A Year-Two Update on Leveraging Savings Groups for Water Point Sustainability

May 28, 2019  |  by

By Chris Prottas Forty five percent of wells in rural Uganda are broken. The majority fall into disuse after several years of inadequate maintenance. In communities where two-thirds of households lack cash savings, the challenge of collectively saving for future repairs is evident. Yet savings groups have a long history helping the poorest rural communities…

Self-Help Groups Can Produce Sustainable WASH Change

August 17, 2017  |  by

The Lancet recently published results from a randomized controlled trial of community health clubs (CHCs) in Rwanda – results that show that the clubs had virtually no effect on neither hygiene and sanitation behaviors nor health outcomes. In 2016, The Water Trust began piloting a hygiene and sanitation program in western Uganda that addresses several…

Community Banking for Sustainable Water at the Last Mile

August 10, 2017  |  by

The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector has succeeded in significantly expanding access to clean water in rural communities. Yet the sector’s community-led approaches to sustain rural water have too often failed, with an estimated one in three hand pumps in rural Africa non-functional at any given moment. The sector has acknowledged the limitations of…