I found the training packages on your site and find them very useful. Is there any other course/ MBA you know of and that you could recommend?

Student from Ghendt University , Belgium.

A:  Thanks for your comments on our training packages. Which one(s) did you find particularly useful?  And for what are you using them?

For online and/or face-to- face courses you should explore a few options.

A free Inclusive WASH Internet (learning sessions) is being organised from Melbourne, Australia (workshop), from 30 October 2011 – May 2012, They do a  Poorest of the Poor. This includes a webinar and discussion in: February 2012,  see more details http://www.source.irc.nl/page/67383.If you think about a MBA type of course on WASH you should check two established education institutes that offer various MSc options and short courses at costs:

• UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE)
• Water, Engineering & Development Centre (WEDC)

I copy below the short articles with links and contact details that we have on both of them  on our InterWATER organisations pages:

UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE)

UNESCO-IHE contributes to the education and training of professionals and builds the capacity of knowledge centres and other organisations in the fields of water, the environment and infrastructure in developing countries and countries in transition. Their Water Engineering Department carries out education, research and projects related to water resources assessment and control, water supply and irrigation, navigation and hydropower, river, port and coastal engineering and floods, droughts and pollution.

- Address: Westvest 7
PO Box 3015
2601 DA Delft
Netherlands

- Telephone: +31 15 215 17 15

- FAX: +31 15 212 29 21

- E-mail: info@unesco-ihe.org

- Web: http://www.unesco-ihe.org

- Org. type: Educational Institution

 Water, Engineering & Development Centre (WEDC)

WEDC is concerned with education, training, research, and consultancy relating to the planning, provision and management of physical infrastructure for development in low- and middle-income countries. WEDC forms the core of the Institute of Development Engineering. Areas of expertise include water and sanitation; solid waste management; environment and health; urban services; and watsan in emergency situations.

WEDC manages WELL, the DFID-funded resource centre for improving access to information and support in water, sanitation and environmental health.

WEDC is also a member of the European Alliance of Resource Centres of the Streams of Knowledge’s Network.

- Address: Loughborough University
LE 11 3TU Leicestershire
United Kingdom

- Telephone: +44 1509 22 28 85

- FAX: +44 1509 21 10 79

- E-mail: WEDC@lboro.ac.uk.

- Web: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk

- Org. type: International non-Governmental

Good luck,

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

A:  We don’t have details on water levels of dams. However, I found a few relevant texts using Google:

NamWater in Namibia keeps on online Dam Level Graphic for Area: Namibia , Reading: 14/11/2011 at that includes the level of the Hardap dam http://www.namwater.com.na/data/dambull2.aspThe second is through Allafrica.com from the Namibian, a 27 January 2011 story from which I copy the start:

Namibia: Dam Levels Rise After Strong Rains

WIDESPREAD rains over most of Namibia have pushed up the levels of all of te country’s largest storage dams over the past week.

The dams supplying water to Windhoek now hold more water than they did a year ago, while the water level in Namibia’s largest dam, the Hardap Dam near Mariental, is close to what it was this time last year.

According to NamWater, the level of the Hardap Dam, which was 53,3 per cent full at the start of last week, had risen to 82,9 per cent on Monday this week. Water was released from the dam until its sluice gates were closed yesterday morning, when the dam’s level had been decreased to 68 per cent of its capacity.

To reduce the risks of floods hitting Mariental if the Hardap Dam receives huge inflows of water, NamWater aims to limit the dam’s level to no more than 70 per cent of its 294,5 million cubic metres capacity. A year ago, the Hardap Dam was 70,2 per cent full. See the full story at  http://allafrica.com/stories/201102020467.html

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

A:  Have you already tried the search and reference list options from our online IRC WASH library http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/advancedsearch for your study?

I copy below selected results from a search on slum and Mumbai  that you should explore further http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/results?lmt=20&txt=slum+Mumbai. It contains summaries and here and there a relevant quote from the PDF text. You can repeat this search and save selected references (after registering online) as your reference list, which you can copy and past in the right format in a Word file. If you want to check research results from other parts of the world you should start a search with the word ‘slum’ in http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/search.

Here is my first selection that includes the political and administrative context of slum improvement, an exam[le from Dhaka and more general Guidance notes on services for the urban poor:

Baken, R.-J. (2008). The political and administrative context of slum improvement : two contrasting Indian cases . Delft, The Netherlands, International Reference Centre for Community Water Supply and Sanitation (IRC)

Availability:

• WWW page: WWW MS Word [188 KB]

This essay deals with slum improvement. It focuses on the contrast between high-flown project intentions and the sobering reality of the politics of project implementation. It thereby attempts to give some answers to the above issues. Moreover, it presents a beginning of a way out of the political and administrative impasse. It tries to achieve this by giving a description of two contrasting cases in India. The first case is typical for many slum improvement projects in India and other developing countries. On paper, it is all-encompassing, integrated and participatory – a typical UNCHS “best practice”. In practice, it is none of these things. The second case is much more modest. There is no predetermined, all-round plan. In terms of organisation, mobilisation, teaching and learning the kind of slum improvement highlighted in the second case builds on what the slum dwellers themselves know and understand. In terms of output, it concentrates on community toilet blocks. The first case concerns slum improvement projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, two rapidly growing million-plus cities in Andhra Pradesh (1988-1996). It describes and analyses the problematic interaction between slum dwellers and the (local) government. The project was based on a number of unrealistic assumptions and approaches, e.g. with respect to dweller participation and the capacity of existing infrastructure networks. It invited patronage and corruption. Rather than truly including slums and slum dwellers in the urban civic space, the project delivered special slum (health, credit, livelihood, education and infrastructure) products of a substandard, makeshift quality. The second case is that of the 10-year experience in the construction of toilet blocks in Indian urban slums by urban poor federations and women’s co-operatives, with the support of the NGO SPARC. In its effort this alliance (called “the Alliance”) improved sanitation and washing facilities for hundreds of thousands of poor households and proved that such facilities could be both affordable and manageable. Apart from this concrete outcome, the efforts of the Alliance and its partner slum communities resulted in the gradual reconstitution of citizenship for the slum dwellers. Indeed, for all those involved – government agencies, slum dwellers and NGOs – the whole exercise was a training in “deep democracy”.(authors abstract)

http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/title/170983

Capacity Building Service Group -Dhaka, BD, CBSG (2010). Ensuring services to slum dwellers : Dhaka WASA organisation for low income and slum community water service delivery : final report . London, UK, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, WSUP

Availability:

• Downloadable document: WWW PDF [293 KB]

(2009). Guidance notes on services for the urban poor : a practical guide for improving water and sanitation services.

Availability:

• Downloadable document: WWW Download PDF [1.80 MB]

According to this report giving poor people a say in the water and sanitation services they receive, and allowing alternative documentation to prove residence are some of the simple solutions that can bring sustainable water and sanitation services to the hundreds of millions currently living without. An interesting experience from Mumbai’s Slum Sanitation Project with community toilet blocks shows how municipalities also benefit. The municipal corporation issued the building permit after the community-based organisation (CBO) or small enterprise had collected at least 50 per cent of the expected maintenance fund from prospective users. It also had to develop a technically sound and community-endorsed plan for the toilet block. The actual construction of the community toilet block began only after that. Among other solutions, the study added that simplified, client-friendly procedures for billing, collection, and connection help the poor to gain and retain access to water and sanitation services. The report identifies barriers to service delivery for poor people living in urban areas in Africa, East and South Asia, and Latin America and recommends practical solutions to overcome them. It includes a compilation of 19 case studies from 12 countries as well as consultations with urban poor communities to analyze similar barriers and propose solutions.

Sarkar, S.; Nitti, R. (2003). Reaching the poor through sustainable partnerships : the slum sanitation program in Mumbai, India. (Urban notes : upgrading experiences / WB Thematic Group on Services to the Urban Poor; no. 7). Washington, DC, USA, World Bank

Availability: http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/title/125629

Norman, G. (2011). When are communal or public toilets an appropriate option?. (Topic Brief (TB); 1). S.l., Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, WSUP

Availability:

• Downloadable document: WWW PDF [358 KB]

This Topic Brief presents an overview of issues related to communal or public toilets and argues that that communal or public toilets may be the most appropriate medium-term solution in some specific situations: notably in high-density slums with a high proportion of tenants and/or frequent flooding and water-logging. [authors abstract]

“Communal toilets are seen in low-income communities of many African and Asian cities. Again, probably the best known example is from India: the SPARC model, implemented in Pune and Mumbai as a collaboration between three Indian NGOs (SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation NSDF, and the women’s organisation Mahila Milan).3, 5 Under the SPARC model, communal toilets (each seat serving about 50 people) are constructed and managed by NGOs under contract from the municipality, with close community involvement; a moderate per-household monthly fee is then collected, allowing payment of an attendant with responsibility for cleaning.

We are not aware of any detailed independent evaluation of the performance of the SPARC model. Certainly it would be if interest to assess whether revenues are sufficient to ensure sustainability. There have been cases in which municipal politicians have demanded that these toilets be free, reducing revenues.5”

Kothandaraman P & Vishwanathan V (2007) Sulabh International: a movement to liberate scavengers by implementing a low-cost, safe sanitation system. UNDP “Growing

Inclusive Markets” Case Study, September 2007. http://cases.growinginclusivemarkets.org/documents/76

Burra S & Patel S (2002) Community toilets in Pune and other Indian cities. PLA Notes 44. www.planotes.org/documents/plan_04411.pdf

WSUP (2011) Documentation of WSUP-supported communal sanitation programme in Swatantra Nagar and Kaveri Nagar slums in Bangalore, India. Report for WSUP, available for

download from the WSUP website.

From E-Source news

India, Bangalore: improving water and sanitation for slum dwellers

With the help of local NGO AVAS, the residents of Sudhamnagar, a slum community in Bangalore, now have household latrines and a safe drinking water supply. Read more

Short courses

For short-term courses there are only few possibilities. One is Inclusive WASH Internet (learning sessions) from Melbourne, Australia (workshop), from 30 October 2011 – May 2012, They do a  Poorest of the Poor
Discussion: February 2012, Live webinar: date tba, see more details http://www.source.irc.nl/page/67383.

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

Information and Communication Officer and Chief Editor Source Bulletin, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

A: We have an extensive Water for kids section our site with a selection of resources which might help you to teach kids about water http://www.irc.nl/page/30389. You need to explore the various sites selected by us to download what you can use for  your age group.

You should first try the UNICEF office in Canada.  I know by experience that local UNICEF offices produce local materials for teaching children the importance of clean water and saving water.

I copy below some pointers from Age-appropriate Life Skills for Hygiene, Sanitation, and Water in Schools:

Early primary school age (5-7 years)

Skills: Children are very imaginative and discover the world and their own capabilities in a playful way, meanwhile gaining self-confidence and taking the first steps towards independence. They like to imitate older children and adults.

Knowledge & attitude: Children in this age group experience the positive effects of personal care on their appearance (washing themselves, combing their hair, and brushing their teeth). They tend to value things in a simple way; for example, looking and smelling good means feeling good.

Children’s participation: In this age group children could become actively involved in the design, planning, maintenance, and operation of facilities. However, they cannot be held fully responsible and require close guidance from adults or older children.

Implications for the design of facilities: Facilities should reflect the sensation of being clean: light colors, sufficient natural light, and adequate ventilation. Themes used in hygiene promotion materials can be used for decoration to strengthen the link between education and practice. Facilities should be designed so that a teacher or older student can stand next to the child to teach proper ways of using the toilet and washing hands. However, most children can complete simple actions or tasks on their own or with minor assistance. There is no direct need for privacy; children like to observe others and imitate their behaviors. See for more on this http://www.schoolsanitation.org/BasicPrinciples/ChildrensLearning.html.

I hope this helps.

Your feedback on the usefulness of these resources would be appreciated.

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

A.. The Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) (www.nwp.nl) and the Partners for Water programme (www.partnersvoorwater.nl), are two initiatives, which provide information and financial support, respectively, for Dutch water business ventures.

The following sources are useful starting points for information on drinking water issues and innovative projects in India:

• Ask IRC – web resources – India . This is a list of key web sites that provide overviews of the water and sanitation sector in India – www.irc.nl/page/32770
• WASH News South Asia – India – for the latest news about water and sanitation developments in India – washasia.wordpress.com/category/regions/south-asia/india/
• For publications and reports on drinking water issues try searching in WASH Digital Library – www.washdoc.info/ and in the WASH Resources blog with this link – : washresources.wordpress.com/?s=india (see for instance: Access of the poor to water supply and sanitation in India)

Question 1) What is the WASH sector common understanding of a hand or foot-pump well “rehabilitation” vs a well “repair” or “service maintenance”. To me, a rehab seems to imply the restoration to functionality of a well that has stopped working, perhaps for a long time. But I’m looking at a situation where simply restoring a still-functioning pump (Vergnet or India Mark IV) to “optimal” water flow is labelled a “rehab”. How common/uncommon or rigorous/loose of a definition for “rehab” would this be in the WASH world?

Answer:  The word “rehabilitation” has been used rather loosely in the water sector since the 1980s to mean major repair work on broken water systems, as you can see from checking the titles from search results on “rehabilitation AND pump” in our online WASH sector library, see http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/results?lmt=20&txt=rehabilitation+AND+pump

I copy below an Illustrative paragraph from a report published by the Danish aid agancy DANIDA on Community based handpump rehabilitation & maintenance programme in Zimbabwe (1988):

“Rehabilitation of 1 800 Handpumps and Headwork Construction

The handpump rehabilitation and maintenance activities are based on prior district level surveys of handpumps where the situation of existing boreholes are recorded and the location mapped, as well as data concerning the socio-economic situation in the respective communities (VIDCO’s) are also collected and a small report for each district covered is prepared. (See Appendix V). Immediately following the survey in each district both training of technical staff DDF supervisor for water, pumpminders and builders as well as training for community participation takes place. Rehabilitation of the pumps and headworks construction starts as soon as the community based organizational structure with sub-committee and caretaker has been established and trained.”

Even in 2006 the authors of the Asian Development Bank  study conducted in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Pondicherry in 2004-2005 tall about :” …concludes that tank rehabilitation works, augmenting tank water and increasing tank storage have considerable impact on the livelihood options of the landless and marginal farmers.”

In IRC publications in those days we referred rather to “operation and maintenance” of an existing pump or service and “replacement ” needed when a pump was beyond  repair and a new pump or . See for instance IRC’s Operation & Maintenance publications section:

Too many water supply and sanitation systems function very poorly and often the systems are not in operation. One of the key problems is the fact that operation and maintenance has been neglected since the commissioning of the system. http://www.irc.nl/page/5983

Services are forever: the role of capital maintenance

To address these ambiguities IRC launched the WASHCost, a five-year initiative focusing on exploring and sharing an understanding of the true costs of sustainable services, which is financed by the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation. Since 2008, WASHCost has developed new methodologies to better understand and use the costs of providing water, sanitation and hygiene services to rural and peri-urban communities in Ghana, Burkina-Faso, Mozambique and India (Andhra Pradesh).

From their most recent brochure I quote: “One preliminary suggestion from analysis of life-cycle costs in the four countries is that increasing expenditure on capital maintenance and direct support, typically “forgotten” costs, can decrease the overall costs of service delivery in some cases. For example it is clearly more cost effective to replace a US$ 500 handpump every five to ten years, than to wait for it to fail and then develop a new US$ 10,000 borehole. Yet around the world, failed handpumps are systematically replaced by entirely new boreholes.

In other words, by increasing expenditure on capital maintenance and direct support costs the overall costs may decrease, especially when inefficiencies and neglect for post-construction support are causing the overall collapse of the infrastructure much earlier than expected.””

Source:  Featuring WASHCost’s latest brochure 10 Mar 11

WASHCost project partners have recently published a new brochure focusing on “Life-cycle costs approach for water and sanitation services that last”.

WASHCost_brochure_2011.pdf (409.49 kB)

On page two you’ll see their description of the Life-cycle costs service delivery approach:

Life-cycle costs represent the disaggregate costs of ensuring delivery of an adequate, equitable and sustainable WASH service level to a population in a specified area.

Adopting a life cycle costs based approach requires that all aspects of the life-cycle of a service are considered and catered for from construction to operation, rehabilitation and eventual replacement. Timely rehabilitation ensures limited interruption and prevents a return to unsafe water sources and the environmental risks of open defecation. Maintaining service levels also depends on the competence and resources of the people and institutions that provide the services: all of which have costs attached. It is all of these costs taken together that form the total cost of providing a sustainable level of service (represented graphically below). By monitoring how each component affects overall costs, governments, investors, donors and users can plan for sustainable and appropriate levels of service delivery.

They work with five cost categories for sustainable service that last, some of which are frequently forgotten. They are increasingly being taken over by other major sector players:

Capital expenditure: Initial costs of putting new services into place: “hardware” such as pipes, toilets and pumps and one-off “software” such as training and consultations.

Cost of capital: The cost of borrowing money or investing in the service instead of another opportunity. It also includes any profit of the service providers not reinvested. It has a direct impact on the ability to maintain a service financially.

Operation and maintenance expenditure: Routine maintenance and operation costs crucial to keep services running, e.g. wages, fuel, or any other regular purchases. Neglect has long-term consequences for service delivery, e.g. expensive capital (maintenance) expenditure and/or service failure.

Capital maintenance expenditure: Occasional large maintenance costs for the renewal, replacement, and rehabilitation of a system. These essential expenditures are required before failure occurs to maintain a level of service and need to be planned in. This is one of the most frequently “forgotten” costs.

Expenditure on direct support: Pre and post-construction support costs not directly related to implementation, e.g. training for community or private sector operators, users or user groups. These costs are often forgotten in rural water and sanitation estimates but are necessary to achieve long-term functionality and scale.

Expenditure on indirect support: The cost of planning and policy making at governmental level and capacity building of professionals and technicians. These costs have a direct impact on long-term sustainability

Question 2)  Is the below panel a standard testing panel that would verify water potability of a new or rehabilitated well in Central Africa? Or is this test missing categories that would detect contaminants/pollutants and/or bacteria/pathogens/disease that determine potability, and thus require a chlorination of the well regardless of what these categories show?

Answer: The WHO Guidelines for drinking-water quality provides you with the answer. These  international norms on water quality and human health are used as the basis for regulation and standard setting, in developing and developed countries world-wide. This includes chemical hazards as well. See http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/guidelines/en/index.html

Question 3) I’m trying to understand, when it comes to repairing existing wells in Africa vs drilling new ones, what types of things are considered rehabilitations vs. routine maintenance. Below is a list of example repairs of India Mark IV and Vergnet foot-pump and hand-pump wells (French w/ English translation). Could you glance over it and let me know if in your opinion these would be considered pump rehabilitations (worth billing foreign donors $1,500 USD for) or routine maintenance (coverable by $8 USD monthly contributions by the African village)?

Answer: The repairs you mention on the India Mark 1V and Vergnet pumps are typical Operating and Maintenance Expenditure (OpEx). Most costs estimates that WASHCost has found assume OpEx between 5 and 20% of capital investments.

More on operating costs in wikipedia.

I don’t understand your point on billing.

See for mofre in this the figures below reported by the WASHCost team in Mozambique team in October 20101 on factors affecting water pump life span of the Afridev handpump in South and Northern provinces:

“Official data estimate almost 20 thousand Afridev hand pumps in Mozambique. Twenty two percent (22%) of which are not operational due to breakdowns of different types. If all were operational, the country would have achieved the MDGs on water already. High maintenance costs, missing parts and receding ground water levels are three major reasons for this failure.

The Afridev hand pump

The Afridev hand pump is of 5 types of water pumps the mostly used in rural areas of Mozambique as it offers many advantages. It is relatively easy to install, serves the greatest number of people, approximately 500 or more, and can be set up to 45 meters deep.  An Afridev pump can pump up 12 to 15 liters of water per minute, slightly less than a NIRA pump’s capacity. They cost approximately US $ 1500. Maintenance is possible due to availability of spare parts in the domestic market, especially in the country’s capital city, Maputo.

Despite all these advantages, when poorly maintained or used beyond their capacity, the pumps easily break down.

Size of the community as a degrading factor

Most rural communities are composed of not less than 500 households with at least 5 members each. Assuming that each person consumes 12 liters of water per day, one can easily conclude that the pump prpoduces not less than 18 thousand liters per day. This quantity is relatively higher than the ideal operational capacity of the pump.

Regular maintenance as crucial factor for long lasting pumps

The only way to alleviate the risk of failure by overloading would be preventive maintenance, consisting in the replacement of worn parts as well as strict observance of the water pumps opening and closing times.

Regular maintenance of a pump costs at least US $ 40.00. To achieve this amount, each of the community members would have to contribute a minimum of 20 meticais, slightly less than 50 US cents.

Regular or preventive maintenance means better organization of the communities to ensure regular monthly collection of contributions as well as a protocol for when they break down. Unfortunately, this does not always happen due to various implicit problems.

Lack of spare parts

To make matters worse, the spare parts are not always available. Communities need to travel long distances to get the spare parts; something that leads to even more costs.” http://www.washcost.info/page/358.

I hope this helps you for your article.

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

Answer: Regarding your question on reducing water resources demand management policies and strategies and the role of business and governments,  it is not clear to me for which purpose you need this information.

So I can only give you general advice and selected information sources on our web site. You need to analyse various news articles and documents yourself.

The search results for news articles we published in our E-Source news and feature service on “water resources AND demands” from our search engine on our home page show how complex effective water demand management is. Conserving water, saving water, reusing water by all users needs to be practiced by all users. Pricing water, regulating water and dialoguing about water with all stakeholders needs to be practiced by government and business. Scarcity and culture play a great role in the process.

You can read that from the headlines from the  few selected top items:

India, Kerala: Panel to look into redressal demands in Coke case

Kochi: The Kerala government will form an expert panel to study demands for compensation by residents of Plachimada village in Palakkad district for the damage done by pollution allegedly caused by a Coca-Cola Co. plant, the state’s minister for water resources N.K. Premachandran said.The Kerala Ground Water Authority (KGWA) [...] said it found sufficient grounds [...] Go to this site

SAWINET: Sharing of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) information and experience in Southern Africa

The Southern African Water Information Network (SAWINET) is a web- based source (www.sawinet.org) of IWRM information specifically designed to meet the IWRM information needs of the southern African water sector. It is a demand-driven network that currently focuses on legislation and policies, water sector reform, catchment management issues, prevention of conflict over water use. Since this network is demand driven after a stakeholder analysis they was a great demand for information on Gender Mainstreaming in IWRM and the network is looking at collecting information on this.

Read more or download Takawira__16.pdf (234.10 kB)

Water crisis: private sector solutions for closing the resource gap

The growing “water gap”, in which global water demand will be 40 per cent more than supply by 2030, can be closed by a combination of demand-side and supply-side measures, says a new report from the 2030 Water Resources Group. Such a balanced approach is four times cheaper than supply-side only measures like desalination.

Water Demand Management means greater use efficiency

David B. Brooks, of Friends of the Earth Canada proposes an operational definition of water demand management, to draw out the possible methods of saving water. His definition presents five water saving components.

WaterStrategyMan web site

Web site of the project Developing Strategies for Regulating and Managing Water Resources and Demand in Water Deficient Regions.

Water resources sector strategy : strategic directions for World Bank engagement

This book focuses on how to improve the development and management of water resources while providing the principles that link resource management to the specific water-using sectors.

Building partnerships: a strategy for bridging the water resources information and knowledge divide in the Caribbean (Herold Gopaul)

Effective integrated water resources management needs a sound information base. The inadequacy of the information and data on water resources, and on water demand and supply is a clear indication of weaknesses in data gathering and information generation in the Caribbean. This paper presents a number of initiatives that are currently underway in the Caribbean with regards to Partnership Building in the water sector.

Read more or download Gopaul__35.pdf (135.16 kB)

Water policy development: swings and roundabouts in Sri Lanka

‘In recent decades, policy reforms for water resource management – nationally-demanded but designed by external actors – have generated intense controversy and become both a tool and a victim of national politics,’ says Rajindra Ariyabandu in a new ODI working paper.

Zambia: state launches water resources action programme

The ministry of Energy and Water Development launched the water resources action programme (WRAP) steering committee to oversee policy reforms in the water sector, and to examine ways of managing and utilising Zambia’s water resources for maximum economic

Politics and provision: on-the-ground realities of water and sanitation development

Addressing water and sanitation under-provision requires a subtle understanding of the nature of the resource, the wider poverty environment, and politics.

Willingness to pay: estimating value of rural water demand for domestic use in South Africa

This paper applies the travel cost method (TCM) to estimate the value that rural households in the Steelpoort sub-basin of South Africa place on river and collective tap water.

You should also do a few searches in our Digital Library database with ‘water demand AND policy’ at http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/results?lmt=20&txt=water+demand+AND+policy.

From there you can create your own reference list.

I hope this helps.

Dick de Jong (Ak IRC)

I will be doing a qualitative field research on it in Ghana, mainly Accra and Kumasi, from the 15th of May to the 30th of June.

I am writng to seek assistance from your organisation, in the form of interviewing some one on the said topic and any research or published paper undertaken by your esteem organisation please. Also who to contact when I get to Ghana and how to asses these information.

Answer: From a search on our home page for “Water privatisation AND Ghana http://www.irc.nl/content/search/?SearchText=Water+privatisation+AND+Ghana&SearchButton=Search I copy below the most relevant results that you should further explore. They are mainly short newsletter items:

Water privatisation policy – Ghana

Questions and answers from 2005 that includes news items on this topic from  our Source Weekly newsletter as well as a few publications by IRC.

Ghana: Ghana Water Company under fire

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is under fire from both the allAfrica.com”>government and anti-privatisation activists for poor service delivery and corruption. In the wake of this criticism, Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), the private operator which supports GWCL since 2006 as part of a World Bank-supported project, has launched an effort to collect unpaid [...]

Go to this site

Ghana: privatisation brings new investment to water company

Ghana has embarked on the partial privatisation of its ailing water company, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), with the help of a US$ 103 million grant from the World Bank.

Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water

“A recent study by our Integrated Social Development Center showed that poor households in the capital, Accra, spend 18 to 25 percent of their income on water. In comparison, the average American spends about 1 percent of household income on water”.

Ghana: water privatization raises fears that profits and development cannot marry

Lending institutions are putting pressure on developing countries to privatise their water sectors at a time when water is returning to public hands in the UK and US.

At IRC we feel that the heated discussion on water privatisation is a station that even the World Bank and IMF have passed. What matters in the developing world  is water, sanitation and hygiene services that last. They require more investments from the public and private sector than are currently put in and need to be stepped up by all stakeholders.

See for recent papers on costing. financing  and sustainable service delivery three papers from Ghana presented at our November 2010 Symposium Pumps, Pipes and Promises:

• The use of cost information in planning and decision making in rural water and sanitation service delivery in Ghana : paper presented at the IRC symposium ‘ Pumps, Pipes and Promises: Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services’ in Th (2010)

• Costs of delivering water service in rural areas and small towns in Ghana : paper presented at the IRC symposium ‘ Pumps, Pipes and Promises: Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services’ in The Hague, The Netherlands from 16 – 18 Nove (2010)

• Enhancing integrity to improve service delivery in water supply service provision : paper presented at the IRC symposium ‘ Pumps, Pipes and Promises: Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services’ in The Hague, The Netherlands from 16 – (2010)

My advice is that you study these free info resources carefully before you go to Ghana for field work.

For a number of key stakeholders and their contact details in Ghana you should check our InterWATER Ghana page at http://www.irc.nl/page/4899.

Last year we inaugurated the WASH House in Accra that has a physical library, see the Source newsletter item on that: Ghana: WASH House improves sector learning and knowledge management:

A number of organisations and projects dedicated to improving sector learning and knowledge management in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana, inaugurated their new office in Accra, known as WASH House. The organisations and projects included TREND Group, Tripartite Partnership Project, WASHCost Project, Safi-Sana Ghana Limited, Triple-S Project, SWITCH Project, Resource Centre Network (RCN) Ghana Secretariat, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and its West Africa Regional Programme (WARP). See for more http://www.source.irc.nl/page/51938.

Mr. Abu Wumbei  is the coordinator of the Resource Centre Network (RCN) Ghana Secretariat. I have copied him in for this message. I hope you can make your research as meaningful for this network.

My advice is that you study these free info resources carefully before you go to Ghana for field work.

For a number of key stakeholders and their contact details in Ghana you should check our InterWATER Ghana page at http://www.irc.nl/page/4899.

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)

A. Concerns about CLTS were addressed in a paper by Christine Sijbesma:

Sanitation and hygiene in South Asia : progress and challenges : summary paper of the South Asian Sanitation & Hygiene Practitioners’ Workshop organised by IRC, WaterAid and BRAC in Rajendrapur, Bangladesh, 29-31 January 2008.

In 2009 WaterAid published a review of CLTS programmes in Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria.

WSP’s Global Scaling Up Rural Sanitation Project is testing Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and Sanitation Marketing approaches in Tanzania, India, and Indonesia. The project web site includes numerous studies on the use of the these approaches in these countries.

In 2009 UNICEF published a field note “Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS)” , reviewing experiences in Sierra Leone, Zambia, Nepal, and in India.

We need assistance in two areas:

1. Water from wells has a salty taste so villagers will drink contaminated river water.  We need a method of removing salty taste from well water.

2. The school complex depends upon latrines which are pit toilets.  We need design criteria to construct new latrines which minimize the contamination of well water and the nearby river.

Your question 1. Water from wells has a salty taste so villagers will drink contaminated river water.  We need a method of removing salty taste from well water.

Answer: The most  simple,  low-cost method to desalinate brackish or salty water is distillation. In  a 1990 publication ‘Solar-Powered Desalination: A case study from Botswana, IDRC I found the following description:

“A simple, low-cost method to desalinate sea water by distillation is used in some countries where fuel is available. It requires basic kitchen utensils: two pots, one four times the size of the other, and a plastic sheet. The smaller pot is placed inside the larger one and weighed down with a stone.

Sea water is poured into the outer container up to the brim of the inner one. The larger pot is sealed using a plastic sheet and a piece of string so that the plastic sheet sags in the middle (Figure 6). This home-made still is then placed on any heat source such as a stove or wood fire, at low temperature. In a few minutes the sea water in the outer container starts to evaporate. As the plastic sheet prevents the steam from escaping, the droplets condense into the smaller vessel. Residual salt remains in the outer pot.

To conserve fuel, a still can be placed on top of a cooking- pot which is used every day, such as a rice pot. As it boils or simmers, the ‘waste’ heat is usefully harnessed.

Care should be taken to ensure that all pots are stable and out of reach of young children.”

Source: Yates, R., Woto, T. and Tlhage, J.T., Solar-Powered Desalination: A case study from Botswana, IDRC, Ottawa, 1990. Prepared by Michael Smith and Rod Shaw WEDC Loughborough University

You can find the drawing at www.scribd.com/doc/34717619/Desalination · Cached page.

Larger solar energy system

In the same document a drawing can be found of a larger solar energy system. It can be used to evaporate water from salt water for household or community water supplies by constructing sealed units covered with glass (Figure 5). There are problems with these units: growth of algae on the under- side of the glass sheet must be controlled, and the unit must be effectively sealed.

My colleague Jo Smet who is an experienced engineer told me that for a family of five people at 4 litres of potable water  a unit of 5 m2 is needed.

Your question 2. The school complex depends upon latrines which are pit toilets.  We need design criteria to construct new latrines which minimize the contamination of well water and the nearby river.

Answer: Below is a practical example from a photo story from a school in Kenya. Further down are  school toilets design criteria.

Photo story: Water and sanitation improvements at Atono school in Kenya

Mr Daniel Odhiambo is head-master of the Atono school in Nyanza, one of only four schools in Kenya with urinals for girls. Netwas Kenya and IRC visited his school recently as part of a UNICEF Kenya study of 43 schools in four districts: Coast (Mombasa); Nyanza (Rachuonyo & Kisumu); Rift Valley (Kajiado); and North Eastern (Garissa). The aim of the study was to find out if the national Kenyan Ministry of Health’s standard ratio of 1 latrine to 25 girls and 1 toilet to 30 boys can be downgraded if the pupils also have access to urinals, and if so, what would be the new ratio.

This was a follow-up of 2004-2005 research on the enhancement of sanitation and hygiene for Kenya’s school children, carried out by IRC together with seven partner organisations in Kenya. The study showed that school toilet standards were not being met. See the online picture story with captions at http://www.irc.nl/page/54200.

Additional factors to consider

Below are other factors to consider from a good booklet on school toilets:

Mooijman, A. and Zomerplaag, J. (2004). Child-friendly hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools : indispensible to effective hygiene education. Delft, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Available at: http://www.irc.nl/content/view/full/9587

In this book you will find the following about ratio of school children to toilets:

“In some references, a rough standard used is a ratio of one facility for 20 students although in some countries the standard might be as high as one facility for 50 students. In addition, there are some other important factors when defining the exact number of facilities necessary:

• How many girls and how many boys are there? It is recommended that at least half of the facilities are urinals. They are much cheaper than toilets and have a shorter waiting time. Where pits are used, providing urinals will extend the lifespan of the pits considerably and will cause less overall odour if they are well designed.
• Are children allowed to use the toilets during classes or only during breaks? When facilities are only used during breaks, there will be peaks in usage and therefore the capacity needs to be higher.
• How many breaks are there? When there are few breaks the capacity needs to be higher than when there are more breaks, because children have fewer opportunities to use the facilities.
• Do all classes begin and end at the same time? When timetables are different, fewer facilities are required. The ‘highest peak’ for usage has to be determined.
• Will the number of students expand considerably in the future? What is the expected proportion between girls and boys?
• Are there users with disabilities? Do they need specific design adaptations for sanitation facilities, hand washing or water access?
• Do female/male teachers prefer to have their own facilities with sufficient privacy?”

School toilets design criteria

The best sanitation facilities that schools and parents of students can afford includes topics such as :

• technology and environmental issues,
• consumer preferences,
• design and number of latrines needed, and
• installation and maintenance considerations.

More details and technical drawings of various options can be found from a chapter from a Resource Book and that we published from School Sanitation and Hygiene Education India, which we ran together with UNICEF.

Both books contain a number of activity sheets to assist managers and trainers in their work. Although the books were developed in the context of the School Water and Sanitation Towards Health and Hygiene (SWASTHH) programme in India, they provide many useful guidelines and activities that apply to similar programmes elsewhere.

The designs start from Chapter 9 starting p 155 in the PDF file that you can download for free from our site at   http://www.irc.nl/page/1918.

The Handbook for Teachers may also be useful for your Malawi school programme.

On our WASH Helpdesk you can find other answers around this topic, see http://washhelpdesk.wordpress.com/?s=school+toilet+design

We appreciate any feedback on how useful these answers are for your programme and with what impact.

Dick de Jong (Ask IRC moderator)