Dear John,
When I stayed with this Merasi family in India’s Thar Desert (above), I walked with the young women as they do every day to fetch water. We walked and walked and walked. By the time we returned home, the temperature had reached a stifling 115F.
For some 50 years, universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) has been among the world’s most vexing problems. Agencies, foundations, and NGOs have spent billions.
The pandemic was bringing WASH to an inflection point. What would it mean for on-the-ground projects, financing, and those who are most vulnerable like this Merasi family?
So Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue's senior editor, dug deep. With our long-time partner, the Wilson Center, and with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, we produced the unprecedented series, WASH Within Reach.
The results are both encouraging and a warning.
What should those same agencies, foundations and NGOs do?
In this new policy report, the Wilson Center lays out what’s necessary to hold the line and continue on a promising path to solving one of the most persistent and avoidable challenges worldwide.
It’s another example of what in-depth journalism can do, and how our work with partners like the Wilson Center is revealing new paths to our planet’s water future. |
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| J. Carl Ganter
Managing Director & Co-Founder |
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The COVID-19 pandemic put into stark reality the critical role that access to clean and affordable water and sanitation plays in human health and economic prosperity. It also added a layer of ambiguity around the sustainable financing and servicing of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) globally, especially for developing countries. As COVID-19 continues to devastate communities around the world, examining where WASH systems have proven resilient provides important insights for future investments and innovation. Here are the project’s findings and recommendations.
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READ THE SERIES
WASH WITHIN REACH |
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 | | Fenosoa, like many who live in the Amoron’Akona neighborhood, works by supplying dozens of households and businesses with well water. Location: Amoron ‘Akona, Antananarivo, Madagascar Photo : ©Tsilavo Rapiera – www.tsilavorapiera.com / www.arikamedia.com |
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| Pandemic Brings WASH To Rare Inflection Point
Circle of Blue reports that the WASH world is at a rare inflection point. Pursuing WASH outcomes in the 20th century essentially meant that outside funders spent a fortune on water supply and sanitation equipment in developing regions. Though progress was made, a lot of pumps, pipes and toilets failed.
Frustrated by the intractable impediments—many of which were of their own making—funders and practitioners have spent much of the last decade tossing aside those clumsy approaches and have replaced them with disciplined business strategies and systems management that stress earned revenue streams, data collection and analysis, and measurable performance. |
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 | | Child in a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp washes their hands in a newly installed wash station as a precaution for Covid-19. Photo © United Nations Development Programme |
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| Innovation in Financing Brightens WASH Galaxy
People devoted to financing water, sanitation and hygiene in developing nations worried for much of 2020. Utility customers stopped paying their water bills. Funders altered their priorities. Heads of state turned their attention to other virus-related emergencies. Even as the official numbers seemed to point to a potential catastrophe, the actual effects of the pandemic on delivering water and sanitation to people who needed it were not nearly as dire. |
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 | | Bangladesh Cox's Bazaar refugee camp. Photo © Jennifer Möller-Gulland. |
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| Universal WASH Gains Traction Even as Hand Pumps Lose Ground
Well over 1 billion people have gained access to clean water since India Mark II and Afridev hand water pumps went into widespread operation in the 1980s. That's success. But they are ticklish to manage. According to various studies, between 25 percent to 40 percent of the installed pumps no longer work due to weak community maintenance programs, corrosion, failed parts, and poor well construction.
Because of that, the Mark II and Afridev pumps are stirring another dispute: Could the "death of the hand pump," as the Dutch think tank IRC suggests, be at hand?
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| New Reports Show Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Draws Closer to Epic Goal despite Pandemic
“Reporting on the progress made, the challenges that remain, and impact of COVID-19 on the WASH sector is crucial,” said Ambassador Mark Green, President, Director, and CEO of the Wilson Center and former USAID Administrator, during his opening remarks at public dialgue hosted by the Wilson Center and Circle of Blue to discuss the WASH Within Reach project. After months of research and interviews with dozens of authorities on five continents, WASH Within Reach unravels the complexity of a global sector that now spends over $20 billion a year and is on its way to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: clean water, safe sanitation, and hygiene for everyone on Earth by 2030. So, how do we achieve SDG 6? WASH sector experts pondered that fundamental question during this special session that spotlighted the series and its importance, highlighting major players in the sector and what needs to be done to achieve SDG 6. |
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