News

• Official Swiss Website for the IYWC 2013: http://www.wasser2013.ch (BAFU/SDC)
• Website for the international component of the Swiss IYWC 2013 campaign: http://www.swisswaterpartnership.ch/?pgR=45 (SDC, Skat, SWP)
  

Sustainable WASH services can only be achieved if the technology used to provide services is sound enough for the specific context. Too often, however, water and sanitation services stop because the WASH technology no longer functions or is too complicated for the context which it’s in. New WASH technologies are promising successful solutions but are often not considered.

Link to website.....

The framework outlined during the workshop and described in the briefing note understands itself as a contribution to the shift in emphasis we need to make, from expanding the coverage of services to delivering services that are sustained into the future. It is applicable in a broad range of WASH contexts (drinking-water and sanitation services, at system, utility or areal level) by a large audience (practitioners, utility managers, policy makers, researchers, etc.) at situation analysis, strategy development, budgeting, implementation, monitoring & evaluation as well as lobbying/advocacy stages of sector endeavors. It links to existing instruments for assessing more in-depth the key elements of financial sustainability and for designing as well as implementing the appropriate answers.

The briefing note is available at here.

All AGUASAN Workshop reports can be downloaded or ordered in the publications section.

The electronic newsletter of Skat is sent to you approximately three times each year. Skat News provides you with brief summaries of recent and ongoing projects, links you to further information and documents, and provides you with relevant contact addresses.

If you wish to subscribe to this service, please send an email with "subscribe" in the subject line to
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Skat News - December 2012

With the support of ZH2O / drink&donate Skat will develop and accelerate Self Supply to further enable rural households and communities to improve their water supplies themselves and to generate incomes. In 2012/2013 Skat and the Tanzania based organisation SHIPO will provide training to local masons and drillers in the construction of wells and hand pumps, in marketing and business development and a will do a follow up.

http://www.zh2o.ch/wasser

43 water & sanitation practitioners and wider development specialists from both humanitarian aid and development cooperation gathered in Gwatt, Switzerland from 18 to 22 June, 2012 within the framework of the 28th AGUASAN Workshop. This year’s event was dedicated to the issue of achieving long-term financial sustainability of rural and small town WASH services. Presentations from resource persons, plenary discussions, group work on topic cases, crash course on the life-cycle cost approach, individual sustainability clinics and an excursion into the Swiss context supported the exchange and learning process as well as the development of new ideas. At the end of the workshop, different results could be highlighted: learning for the participants, peer assisted cases and clinics presenters as well as an outline of a framework for a successful approach to financial sustainability of WASH services. Within this framework, six key conducive elements were underlined: appropriate sector governance, comprehensive cost analysis, financially viable and socially equitable services, a solution suitable to the context, organizational capacity of relevant actors as well as ownership and commitment.

For further information, please see http://www.aguasan.ch or contact roger.schmid@skat.ch.

The electronic newsletter of Skat is sent to you approximately three times each year. Skat News provides you with brief summaries of recent and ongoing projects, links you to further information and documents, and provides you with relevant contact addresses.

If you wish to subscribe to this service, please send an email with "subscribe" in the subject line to
newsletter[AT]skat.ch

Skat News - April 2012

From 20 to 24 June, 2011, 45 WatSan practitioners and wider development specialists from both humanitarian aid and from development cooperation gathered in Gwatt, Switzerland at the 27th AUGASAN Workshop. The event was dedicated to identifying how to foster the potentials of the human rights to water and sanitation towards increased equity in access and coverage for all. Presentations from resource persons, discussions in the plenary, topic cases, group activities, storytelling and an excursion supported the exchange and learning process, as well as, the development of new ideas around the topic.

At the end of the week, a common understanding of the human rights to water and sanitation was achieved and a toolkit outline with the title of “A human rights lens for the WASH sector”, was developed, presented and discussed by and among participants. The target audience of this toolkit is the wider AGUASAN community and it has a focus on internal and external processes (cross-cutting criteria) along the project management cycle to achieve the objective of the human rights to water and sanitation (normative criteria). The structure and initial content of the toolkit have been adopted, whilst next steps are to compile all existing tools and practices (case studies) in order to develop a draft document and then to test the toolkit on the field in an iterative process.

The results of the workshop are available as online/downloadable PPT presentation at www.aguasan.ch.

All AGUASAN Workshop reports can be downloaded or ordered in the publications section of the Skat website.