World Water Week Stockholm – Rural Water Supply Network

RWSN at the World Water Week 2023, 20 –24 August

SIWI’s World Water Week (WWW) in Stockholm is one of the greatest global gatherings addressing worldwide water challenges and fostering collective action.

WWW 2023 carries particular significance as it builds upon the commitments and outcomes established during the UN 2023 Water Conference. Themed “Seeds of Change – Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World”, the event brought together participants from over 150 countries, inviting them to rethink how we manage water, what innovations, ideas, and governance systems exist to tackle water-related challenges. The advantage of having free online participation not only heightened inclusivity but allowed greater global participation and discussions on pivotal water issues.

The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN)’s Secretariat, members, and supporters participated in the 2023 WWW edition, underscoring their dedication to finding sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. By facilitating meaningful discussions and co-convening three sessions, RWSN had the opportunity to be part of the broader efforts of addressing water-related challenges in rural areas and beyond.

Cover Photo: Satoshi Ishii, Director, Water and Urban Development Sector Office, ADB exchanged views on water initiatives and programs with Sean Furey and Aline Saraiva Okello, PhD from the RWSN Secretariat (Source: ADB, LinkedIn)

Driving rural water innovation: concept to scale-up. Sunday, 20 Aug, Online and Onsite

Photo credits: A. Saraiva Okello, RWSN

This REAL-Water session brought together innovators aiming to speed up rural water development. Panelists showcased innovations in technology, finance, and management at various stages. Participants explored how these innovations could impact their work and considered the past and future of rural water innovation.

Convenors: Aquaya, Evidence Action, iDE, Imagine H2O, REAL-Water program of USAID, Rural Water Supply Network, Skat Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, UDUMA, Virridy, Water Mission, Water.org

Women for the Future of Water. Building on the Momentum of the UN 2023 Water Conference. Tuesday, 22 August 2023, Online

This session addressed how the workforce of the water and sanitation sector demonstrates a gender imbalance. Different organisations tackle the challenge of gender-imbalance from researching to empowering professional water and sanitation women through networking, mentoring and support at local, national or international levels to address the commitments related to gender in the water sector, made at the UN 2023 Water Conference. Convenors: African Water and SanitationAssociation (AfWASA); International Water Association (IWA); Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA); Women for Water Partnership (WfWP); Women in Water & Sanitation Network (WWSN)

Photo: Women’s Mingle. Credits: A. Saraiva Okello / Ellen Greggio

SIRWASH breakfast at the World Water Week 2023.

The SIRWASH programme, led by the Swiss Agency of Development Cooperation (SDC) and the Inter-American Bank (IDB), hosted a side event at World Water Week and brought together prominent leaders and shared advances in monitoring, policy and partnerships.

Some of the topics covered included:

Telemetry for monitoring WASH services in rural areas, by Mr. Edgard Coronel, Monitoring Specialist, National Rural Sanitation Program (PNSR), Peru.
National Rural Sanitation Program: challenges for implementation, by Flavio Marcos Gomes Júnior, National Secretary of Sanitation, Ministry of Cities, Brazil.
Advances and challenges in terms of access to water and sanitation in rural areas of Chile, by Carlos Estévez Valencia, Coordinator of the Water Cabinet, Ministry of Public Works, Chile.

Sergio Campos, Head of the IDB’s Water and Sanitation Division, spoke about the progress being made to encourage and promote exchange between countries in the Southern Hemisphere on water, sanitation and hygiene in rural areas, and the importance of working together with different Multilateral Development Banks -such as the African and Asian Development Banks- to achieve a unified global call to action towards the achievement of SDG 6.

Learn more about this session here

Photo: SIRWASH session during World Water Week 2023. Credit: A. Saraiva Okello

Launch of Africa’s Voice on Water (AVOW)

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) launched the first edition of “Africa’s Voice on Water” a new quarterly bi-lingual publication that brings news and opinion from policy, programmes and research. Sean Furey attended the launch on behalf of RWSN, having co-authored an article on the RWSN “Stop the Rot” campaign and brokered an article on Water Quality Assurance from the REAL-Water programme.

Photo: AMCOW social media account.

Looking ahead

RWSN’s efforts to improve water security in rural areas continue. As a leading global network of professionals in rural water supply, RWSN keeps working diligently towards achieving universal access to sustainable, safe and affordable water for all.

To find out more about RWSN, and join the network as an individual or a Member Organisation, see here: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/

And the winner is… or the tale of how difficult it is for a young professional from Sierra Leone to attend World Water Week

We were very happy to announce Benson Kandeh’s nomination as the winner of the RWSN@WWW competition last month. However, we unfortunately received the news that Benson will be unable to attend the SIWI World Water Week conference, as he was denied a visa to travel to Sweden. This is a huge disappointment to him and to us.

We thought we should take this opportunity to highlight the hurdles that Benson, and other young professionals like him, have to overcome to attempt to attend a conference in Europe or North America. As development professionals, we should aim to cater and build capacity in-country in the water sector, and especially for young professionals. Conferences, workshops and training courses are crucial for building professionalism. Benson’s story highlights how difficult it is for a young professional from a fragile country, such as Sierra Leone, to attend the most important annual global conference in the water sector in development.

The issue is not only to do with the fact that he was not granted a visa – the difficulties for him to obtain this visa in the first place were prohibitively expensive and time consuming. The only place for Sierra Leone nationals to apply for a visa to Sweden are Nigeria and Morocco – and they have to apply in person. Benson had to travel more than 2,000 kilometres from Freetown to Lagos, and put his life on hold while waiting for a decision on his visa in a foreign country for almost two weeks. Admiringly, Benson managed to make the most of his trip by working on improving an unprotected well in the community where he was staying in Lagos.

The problem is not limited to the water sector: African academics and development professionals face arbitrary decision-making by immigration authorities. In the UK, the Royal African Society has compiled a number of disturbing findings about the barriers faced by African professionals. However, as development professionals, we have an obligation to ensure that we are building capacity in developing countries. This is why we are proud to have organised the RWSN Forum in low- and middle-incomes countries since its first handpump technology workshop in Kenya in 1992 and most recently in Côte d’Ivoire in 2016.

In the face of increasingly toxic political discourse on immigration, it is incumbent on all of us not to turn a blind eye, but communicate the benefits of international and intercultural exchange and cooperation and put pressure on over-zealous immigration authorities. In parallel, international development events should be organised where they are most needed and most accessible, to allow more water professionals like Benson to participate in international development conferences.

UPDATE! (from the RWSN Secretariat): We lodged an appeal against the decision to deny Benson his visa with the Swedish migration authorities. The Swedish embassy in Abuja overturned the ruling based on our appeal on 16th August, and this decision was upheld by the Swedish court. Benson should therefore be able to get his visa and attend World Water Week – so watch this space for updates from our winner!