Tag: world water day

RWSN updates February 2022 and upcoming events

Dear RWSN members

We hope you all had a great start to 2022. The year is already going in full swing, and we would like to share some RWSN updates and upcoming events with you. 

My name is Tommy Ka Kit Ngai and I am the Head of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at WaterAid UK. At the RWSN Executive Steering Committee on 27 January, I was honoured to accept the role of RWSN Chair for the remainder of WaterAid’s tenure. I have been a RWSN member for about 10 years and have always been encouraged by the unwavering commitment of fellow RWSN members to collaborate and support each other in bringing sustainable and reliable water supplies to all rural people.  Collectively, we have a world-leading, immense pool of knowledge and experience in rural WASH.  I am thrilled to be here. I look forward to learning from and working alongside with all of you.   

Thank you, Louisa Gosling and SDC 

  • It is with much sadness that Louisa Gosling stepped down as Chair of RWSN due to health issues as of December 2021. We thank her so much for her great leadership and passion for the network, and in particular, she worked tirelessly with the Leave no One Behind theme and has been a great advocate of RWSN over the last ten years. We wish her strength and good health in her next chapter. 
  • The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has supported this network since the beginning when we were founded as the Handpump Technology Network in 1992. Thanks to their steadfast partnership, RWSN has grown from a mailing list of a few dozen engineers to a diverse, global network of nearly 14,000 individuals and more than a hundred organisations in 167 countries. The RWSN Strategy, Roadmap and ongoing governance review are setting the network on an exciting new path and we will share more details in future updates. SDC’s strategic orientation is shifting and with it our modality of collaboration. We thank the SDC Global Programme Water for providing exceptional support over the last 30 years, and to Dr Daniel Maselli in particular who has been a great ally and guide over the last few years. Switzerland remains committed to improving global water security and we look forward to continuing our partnership in new ways. 

 
Welcome to Ndeye Awa Diagne, Dr. Amita Bhakta, WHO and USAID – and “Data for Action” 

  • Ms Ndeye Awa Diagne (“Awa”) has joined the RWSN executive committee. Awa is a Water and Sanitation Specialist at the World Bank in Washington DC, with 10 years experience, including 6 with the World Bank and 2 at the Société Nationale des Eaux du Sénégal. Her current responsibilities include managing the Bank’s internal community of practice on rural WASH. Linkedin  
  • New Leave No One Behind (LNOB) theme co-lead Dr. Amita Bhakta. Amita is a Freelance Consultant in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); Website: Amita Bhakta – Hidden WASH; LinkedIn   
  • Welcome to our new RWSN project partners, USAID, who are funding REAL-Water, a five year research programme on rural water headed by Aquaya Institute with KNUST Ghana, ATREE, Safe Water Network, Aguaconsult and Water Mission. 
  • We are delighted to be collaborating with WHO as they prepare to finalise and publish “Guidelines For Small Drinking-Water Supplies: Policy Guidance And Supporting Tools”. Look out for more updates later in the year! 
  • Finally, the RWSN Theme “Monitoring and Mapping” will be changing its name to  “Data for Action”; the change will be effective over the course of this year. 

    Upcoming events 
  • On 22nd March we celebrate World Water Day. This year the theme is “Groundwater: making the invisible, visible”. You can take part in the celebration and raise awareness on groundwater by checking the website: https://www.worldwaterday.org/. There are many materials available for download to share with your community and networks, raising awareness on groundwater. RWSN also has a wealth of resources related to Groundwater, see below. 
  • 9th World Water Forum, Dakar – RWSN is delighted to be hosting French/English Session 2A4 on Rural Water Supply Management Models in Room 3 at 9am on 22 March. For those coming to the Dakar, we look forward to welcoming you to this great session, with interesting case studies from Morocco, Madagascar, Senegal, Ghana and Uptime and panellists including the Director General of Water from the Government of Spain. https://www.worldwaterforum.org/  
     

    RWSN resources related to Groundwater 
  • Does your organisation drill boreholes, or perhaps fund others to drill?  If so, check out the wealth of materials on borehole drilling on the RWSN website: https://tinyurl.com/waterdrilling 
  • Do you want a quick, and easy introduction to borehole siting, supervision, procurement and drilling itself?  If so, then watch these very short animated films (available in English and French): https://vimeo.com/channels/drilling 
  • Want to know about how to unlock the potential of groundwater in Africa, then check out this short film: https://vimeo.com/582160363 
  • Are you looking for ways to support access to groundwater at a low cost? Then you should find out if manual drilling is an option? This is a good place to start: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/sustainable-groundwater-management/manual-drilling 
  • Want to learn about professional drilling from other RWSN members and partners? There is an archive of presentations and webinars available here: https://vimeo.com/channels/1432819 
  • Do you have questions or concerns about using solar-powered water systems to pump groundwater? This is a good place to start: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/sustainable-groundwater-management/solar  

     

    New Groundwater Publications from RWSN and in collaboration with others 

    Dr Kerstin Danert, co-lead of Sustainable Groundwater Development Theme has been extremely busy over the last year and involved in lead and co-author roles on several key publications that will be published over the next month:  

Best regards,

RWSN Chair and secretariat

La Journée mondiale de l’eau / World Water Day – stay inquisitive, keep learning

Amongst the flurry of activity related to World Water Day, we would like to highlight A guide to equitable water safety planning prepared by the WHO. This tool offers step-by-step guidance and good practice examples of how to consider equity through the WSP process to help achieve safe water for all. 

We also would like to encourage you to sign up for the new RWSN webinar series dedicated to the 2019 Theme “Leave no one behind” in rural water supply, running every Tuesday from April 16th, 2019 until June 04th, 2019, in English, French and/or Spanish. Click here to register for the webinar series in English and find more information here. Finally, keep up to date with your rural water supply knowledge through our new RWSN Talks. Be sure to subscribe to the playlist to be notified as we post new presentations from our rich archive of webinar recordings.

Finally, keep up to date with your rural water supply knowledge through our new RWSN Talks. Be sure to subscribe to the playlist to be notified as we post new presentations from our rich archive of webinar recordings.

Parmi les nombreuses activités liées à la Journée mondiale de l’eau, nous aimerions souligner le guide pour une planification équitable de la sécurité de l’eau préparé par l’OMS. Cet outil offre des conseils étape par étape et des exemples de bonnes pratiques sur la façon de tenir compte de l’équité dans le cadre du processus du planification pour la sécurité de l’eau afin d’assurer la salubrité de l’eau pour tous.

Nous aimerions également vous encourager à vous inscrire à la nouvelle série de webinaires du RWSN consacrés au thème « Ne laisser personne de côté » dans l’approvisionnement en eau en milieu rural, qui auront lieu chaque mardi du 16 avril 2019 au 04 juin 2019 en anglais, en français et/ou en espagnol. Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire aux webinaires en français et trouvez plus d’informations ici.

Enfin, restez au courant de vos connaissances en matière d’approvisionnement en eau en milieu rural grâce à nos nouveaux RWSN Talks – en français

World Water Day 2018: Publication of the new RWSN Strategy 2018-2023

The 2015-2017 RWSN strategy came to an end last year, and the RWSN Theme Leads and Secretariat have been busy consulting members and partners to develop a new strategy for the period 2018-2023.  We have received valuable ideas for the network through consultations with working groups, the 2017 RWSN member survey and evaluation of the network, and the 6-week open consultation to which we invited all RWSN members. We also hosted a webinar in November 2017 during which the RWSN Secretariat and Chair outlined the proposed changes to the existing strategy.

Ideas and comments received from the network members and partners through the open consultation were incorporated into the RWSN Strategy in early 2018. The final version of the Strategy was approved by the RWSN Executive Steering Committee in March 2018. The revised RWSN strategy is now available for download here.

So what’s new?

The highlights include:

  • Welcoming new organisations to contribute to RWSN’s thematic activities, in particular Water Mission (on solar pumping, as part of the Sustainable Groundwater Development Theme) and Simavi (as part of the Leave No One Behind Theme, formerly known as Equality, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination);
  • A new focus on the development of RWSN’s Young Professionals community;
  • Fostering the collaboration between RWSN themes on emerging or specific topics such as water quality, social accountability, climate-resilient WASH and solar pumping. Given the complexity of the rural water sector challenges, this approach to tackling issues from different angles and perspectives together is helping us capitalise on the diverse experiences and expertise of our members in a process of co-creation.

As ever, your contributions to the network are highly appreciated, and we encourage you to join RWSN’s Themes and contribute to topics of interest. Feel free to reach out to your colleagues, in particular Young Professionals, to bring them on board to engage in the Rural Water Sector dialogue and shape the future next generation of RWSN.  Thank you for all your ideas and we look forward to working together over this next phase!

*****

La stratégie RWSN 2015-2017 a pris fin l’an dernier. Les responsables thématiques et le secrétariat de RWSN ont pris l’initiative de consulter les membres et les partenaires du réseau afin de développer une nouvelle stratégie pour la période 2018-2023. Nous avons reçu de bonnes idées pour le réseau à travers des consultations avec les groupes de travail, l’enquête des membres RWSN 2017 et l’évaluation du réseau, et la consultation ouverte de 6 semaines à laquelle nous avons invité tous les membres de RWSN. Nous avons également organisé un wébinaire en novembre 2017 qui a permis au Secrétariat et à la Présidente de RWSN d’expliquer les changements proposés par rapport à la stratégie existante. Les idées et commentaires reçus des membres et des partenaires du réseau à travers cette consultation ont été incorporés dans la nouvelle stratégie RWSN début 2018. La version finale de la stratégie a été approuvée par le Comité de Pilotage Exécutif de RWSN en mars 2018.

La nouvelle stratégie RWSN strategy est maintenant disponible ici.

Quoi de neuf dans cette nouvelle stratégie?

Les points forts de la nouvelle stratégie 2018-2023 de RWSN sont les suivants:
• Nous souhaitons la bienvenue à de nouvelles organisations souhaitant contribuer aux activités thématiques de RWSN, en particulier Water Mission (sur le pompage solaire, faisant partie du Thème Développement Durable des Eaux Souterraines) et Simavi (faisant partie du Thème “N’exclure personne”, qui s’appelait Egalité, Inclusion et Non-Discrimination lors de la phase précédente);
• Un nouvel axe prioritaire sur le développement de la communauté de Jeunes Professionnels de RWSN;
• La collaboration entre les thèmes RWSN sur des sujets émergeants ou spécifiques tels que la qualité de l’eau, la redevabilité sociale, la résilience au climat des services EAH et le pompage solaire. Etant donné la complexité des défis du secteur de l’eau en milieu rural, cette approche nous permet de voir les problèmes de différents angles et perspectives afin de capitaliser sur les différentes expériences et expertises de nos membres à travers un processus de co-création.

Comme toujours, vos contributions au réseau sont les bienvenues, et nous vous encourageons à rejoindre les communautés des groupes thématiques de RWSN et à contribuer aux sujets qui vous intéressent. N’hésitez pas à partager avec vos collègues, en particulier les jeunes professionnels, afin de les impliquer dans le dialogue du secteur de l’eau en milieu rural et former la prochaine génération de RWSN. Merci à tous pour vos idées et nous avons hâte de travailler ensemble lors de cette nouvelle phase !

#WorldWaterDay #WWF8 : Publication of the new RWSN Strategy 2018-2023

The 2015-2017 RWSN strategy came to an end last year, and the RWSN Theme Leads and Secretariat have been busy consulting members and partners to develop a new strategy for the period 2018-2023. We have received valuable ideas for the network through consultations with working groups, the 2017 RWSN member survey and evaluation of the network, and the 6-week open consultation to which we invited all RWSN members. We also hosted a webinar in November 2017 during which the RWSN Secretariat and Chair outlined the proposed changes to the existing strategy. Ideas and comments received from the network members and partners through the open consultation were incorporated into the RWSN Strategy in early 2018. The final version of the Strategy was approved by the RWSN Executive Steering Committee in March 2018.

The new RWSN strategy is now available for download here

Continue reading “#WorldWaterDay #WWF8 : Publication of the new RWSN Strategy 2018-2023”

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.

World Water Day – Is the Hand-pump dead?

WS13_Eritrea_25
Broken India Mk II in Eritrea (Skat)

In this short blog series on the successes of India Mark II, Afridev and Bush Pumps, however the challenges and set-backs that were encountered by these designs shouldn’t be discounted. Nor should it be overlooked that there are also successful proprietary designs, and self supply options like the EMAS Pump and the Rope Pump. However it is worth highlighting the heroic efforts of those people from all the different countries and organisations and what they achieved for rural water supplies worldwide.

In today’s debate, the humble hand-pump gets the part the villain: the rusting carcass in the corner of too many villages, or the subject of frightening statistics about how many are probably not in use at any one time, and how long they are out of service for. Many of the problems, framed in that weaselly catch-all “sustainability” have remained – doggedly – since the 1970s and before: pump manufacturing quality is often poor, boreholes are drilled badly, supply chains for spare parts fail, pump mechanic skills are lost, not enough money is collected to pay for the maintenance and replacement costs.

Continue reading “World Water Day – Is the Hand-pump dead?”