Highlights

UN Water Conference, New York – 2 Virtual Side Events

The SMART Centre Group is facilitating two virtual side events around the UN Water Conference, which will take place in NEw York from 22 – 24 March 2023.

‘2 with 8’ initiative on HWTS

The first virtual side-event will take place on Tuesday 21st March, 09.00AM (EST) and will focus on the recently launched ‘2 with 8’ initiative on HWTS to work towards ‘Safe drinking water for 2 billion people with $8 billion’. During the event there will be presentations from WHO, CAWST, Danone, Navaza, John Cherry and others.

Check the event page and the background document for more info and registration.

Supporting Self-supply

The second virtual side-event will take place on Thursday 23rd March, 09.00AM (EST) and will focus on the huge impact of self-supply in Asia and shares experience how supported self-supply can reach SDG6.1 and increases food security in rural Africa at a 1 time grant of $25 per person. During the event there will be presentations from RWSN, The Groundwater Project, Tiyeni and MetaMeta/SMART Centre Group as well as a moderated discussion with panel and participants.

Check the event page and the background document for more info and registration.

Reinier VeldmanUN Water Conference, New York – 2 Virtual Side Events
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Training in Uganda successfully wrapped up

The training was organized and funded by Rotarian Chris Roesel. The trainers were Brighton Kaniki from Malawi and Data Samuel from South Sudan.

During the training there were several challenges but the 10 people (5 men, 5 women) trained managed to, together, drill one new tubewell and install 2 pumps.

The training can be a start of cooperation between Rotary and SMART Centre Group and presence in Uganda.

Reinier VeldmanTraining in Uganda successfully wrapped up
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Commitment for UN Water Conference

The MetaMeta – SMART Centre Group makes a commitment to the Water Action Agenda as part of the UN Water conference in New York in March 2023. The commitment with the title ‘Reaching SDG6.1 in rural Africa at a cost of $25/ person with the SMART approach; through training the local private sector and supporting self-supply’ is based on the 3-pager ‘Supporting self-supply’ which can be found here.

Together with the Groundwater Project and Tiyeni, the MetaMeta – SMART Centre Group advocates for this approach, as a contribution to reaching the SDG6.1 target by 2030.

Reinier VeldmanCommitment for UN Water Conference
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Groundwater Summit, Paris (6 – 8 December 2022)

On behalf of the SMART Centre Group, Henk Holtslag and Reinier Veldman attended the Groundwater Summit at UNESCO, Paris, which was held from 6 – 8 December 2022.

As part of the first day of the event, we presented on: ‘Self-supply: unlocking the potential of household investment’, in a side-event session jointly organised with Ask for Water GmbH, University of Technology Sydney, RWSN/SKAT and BaseFlow.

The presentations and recording are available on the resource page.

The event and our contribution was mentioned in an article on the Dutch Water Sector website.

Highlights of the summit can be watched below.

Reinier VeldmanGroundwater Summit, Paris (6 – 8 December 2022)
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Recording of the WASH Debate available

Recently we participated in the WASH Debate on 9 November 2022, organised by IRC WASH. The WASH Debate discussed the theme ‘Levering Household investments, Experiences in scaling market-based approached in water and sanitation.

As part of the Debate, Kerstin Danert presented on the outcomes of the recent assessment of the SMART Approach by IRC WASH (click here for the report).

The full recording of the session is available on youtube.

The presentation of the SMART approach starts at 15.02. The presentation is available here.

The panel discussion starts from 55:22

Reinier VeldmanRecording of the WASH Debate available
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All Systems go Africa

The “All Systems go Africa” conference took place in Accra from 19 to 21 October, 2022 (https://www.ircwash.org/all-systems-go-africa).

Over 260 people almost all from African countries discussed challenges and promising initiatives to reach SDG6.

For the MetaMeta SMART Centre Group Henk Holtslag presented on the topic “Service delivery models” with a presentation;  Subsidized Self-supply/ farm wells, A promising service model to reach SDG6.1 in rural Africa. The example of Zambia.

His proposition: “To reach SDG6.1 in rural Sub Saharan Africa it is more cost-effective to subsidize farm wells that serve 50 people than subsidize communal wells that serve of 250 people” created much discussion and even the observation that we should not go back to family wells but go forward to piped systems.

Look at the presentation and read the document… and share your thoughts with us!

Reinier VeldmanAll Systems go Africa
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WASH Debate on November 9th

IRC regularly organises ‘WASH Debates’ as an event to provide an informal platform for Dutch organisations and professionals working in the international water sector to connect and to discuss the latest developments and trends in the sector.

The next WASH Debate will take place on November 9th and will focus on ‘Leveraging household investments: Experiences in scaling market-based approaches in water and sanitation’.

The upcoming WASH Debate will look at the role of Market-Based solutions in increasing the coverage with Sanitation and why this is less accepted in relation to water-supply.

As part of the event, the recent assessment of the SMART Approach will be discussed.

More info is available on the website of IRC.

The details of the event are:

Date: Wednesday 9 November
Time: 17:00-18:30 CET, followed by drinks
Location: Dudok, The Hague
Format: In-person event with possibility to follow online*

Reinier VeldmanWASH Debate on November 9th
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Launching the ‘2 with 8’ initiative

Safe drinking Water

At the Stockholm Water Week a small group including dr. John Cherry, recipient of the 2020 Stockholm prize, and the SMART Centre Group proposed an idea for safe drinking with the title  Bold idea ‘2 with 8’.

2 billion people safe drinking water at point of use with a grant of $8 billion.

This seems possible with actions like 

  • Wide scale awareness creation.
  • Supply chains of good quality water filters.
  • Payment systems and support for poorest. 

Interested? Check the pamphlet here.

Reinier VeldmanLaunching the ‘2 with 8’ initiative
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SMART Centre Group at Stockholm World Water Week 2022

The SMART Centre Group is present at the Stockholm World Water Week, which takes place from 23 August – 1 September. The first few days were online and from Sunday 28 August – Thursday 1 September there are on-site session in Stockholm.

One of the highlights so far was the keynote by Dr. John Cherry on ‘solving rural water poverty’ during which he strongly argued to include Self-supply as one of the models to reach the rural populations. More information.

This year we do not have a physical booth, which means we are flexible to meet with you.

Feel free to reach out to us through info@smartcentregroup.com or +31642559870 (Henk) if you want to meet up.

Reinier VeldmanSMART Centre Group at Stockholm World Water Week 2022
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New video on EMAS drilling

During the recent training in Kenya, jointly organised by EMAS International and the SMART Centre Group EMAS drilling was introduced at the Aqua Clara Centre.

EMAS drilling is a low-cost drilling method, capable of drilling wells of up to 80 meters in relatively soft soils.

A team from the WOT in Enschede was present and develop a video tutorial of the EMAS Drilling Technology. The video is now available on the Youtube-channel of the WOT and has already attracted over 160.000 views!

Reinier VeldmanNew video on EMAS drilling
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