Equity, Climate Change and Rural WASH learning event organised by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation was held 21 June – 24 June 2021 and brought together 58 WASH professionals, as well as researchers and experts from WaterAid West Africa, the Institute for Sustainable Futures of the University of Technology Sydney, and University of Bristol. The 4-day hybrid virtual and offline event, facilitated by SNV’s Global Head of WASH, Antoinette Kome, was aimed at practitioners and government partners to discuss strategies as the WASH sector strives to address the challenges of climate change.
The 4-day event unpacked national and sub-national perceptions on climate change and their impact on rural water and sanitation services and explored resilience and adaptation steps. Teams from Nepal, Bhutan, Lao PDR, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya discussed national climate trends and plans to operationalise climate adaptation in their countries. A one-day field assignment saw the participants testing the How tough is WASH? framework developed by the WASH research group at the University of Bristol. This appraisal exercise was designed to give participants the opportunity to make the concept of climate resilient WASH services more tangible, and to test the strength of the framework as an assessment tool.
Country teams recommended actions for local WASH stakeholders to build resilience of water and sanitation services, based on their findings from the field assignment. They also gave feedback on the ease of using the How tough is WASH? framework, which will feed into the guidance documents being developed by the team at University of Bristol.
Thanks to SNV for organising an engaging and very successful event!