user perspectives – with contributions from over42 countries.  It is by bringing so much diversity, and many different players that this Forum is tackling the SDG challenge of Water for Everyone! The quality of contributions means that those attending will return home with new knowledge and new connections.

For more information see:   https://rwsn7.net/programme/

As our programme is just out now, we have also extended the deadline for regular registration to the 31st October 2016.  So those who have not yet managed to register and pay, please try to do so by the 31st October to benefit from the €600 fee.  Over 500 people have registered so far, with confirmations from over 130.  As with previous RWSN Forums, we expect a very diverse group to participate including government, private sector, NGO, donor, academia and civil society. You can register here.

Many people have been contacting us for sponsorship to attend the event.  Alas we have very limited funds as Forum organisers. However, we have prepared a help sheet for you to use within your organisation and with partners in trying to obtain assistance to attend.

—-

Veuillez nous excuser pour tous les emails en ce moment, mais nous sommes heureux de vous annoncer que le programme du7ème Forum RWSN (29 nov-2 déc à Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire) est maintenant confirmé. Comme vous pouvez le voir, c’est un programme très divers, qui couvre les perspectives des usagers, des professionnels, des décideurs politiques et les aspects financiers de l’approvisionnement en eau en milieu rural et dans les petites villes – avec des contributions de plus de 42 pays. C’est en rassemblant un tel nombre d’acteurs et une telle diversité que le Forum envisage d’aborder le défi de l’ODD “L’eau pour tous”! La qualité des contributions reçues va permettre aux participants de rentrer chez eux ensuite avec de nouvelles connaissances et de nouvelles connections.

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter: https://rwsn7-fr.net/programme/

Notre programme étant seulement paru maintenant, nous avons étendu la date limite pour les inscriptions au tarif normal jusqu’au 31 octobre 2016. Si vous ne vous êtes pas encore inscrit, vous avez jusqu’au 31 octobre pour bénéficier du tarif de 600 Euros. Environ 500 personnes se sont inscrits, avec plus de 130 personnes confirmées. Comme lors des Forums RWSN précédents, nous nous attendons à avoir un groupe divers de participants, y compris des membres du gouvernement,  du secteur privé, des ONG, des bailleurs de fonds, des chercheurs et de la société civile. Vous pouvez vous inscrire ici.

Beaucoup de personnes nous ont contacté pour pouvoir bénéficier d’un soutien financier pour participer à l’évènement. Hélas, nos moyens sont limités en tant qu’organisateurs du Forum. Cependant, nous avons préparé un guide que nous vous encourageons à utiliser auprès de votre organisation et avec vos partenaires pour obtenir un soutien pour votre participation.

Warm wishes et cordialement,

Kerstin

Dr. Kerstin Danert

Director – Secretariat

7th RWSN Forum – Early Bird Rate Update // tarif réduit pour l’inscription

Dear RWSN members / Chers membres du RWSN (texte en français ci-dessous),

We have had a tremendous response to our Open Call for Submissions for the RWSN Forum  – more than 250 submissions for papers, posters, films and pictures! That’s almost double the number of contributions we had at our last RWSN Forum in Uganda in 2011. Thank you all for your hard work – and above all, a big thanks to our peer-reviewers, who read and evaluated all of your submissions. All authors should have received feedback from peer-reviewers. If that’s not the case, please log into your account to find out the outcome of the evaluation process.
The RWSN Forum programme is shaped by the contributions from this Open Call and we will be posting updates on the programme on our website, where can already find the overall schedule for the RWSN Forum as well as the confirmed Sponsored Seminars on Friday, December 2nd.

We have a few more RWSN Forum updates for you:

  • Venue: We are pleased to confirm that the venue for the 7th RWSN forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (November 29th-December 2nd 2016) is the Radisson Blu Hotel Abidjan Airport. The hotel was completed in early 2016 and offers state-of-the-art accommodation and conference facilities.  It is only 500 metres from the airport, making it very convenient and secure for international arrivals and departures.
  • Accommodation: We have a negotiated a specially reduced room rate for the Forum at the Radisson Blu, and we have identified 11 other suitable hotels within half-an-hour travel time. There is an on-going process of negotiating preferential room rates and undertaking security assessments.  Our website page will be updated as we are able to provide more information.
  • Early bird registration fee: We have extended the RWSN Forum Early Bird registration fee until 31 July, to allow time for authors to register once they know whether their contribution has been accepted or not. The Forum is open for all to attend – you do not need to be an RWSN member, or an author to participate. You can register here:https://rwsn7.net/participate/register/.

We will be posting more updates shortly on our website. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information.

On behalf of the RWSN Forum Management Team,

Kerstin, Victor, Sean and Meleesa

_____________

Chers membres du RWSN,

Nous avons eu des réponses formidables à notre Appel Ouvert à Contributions pour le Forum RWSN – plus de 250 contributions pour des articles, posters, court-métrages et photos ou illustrations! C’est presque le double de ce qui avait été reçu lors du dernier Forum RWSN en Ouganda en 2011. Merci à tous pour votre travail – et un grand merci à nos évaluateurs, qui ont lu et évalué vos contributions. Tous les auteurs devraient maintenant avoir reçu par email leurs évaluations. Si ce n’est pas le cas, nous vous invitons à vous connecter à votre compte pour y trouver les résultats du processus d’évaluation.

Le programme du Forum RWSN est construit à partir de ces contributions et nous mettrons à jour régulièrement le programme sur notre site, où vous pouvez d’ores et déjà retrouver la structure du Forum RWSN ainsi que les Séminaires Sponsorisés déjà confirmés pour le vendredi 2 décembre.

Nous avons quelques informations de plus pour vous sur le Forum:

  • Site: Nous sommes ravis de confirmer que le 7ème Forum RWSN (29 novembre- 2 décembre 2016) aura lieu à Abidjan au Radisson Blu Hotel Abidjan Airport. Cet hôtel a été récemment construit et offre des salles de conférence et des chambres modernes et confortables.  Il est situé à seulement 500 metres de l’aéroport, ce qui en fait un site pratique pour les arrivées et les départs des participants internationaux.
  • Hébergement: Nous avons négocié une réduction sur les prix des chambres pour le Forum, et nous avons identifié 11 autres hôtels dans un rayon de 30 minutes (en voiture) pour lesquels nous sommes en train de négocier des réductions et des vérifications liées à la sécurité. Notre site sera mis à jour au fur et à mesure pour vous donner plus d’informations.
  • Tarif réduit pour l’inscription au Forum RWSN: Nous avons prolongé la date limite pour bénéficier du tarif réduit pour l’inscription au Forum RWSN jusqu’au 31 juillet,  ce qui permettra aux auteurs de s’inscrire une fois que les résultats de l’évaluation sont connus. Le Forum est ouvert à tous – vous n’êtes pas obligé d’être un membre du RWSN ou un auteur pour y participer. Vous pouvez vous inscrire ici: https://rwsn7-fr.net/participer/inscription/

Nous continuerons à mettre à jour toutes les informations relatives au Forum sur notre site. N’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour toute question.

Au nom des organisateurs du Forum RWSN,

Kerstin, Victor, Sean and Meleesa

Submission deadline extended to 6th May / Date finale pour la soumission des contributions étendue jusqu’au 6 mai

Dear all,

The deadline for the Open Call for submissions to the RWSN Forum (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 29/11-02/12/2016 – https://rwsn7.net/) has been extended by one week, due to high demand and to a number of authors having difficulties with uploading their submissions, or having misunderstood the instructions about submitting full papers rather than just abstracts. The deadline is now Friday, May 6th to submit one or more of the following through our online platform (https://www.conference-service.com/RWSN7/welcome.cgi):
• A short paper (up to 2,000 words): FULL PAPER to be submitted using the attached form;
• A long paper (up to 6,000 words) FULL PAPER to be submitted using the attached form;
• A poster (at this stage, if the final poster is not yet available, a summary can be submitted, with the final poster to be submitted by 1 September)
• A short film (at this stage, if the final film is not yet available, a summary can be submitted, with the final film to be submitted by 1 September)
• A photography or illustration.
To get an idea of the type of content presented at an RWSN Forum, you can find everything from the last one on the website of the 6th RWSN Forum, 2011: https://rwsnforum.wordpress.com/programme/

Thank you for your interest in the RWSN Forum and we hope you will be able to share your experience and stories with us and others around the world.

***

Chers tous,

La date butoir pour l’Appel Ouvert à contributions pour le Forum RWSN (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 29/11-02/12/2016 – https://rwsn7-fr.net/) a été étendu d’une semaine, dû à une forte demande et au nombre important d’auteurs qui ont eu des difficultés à télécharger leur contributions, ou qui avait mal compris les instructions liées à la soumission d’articles complets et pas seulement des résumés/ abstracts. La date butoir pour la soumission des types de contributions ci-dessous est maintenant le vendredi 6 mai, toujours à travers notre plateforme en ligne (https://www.conference-service.com/RWSN7/welcome.cgi):
• Un article court (maximum 2000 mots): ARTICLE ENTIER devant être soumis en complétant le formulaire ci-joint;
• Un article long (maximum 6000 mots): ARTICLE ENTIER devant être soumis en complétant le formulaire ci-joint;
• Un poster (à ce stade, si le poster final n’est pas prêt, un résumé peut être soumis, et le poster final soumis avant le 1 septembre)
• Un court-métrage (à ce stade, si le court-métrage final n’est pas prêt, un résumé peut être soumis, et le court-métrage final soumis avant le 1 septembre)
• Une photographie ou illustration.
Pour avoir un idée sur le type de sujets qui peuvent être présentés à un Forum RWSN, vous pouvez retrouver le programme entier du dernier Forum sur le site du 6ème Forum RWSN en 2011: https://rwsnforum.wordpress.com/programme/

Merci de votre intérêt pour le Forum RWSN et nous espérons que vous serez en mesure de partager votre expérience et vos histoires avec nous et le reste du monde.

RWSN Update – April 2016

The RWSN quarterly newsletter – April 2016

If you are having trouble reading this then download the more readable PDF version: ENGLISH / FRANÇAIS. Pour les francophones – Si vous souhaitez recevoir le bulletin trimestriel en français, veuillez nous écrire un e-mail à ruralwater @ skat.ch intitulé Bulletin Trimestriel en français.

WORD FROM THE CHAIR

Dear RWSN members and friends, dear colleagues,

Knowledge sharing and learning is critical to establishing and delivering water services that last. Advances in communications technology have made this easier than ever at a global scale. I hope that you have taken advantages of RWSN’s online discussions, webinars and publications – and we know from the feedback that you have given us, that you do value these exchanges.

However, even with such powerful online tools, nothing beats meeting people face-to-face. It is an opportunity to strengthen links with past and current collaborators, and hopefully find new partners for the work ahead. That is why the RWSN Forum is such an exciting opportunity for sharing.

The agenda is set by you, the members, and the contributions that you have submitted.  Complemented by regional pre-events in Peru and Thailand, the 7th RWSN Forum in November will be a truly global event – and it brings together people with a common purpose, which is expressed clearly in the RWSN Vision:

“of a world in which all rural people have access to a sustainable and reliable water supply which can be effectively managed to provide sufficient, affordable and safe water within a reasonable distance of the home.”

At the last Forum, way back in 2011, delegates agreed on the 10 Kampala Commitments.  The 7th Forum, this year, gives us an opportunity to reflect on these, the progress we have made, what needs to be done, and what we have learned. Do we still hold to the same principles, or has thinking and experience taken us in a new direction?

Be part of this conversation and I look forward to welcoming you to Abidjan on 29 November.

 

Ton Schouten, Chair

Continue reading “RWSN Update – April 2016”

What’s happening in RWSN?

So this week, Kerstin Danert , Dotun Adekile and Jose Gesti Canuto are in Zambia running a “Procurement, Contract Management and Costing and Pricing of Borehole Projects” course with 40 water sector professionals as part of the RWSN collaboration between Skat and UNICEF on cost effective boreholes.

In Perú, The World Bank and SDC have been running a RWSN side event on rural water supply at this year’s Latinosan conference. This is first of two preparatory meetings (the second will be in Bangkok in May) for the 7th RWSN Forum, which will be 29th Nov – 2 December 2016

The World Bank, IRC, WaterAid and UNICEF will be actively involved in next week’s SWA High Level Meeting of WASH sector Ministers in Addis Ababa helping to make sure that rural water (and indeed sanitation and hygiene) become a high political priorities on government agendas and budgets.

and finally, World Water Day is on 22nd of March, so you have any rural water stories to share, then get in touch.