Nearly one in eight people do not have access to safe water. What can be done to tackle this global crisis?
Published on: 13/07/2011
The International Water Centre (IWC) hosted WASH Conference 2011 in Brisbane to answer this question and address the sustainability challenge facing water supply, sanitation, and hygiene services. The Conference brought together international decision makers and stakeholders to explore solutions, as well as build knowledge and skills of people who are committed to enabling water and sanitation services that last.
The WASH conference and training programme focused on service provision in developing countries and addressed four key themes:
These four themes bring together elements necessary for ‘sustainable’ WASH service delivery, which can better livelihoods and health of millions of people around the world.
In response to the sustainability problem highlighted at WASH Conference 2011, IRC’s Triple-S and WASHCost team presented training packages on necessary approaches to providing sustainable water and sanitation services. Referring to the service delivery approach (SDA) and life-cycle costing (LCC), Catarina Fonseca (WASHCost Project Director) and Harold Lockwood (Aguaconsult and Triple-S) shared knowledge on key concepts and tools for sustainable service delivery. The core message resonating through the SDA and LCC training sessions was that we need to move from solely focusing on initial construction and implementation, towards accounting for post-construction requirements in order to provide indefinite service delivery.
Fonseca along with Dr. Mekala Snehalatha (WASHCost India Country Coordinator) gave introduction to life-cycle costing, and its practical application to WASH programmes in Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, and Mozambique. The trainers covered ten steps to collecting life-cycle costs data, and shared experiences from WASHCost India. The session was coupled with a keynote presentation by Catarina Fonseca entitled: “Shifting to life-cycle costing”.
The one-day training session on sustainable service delivery was facilitated by Harold Lockwood, where methodologies and conceptual materials were provided to help stakeholders move beyond a project approach towards sustainable service delivery at scale. Lockwood presented preliminary findings from Triple-S’ action research on decentralised service delivery during his keynote presentation of “Decentralisation of Rural Water: moving towards a solution or outsourcing the problem?”
Overall evaluation of the sessions revealed that participants were inspired by the training. They appreciated the materials and ideas presented, as well as the various opportunities to interact.
