Posts byFelix Knipschild

Felix graduated in 2016 from Delft University of Technology and has been A) compiling and analysing Water Point Data use cases to improve drinking water services, WADA/IRC, B) advising on accelerating national and subnational WASH monitoring for improved asset management and service delivery (WCARO), IRC/UNICEF, and C) analysing information systems and monitoring & evaluation of small towns in Ethiopia (OneWASH Plus), IRC/UNICEF

Interview Antonio Rodriguez Serrano from The World Bank

Date of interview: 2017/06/01

In June 2017, WASHNote spoke to Antonio Rodriguez Serrano, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist and SIASAR team leader. We discussed how our water supply system was to be transformed, we spoke about barriers and about a vision for the future systems for water and sanitation services.

At the current rate of investments and infrastructure failure national policy targets and the SDGs are not going to be met. To achieve these targets we need to shift to providing services instead of infrastructure.

“We have to keep the current services functional. The most critical question is not how to breach the gap to 100% coverage, it is how to sustain the services. Data we collect should help us to understand the factors that affect the sustainability of water services in rural communities and address the problems communities are having in a certain area. Data that does not trigger action should not be collected.”

Furthermore, the aim of data collection and the responsibility one has when collecting data was discussed.

“Every data collection has a cost – a recurrent cost. If this recurrent cost is not justified by the use of the data to inform decisions the data collection exercise is not justified.”

 

References

Gender Mainstreaming Vanuatu

In Vanuatu, UNICEF and partners a) improved water management and water system delivery through the establishment of Water User Committees, b) introduced mobile phone technology to monitor progress towards water and gender targets, c) build staff capacity on gender equality and women’s participation, d) supported the establishment of a mandatory gender balance in Water User Committees, and e) ensured policy and strategic reports to include an analysis of female participation. UNICEF used the data collected by mobile phones to analyze data on water systems. They found that when Water User Committees had women in key positions, the water system performance improved, the regularity of committee meetings improved and the number of fees that were collected improved.

References
WASHNote