What you get
Users
The staff involved
Partners
Columnists

What you get

The E-Source WASH News and Features Service is run in three languages (English, French and Spanish) by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in collaboration with local partners.

The English version comprises:

• E-Source newsletter, which is published 12 times per year by e-mail and online
• WASH news blogs on themes, regions and resources
• MySource newsfeeds
• E-Source Sanitation News

E-Source is sent free of charge to subscribers by e-mail, as an RSS feed and on Twitter.

From 2007-2009, a regional version for South Asia was published co-sponsored by UNICEF.

In 2005-2006, the Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services (JICWELS ) distributed a translated version of Source Weekly in Japanese.

Users and feedback

More than 40,000 policy makers, sector professionals and information specialists use E-Source as their primary tool to inform themselves on water and sanitation issues and access related sites on the Internet.

In December 2011 there were 8,977 e-mail subscribers to E-Source newsletter, 4,613 subscribers to the WASH news blogs, and 480 followers on Twitter. In 2009, the English Source Web page registered 222,039 page views, out of a total of 458,116 page views for the three languages combined. WASH news blogs registered 398,969 page views in 2010.

A user survey carried out at the end of 1999, established that two-thirds of readers pass on their copy to others and that readership is 6 per issue.

A survey of 240 readers in 2006 found that a big majority actively used articles they read and could provide examples of how they had helped them in their work.

Between 2008 and 2010, four focus group discussions were held with 15 sector professionals.Most participants said they used articles and downloaded publications they see announced in E-Source in their work, training sessions and/or share them with their colleagues. In response to participants' feedback, a Field Story section was set up in 2010 in association with a story writing competition. The discussions provided important inputs for the design and launch of a new integrated news service and dedicated web site in early 2011.

Read feedback from readers here.

The staff involved

E-Source Newsletter

E-Source Newsletter (English) is produced by the IRC Global Team. It includes short news items, features*, forthcoming events and courses, project updates, new publications and web sites, vacancies, funding opportunities, technology updates and lessons learned related to water and sanitation in developing countries. Each item includes, where possible, links to related news and web sites, and the web address of the news source.

Source is compiled with the help of Meltwater news monitoring service, and from monitoring sector web sites, social media and press releases, and from readers' contributions and feedback.

* Until 2011, features were published in separate edition, Source Bulletin, both electronically and on paper.

Editor: Cor Dietvorst

Partners

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), an original partner of IRC in this publication, was as content contributor and co-sponsor from 2008-2011. The Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) was a content contributor until May 2010.

The UNICEF ROSA co-funded Source South Asia in 2007-2009.

Local partners are involved in the production of the various language editions of Source:

•  Centre Régional pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement à faible coût (CREPA), Burkina Faso and h2o.net (France) for the French version
•  Cinara, the Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Agua Potable, Saneamiento Básico y Conservación del Recurso Hídrico (Colombia) for the Spanish version.

Columnists

In 2010, Source started a new section, Opinion, with contributions from regular and guest columnists. The following people agreed to write a regular column, either once a month or once every three months: Mike Muller, Teun Bastemeijer, Duncan Mara and Stef Smits.