By 2050 an estimated two-thirds of the global population will live in an urban area. USAID and local partners work with water utilities and wastewater managers around the world to improve financing, governance, infrastructure, and service provision to strengthen urban water security and improve sanitation. This collection page contains resources showcasing best practices and lessons learned for WASH infrastructure and services in urban settings.
Research has shown that the burden of water collection disproportionately affects women and children.
In Indonesia, safe sanitation is a big challenge that goes beyond just access to a toilet. The vast majority of the country’s human waste is released untreated into the environment with devastating consequences — approximately 100,000 children across Indonesia die every year from diarrheal diseases. In fact, approximately 90 percent of groundwater in Jakarta, the country’s massive capital city, is contaminated with E.
Take a look at how the leak detection team at JIRAMA, the national water utility in Madagascar, is at the forefront of preserving Antananarivo's most precious resource.
Through case study analyses, this report provides recommendations for steps that city officials and the donor community can take to engage private sector partners in green infrastructure development and financing in developing countries. This report is intended to be a complementary resource to USAID’s Green Infrastructure Resource Guide (2017), which provides development practitioners involved in the planning and development of green infrastructure with an in depth understanding of their design and benefits.
In September 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Republic of the Congo, together with the U.S. Water Partnership, arranged for two erosion experts from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to visit the city of Brazzaville and provide recommendations on treatment and prevention of catastrophic gully erosion that has resulted from planned and unplanned urban development. USFS staff traveled to Congo under the Water Experts Program, a cooperative effort between the U.S. Water Partnership and the U.S. Department of State that deploys American experts to provide technical assistance on water issues.
With a population of more than 1.5 million people, Udon Thani province in northeastern Thailand is growing and industrializing rapidly as it positions itself as a strategic communications and commercial gateway to Indo-China. While these changes will contribute to economic growth, these shifts along with likely future temperature increases and more extreme weather patterns will also put Udon Thani at a greater risk of water scarcity, flooding, and loss of green space. Since 2013, the U.S.
USAID is committed to exploring new ideas to achieving increased access to urban sanitation services.
The Ahmedabad Sanitation Action Lab develops inclusive solutions to urban sanitation problems in slums and poor settlements of Ahmedabad. The program provides hands-on technical assistance, community engagement, and improves the management process to strengthen the water and sanitation partnership with the Government of Gujarat, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Sintex Industries, Mahila Housing Trust, City Manager’s Association of Gujarat, Mudra Institute of Communications, and Theater Media Center.
The Urban Small Water Enterprise program addresses the challenge of providing safe water in urban slums by assessing the policy landscape around Small Water Enterprises (SWE), understanding the challenges and key drivers of success and providing tools to support the implementation of SWEs. An SWE is a business that purifies and sells water on a small scale to populations living in areas where piped water is unavailable.
