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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category WASH.
  • Water and Conflict: Updates from the Russia-Ukraine War

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    From the Wilson Center  //  February 28, 2023  //  By Angus Soderberg
    Screen Shot 2023-02-28 at 2.25.37 PM

    The first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also a reminder of the long-term challenges faced by that embattled country, including one of the most important resources for human survival: water.

    “For Ukrainians, water has been under fire for nearly a decade,” observed Erika Weinthal, Professor of Environmental Policy and Public Policy at Duke University, at a recent Water @ Wilson Series event: “Water and Conflict: Updates from the Russia-Ukraine War,” co-hosted by the U.S. Water Partnership.

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  • Two-Spirit People Reclaim Their Place as Water Protectors

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    Dot-Mom  //  Guest Contributor  //  June 1, 2022  //  By Gregory D. Smithers
    San,Francisco,,Usa,-,February,08,2020:,Native,American,Indian

    It was time to take a stand. That’s the conclusion Sharon Day, an Ojibwe and Two-Spirit elder, came to after hearing that the Minnesota Department of Transportation intended to transform Hiawatha Avenue into Highway 55, linking the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with downtown Minneapolis. The proposed expansion, Day worried, could pollute Coldwater Spring, a natural spring that both Dakota and Ojibwe people consider sacred and of immense cultural significance.

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  • Community-managed Water Investments in Rural China: A Path for Financing WASH

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  August 5, 2021  //  By Jiayuan Wang
    77587ad4d09b0518913c7abad54cb356.image_1024

    Better access to safe drinking water and sanitation around the world could prevent the deaths of 297,000 children aged under 5 years from diarrhea each year. Likewise, the risk of infection of other common infectious diseases including cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid, and most recently – the coronavirus, can be reduced by improving access to clean water and sanitation facilities. 

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  • Will COVID-19 Accelerate Urban Water Security or Insecurity?

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    Guest Contributor  //  June 8, 2021  //  By Rene Frank, Larry Swatuk & Ellie Leaning
    Collecting,Natural,Spring,Water,With,5,Litre,Plastic,Water,Bottle

    “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” said Winston Churchill. Like other acute stressors, the COVID-19 pandemic acts as a multiplier of chronic or pre-existing vulnerabilities, such as the challenges of servicing rapidly growing informal populations, particularly in urban settings. This multiplier effect may accelerate water insecurity at unprecedented levels. However, together with UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Program (IHP), we’re reflecting on the possibility that COVID-19 can act as an accelerator of positive action toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water. The nexus between issues and urban water security is particularly important.

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  • 50 Years and Billions Spent: Achieving Universal Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Within Reach

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    From the Wilson Center  //  WASH Within Reach  //  May 25, 2021  //  By Amanda King & Jane Johnston
    5-11 WASH Screenshot #6

    “Reporting on the progress made, the challenges that remain, and impact of COVID-19 on the WASH sector is crucial,” said Ambassador Mark Green, President, Director, and CEO of the Wilson Center and former USAID Administrator, during his opening remarks at a recent event hosted by the Wilson Center and Circle of Blue to discuss the WASH Within Reach project. 

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  • Universal WASH Gains Traction Even as Hand Pumps Lose Ground: Troubled Water Supply Systems in Africa Spur Demand for New Technology

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    WASH Within Reach  //  May 4, 2021  //  By Keith Schneider
    2019-05-Bangladesh-Coxs-Bazaar-refugee-camp-JGulland-IMG_5926.jpeg-Edit-2500-e1593179616621-1030x639

    This article originally appeared on Circle of Blue and is the third in the series, “WASH Within Reach: 50 years, $400 billion, and a global pandemic later – water, sanitation and hygiene define a moment in human history,” produced through a collaboration between Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center.

    With their blocky stamped metal heads and long arms, the India Mark II and Afridev hand water pumps are hardly aesthetically appealing. What matters is their design. That is, how well do they work?

    Introduced in the 1980s, manufactured by the millions, and installed in communities across Africa and Asia, the two hand pumps are the most popular tools for lifting water to the surface from rural underground reserves. In that capacity, the two pumps occupy prominent space in the WASH sector’s long-running and formative debate over whether the global campaign is succeeding or slipping in the effort to attain universal access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. 

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  • Innovation in Financing Brightens WASH Galaxy: Funding for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Starts to Arrive Faster, With Clearer Requirements

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    WASH Within Reach  //  April 27, 2021  //  By Keith Schneider
    Credit UNDP Bangladesh 2-Edit

    This article originally appeared on Circle of Blue and is the second in the series, “WASH Within Reach: 50 years, $400 billion, and a global pandemic later – water, sanitation and hygiene define a moment in human history,” produced through a collaboration between Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center.

    People devoted to financing water, sanitation and hygiene in developing nations worried for much of 2020. Utility customers stopped paying their water bills. Funders altered their priorities. Heads of state turned their attention to other virus-related emergencies.

    But did COVID-19 affect funding enough to slow progress toward universal access to clean water, safe sanitation, and hygiene? And if it did, by how much?

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  • Pandemic Brings WASH to Rare Inflection Point: Despite Fears of Collapse, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Draw Closer to Epic Goal

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    WASH Within Reach  //  April 20, 2021  //  By Keith Schneider
    leadimage

    This article originally appeared on Circle of Blue and is the first in the series, “WASH Within Reach: 50 years, $400 billion, and a global pandemic later – water, sanitation and hygiene define a moment in human history,” produced through a collaboration between Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center.

    Until 2016, the agrarian residents of east Kenya’s Kitui county had never encountered a water quality monitor like Mary Musenya. Wearing a bright blue company jersey and furnished with sample bottles and plastic trays, the young Kenyan is a water safety officer for FundiFix, a tiny rural water supply service company. She is one of 20 staff who manage 130 pumps, plus pipes and water tanks that serve 82,000 people across a 1,000 square-mile service area in Kitui and Kwale counties. 

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