WASHCost calculator: prototype in development

With increased international interest in the use of the life-cycle costs approach, there is a demand to simplify analysis, once expenditure and service level data is available. WASHCost has made available publications, trainings and tools for data collection and the use of life-cycle costs and service level data. This year, IRC began developing a prototype of an online tool, the WASHCost calculator. It is envisioned as a tool which allows the WASH sector to better plan, budget, manage and evaluate WASH service delivery models.

The prototype is intended to work like a mortgage calculator with interactive graphs. It is focused on answering the following questions as part of a sustainability check:

• Is my service delivery model sustainable over time?
• Who is paying for what costs over time?
• What is the service level of my delivery model is delivering to users?

An early version of the web-based prototype has been tested internally and presented at a number of meetings and trainings around the world with positive feedback. In the short term, WASHCost is using feedback to transform the tool into a training aid, which will help people to do basic analysis online using pre-existing data.

Nicolas Dickinson
26 June 2012

Updated by Jeske Verhoeven, Vera van der Grift, and Angelica de Jesus on 11 July 2012.