News - About IRC

News from IRC, such as announcements of new publications and activities and results from advisory work and projects.

Emergency urban sanitation - challenges and solutions

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and DGIS/ DME (with support from NWP) invited Bob Reed from WEDC to give a presentation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS). Reed shared insights on the topic of emergency urban sanitation—shining light on the challenges and solutions. Emergency response has a history of focusing exclusively on rural communities. Carrying out emergency urban sanitation work poses difficult challenges as urban regions are often spread out. 'As emergency urban sanitation workers, we have many technologies to choose from. However, there is not one-size-fits-all solution. We always have to tailor the response to the problem'.

Africa Water Week 4

The fourth Africa Water Week (AfWW-4) took place from 14 - 18 May 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. IRC played an active role there.

IRC at the World Water Forum 2012

IRC activities at the World Water Forum 6 taking place in Marseille from 12 to 17 March 2012.

“The goal of universal access to clean water is far from complete”, says IRC Programme Officer Stef Smits on CNN International on World Water Day 2012.

"What is being measured is basically the type of improved technology that people are supposed to be accessing like a hand-pump or a tap in the house. What's not being measured is whether it works, the quality, how far people have to walk to get to that water." IRC's Patrick Moriarty was one of the members in Al Jazeera's Inside Story on water and sanitation, broadcasted on 8 March 2012.

On a day when the UN is highlighting water and food security, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is calling for policy changes to promote the use of water at home to boost people’s livelihoods. Homestead-level, small-scale production from livestock and vegetable gardens make a difference for millions of poor families. IRC and partner organisations are pressing for the value of water use for food and income at household level to be accorded greater recognition and reflected in byelaws and local policies, as well as in the implementation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes.

On Friday 3rd February 2012, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre celebrated the official opening of its office in Accra, Ghana. This was an historic event for IRC, as this is the first office IRC has established outside The Netherlands since its foundation in 1968. The office will be led by Mrs Vida Duti, the country director for Ghana.

The outgoing Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) in Ghana, the Honourable Alban Sumana Bagbin (MP), led the opening ceremony by acknowledging the contribution of IRC towards the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in the country, in terms of both technical and knowledge assistance.

Dutch international cooperation minister Ben Knapen has announced his intention to continue to help finance the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre for the next five years with a contribution of 10 million euros. He was speaking at a meeting with Dutch water sector representatives, where he presented the plans outlined in his policy letter ‘Water for Development’.

Philanthropedia has listed the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre as one of the 15 top international WASH non-profits. IRC is ranked 4^th behind WaterAid, Water for People and UNICEF.

“Water and sanitation improvement good for economic development”

“In ten places in South Africa we could hear people talk, a group of women who told how they fought for sanitation here and groups that were starting to make money out of looking after sanitation. The local stories we produced were used by Mvula Trust to push for a greater focus on the message that the most important result from water and sanitation improvement is poverty reduction and economic development”. Dick de Jong looks back at the revolution in approaches and technologies in communication he has seen in his 30-year career with IRC in an interview with Peter McIntyre in The Hague on 13 October 2011.

Dick’s second lesson is: “We have to combine international newsletter stuff with making sure that voices from communities are heard at country level. In the past we had development demonstration programmes and we brought community voice from those programmes to the district level and to the national level. It has to be like that so that whatever we do on advocacy is evidence based.”