[rwsn] RWSN Newsletter June 2015 - ENGLISH
Sean Furey
RWSN Newsletter – June 2015
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.
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English |
Drilling: the importance of good borehole siting and supervision – new hit films from RWSN
Ebola wiped out from Liberia, but still work to do in Sierra Leone and Guinea
Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) - Annual Report 2014
RWSN rated a top WASH non-profit for 2015
Equality, Non-Discrimination and Inclusion (ENDI)
Sustainable Groundwater Development
UPGro – Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor
RAIN - Rainwater harvesting for rural water supply and food security
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
WORD FROM THE CHAIR
It all starts with knowing!
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Dear Members,
There is a lot of attention for monitoring, and rightfully so. New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have opened great possibilities to collect data, store data and visualise data on mobile phones. Maybe some of you already have used mobile phones for data collection. New ICT has brought national scale sector monitoring within reach. It has been done in Liberia, countries in Central America, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia and many others.
Has it resulted in improved water services? Time is too short to say something meaningful about that, but from experience in the above countries you could already say something. First of all how powerful the collection of water supply data is in particular for local government staff. Going around and knowing the actual status of water supply is a great incentive for taking action.
However, taking action is not always easy; financial and human resources at local government level often are constrained to address the problems revealed by the data. However, data needs to be updated as the situation on the ground changes. In some of the above countries nothing happened for four or five years after the first national scale data collection. That is a pity because up to date data helps to better plan, to prioritise investments better and to systematically address the problems revealed by the data. And that is what monitoring is about! Regularly collecting and analysing data and then using them to fulfill responsibilities and mandates …. and improve water service delivery.
There is still work to be done to turn one-off data collection into monitoring systems that support planning and decision making. Maybe before starting an initiative to collect national scale data one should consider whether the one-off data collection will be repeated, how and by whom, whether the data really addresses the issues that in particular local government staff needs to address, who will pay for the second round. It would also be a good habit to build such an initiative on past initiatives and the monitoring lessons learned in the country. So there is work to do to turn one-off data collection into a monitoring system. But it is crucial work because how can you improve water services if you do not know the status of the services? It all starts with knowing! |
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Ton Schouten, Chair
HEADLINES
WaterAid, UNICEF and Skat have collaborated to produce two animated short films to raise awareness of the need to improve and professionalise water well drilling.
In the first couple of weeks, the film “Drilling: the importance of good siting” has been viewed more than a thousand times on Vimeo and YouTube and the second film: “A borehole that lasts a lifetime” is also online. Watch them both on the new Professional Drilling - animated series channel on Vimeo
We hope that these films provoke more debate and stimulate WASH practitioners to consider the professionalism of their drilling operations. The Code of Practice for Cost Effective Boreholes and accompanying guidelines are intended to stop the enormous wastage and failure that is happening because of badly drilled boreholes. French versions of the films will be available soon.
Liberia has been declared Ebola-free by WHO, but cases are still being reported in Sierra Leone and Guinea. Those involved – particular all those in the Liberia WASH community, hosted by RWSN, are to be commended for their hard work and persistence and getting this deadly disease under control. Many lessons are likely to be learned from this outbreak, which has lasted more than a year and killed more than 4,700 people. It is essential that investment continues and increases water, sanitation and hygiene services to prevent the disease from having such a dreadful impact on this region again.
The Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) was developed by a consortium of RWSN partners as a participatory tool to evaluate the success, or potential, of new and existing WASH technologies in a given context. The tool is freely available and easy to use, with all the resources available online at washtechnologies.net.
IRC and VNG International undertook TAF assessments of boreholes with India Mark II handpumps in two counties in South Sudan, and another assessment of solar water pumping. These highlighted the strengths and weakness and useful areas where intervention could strengthen the sustainability of these water services in these areas. Download the summaries from the IRC page of the washtechnologies.net website.
WaterAid, Skat and the Government of Tanzania have trained more than 30 Tanzanian regional water officers on how to use the TAF for water and sanitation as a planning and assessment tool in the implementation of the Water and Sanitation Development Plan (WSDP). In a one week training in Singida in March the TAF was introduced and applied on piped schemes and latrines. The TAF will be incorporated in the Project Implementation Manual (PIM) of WSDP soon and summaries of the TAF assessments will be published on washtechnologies.net.
If you would like to find out more about how the TAF can improve the sustainability of your product or programme, contact André Olschewski (andre.olschewski @ skat.ch)
Thank you to the many RWSN members who have contributed to the lively discussions throughout 2014 on our Dgroups, LinkedIn and webinar platforms. We also thank those who share their ideas and opinions more privately with the secretariat and theme coordinators. You can find out about RWSN’s activities, publications and outcomes in RWSN’s 2014 Annual Report.
RWSN recognises the rights and the natural justice of all citizens to enjoy secure water services, regardless of location, lifestyle, gender, age, disability, ethnicity or income. Most of RWSN’s members are actively involved in improving rural water supplies, and every member can contribute to the network in one way or another. If you would like to see the tremendous change in the way that RWSN works over the previous three years, as well an overview of progress on our themes then download the RWSN three-year report.
A survey of 81 WASH experts by charity navigation website, Philanthropedia, has placed RWSN 7th in the list of most effective non-profit organisations - and the top network. It is also great to see that most of the other top organisations are either RWSN Executive Committee members (WaterAid, IRC, UNICEF), RWSN Member Organisations (World Vision, Water for People) or have active individual members of the network.
THEME NEWS
Join at: dgroups.org/RWSN/equality_rwsn
Theme Leaders: Louisa Gosling, WaterAid (LouisaGosling @ wateraid.org)
Jane Wilbur, WaterAid (janewilbur @wateraid.org)
Are you interested in reducing inequalities in WASH access and use? Yes? Then read on.
The Equality, Non-discrimination and Inclusion theme will hold virtual meetings, e-discussions and webinars to share learning and discuss inclusive ways of working and infrastructure design with RWSN members. The innovations, approaches and experiences shared will be collated in a RWSN guidance publication if there’s a need. This will not be a ‘talking shop about inclusion’; it is meant to assist members to ‘do inclusion better’. Discussions will take into account inequalities related to where people live, poverty, belonging to a disadvantaged group, and individual- related inequalities including disability, age, gender and illness. If you have any experiences of inclusive ways of working and infrastructure design that’ you’d like to present them on a webinar, I’d love to hear from you (janewilbur @ wateraid.org).
Violence, gender and WASH the checklist – now in French
Following the well-attended webinar on violence, gender and WASH the checklist from the toolkit has been translated into French: Aide-mémoire pour réfèrence rapide. This can be downloaded along with the accessibility and safety audits for latrines and waterpoints from the toolkit website.
Join at dgroups.org/RWSN/groundwater_rwsn
Theme Leaders: Kerstin Danert (kerstin.danert @ skat.ch) Cost Effective Boreholes & Manual Drilling; Sean Furey, Skat, (sean.furey @ skat.ch) Handpumps and Water Source Protection
For UPGro see page 10
Get Involved: Striving for Professional Drilling (UNICEF/Skat Foundation/WaterAid)
To professionalise drilling and thus ensure boreholes can last for a lifetime, policies, procedures and practices, as well as skills and needs to improve significantly. Over the next two years, UNICEF, WaterAid and Skat Foundation are collaborating to address the related problems of poor quality and high cost of drilling and installation of boreholes, particularly in rural areas.
Raising the professionalism of drilling is no simple task! As part of this initiative we are seeking individuals who see the need for improvements, and want to bring about improvements in their country or organizations. If you are interested to be part of the movement for the professionalisation of drilling please contact kerstin.danert @ skat.ch. We shall take time to listen to your concerns as well as ideas on how to bring about change. Over the next year we are working on a guidance note that sets out steps for raising professional standards. Preparing this will be a highly consultative process. The set of six RWSN publications and guidelines on cost-effective boreholes can be accessed here.
Update: Manual Drilling
In Chad, manual drilling is a growing industry. This report, Chad’s Growing Manual Drilling Industry, by Kerstin Danert, provides an overview of manual drilling in Chad today. The report is intended to stimulate interest in more research, documentation and action regarding the diffusion of manual drilling within the country and its implications. The technology is increasing in popularity and spreading within Chad, including in the capital N’Djamena. Private enterprises and non-governmental organisations are promoting manual drilling and water users are investing in their own manually drilled wells.
RWSN’s 2015 manual drilling compendium was presented in the May 2015 webinar of Engineering for Change. Manual drilling techniques, their application for drinking water supply, the spread of the technology and incredible growth in some countries was discussed, along with key concerns in relation to quality. The presentation concluded with a call to consider manual drilling alongside mechanized drilling and to raise the professionalism of both. You can watch the recording, including the lively discussion in response to questions from the participants here.
PUBLICATION: Groundwater and Ecosystem Services
At the end of last year, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) invited us to take part in a workshop on Groundwater and Ecosystem Services to bring in perspectives from RWSN and UPGro research and experiences. This has been brought together in a new IWMI publication: Groundwater and Ecosystem Services - a framework for managing smallholder groundwater-dependent agrarian socio-ecologies - applying an ecosystem services and resilience approach. We hope to hope to continue this collaboration between rural water supply and agricultural water supply research.
NEW SHORT FILM: Securing water resources and reducing vulnerability to water stress
The people of the Sahel region face threats to their water resources. This short film explains an ongoing pilot project supported by WaterAid to enable local communities to manage their own water resources through monitoring rainfall, groundwater levels and water use. This approach has promise to bring about early warning at community level, with the information used, for example to encourage water rationing when necessary. Since its release, the film has stimulated considerable discussion on RWSN’s groundwater group.
UPDATE: Groundwater Governance - A Global Framework for Action (GEF/World Bank/UNESCO-IHP/FAO/IAH): www.groundwatergovernance.org
This project is designed to raise awareness of the importance of groundwater resources for many regions of the world, and identify and promote best practices in groundwater governance as a way to achieve the sustainable management of groundwater resources. Following a regional consultation process, a set of three documents on groundwater governance have just been published: 'Shared Global Vision for 2030', 'Global Framework for Action' and 'Global Diagnostic
Other new publications
n FUREY S. G. (2015) Water Source Protection. Exploring ways to incentivise citizens and organisations to manage shared water resources in a fair, equitable way. , RWSN , Skat Foundation , St Gallen, Switzerland
Join at dgroups.org/RWSN/selfsupply_rwsn
Theme Leader: André Olschewski, Skat (andre.olschewski @ skat.ch)
For Rainwater harvesting see page 11
Event: Self-supply fair and seminar in Addis Ababa; March 2015
As part of the celebration of the World Water Day, the Ministry for Water, Energy and Irrigation of Ethiopia organised a national business fair and seminar on Self-supply. National as well as international experts presented the experiences from Ethiopia, Tanzania and other African countries. At the fair more than 30 companies presented their products and services. Interesting inputs and discussion focused on water quality issues, on how to accelerate Self-supply as well as on monitoring of Self-supply sources. Experts from RWSN presented case studies at the seminar and fair and participated in a field trip. All slides are available on the RWSN website.
A Self-supply Newsletter provides up to date information on latest news on how Self-supply is rolled out in Ethiopia. A new Self-supply business catalogue launched by Aqua for All at the event is now available.
For more information please contact John Butterworth at IRC (butterworth @ ircwash.org) or Akino Kitazume at JICA (kitazume.akino @ ehcjp.com).
Event: Self-supply at WEDC
Several papers will be presented and discussed at the WEDC Conference this year. Additionally a stand will provide an update on latest products including household water treatment. For more details contact Henk Holtslag: henkholtslag49 @ gmail.com
Research: Study on impact of Self-supply in Zambia and Zimbabwe
In Zambia and Zimbabwe, self-supply was piloted or rolled out at national scale about 5 – 10 years ago. So far there has been no assessment of its impacts, but in May a study on the impact of piloting and rolling out of self-supply in Zambia and Zimbabwe started. With support from Unicef, WaterAid in Zambia and AfricaAhead in Zimbabwe, Skat will conduct a survey and field visits in July and August 2015. The results of the study will be disseminated through RWSN by November 2015. The study is managed by André Olschewski from Skat with support from Sally Sutton. For more details please contact André Olschewski.
Webinar: World Vision & RWSN joint webinar series on accelerating Self-supply
In February and March 2015, World Vision and RWSN organized three bilingual webinar sessions involving representatives from implementing agencies as well as from government. The topics discussed included examples for accelerating Self-supply, on quality control of services and on roles of government in Self-supply. A short synthesis is available to download (English only).
Event: Training on cost-effective Self Supply technologies
The SHIPO Smart Centre, in Tanzania, organised a successful training series in April and May on a range of topics, including welding, drilling, rope-pump manufacture and business skills. Visit SHIPO website for details.
Join at dgroups.org/RWSN/sustainable_services_rwsn
Theme Leader: Marieke Adank, IRC (adank @irc.nl)
E-discussion: the role of local government in rural water supply
The sustainable services Dgroup hosted an online discussion on the role of local government in ensuring sustainable rural water services took place from 27 April to 22 May. During the 4-week e-discussion, participants shared experiences and ideas from over 30 countries on the role of local government, the challenges they face and experiences with strengthening local government. Lessons learnt from this exciting e-discussion will be compiled in a forthcoming RWSN briefing note. To access all contributions and the weekly summaries of the discussion, joint the Sustainable Services D-group and see: https://dgroups.org/RWSN/sustainable_services_rwsn/library.
E-discussion: “Resolution: addressing problems identified during post-project monitoring”
In March 2015, Improve International facilitated a Dgroup discussion on “resolution”. This is the process of addressing problems with water systems or toilets identified during monitoring or evaluation after a project. Sector professionals shared experiences and stories related to how issues are resolves when they are identified, and on how we can learn from the monitoring data and integrate lessons learned into current and future programming. A summary of the discussion can be found on Improve International’s website.
Research & Advocacy: Public Finance for WASH launches new initiative and website
In April 2015, the “Public Finance for WASH” website was launched: www.publicfinanceforwash.com. This is a collaborative advocacy and research initiative of IRC, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and Trémolet Consulting. The website offers easy-to-read but rigorous information about domestic public finance solutions, including finance Briefs on:
n Domestic public finance for WASH: what, why, how?
n Universal water and sanitation: how did the rich countries do it?
n Municipal finance for sanitation in African cities
n DRM and WASH in the Financing for Development agenda
Strategy: WaterAid launches “Everyone, Everywhere 2030”
On 18 May, WaterAid launched its new global strategy designed to help reach everyone, everywhere with safe water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. This new strategy is designed to accelerate transformational change towards our vision of a world where everyone, everywhere has these basic services. With the new strategy, WaterAid aims to tackle the inequalities in access to water, sanitation and hygiene and assist in strengthening sustainable services. It will work with others – such as the health and education sectors – to integrate water, sanitation and hygiene into their plans and policies. And there will have to be a strong focus on hygiene behaviour in order to drive demand and maximise the benefits of having access to safe water and sanitation. For more information, visit WaterAid.
Event: “Domestic Resource Mobilisation; Taxes and Water Banks”
At this IRC event, which will take place in The Hague on 3 June 2015, the latest proposals from the Dutch Government and civil society organisations related to financing WASH that will be showcased at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa will be presented and discussed. For more information, visit IRC.
New publications:
Case studies on support to community managed rural water supplies from across India.
Under the Community Water Plus project, twenty cases of support to community managed rural water supplies are being assessed across India. The first published case study focusses on support to community-managed handpumps in Patharpratima, West Bengal. The study concludes that a clear support model has evolved to support community-managed handpumps, both in terms of the capital maintenance of these handpumps, as well as in the software of community management. Through that support, water committees can function and carry out basic organisational and financial management and outsource technical maintenance. As a result, everyone in Digambarpur has now access to functional handpumps – even though these provide only a basic level of service. It now costs about 0.75 US$/person/year to provide ongoing support, both for capital maintenance and for direct support whilst communities cover operation and minor costs. This case study is available from IRC.
Water and waste water services in the Danube Region, A State of the sector
This flagship World Bank product produced under the Danube Water Program presents an analysis of the progress and challenges in providing sustainable water and wastewater services for all in the Danube River basin, the second-largest river basin in Europe. The report analyses the sustainability of water services under four angles: access to infrastructure; service providers to operate and maintain it; sector governance that helps those thrive; and the proper financing mechanisms to maintain and expand services in the long term. For more information and to download this interesting report, see: sos.danubis.org
WSP Learning note: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All
This WSP learning note presents lessons Learned from Eight Water Utility Public-Private Partnerships in the Philippines. It concludes that there is no “magic bullet” approach to water utility PPPs in the Philippines. Different arrangements can lead to affordable, reliable, and clean water services, provided there is sufficient market size and willingness to pay.
Framework and Handbook for Operation and Maintenance of Rural Water Supplies, South Sudan
The Ministry of Water, Cooperatives and Rural Development, Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG), Republic of South Sudan has just published its Framework and Handbook for Operation and Maintenance of Rural Water Supplies. The publication sets out how to ensure that rural and urban dwellers benefit from affordable drinking water services that are effectively managed, protected and maintained. It defines common procedures and provides practical guidance for the planning & implementation of water supply improvements in NBeG State, South Sudan.
Join at dgroups.org/rwsn/mapping_rwsn
Topic Leader: Joseph Pearce (pearce @ircwash.org)
Water Point Data Exchange (WPDx) launched at ICT4WASH event in Washington DC, and 250,000 water data points now available online
Led by Global Water Challenge, the Water Point Data Exchange (WPDx) was launched in May to simplify how water point information is shared. WPDx is a collaboratively developed framework for sharing water point data, which has been encouraged by RWSN and discussed by many of our members.
As part of the launch of this standard, an initial set of standard-compliant data was also released for immediate use. This dataset represents the largest public set of water point data ever released and provides an unprecedented picture of past investments across the water sector. The data includes information from 25 countries and chronicles decades water investment.
The WPDx standard, the data and the list of those involved can be found at: www.WaterPointData.org
University of North Carolina (UNC) publishes “The WASH Performance Index Report”
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Performance Index is a comparison of country performance in realizing universal WASH. The WASH Performance Index assesses performance in the following components: water access, water equity, sanitation access, and sanitation equity.
The top five performing countries in the 2015 WASH Performance Index rankings are El Salvador, Niger, Egypt, Maldives, and Pakistan. The bottom five performers are the Dominican Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Samoa, and Timor-Leste. Water access performance among countries in Sub-Saharan Africa varies widely, despite their having the lowest water coverage in the world. Despite the assumption that countries with higher GDP will perform better in improving access to water and sanitation, GDP was not significantly correlated with performance. The first version of the WaSH Performance Index shows its potential use for the WaSH sector by offering insights on country performance.
PROGRAMME NEWS
Knowledge Brokers: Sean Furey, Kerstin Danert, Richard Carter, Bertha Camacho
UPGro – Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor is seven year research programme that takes a social and natural science approach to enabling sustainable use of groundwater for the benefit of the poor. During 2013-14 there were 15 ‘Catalyst’ projects that are one year studies. This year five ‘Consortium’ projects will get underway for the following 4-5 years. UPGro is funded by the United Kingdom through the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID).
At the cutting edge - synthesis of the 15 UPGro Catalyst Studies
Professor Richard Carter has compiled an attractive and accessible synthesis of the findings from the Catalyst studies. Each has made a substantial contribution to improving understanding – and ways for understanding – the complexity of groundwater science and use in Sub-Saharan Africa. The summary is available in English and French from: upgro.org/catalyst-projects/
New method of testing groundwater quality
A new paper has been published on the UPGro research led by Dan Lapworth at British Geological Survey. Measuring biological contamination of groundwater is not easy, but a new method has been developed and tested that should make it easier and quicker to measure groundwater quality.
n Full paper available here (it will be Open Access but as of 3 June the publisher has not yet opened it, so you may need to visit the link later in the month).
n Watch Dan explain what the research is about and what it found.
n More details on the project in the UPGro website.
Roads for Water – new research puts Ethiopian farmers in the driving seat
In Ethiopia, UPGro research has demonstrated that roads can be designed for more than just carrying vehicles; water, which often causes problems with flooding and soil erosion, can instead be caught by road embankments and channelled into ponds. From there the water is either used directly by farmers for irrigation, or it soaks down to the water table, where it can be pumped out in the dry season for use in the home or on the fields.
Project leader, Dr Frank van Steenbergen, of MetaMeta Research, said:
“This exciting approach brings local government and farmers together to design innovative, flexible solutions to a complex set of problems. Addressing a road problem creates a benefit for water resources that help farmers be more resilient to erratic and seasonal rainfall.”
The work has been recognised with by being named as a finalist in the Global Resilience Challenge.
For more visit: roadsforwater.org/
Practical use of groundwater data in Senegal
The work of Fabio Fussi, through his UPGro Catalyst Grant for Use of remote sensing and terrain modelling to map manual drilling potential in Senegal and Guinea was concluded with a successful workshop in Dakar, Senegal, in April, which brought together a wide range of partners and UNICEF country staff. The feedback from workshop participants was that there is now a much greater understanding of the practical use of groundwater data, from remote sensing and field surveys, in their day-to-day work on water supply development and water resources management.
Consortium Projects launched in London
22nd April marked the official launch of the Consortium phase of UPGro. Five projects comprising over 80 researchers working in 12 African countries will be tackling a range of rural and urban groundwater challenges that integrate social and physical sciences. For details on each, visit the Consortium section of the UPGro website.
RAIN
- Rainwater harvesting for rural water supply and food security
Co-ordinators: Robert Meerman (meerman @ rainfoundation.org), Hans Merton (hans @ merton.nl). Join the rainwater harvesting community on Dgroups: dgroups.org/rwsn/rainwater and follow on twitter at @rainwater4food.
Event: Symposium on Rainwater Harvesting in Ethiopia
RAIN are proud to inform you that in collaboration with SEARNET and AFRHINET, we will organise an international symposium on: 'Unlocking the potential of rainwater with adaptive strategies and impacts for upscaling the technology' 1-12 June 2015 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In this symposium rainwater harvesting (RWH) will be assessed from three angles: Policy, Know-how and Training. The Policy angle will engage stakeholders from governments and INGOs and discuss how to incorporate RWH in policy frameworks, projects and programmes. The Know-how angle will gather academics and practitioners in writing about their projects and research. Finally, a practical training will take place most probably in the Dire Dawa area, which will focus on practicalities and discussions on various RWH/3R technologies.
Objectives of the symposium
1. Significantly contribute in the understanding of rainwater potential that is related to climate variability and change, resilience, food security and WASH at landscape level
2. Encourage interaction between policy makers, researchers and practitioners in the promotion of evidence-based decision-making.
3. Foster professional development, collaboration and knowledge exchange in the interdisciplinary themes of water, food and environment.
Special Guests and Keynote speakers
n Minister of Water, Ethiopia
n Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia
n Robson Mutandi, IFAD Country Representative, Ethiopia
n Dennis Garrity, Drylands Ambassador, UNCCD
n Tilahun Amede, CGIAR
The event is open to anyone who is interested. The full programme is available from the Rainwater Dgroups library.
WEBINARS: 2015 Rain for Food Webinars
The last in the current series on rainwater webinars will be 30th May. If you missed any the of the previous webinars, you can find the recordings available on the RWSN vimeo channel and on TheWaterChannel. Thank you to all the speakers and participants in this series and we hope to run more again soon. We are always looking for good topics and speakers so please let us know if you have any recommendations.
PUBLICATION: Rainwater Harvesting in the Homestead
Peter Morgan of Aquamor in Zimbabwe and winner of the 2013 Stockholm Water Prize continues to provide us with very practical, easy-to-use guidance materials. His latest piece of work entitled Rain Water Harvesting in the Homestead is an extremely well-illustrated and practical guide which will be useful to those of you that are involved in field work or project management, or who want to construct rainwater harvesting facilities.
MEMBER NOTICE BOARD
RWSN Member and Member Organisation news, jobs, surveys & requests of for help
Please note that RWSN Secretariat passes on requests for help community organisations and local NGOs in good faith but we don’t have to do thorough background checks. It is our intention is that the valid grassroots organisations can be connected with RWSN members from implementation or donor organisations that can help.
Ned Breslin moves on from Water for People, and the WASH Sector
Ned Breslin, the Chief Executive of Water for People has moved on to a new leadership role, outside the WASH Sector. He has been a fearless champion for reforming how rural water supply services should be provided, monitored and reported. The ‘Everyone Forever’ approach continues to play an important part in focusing on strengthening the capacity of local government and local enterprises in places such a Honduras. He was outspoken on many issues but also effective at building strategic alliances with organisations like IRC and WSUP. As the collaboration between Water for People and RWSN continues to strengthen, we look forward to working with this successor.
MSABI wins grant from Human Development Innovation Fund
“MSABI is pleased to announce that it has received a £400,000 grant from the Human Development Fund (HDIF) for testing, validating and regionally scaling the MSABI Pump for Life subscription based water point maintenance service. MSABI
is one of 21 successful awardees from over 1,300 applications. We see this as recognition for the positive results of our Pump for Life pilot which has been developed and trialed over the past 2 years. The total value for this grant is £575,000 with co-contributions
from the Nestle Creating Shared Value Prize, Novartis Foundation, GHD, and Tanzanian communities requesting services under this program. For this project, MSABI is also partnering with the District Government and with the tech startups
Welldone
and Visible Solutions.
The HDIF is a £30 million, five-year program funded by the United Kingdom Government. HDIF seeks to catalyse the development, testing and scaling of innovative models, products and solutions. For further information on the MSABI Pump for Life Program visit
our website or follow the project on here.”
Basic Water Needs receives DFID and UNDP funding for opening factory Malawi
The Malawian Innovation Challenge Fund (MICF) has approved a proposal for a local production facility for household water filters in Malawi. Basic Water Needs, together with its partners SAFI Water Treatment and ARKAY Plastics hope to open the doors of the production facility by mid-2015. By starting the local production of high quality, easy to use, low-cost water filters, the partners can make safe drinking water more affordable, attractive and available for households in Malawi.
RWSN ONLINE
RWSN in numbers
RWSN membership has reached 7,653 people from 146 countries LinkedIn group membership is up to 2,014 and there has been rapidly growing support for the RWSN Facebook page. in the last three months, from 200 to 569 likes. At the beginning of 2012 there were around 1,500 RWSN members, so thank you to all for your continued support and commitment to improving rural water supply services.
Recent RWSN/UPGro blog posts:
n How to make Self–supply more tangible? (Andre Olschewski, Skat Foundation)
n Roll out of technology applicability tool in Tanzania to assure sustainable WASH services (Andre Olschewski, Skat Foundation)
n Summary of RWSN D-groups discussion on resolution (Susan Davis, Improve International)
n Global Framework for Sharing Water Point Data Launched with Largest Ever Public Data Set (Brian Banks, Global Water Challenge)
n Roads for Water – new research puts Ethiopian farmers in the driving seat (Sean Furey, Skat Foundation)
n Synthesis of the Catalyst projects now available (Sean Furey, Skat Foundation)
WEBINARS
Save the dates for the Late 2015 series
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Date |
Theme/Topic |
Working title (to be confirmed) |
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6 Oct |
Sustainable Services |
From a source by source approach to ensuring full service delivery |
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13 Oct |
Sustainable Groundwater Development |
Boreholes that last for a lifetime |
|
20 Oct |
ENDI |
Inclusive Ways of Working |
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27 Oct |
Mapping & Monitoring |
Citizens speak out on water |
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3 Nov |
ENDI |
Inclusive Designs |
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10 Nov |
Sustainable Groundwater Development |
Overcoming the Rural Water Supply Scandal of Handpump Corrosion |
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17 Nov |
Self-Supply / Rainwater Harvesting |
Domestic Roofwater Harvesting at Scale |
|
24 Nov |
ENDI/Self-supply |
Human rights and Self Supply – a paradox? |
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1 Dec |
Sustainable Groundwater Development |
The magic and mystery of groundwater data |
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8 Dec |
Multiple Use of water Services (MUS) |
Water for Pastoralists and Livestock |
Recordings from the Early 2015 series
Links to the presentation files and recordings can be found on the RWSN website and the RWSN webinar channel.
Non-RWSN webinars
n Dr Kerstin Danert presented RWSN’s work on manual drilling to the Engineering for Change network on 20 May 2015. [EfC webinar archive]
EVENTS
7th RWSN Forum, late 2016
In the January meeting of the RWSN Executive Committee, it was agreed to proceed with organising a 7th RWSN Forum for late 2016. The location is likely to be Francophone West Africa, but details are being developed by task group over the coming months in collaboration with country partners. More details will announced later in 2015. You can find out about previous RWSN Forums in on the RWSN Story web page and on the website for the 6th RWSN Forum in Kampala, 2011. If any organisation would be interested being a sponsor for the event, please contact the RWSN Secretariat (kerstin.danert @skat.ch).
Stockholm World Water Week, 23-29 August 2015
RWSN/UPGro is planning to have an exhibition stand at this year’s Stockholm WWW to promote the importance of achieving universal rural access to water in the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals. Registration is open.
WEDC Conference 2015
27–31 July 2015, Loughborough University, UK. The will be RWSN sessions and presentations by WaterAid, Skat and Water Missions International. Registration is open.
UNC Water & Health Conference 2015
26-30th October, 2015, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Registration is open.
What about the 7th World Water Forum in South Korea?
Unlike in Marseille in 2012, RWSN did not have a presence at the World Water Forum in Korea in April. From the information available on the event website, it appears that rural water had almost no voice at the event – other than where it was included in sessions organised by our colleagues in the African Development Bank and pS-Eau. We welcome feedback from anyone who attended Korea whether it will be worth having an RWSN presence in Brazil in 2018.
Other events
n 1-12 Jun: Symposium on Rainwater Harvesting, Ethiopia
n 27-31 Jul: WEDC Conference, UK
n 17-19 Aug: Water Resources Dialogue: ChinAfrica Series No.3, South Africa
n 23-28 Aug: Stockholm World Water Week, Sweden
n 13-18 Sep: IAH Congress, Italy
n 21-23 Sep: University of Oklahoma International Water Conference, USA – Blog Post here
n 19-22 Oct: IWA Development Congress & Exhibition, Jordan
n 26-30 Oct: Water & Health Conference, USA
n 2-6 Nov: Amsterdam International Water Week, Netherlands
n tbc Jan: Arab Water Week 2015, Jordan
n tbc Jan: India Water Week, India
n tbc Jan: 2016 Zaragoza UN Water Conference, Spain
n late 2016: 7th RWSN Forum
Events in Red are those where RWSN is likely to be represented by one or more RWSN Executive Steering Committee partners. More details will be provided in upcoming newsletters and Dgroups announcements.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
The World Bank, the Swiss Aquatic Research Institute (Eawag), the University of Geneva and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) are taking a lead in running Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that are directly useful to development practitioners. MOOCs generally comprise a series of short video presentations (10-20 minutes), weekly quizzes, access to further reading and resources, an online forum, and further coursework to go deeper into the subject. Most MOOCs take place over a 4-5 week period, but often the video presentations are available afterwards and the courses are often repeated once a year, but some can be accessed on demand at any time.
If you would be interested in a MOOC related to rural water supply then please post your ideas and suggestions on the RWSN LinkedIn group or email rural...@skat.ch. If your organisation would be interested in collaborating on producing and running a RWSN MOOC (and can help with funding!) we would love to hear from you.
|
When? |
Title |
Organiser |
Languages |
|
On-demand |
University of Geneva |
French audio |
|
|
1 June – 5 July |
Eawag/EPFL |
English audio / French & Spanish subtitles |
|
|
1 June – 28 June |
Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): How can PPPs help deliver better services? |
World Bank |
English audio |
|
check website |
World Bank |
English audio |
|
|
check website |
World Bank |
English audio |
|
|
check website |
University of Geneva |
English audio |
|
|
check website |
Eawag/EPFL |
English audio / French subtitles |
|
|
check website |
World Bank |
English audio |
|
|
check website |
EPFL |
French audio / English subtitles |
NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
Development Banks & UN Organisations
n Inter-American Development Bank: Climate Change Risk Management Options for the Water and Sanitation Sector (May 2015)
n UN-Water: A compilation of aspects on the means of implementation: water and sanitation (April 2015)
n UN-Water: Report on the Achievements during the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' 2005 -2015 (April 2015)
n UN-Water: World Water Development Report 2015 (March 2015)
n WSP: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Lessons Learned from Eight Water Utility Public-Private Partnerships in the Philippines (May 2015)
NGOs, Networks and others
n The African Groundwater Network have published a new literature page: http://agw-net.org/literature.htm and minutes of their most recent Steering Committee Meeting are now available online.
n Menstrual Hygiene Matters – Training Guide for Practitioners (SHARE Consortium)
n The Water Integrity Network now has a new website to help those wanting to tackle corruption.
n Water For People’s e-Catalogue for Individual Household Toilets launched by Government of India. To download the e-Catalogue for your computer (please note that you must have WinRAR software to do so) or Android phone, go to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation’s website and click on the scrolling red banner near the top that says “Download e-Catalogue for designing IHHL toilets…”
Courses
n WEDC (Loughborough University):
o - Infrastructure in Emergencies: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/docs/learn/IIE-A3_poster.pdf
o - Water and Environmental Management: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/docs/learn/WEM-A3_poster.pdf
o - Water and Waste Engineering: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/docs/learn/WWE-A3_poster.pdf
o - Overview: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/docs/learn/General-WEDC-Poster.pdf
n Water Security for Policy Makers and Practitioners short course, 7-11 September 2015, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Academic & Journals
Note that access to many papers is restricted and has to be purchased. Some are open access so that articles are free to download:
n [OPEN ACCESS] Bridging political economy analysis and critical institutionalism: an approach to help analyse institutional change for rural water services, International Journal of the Commons, Vol 9, No 1 (2015)
n [OPEN ACCESS] Challenging pathways to safe water access in rural Uganda: From supply to demand-driven water governance, International Journal of the Commons, Vol 9, No 1 (2015)
n [OPEN ACCESS] Drinking Water from Dug Wells in Rural Ghana — Salmonella Contamination, Environmental Factors, and Genotypes Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2015, 12(4), 3535-3546; doi:10.3390/ijerph120403535
[OPEN ACCESS] Identifying the location and population served by domestic wells in California, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Volume 3, March 2015, Pages 31–86
n [OPEN ACCESS] Not just a tool. Taking context into account in the development of a mobile App for rural water supply in Tanzania , WaterAlternatives, Volume 8 | Issue 2 June 2015
n [OPEN ACCESS] Sustainability of arsenic mitigation interventions—an evaluation of different alternative safe drinking water options provided in Matlab, an arsenic hot spot in Bangladesh, Front. Environ. Sci., 11 May 2015 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2015.00030
n [OPEN ACCESS] The Role of Water Supply Management in Rural Economy with an Emphasis on Earth Dams Construction (Case Study: Bakhazr County), Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Volume 8, Supplementary 3, February 2015
n [OPEN ACCESS] Yield-reliability analysis and operating rules for run-of-river abstractions for typical rural water supply: Siloam Village case study, WaterSA, Vol 41, No 3 (2015)
n [PAYWALL] Long-Term Functionality of Rural Water Services in Developing Countries: A System Dynamics Approach to Understanding the Dynamic Interaction of Factors, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2015, 49 (8), pp 5035–5043 (1 –PAGE SUMMARY AVAILABLE ON RWSN WEBSITE)
n [PAYWALL] Point-of-use chlorination of turbid water: results from a field study in Tanzania, Journal of Water and Health In Press, Uncorrected Proof doi:10.2166/wh.2014.001
n [PAYWALL] A regional approach to optimizing the location of rural handpumps, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development In Press, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/washdev.2015.128
n [PAYWALL] A systematic review of success factors in the community management of rural water supplies over the past 30 years, Water Policy In Press, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/wp.2015.128
n [PAYWALL] A validity assessment of consumer satisfaction to measure performance of water services in Guatemala, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development In Press, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/washdev.2015.007
n [PAYWALL] Critical lessons from apparent failure: using solar energy to supply piped water in a remote coastal area in Bangladesh, Waterlines, Volume 34, Issue 2, DOI: 10.3362/1756-3488.2015.018
n [PAYWALL] Development of cost functions for water supply and sanitation technologies: case study of Bahir Dar and Arba Minch, Ethiopia, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development In Press, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/washdev.2015.067
n [PAYWALL] Drinking water infrastructure in the Ashanti Region of Ghana: developing a model for sustainable interventions by non-governmental organizations, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development Vol 5 No 1 pp 127–135 2015 doi:10.2166/washdev.2014.205
n [PAYWALL] Socio-economic factors influencing the spread of drinking water diseases in rural Africa: case study of Bondo sub-county, Kenya Journal of Water and Health In Press, Uncorrected Proof doi:10.2166/wh.2014.039,
n [PAYWALL] Sustainability factors affecting local infrastructure project: The case of water resource, water supply, and local market projects in Thai communities, Facilities, Vol. 33 Iss: 1/2, pp.119 - 143
n [PAYWALL] Critical parameters in the production of ceramic pot filters for household water treatment in developing countries, Journal of Water and Health In Press, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/wh.2014.090
n [PAYWALL] Intensive groundwater use and (in)equity: Processes and governance challenges, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 51, August 2015, Pages 117–124, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2015.04.004
n [PAYWALL] Microbial and chemical safety of non-commercially packaged water stored for emergency use, Uncorrected Proof | doi:10.2166/wh.2015.182
n [PAYWALL] Social representations of drinking water: subsidies for water quality surveillance programmes, Journal of Water and Health, In Press , Uncorrected Proof 2015 | doi:10.2166/wh.2015.171
n [PAYWALL] The effect of private tubewells on income and income inequality in rural Pakistan
n [PAYWALL] The impact of privatization approaches on the productivity growth of the water industry: A case study of Chile, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 50, June 2015, Pages 166–179, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2015.02.015
n DOI: 10.1021/es505975h
RWSN MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
Find your way around
We have produced two maps to help guide you around the new RWSN website and the various RWSN online platforms, including http://tinyurl.com/c2ducks. If you are still having problems then the new “Help!” page has a video tour of the website: http://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/websitehelp
Join the debates
Our expanded online network means that more and more of you are sharing ideas and experiences, which is fantastic – please keep it up! Here are main discussion communities:
Accelerating Self-supply; Complex Systems and Rural Water Supply; Country-led monitoring; Sierra Leone WASH; Equality, Non Discrimination and Inclusion (ENDI); Solar Pumps; Sustainable Groundwater Development; Sustainable Services; Rainwater Harvesting; Mapping and Monitoring; Rwanda WASH Working Group; Handpump Services
Thank you to everyone who has put in their time, enthusiasm and knowledge.
Membership and Subscription
RWSN is free to join, all you have to do is register on the RWSN area of Dgroups: https://dgroups.org/rwsn
Organisations can become members of RWSN too. To find out more visit: http://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/rwsn-members
There are no subscription fees. The RWSN Secretariat is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and Skat with co-funding from a range of partners for secretariat and thematic work.
If you do not wish to continue to receive this newsletter, please let us know by sending an email to rural...@skat.ch with the heading unsubscribe.
Acknowledgements
The RWSN Newsletter is compiled by the RWSN Secretariat (hosted by Skat Foundation) and supported financially by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), WaterAid, Skat, UPGro (DFID/NERC/ESRC) and RAIN Foundation.
RWSN is supported in cash and in-kind by a number of organisations, which in 2014 included: the Global Programme Water Initiatives of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Austrian Red Cross; British Geological Survey (BGS), Department for International Development (DFID) - including through WASH Facility Sierra Leone, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - (through the UPGro programme); IRC, RAIN Foundation, Skat Consulting Ltd., UNICEF, Volkart Stiftung, WaterAid, The World Bank, Water and Sanitation Program – WSP, World Vision, and ZH2O.
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