Source - Technology Update

Africa wide WASH technology review published

16 Dec 11

The WASHTech project has published a literature review focusing on 14 technologies used in Africa in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Descriptions for each technology include a selection of interesting case studies, and an explanation as to whether the technology meets technical, financial, social and institutional success criteria.

Manual drilling: engineering students develop “Village Drill” for Tanzania

27 Sep 11

A team of engineering students from Brigham Young University (BYU) has developed a human-powered drill that can reach a depth of up to 75 metres at 10% to 20% the cost of a traditional motorized well rig. A prototype of …

“Water SMS”: improving urban water services in Indonesia through crowd–sourced map data

26 Sep 11

Poor residents in Indonesian cities of Malang (East Java) and Makassar (South Sulawesi) will soon be using their mobile phones to report problems with their water and sanitation services like poor water quality or quantity, well failures, failure of tanker …

WaterHackathon Asks: What's your problem?

20 Sep 11

The World Bank and its partners are joining forces in order to seed a new community of software developers, designers and water experts interested in co-creating new solutions to water-related problems. A global Hackaton event will take place simultaneously from October 21 - 23 at multiple sites, including: Bangalore, Cairo, Kampala, London, Nairobi, Tel Aviv and Washington D.C.

Monitoring: mobile phone technology is helping to track chlorine levels in household drinking water in Haiti

17 May 11

An NGO is using mobile phones and electronic tags to better monitor the use of household water treatment kits serving 35,000 families in Haiti.

Sanitation innovation: Gates Foundation awards grants for 26 technology projects

13 May 11

A reusable self-decontaminating sanitary napkin, a children’s latrine training mat and a latrine using urine to flush instead of water are among 26 sanitation technology projects that have been awarded Gates Foundation grants.

FairWater rehabilitates broken handpumps with durable BluePump

02 Dec 10

Until 18 November 2010, 300 new Dutch BluePumps developed by FairWater had been sold to projects rehabilitating broken handpumps in among others Tanzania, Central African Republic and in Burkina Faso, also in deep groundwater zones.

Monitoring: three new mapping tools launched

03 Nov 10

Three new mapping tools are now available for monitoring water and sanitation projects: Water Point Mapper, h2.0 Monitoring Service to Inform and Empower Initiative and FLOW, Field Level Operations Watch,

India: floodproof handpumps and toilets

03 Nov 10

In Bahraich district of northern Uttar Pradesh, India, handpumps fitted on a raised platform are the only source of drinking water to the 400,000-odd people during floods. The idea for the raised handpumps was promoted by a District Magistrate and now serves as a model for other flood prone districts of the state. The Magistrate also helped to build flood-proof toilets for women.