Ecuador – Rural Water Supply Network

by Sean Furey, Director, RWSN Secretariat

Nearly 30 years ago I began my first steps into a career in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Guatemala. In the morning mist, there was the dull clank of the school bell. It was an old bombshell that had been dropped on the village at some point during the thirty-year civil war. On that day it was guiding children to lessons. The clothes of the people, particularly the women, were amazing. Incredibly colourful and ornately woven, and each is distinctive to that community.

Today, my job is a different type of weaving, but no less colourful. In my previous post, I described how we, as RWSN and SuSanA, have been working with the Multilateral Development Banks, bilateral aid agencies, NGOs and researchers to weave a new narrative for rural WASH – one of learning from each other to achieve universal and lasting access.

But success doesn’t come from top-down actions only, there also needs to be a meeting with bottom-up energy, experience and initiative. Thanks to the support from SDC and IDB, through the SIRWASH project, we have had the opportunity to connect and listen to what regional practitioners are interested in and find ways to collaborate.

On 24 October, our partner, Lourdes Valenzuela from Aguatuya/SuSanA Latinoamérica co-hosted an online meeting with fellow WASH networks: “Conversatorio virtual: Escuchando las voces del sector de agua y saneamiento rural en Latinoamérica” (Online Conversation: Listening to the Voices of Rural Water and Sanitation Leaders in Latin America)

This 80-minute session, co-hosted with COLSAR, connected experts from diverse backgrounds to identify current sector demands and innovative approaches for improving rural water and sanitation management.

Themes and Objectives

The session, moderated by Marcelo Encalada from LatinWASH, sought to:

Identify essential knowledge areas and skills for strengthening rural water and sanitation services.
Explore digital tools and resources that could improve access to critical knowledge.
Examine the role of digital platforms such as SuSanA and LatinWASH in promoting sustainable solutions.