Opinions and voices for change
Navigate the blogs from our experts, water, sanitation and hygiene sector colleagues and guests. Narrow down your search by using the filters.
IRC Burkina Faso investigated the factors that explain why boreholes with hand pumps in the Sahel region break down so often. Read more...
Uttam Majundar is a successful Jalabandu (handpump mechanic) in Digambarpur (West Bengal, India). But now he risks becoming a victim of his own success. Following a day in his life explains why. Read more...
The growth of inequality is a major threat to prosperity and stability. Government leadership and government investment is needed to provide water and sanitation services to the poor. Read more...
Participants from IRC, the BRAC WASH programme and Biosol Energy BVAs have been on a study trip to China as part of ongoing action research on the productive use of faecal sludge. This one-week study tour was supervised by the Centre for Sustainable Environmental Sanitation (CSES) at the University... Read more...
In the context of IRC's work on aid effectiveness and on official development assistance (ODA), a financial analysis of the national WASH programme implementation between 2007 and 2013 has been conducted in Burkina Faso. The following blog summarises the main findings and recommendations to better... Read more...
One of the main conditions for providing potable water services is that the service provider must be able to guarantee that the water is safe for consumption. But what happens when you live in an area where such services are not within reach? Can you be sure that the water that is available is safe... Read more...
Public finance- money derived from taxation- is critical for achieving water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone forever. But how do we get governments to prioritise it? What should it be used for? And how can we get it flowing to local levels? WSUP, IRC and Trémolet Consulting will be exploring... Read more...
Is aid and trade the answer to "Dead Aid"? Is it just tied aid in disguise? Does it make sense in the water sanitation and hygiene sector? IRC invited a group of stakeholders from the Dutch WASH sector to The Hague on 17 September 2014 to discuss all this and more. Join the discussion! Read more...
Sierra Leone's Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Health and Sanitation have spearheaded learning and better coordination in the sector to achieve national water and sanitation targets.Translating high-level commitment into daily practice takes determination, time and skills. Read more...
In this blog Patrick Moriarty reflects on Stockholm World Water Week 2014. There is good progress in language (and some tools) around the role of government in delivering services, he argues. But it's still an uphill struggle on who pays for what. Read more...
Wil je geen geëmmer met de bucket challenge , doneer dan aan de overheid! Read more...
En 2013, la politique des Pays-Bas en matière d’aide au développement s’est réorientée vers le monde des affaires considéré comme le principal moteur d’une croissance durable au détriment de l’aide publique au développement. Read more...
If you want to take on the real water bucket challenge, donate to government! Read more...
Dr. Mushtaque Chowdhury from BRAC on the Bangladesh public health miracle, aid or trade, arsenic, floating latrines and the post-2015 development agenda. Read more...
In the third of three blog posts, CEO of IRC Patrick Moriarty explains why “government leadership” is critical to tackle inequality, poverty and to create sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene services – and why we need to stop believing in fairy tales be they about self-supporting communities... Read more...
As a group at Cranfield University we reviewed 130 case studies of community managed rural water services, to identify key success factors. We conclude that a certain level of socio-economic wealth is necessary, but not sufficient. A combination of different Plus factors, both internal and external... Read more...
It took high income countries 100 years to universalise the access to water and required long-term and massive public financing. Read more...
What does it take - from governments and their partners in development - to create WASH sectors that work? Read the latest blog in the series of four and join the debate on services not gifts by leaving your comments on this page. Read more...
Promising commitments, shallow discussions but a great depth of optimism for the sector during last week's Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) in Washington DC. Read more...
Clearly, the High Level Meeting (HLM) is a massive global undertaking. As an IRC colleague phrased it, the HLM is the “cherry on the cake” that is preceded by a long preparatory process. Whether the HLM delivers the results that justify the gigantic efforts and costs associated with it is to my... Read more...