Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Completed

The WASH Alliance International, Plan Netherlands and SNV together formed the WASH SDG Consortium. Jointly they have developed a WASH SDG Programme, which is being implemented in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The WASH SDG programme aimed to sustainably improve access to, and use of, safe drinking water for at least 450,000 people, sanitation for at least 2 million people and improve the hygiene behaviours of 1.6 million people before the end of 2022. The programme had an expected outreach of almost 9 million people.

Impact realised:

454,500 people with improved access to a safe drinking water supply
2,240,100 people with improved sanitation
4,076,000 people with improved basic hygiene behaviours

Our goals

Sustainably improving access to and use of water, sanitation and improving hygiene behaviours.

Access for all

Reaching universal coverage, introducing new ways of thinking about how equity and processes of exclusion are addressed in the sector and gender equality can be guaranteed.

Private sector engagement

The consortium promotes and supports a system of affordable supply and services through a mix of market-based and community-based solutions, including access to credit.

A systems change approach

The sustainability of water/sanitation/hygiene (WASH) services depends on the institutional and financial system the services are embedded in. This is not merely the market environment, government organisations and socio-cultural setting, but the checks and balances in that system and how different levels interconnect.

Our activities promoting water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

WASTE has been part of the WASH Alliance International since the very beginning in 2012. As part of this WASH SDG programme, WASTE was responsible for supporting the implementation of the Diamond Model in Bangladesh, Nepal, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

This means our activities focused on the development of sustained financing, demand and supply and a business enabling environment, providing a basis for the sustainable development of these systems once the programme is closed.

A key example of an activity where WASTE played a central technical role was the implementation of nature-based solutions in Ethiopia: constructed wetlands. A project developed in response to the growing problem of overflowing septic tanks polluting the condominium residential area of Shashemene, in Central Ethiopia. Together with local partner Bole Bible Baptist Church Child Care and Community Development (BBBC) and Dutch consultancy company Ecofyt, WASTE introduced new, cost-effective and user-friendly technology by constructing two wetlands to treat wastewater safely. As a result, the local community now has access to a cleaner environment and safely treated wastewater that can also be utilised in the dry season. To ensure sustainability local municipality staff, community committees and condominium residential associations have been trained to administer, operate and maintain the constructed wetlands.

"There are many places in Ethiopia that have similar problems, and such interventions greatly help. It has so many benefits and the place looks beautiful.” Fikerte, constructed wetlands community member who has been living in Shashemene for nine years.