Blog - Water Services That Last
This blog aims to regularly report experiences, stories and questions on rural water supply. It will ask questions and provoke debate on how sustainability of water systems can be improved. It seeks to provide examples and learn from failures. It does not aim to provide ready-made answers; if those would exist, they would win the Nobel Prize for Water, or, more likely, the Silver Bullet Award.
We invite you to contribute your thoughts and stories, to provoke and to question, and to share these debates more widely.
When can we expect the iPump 2.0?
11 Oct 11
If it is possible to move in a few years from an iPod to an iPhone or and iPad, why are we in the water sector still struggling with the handpump? When can we expect the iPump 2.0? Did Steve …Continue reading →
The naked truth
10 Oct 11
In this video, Ned Breslin, CEO of Water For People tells the naked truth about many water systems in Africa, and elsewhere. An honest account of sustainability problems facing the sector. Filed under: Uncategorized
Monitoring: critical mass or critical mess?
10 Sep 11
Chinda is a small rural municipality, of some 5000 people, spread out over 15 hamlets in Western Honduras. This week I had the opportunity to carry out a case study of the work of the NGO Water For People (WFP) …Continue reading →
Reinventing the silver bullet
23 Jul 11
The biggest news this week in the world of water and sanitation was undoubtedly the announcement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) that it will be investing in the reinvention of the toilet. It doesn’t happen often that …Continue reading →
Is the water sector sexy enough?
11 Jul 11
The Guardian the other day posted an article which claimed that water and sanitation projects are not sexy enough and that donors therefore are not willing to invest in them. According to various interviewees in the article, donors prefer to …Continue reading →
Can the recognition of the right to water contribute to more sustainable water services delivery?
20 Jun 11
The other day I had a heated discussion with a human rights lawyer on the merits, drawbacks and possible implications of the recognition of the right to water. Although I welcome the principle behind it, as a self-declared sceptic on …Continue reading →
Running dry? Or will my water supply last?
11 Jun 11
Doc2The Netherlands is not the first country to spring to mind when the word drought is mentioned. But we are now in the midst of one, as according to meteorologist it has been the driest spring in decades. Most people …Continue reading →
Is rural water supply a left-wing hobby?
24 May 11
The latest trend in Dutch politics is to label anything of parties of another political colour as hobbyism. It started with one of the parties to the right of the political spectrum denouncing activities such as subsidizing theatre, development cooperation …Continue reading →
The Latin America perspective on supporting rural operators
24 May 11
This week I attended a meeting organised by the Interamerican Development Bank for its water officers and their counterparts working for governments and utilities from all over Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the sessions was dedicated to sustainability …Continue reading →
Hundred years of sustainability
24 May 11
How long is sustainable? 5 years? 20 years? 100 years? From here to eternity? This is a relevant question to ask in the context of rural water supplies, where the quest for sustainability has been going on for as long …Continue reading →
