RWSN Country Information

Achieving national level systems change is usually the result of years of collaborative engagement and advocacy by like-minded people and organizations, using a variety of tactics and soft skills and putting in time and effort to bring it about. This paper documents five stories of change from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, and Uganda based on interviews with a change maker from each country. Each story provides a personal account of what happened, challenges encountered along the way, and the tactics, soft skills and resourcing that helped to achieve it.

Lograr el cambio de los sistemas a nivel nacional suele ser el resultado de años de compromiso y defensa colaborativos por parte de personas y organizaciones con ideas afines, que utilizan diversas tácticas y habilidades blandas y dedican tiempo y esfuerzo para conseguirlo. Este documento documenta cinco historias de cambio de Camboya, Etiopía, Honduras, Malawi y Uganda basadas en entrevistas con un agente de cambio de cada país. Cada historia ofrece un relato personal de lo sucedido, los retos encontrados en el camino y las tácticas, las aptitudes interpersonales y los recursos que ayudaron a lograrlo.

Le changement des systèmes au niveau national est généralement le résultat d'années d'engagement collaboratif et de plaidoyer de la part de personnes et d'organisations partageant les mêmes idées, utilisant une variété de tactiques et de compétences non techniques et consacrant du temps et des efforts pour y parvenir. Ce document présente cinq histoires de changement au Cambodge, en Éthiopie, au Honduras, au Malawi et en Ouganda, sur la base d'entretiens avec un artisan du changement de chaque pays. Chaque histoire fournit un compte-rendu personnel de ce qui s'est passé, des défis rencontrés en cours de route, et des tactiques, des compétences non techniques et des ressources qui ont permis d'y parvenir.

The climate crisis and global pandemic have accelerated the urgency of providing safe
drinking water services around the world. Global progress to safe drinking water is
off-track with uncertain and limited data on the extent and performance of rural water
service providers to inform policy and investment decisions. This report documents
a global diagnostic survey to evaluate the status and prospects of rural water service
providers from 68 countries. The service providers describe providing drinking water
services to a population of around 15 million people through over 3 million waterpoints.

The data provides information on the scale and sustainability of rural water services to
examine:
• The extent and type of professional water service provision in rural areas globally;
• Self-reported metrics of operational and financial performance; and,
• The size and scope of current rural service providers that could transition to resultsbased
funding.

Five major findings emerge. First, most service providers aim to repair broken
infrastructure in three days or less. Second, almost all service providers reported at least
one type of water safety activity. Third, most service providers collect payments for water
services. Fourth, about one third of service providers reported major negative shocks to
their operations from the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifth, non-governmental service providers
in low income countries less often report receiving subsidies for operations, and more
often report paying part of user fees to government, including through taxes.
Most rural water service providers are working towards provision of affordable, safe and
reliable drinking water services. Key barriers to progress include sustainable funding
and delivery of services at scale. We propose four conditions to promote scale and
sustainability based on policy alignment, public finance, professional service delivery,
and verifiable data. To illustrate these conditions, we consider the differing context and
service delivery approaches in the Central African Republic and Bangladesh. We conclude
by identifying a group of 77 service providers delivering water services for about 5 million
people in 28 countries. These 77 service providers report operational metrics consistent
with a results-based contracting approach. Technical assistance might support many
more to progress. We argue that government support and investment is needed to
rapidly progress to the scale of 100 million people to provide evidence of pathways to
universal drinking water services for billions more.

Este reporte presenta los principales logros y aprendizajes que son resultado del diseño e implementación de cuatro proyectos piloto en acceso a servicios de agua potable y saneamiento en áreas rurales dispersas de Colombia, Honduras, México y Perú.

This report presents the main achievements and lessons that are the result of the design and implementation of four pilot projects in access to drinking water and sanitation services in dispersed rural areas of Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Peru.

The rural water supply sector is undergoing a period of change. In response to the challenges of achieving universal access to safe, affordable drinking water and sustaining those services, there has been increasing innovation in different types of rural water service models.

This Directory is intended to show the growing range of management options. Some are novel interventions that are still being piloted, others have been established for a decade or more.

Also includes: Handpump Statistics 2019 (from WPDx data from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia-Pacific)

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NEW: this Directory is currently being updated. Please refer to the information below to contribute.

Although interest in solar water pumping has been steadily growing, misconceptions persist about the applicability and cost-effectiveness of such systems in remote settings. The primary barrier to wide scale adoption of solar water pumping is that policy makers and practitioners at the local, national and international levels lack valid and transparent information on performance in a broad range of contexts and of the full life-cycle costs. In an attempt to fill this information gap, this paper presents upfront and recurring costs from 85 rural solar water pumping schemes of various sizes that have been designed, constructed and supported by Water Mission in eight countries. The average life-cycle costs associated with the reviewed schemes were within and on the lower end of IRC WASHCost benchmark ranges for both piped water schemes and boreholes fitted with handpumps. These findings indicate solar pumping is a viable and cost-effective intervention for rural water supply.