Stockholm Water Week: “Only collective action can deliver water services that last”
New director Patrick Moriarty of the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre called for renewed collective action to tackle failures in provision of water and sanitation services for world’s poorest at Stockholm World Water Week 2013.
“We must encourage collective action to tackle head-on the unacceptable failures of the status quo for the world’s poorest people. I look forward to working with colleagues in the WASH sector and beyond to make this happen”, affirmed Moriarty.
This year’s central theme of the Stockholm Water Week is cooperation. He global water issues are too complex for the water sector to solve alone by individual organizations and authorities. More than 2,500 water experts are gathered in Stockholm to discuss the advantages and difficulties of starting new alliances.
Service-based water facilities
One of the issues discussed is the fact that many water projects by non-governmental organizations in development constrain to the building of new water and sanitation facilities. Often these new installations stop functioning after a short period and the local communities fall back on their old ways getting drinking water and open defecation.
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is pioneering to building on sustainable services that seeks to provide a credible alternative to piecemeal aid projects. The centre started the USD 22 million transformation programme Triple-S that has been working with Ghanaian and Uganda partners on how this can be delivere
Whole system approach
In appointing the new Director, IRC is sending an unequivocal message about its commitment to promote sustainable service delivery and confront the failures of building isolated, unsustainable projects that have typified too many aid and development approaches. In his work Dr Moriarty has promoted a belief in collective action with government to embed a ‘whole-systems approach’ – where all aspects of running a service are taken into account, including how to sustain its life cost not just capital expenditure.
Collective action
“We must encourage collective action to tackle head-on the unacceptable failures of the status quo for the world’s poorest people. This is an exciting time for IRC. We have a growing set of resources, like the WASH Cost calculator, to promote a service-based approach and a determination to foster new partnerships to achieve this. I look forward to working with colleagues in the WASH sector and beyond to make this happen.’’
This news item was originally published on the website of IRC.
More information
IRC – International Water and sanitation centre
The Hague, the Netherlands
+31 70 3044000
www.irc.nl
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