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More energy into water
Tomorrow is World Water Day, with the topic of “water and energy”. I see obvious issues coming by on the water-energy nexus (which by the way is one of those development sector buzz words that I start disliking more every day. I hope the next buzz word is a bit more, uh, sparkling), such as […]
Heading for the exit
Next week, the Dutch parliament will discuss the multi-annual collaboration plans for its bilateral development cooperation with some 15 partner countries. This could be a pretty dull and technical affair, were it not for the fact that these plans give an interesting insight into what the end of aid may look like. But, it also […]
Everyone together for everyone forever: changing the whole system in practice
by Patrick Moriarty and Harold Lockwood In the first post in this series, we explained why we believe that a paradigm shift is needed in the WASH sector: moving beyond the construction of physical hardware to the universal provision of safe drinking water (and sanitation) services worthy of the name. Because of the number of […]
Changing the whole system to provide water, sanitation and hygiene services that last
By Patrick Moriarty and Harold Lockwood – For the last six years or so, primarily through our WASHCost and Triple-S initiatives, IRC has engaged deeply with the challenges of what it takes to provide sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene services. We think that we’ve identified many parts of the puzzle (and so have many others […]
Where have all the committees gone?
Mr Chary* is the secretary of one of the Gram Panchayats (lowest level of elected government in India) in the north eastern part of Tamil Nadu. Full of pride, he shows the pump house and the overhead tank, and explains the work of the operator who keeps the pump running, maintains the tank and chlorinates […]
The performance of piped water systems versus handpumps in rural growth centres
By Dr. Christelle Pezon, IRC Piped water systems provide a better service than handpumps, at a lower cost. This conclusion is derived from the in-depth study of the water provision in four rural growth centres (2500 to 7500 people), in Sahel, the poorest region of Burkina Faso (Pezon, 2013).
India rural water supply: an orphan of reforms?
By V. Kurian Baby, India Country Director, IRC Community rural water supply (RWS) in India is an orphan of partially implemented demand responsive sector reforms on the one hand and unsuccessful decentralisation on the other. Historically, rural water supply in India has been outside the sphere of governments (NRDWP 2013). The 73rd and 74th constitutional […]
Who serves the in-betweeners?
By: Marieke Adank, IRC Small towns and peri-urban areas are by definition found in the grey area in between the truly urban and the truly rural. Also in terms of water supply, fifty shades of grey are found in these types of settlements. People living here often fall in between the cracks of urban utilities […]
The end of aid
By Ton Schouten – I was asked to convince a Texas businessman to support investing in government water systems. I tried: The evidence shows that more than 30% of water systems in Ghana are not functional and that only around 20% of the functioning water systems provide a basic level of service: water of WHO accepted […]
Users perception of rural water services in Ghana: A case of satisfaction or dissatisfaction?
By: Tyhra Kumasi, Senior Research Officer, Triple-S Ghana Dora is a 33 year old teacher living in Agbedrafo in the Akatsi South District. She depends on the only handpump in the community for her daily domestic chores; however she laments the difficulties in getting access to fetch water. According to Dora “even though fetching is on a […]
Sub County Water and Sanitation Boards could help fix community management in Uganda but only with proper support
– By Martin Watsisi, Regional Learning Facilitator, Triple-S Uganda. In Uganda, as in many places, community water management has not worked very well. By and large, water user committees don’t have the requisite authority to collect fees or the necessary technical skills to ensure proper operations, maintenance and repairs. And District Water Officers, ostensibly responsible […]
Tracking change and sharpening indicators
By: Marieke Adank, IRC Now almost 2 year ago, I was involved in an assessment of the state of water service provision in 3 districts in Ghana. This assessment was done in order to test draft service delivery indicators developed by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, in collaboration with IRC, under its Triple-S Project, […]
Insurance for rural water supplies – a good idea?
Email requests sometimes trigger the most interesting thoughts and ideas, particularly when there is no straightforward answer. Today, I received a question on whether at IRC we know of any experience with insurances for rural water supply. This question has reached us several times in the past year. Whereas my first answer to the question […]
The sponge
Around the UN discussions on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, many NGOs advocated for the inclusion of WASH-related goals. A great set of materials is now available to see the sector’s collective proposal for these WASH goals. And I hope that these goals and targets make it into the final set. But inevitably, also much […]
Putting low resources to work for rural O&M
This is a guest post from Duncan McNicholl and Alyssa Lindsay who lead the Water and Sanitation Programme of Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) in Malawi. For more on their work please see the recent case study by Triple-S available here. Mr. Oswald Nkhuwa is the District Water Development Officer for Nkhotakota District in the […]
water services that last 
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