The theme of this year’s World Water Day is valuing water.
Water brings value in so many ways, whether it is through education, employment, nutrition, health, or environmental protection. Safeguarding this precious resource for the benefit of everyone is critical.
Learn more about valuing water:
How communities are managing water services in Madagascar
The value of water in small towns in Ghana
The importance of clean water in the garment industry in Bangladesh
Our insights on how continuous water supply and good hygiene can help vulnerable urban communities defend against Covid-19.
How can the global WASH sector respond better in future crises?
Fighting Covid-19 sustainably: four steps to creating water solutions that will last
Covid-19 and crowded urban settlements: how can we stop the spread?
On Devex: Utilities struggle to keep the taps on amid COVID-19
Shared sanitation has immensely contributed to sanitation access in urban areas, but is at best considered a “limited” solution due to the lack of quality standards within Sustainable Development Goal 6. This policy brief presents the main results of the QUISS project (Quality Indicators of Shared Sanitation), a three-country comparative mixed-methods study that identified the […]
Marginalised urban communities are often characterised by three things: complexity, interdependence of challenges, and constant evolution. The sheer numbers of people living close together in poorly planned communities can make improving the quality of life extremely difficult. The rapid rate of urbanisation – by 2050, the number of people living in African cities will double […]
For urban sanitation systems to function safely, at scale, over time, and inclusively, they must be organized to support three functions: responsibility, accountability, and resource planning and management. This short publication looks at the function of resource planning and management, drawing on a desk review of over 40 urban sanitation investments in twenty-eight countries across Africa, Asia and Latin […]
For urban sanitation systems to function safely, at scale, over time, and inclusively, they must be organized to support three functions: responsibility, accountability, and resource planning and management. In this paper, we explore the accountability mechanisms that can be applied to the different service provision mandate structures identified in our parallel paper on responsibilities.
For urban sanitation systems to function safely, at scale, over time, and inclusively, they must be organized to support three functions: responsibility, accountability, and resource planning and management. This short publication looks at the function of responsibility: the extent to which sanitation authorities are clearly mandated.
Women and girls living in Kenya’s low-income settlements frequently lack access to basic menstrual hygiene materials. This Practice Note details the development of a business model for low-cost sanitary products in Naivasha, the setbacks encountered, and what WSUP has learnt from the pilot intervention.
This discussion paper explores how high-quality sanitation can be achieved in low-income urban areas in developing contexts. It is based on findings from four research projects conducted under, or in association with, WSUP’s Urban Sanitation Research Initiative 2016–2020 (USRI), funded by DFID. The four research projects considered here are: The Faecal Pathogen Flows study in […]
In cities across Africa, rapidly expanding low-income communities (LICs) pose unique technical and social challenges to utilities in expanding services – but they also present an opportunity to expand the customer base and generate revenues. COVID-19 is placing huge additional pressures on the financial viability of utilities, exacerbating the need for innovative service delivery models […]
Core to WSUP’s guiding strategy is the belief that market-based solutions will contribute significantly to sustainable progress in tackling the world’s biggest challenge: water and sanitation for all. However, financially viable business models targeting the poorest residents are just not very many. Our work with local service providers, social enterprises, and WASH-driven start-ups, seeks to […]
Improving sanitation conditions in low-income communities is a major challenge in rapidly growing cities of the developing world. To determine the degree through which market forces can promote safe fecal sludge removal in low-income neighbourhoods of Kisumu, Kenya, this research compared household willingness-to-pay for formal pit emptying services with the prices charged by service providers. […]
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