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Reflections on the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Annual Water and Health Conference

The UNC’s Water Institute annual policy-meets-science exchange has become the go-to domestic knowledge-sharing forum among water and sanitation development practitioners, funders, and academia. This year USAID participated in more than 15 presentations and side events on a wide array of topics, including designing sanitation enterprises, rural water supply, and examining research’s role in driving policy and promoting change.

Document

India Fire-D Project Ex-Post Evaluation (Full Report)

Rapid urbanization in resource-constrained countries like India places massive pressures on infrastructure, and long-term solutions are needed to meet growing safe water and sanitation (WatSan) demand. USAID has invested in urban WatSan activities across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East that aim to address these needs, but there is seldom opportunity to validate whether its approaches yielded sustainable outcomes.

Document

Private Sector Engagement in the Water Security Improvement Process

Improving the sustainability of a watershed requires active engagement with all major water users — particularly private sector actors, which can be large, impactful and politically influential water users. However, engaging the private sector in broader water security efforts requires understanding their motivations and drivers, including their water risks and business opportunities.

Fact Sheet

Adopting a Risk-Based Approach to Rural Water Supply Sustainability in Kenya

This fact sheet highlights SWS’s work in Kitui County, Kenya, where Oxford and UNICEF are developing, scaling-up, and testing the FundiFix model as one response to Kitui County’s rural water challenge. The goal is to provide a model for universal, rural water service delivery. FundiFix provides a performance-based approach to maintaining water infrastructure, using ‘smart handpumps’ that collect real-time information on abstraction volumes and breakdown incidents. Oxford and UNICEF are incubating the local Kenyan company Miambani Ltd.

Fact Sheet

Develop and Scale District Public-Private Partnerships that Sustain Reliable Rural Water Supply

This fact sheet highlights SWS’s work in Uganda, where Whave is working to cultivate a sustainable model for rural water service delivery by testing a preventive maintenance approach in three pilot districts. Operating as a Ugandan regional service provider, Whave is signing multi-year preventive maintenance service agreements with communities that require community leaders to charge operation and maintenance tariffs, manage the collected funds in supervised bank accounts, and pay an annual service fee.

Event

Webinar: Designing Effective Sanitation Enterprises

The USAID-funded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) Project invites you to a presentation and discussion on sanitation enterprises and design considerations. WASHPaLS will present a detailed discussion of the elements of a sanitation enterprise including mechanisms and practices, design approaches, and key considerations based upon the findings a recent WASHPaLS desk review.

Project

Sustainable​ ​Improvement​ ​of​ ​Water​ ​Quality​ ​of​ ​Metrópoli​ ​de​ ​los​ ​Altos 

This activity provides direct support to local governments to improve the health conditions of eight municipalities in Quetzaltenango Department, Guatemala. USAID investments increase access to and the quality of potable water, using national public financial management systems. The municipalities include: Quetzaltenango: Salcajá, Quetzaltenango, San Juan Olintepeque, San Carlos Sija, Sibilia, San Juan Ostuncalco, La Esperanza and San Mateo.

Project

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) for Health

Despite recent sanitation successes and the introduction of promising technologies, roughly 85 percent of Ghanaians still lack access to improved sanitation. This gap in coverage has led to recurring cholera outbreaks in recent years. Ghana is now tackling its sanitation challenges with renewed vigor, and intensifying efforts to scale up sanitation improvements nationwide with the help of the USAID-funded Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) for Health initiative