IRC and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have been supporting El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay to develop and implement rural water monitoring systems. Read more...
The professionalisation of community based-management means moving away from an approach based purely on volunteerism, towards a more professional, competent and effective management of rural water services working to agreed standards, and with greater transparency and accountability. Read more...
The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is the global network of professionals and practitioners working to raise standards of knowledge and evidence, technical and professional competence, and practice and policy in rural water supply; and to fulfil the vision of sustainable rural water services for... Read more...
Ryan Schweitzer and James Mihelcic from the University of South Florida have developed a Sustainability Assessment Tool for community-managed rural water systems [1]. The tool is novel because it focuses specifically on community management during the post construction phase. It can be used to... Read more...
Water and sanitation facilities: a service provider is needed for day-to-day administration. Read more...
Based on national standards, the 7 boreholes and 3 standpipes in the village of Komsilga, Burkina Faso, are sufficient to supply water to 3,600 people. Since only 1,500 people live in the village, you might think that they had water in abundance. Read more...
Over a ten-year period, the Government of Uganda implemented a transparent and consolidative approach to monitoring. Read the report from the Rural Water Supply Network to learn lessons and challenges from the Ugandan context. Download here . Read more...
Rural water services in WASHCost research countries are chronically underfunded, with insufficient resources to provide and sustain a basic level of service that meets national norms and standards. In communities researched by WASHCost, most people did not receive this basic minimum, although they... Read more...
At the Kick-off meeting of the RWSN, IRC’s Stef Smits and Marieke Adank and Aguaconsult CEO Harold Lockwood presented recent findings relating to monitoring, sustainability and post-construction support of rural WASH services. Read more...
It is our pleasure to announce the kick-off of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Working Group on “Management and support of rural water supplies”. This Working Group focusses on management models for rural water supply and on support to service providers to ensure sustainable service provision... Read more...
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) is in the process of finalising a number of service delivery documents to guide the rural water and sanitation sub-sector in Ghana. The documents will critically enhance service delivery in the rural water sector. Read more...
The Philippine government – together with the World Bank, the United Nations through the Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund (MDG-F) and other development partners – have launched a ‘local water governance toolbox’. The toolbox is aimed at small-scale water service providers (SSWPs) with... Read more...
This webinar presents the results of a study into post-construction support and goes into the broader discussion on the role of post-construction support on rural water supplies. Read more...
We are interested in collecting stories from a broad number of stakeholders, including representatives of governments and donor agencies, international finance institutions, foundations, NGOS, private sector and research organisations. Read more...
The WASH Advocates newsletter of February 2012 mentions the positive influence of Triple-S on sustainable rural water services in Ghana. Read more...
Vida Duti, the new IRC Country Director from January 2012, says that lack of money in village accounts to carry out repairs is one of the major reasons for service failure. Read more...
WASH views in the Abono community, Ghana Read more...
A crucial building block in delivering sustainable services is a monitoring system able to track a level of rural water service over time, especially the performance of key technical, financial, and management functions so that problems can be anticipated and addressed. To help the sector IRC and... Read more...
This paper summarises findings from a recent study of the status of rural water supply in some thirteen countries, which aimed to identify commonalities in both challenges and opportunities to rural water supply in countries as diverse as the USA, India, Honduras and Ghana. It spans a developmental... Read more...
Supporting Rural Water Supply takes a critical look and asks why are 30 to 40% of rural water systems failing in developing countries? And how can we support the adoption of a service delivery approach – one that moves beyond implementing infrastructure projects to delivering a reliable and... Read more...