Sustainability Portal

WASH FIETS animation

Sustainability is about whether or not WASH services and good hygiene practices continue to work over time. No time limit is set on those continued services and accompanying behaviour changes. In other words, sustainability is about permanent beneficial change in WASH services and hygiene practices.

Sustainability approaches for the WASH sector began in response to recurring project problems over time, which wasted billions of US dollars invested and resulted in failures such as pump breakdowns or sanitation systems overflowing as toxic pollution into the surrounding environment. With projects abandoned, communities were left, lacking proper fresh water access or hygienic sanitation solutions. This led to the realisation that sustainable service delivery required a sector-wide process of change.

Several sustainability frameworks show how to move from failing systems to reliable and lasting water and sanitation services. This portal uses the basic structure of the five sustainability elements of FIETS, as developed by the Dutch WASH Alliance, to categorise many different frameworks, approaches and tools of sustainable WASH methods:

• Financial: continuity of WASH products and services through local financing (free from foreign funds)
• Institutional: sustained and functional local WASH systems with capable institutions, policies and procedures
• Environmental: sustainable management of water and waste flows that is considerate of the natural environment
• Technical: operation & maintenance of hardware, by local people, preserves not depletes (natural) resources
• Social sustainability: demand-driven, inclusive (equity), gender equal, culturally sensitive and needs-based approach to WASH

Financial Sustainability	Institutional Sustainability	Environmental Sustainability	Technological Sustainability	Social Sustainability
FS - Introduction Life-cycle costing Financial planning Community Based Savings Revolving Fund	IS - Introduction Capacity Building -Threshold Concept Transparency & Accountability CLUES Approach Advocacy - Influencing Leaders Decentralisation Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Self Supply	ES - Introduction Water security 3R (water) – Recharge, Retention and Reuse 3R (sanitation) – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle of waste Sludge management Ecosystem Services Geospatial Planning Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan)	TS - Introduction Technology Assessment (TAF) Technology Introduction (TIP) O&M water supply O&M sanitation Supply Chain Technology Checklist Technology Demonstration Centers	SS - Introduction Participatory methods Rights-based Approaches Gender Mainstreaming Social Marketing Child-friendly schools Hygiene and Health focused promotion Lifeskills: Football for Water Community-Led Total Sanitation Faith groups as agents of social change Focus Groups

Sustainability resources

Dutch WASH Alliance FIETS
Sustainability approach - movie

Back to the River
By IRC and Aguaconsult

Links

• IRC - Triple-S - waterservicesthatlast.org
• Dutch Water Alliance - washalliance.nl
• SustainableWASH.org - sustainablewash.org

Acknowledgements

• The material in this portal is primarily a collaboration of IRC and Akvo Foundation.
• The FIETS icons were made in collaboration with the Dutch WASH Alliance.