Category: awareness

Teaching with Compendium Cards

In an update to the wonderful “Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies“, Christian Zurbrügg of Eawag/Sandec today informed us of Compendium Cards which are now available in English, French and Spanish:

s5-fossa-alterna

“Each card corresponds to the one of technologies listed in the Compendium and can be printed out in a large format for group work, presentations or games. (…) By printing out each technology on a coloured card, you can build a colour-coded set of technologies to visualize, build and modify sanitation systems. Laminated cards made of heavy coloured paper can be used for games, taped to walls or held by group members as they select and link technologies into a feasible system.”

Great!

Good Dignity Practices for Gross Domestic Product

Good Dignity Practices for Gross Domestic Product, or “GDP for GDP”, is a new WSSCC Global WASH Campaign that tries to help in advocating for sanitation and hygiene investments by providing us (the campaigners) with tools such as the following poster:

“Any actions taken to improve sanitation and hygiene – from building a toilet to teaching children to wash their hands with soap – are Good Dignity Practices. These bring economic benefits and improve dignity. Find out how you can become involved in GDP for GDP and help turn shit into gold.”

To find out more about this campaign and why the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) decided to come up with this one (after a very successful in 2001), please head over to the campaign’s website and have a look at this brilliant campaign material!

Documentary on World’s Toilet Crisis

Rob of i360/Current TV recently informed me of this documentary by Vanguard correspondent Adam Yamaguchi who traveled to India, Singapore and Indonesia to understand why people don’t use toilets and what’s being done to end the practice of open defecation:

“An estimated 2.6 billion people, about 40% of the world’s population, have no access to toilets and defecate anywhere they can. As a result, more than 2 million people — including 1.5 million children — die from complications of chronic diarrhea.

When human waste isn’t contained or flushed down the toilet, it’s everywhere — in streets, open fields and, most dangerously, in the very water people drink. Adam investigates how countries are trying to solve an epidemic that few people want to talk about — the world’s toilet crisis.”

This documentary was aired on CurrentTV in September 2010 and has since generated quite a few interesting comments. Also includes footage on the work of the World Toilet Organization (WTO) via Jack Sim, as well as a light introduction to Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS).

Inform. Engage. Enable. @ WSSCC.org

The Water Supply & Sanitation Collaboration Council (WSSCC) relaunched their website (today) and I’ve just renewed my membership with them because it’s an active and focussed network of people who understand the need for an improved & sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene in this world.

wsscc screenshot

Site highlights include:

  • Cutting-edge information on 30+ WASH-related topics
  • Details on WSSCC’s in-country work through its coalitions and the Global Sanitation Fund
  • User-contributed sanitation, hygiene and water supply success stories
  • A powerful, contextual search engine and access to our experts
  • Member’s-only area with discussion forums, key documents and networking/search functions
  • Online advocacy resources
  • Publications and other resources in English, French and Spanish

If you’re active in this sector and feel like contributing, I encourage you to register with them and participate on this global platform. Thank you & see you there!

Oh, and more content in Spanish and French will be made available in Q1 of 2011.

Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management Toolbox

The Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management Toolbox (SSWM) is an online resource that helps in finding an answer to the following core question: What kind of processes, measures or tools can I use to optimize my local sanitation and water management system and make it more sustainable?

sswm toolbox website screenshot

This very fine and recently launched website is said to be “the most comprehensive collection of tools and approaches to improve water resources management sanitation at a local level”, because:

  • It follows a holistic and cross-sectoral approach
  • It addresses and integrates different stakeholders
  • It contains understandable and manageable contents
  • It is user and problem specific
  • It has a high standard and pedagogic approach
  • It links planning, software and technology
  • It provides ready-to-use and adjustable material

In addition to this toolbox, there are regular training courses that build on the SSWM Toolbox and aim at linking up sustainable sanitation, water management and agriculture at the local level and in practice. Upcoming training courses will take place in Nagarkot (Kathmandu), Nepal and Pune, India.

Also, I am particularly pleased that material published in the SSWM Toolbox for the first time is attributed with a CC-BY-3.0 licence which shows that online knowledge management is indeed possible with such a (modern) copyleft licence.