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Editorial: What works? And how can we know?
01.07.2017
In the international water, sanitation, and hygiene annual cycle, we are soon to enter the main conference season. WEDC’s annual conference takes place in July in the UK; Stockholm’s World Water Week begins at the end of August; the University of North Carolina will hold its Water and Health conference in October in the USA; and the International Water Association Water and Development Congress will take place in November in Argentina. This is just to mention a few of the largest international gatherings over the remainder of this year. -
Editorial: WASH evidence – linking research and practice
01.10.2018
At the Stockholm Water Conference this year I chaired a panel-led discussion organized by WaterAid which examined how the interface between research on the one hand and policy and practice on the other could be improved. After the session a summary was drawn up, and this editorial includes the main points and quotations from that report. As this journal attempts to bridge the divide between academia and practice, it seems appropriate to reproduce it here. -
Editorial: Statistics matter, but people matter more
01.04.2022
If you work – or intend to work - for a Government, a non-governmental organization (NGO), a development partner or a social enterprise in a low- or middle-income country then you probably have some familiarity with the communities which you are trying to help. Make no mistake though, if you are reading this journal you are almost certainly an outsider to those communities. Your origins, your education, or your relative wealth, among other things, set you apart from those whose poverty you are working to alleviate. You can never truly and fully share the experiences of those who live there. -
Editorial
01.01.2022
At the start of 2022 we take the opportunity to do two unusual things, at least as far as this journal is concerned. First, we present a conversation between the four members of the editorial team, in which we range over the major environmental challenges faced by the planet, explore aspects of inequality, and highlight the importance of the politics and governance of water in its resource and service dimensions. -
Editorial: Getting to first base in rural water services
01.10.2021
The rural water story in poorly served countries is fairly well known by now. Much progress has been made, but a substantial number of countries lag behind. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of safely managed water for all (i.e. water of World Health Organization quality standard or equivalent, supplied on the premises, and available at least 12 out of every 24 hours) is hugely ambitious and unlikely to be achieved. -
Editorial: Knowing when and how to disengage humanitarian response
01.07.2021
The machinery of international humanitarian response, once triggered and functioning in a country, has a life of its own. A multiplicity of United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations set up their programmes. The various sector- or subject-focused ‘clusters’, established to strengthen pre-emergency preparedness and operational coordination once an emergency has occurred, are activated. Humanitarian response plans are published, and appeals for funds made. -
Editorial: Can communities manage their water services?
01.04.2021
From the early years of the first UN water decade (1981–1990) and for the following two or three decades, community management of rural water services has been the norm. This management model – synonymous with what many countries refer to as community-based maintenance (CBM) – seemed to be the only and best option for ‘keeping the water flowing’ in rural water services, in particular those provided via water points such as handpumps. -
Editorial: Making a difference
01.01.2021
Development and humanitarian relief work, and the research, education, and funding which support them, are about making a difference to people’s lives. Those of us involved in these endeavours see the unnecessary suffering, need, deprivation, and discrimination experienced by too many people in our world, and we work for change. The pithiest definition of ‘development’ is ‘good change’ (Chambers, 1997) – change that makes a real and lasting difference to those whose rights, freedoms, opportunities, and life chances are constrained. -
Editorial: In a time of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter
01.07.2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and international reactions to the death of George Floyd have added to the edifice of inconvenient truths which tower over our world in the 2020s. The phrase ‘inconvenient truth’ received widespread exposure as the title of a film and presentation made by former US Vice President Al Gore in 2006. The film set out to educate the public (and our representatives in power) about the truths of global climate change. There seem to be three characteristics of inconvenient truths: first, they are largely true; second, they are deeply uncomfortable; and third, they seem to defy solutions, easy or otherwise. And yet, solutions must be found. -
Editorial: Bridging the funding gap in rural community water services
01.01.2020
These days, with the exception of sewered urban sanitation, it is taken for granted that households will meet the full cost of first providing, then maintaining and upgrading, their sanitation services. Whether the sanitation approach is community-led total sanitation (CLTS) or sanitation marketing (SM), or some combination of the two, the user pays. Similarly, households are expected to provide themselves with facilities for personal and home hygiene, to maintain, and, as necessary, upgrade them.