IRC 40

IRC celebrated its 40th birthday at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam on 21 November 2008 with many distinguished guests, partners, employees and former employees.

Both the chairman of IRC, Lodewijk de Waal, and the director, Ben Lamoree, welcomed guests with a speech. Mr de Waal gave an overview of IRC highlights and how "the organisation has smoothly adapted to the changing needs and perceptions in the world of water and sanitation". The full speech is available online.

Mr Lamoree focused on lessons learnt and stated that there are no blueprints for the sector: "In the water and sanitation sector, there are no overall and proven approaches and concepts that will allow the implementation of the development agenda as if it were an engineering project. There is no "machine" that converts money into sustainable services in water & sanitation! At best, the machine produces infrastructure: but that is not yet a water/sanitation service; let alone a sustainable one!" The whole speech can be read in a separate document.

Director Umesh Pandey from NEWAH (Nepal) offered a present to IRC as did Cheick Tidiane Tandia, director general of CREPA (Burkina Faso). Both organisations are long-time partners of IRC. After that the informal festivities started and everyone enjoyed the party into the small hours.