The document discusses the need for improved water and sanitation aid interventions. It outlines that current interventions often fail to achieve long-term sustainability and coverage goals. The author recommends more comprehensive community needs assessments, longer project durations, increased local capacity building, empowering women in decision making, and greater integration across sectors to create more effective interventions.

1. An Imperfect Offering
THE NEED FOR IMPROVED INTERVENTIONS IN
WATER AND SANITATION AID
KEVIN RUMSEY
M.SC., CANDIDATE, IWRM, DEPARTMENT OF BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING
APRIL 14, 2016

2. Outline
 INTRODUCTION
 STATISTICS
 OBJECTIVES OF WASH INTERVENTIONS
 TOP 10 MISTAKES OF INTERVENTIONS
 RECOMMENDATIONS
 CONCLUSION

4. Last 20 years - 6900 natural disasters, with
~ 2 million deaths, ~ 500 million people
impacted.
SOURCE: GLOBAL DISASTER STATISTICS (2015)

6. SOURCE: UN, 2011 GLAAS ESA SURVEY; OECD (2012)

7. Source: UN, 2011 GLAAS ESA survey; OECD (2012)

8. Objectives of WASH Intervention:
15 l/DAY/person
DRINKING, BATHING,
COOKING AND CLEANING ENSURE VECTOR
CONTROL, SOLID WASTE
DISPOSAL AND DRAINAGE
PROVIDE CULTURALLY
APPROPRIATE
CONTAINERS AND
SUPPLIES
PROVIDE SAFE SUPPLY
OF WATER
PREVENT THE SPREAD
OF EXCRETA
PROMOTE HYGIENE
BEHAVIOR PRACTICES

9.  Within 1 week - infectious
disease outbreaks
 Within 3 weeks – an epidemic
Source: Center for Disease Control (2016)

10. “less than 5 % of all WASH
interventions are revisited
after completed and less
than 1% are monitored over
the long term”
Source: Joint Monitoring Program for Water
Supply and Sanitation (JMP, 2012)

11. Top 10 Mistakes in WASH interventions
1 2 3

12. Top 10 Mistakes
4 5
Greater focus
on access to
water only
6
Women are not
empowered in
decision-making

13. Top 10 Mistakes
7 8
Short-term
durations of
only one year,
if lucky
9

14. Top 10 Mistakes
10

15. Recommendations:
#1
Improved Water Governance
…decision-making and engagement

16. Recommendations:
More
comprehensive &
integrated needs
assessments
BOTTOM UP
approach with
community
leaders &
women to
design
interventions.
More focus on
sanitation
coverage &
hygiene
promotion are
essential.

17. Recommendations:
Empower
women and
include them
as decision-
makers.
Increased
capacity-
building of
beneficiaries:
mechanics,
caretakers,
committees.
Increased
monitoring,
evaluations &
research of
projects.

18. Recommendations:
Longer
duration of
support by
NGOs, govt.
Avoid military
(if possible) to
gain the trust
of the
beneficiaries.
Preparation
training for
disasters at
local &
regional levels

19. Very complex issues: No easy answers.
One agency can’t solve the problem. It
must be a shared responsibility and
integrated throughout many sectors:
participation by government, private,
academic, business, civil society, and
woman.
CONCLUSION:

20. Conclusion:

21. Thank you to my reviewers

23. “We can’t solve problems by
using the same kind of
thinking we used when we
created them”.
Albert Einstein

24. Questions

25. References:
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STANDARDS-IN-REAL-LIFE/WATER
THE WATER PROJECT. (2014). STATISTICS OF THE WATER CRISIS 2014. RETRIEVED APRIL 2, 2016 FROM
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FROM HTTP://WORLDDISASTERSREPORT.ORG/EN/DATA/INDEX.HTML
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