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Camille Dow Baker - Saturday 20 May 2006I am Camille Dow Baker, President & CEO of CAWST, the Centre for Affordable Water & Sanitation Technology in Calgary, Canada. CAWST is an NGO which offers services in training and technical support for water and sanitation. Our focus, since inception, has been on household water treatment.
I have followed, with interest, the information and perspectives which have been shared, and would like to respond to some of the questions posed by the organizers and to share with you the CAWST learnings and perspectives on HWT.
Renuka Berry asked:
1. Share one thing you have learned from this e-conference that will be useful to you in your work.
I have learnt that
(a) I like participating in e-conferences. It is an easy way to obtain, not just information, but perspectives. You could almost hear the passion in people’s e-mails.
(b)CAWST’s perspectives and focus in HWT probably differ from many others. My impression is that the focus by many is on HWT technologies…. their construction, their marketing, their verification, and the measures of their use (Susan Murcott; market penetration, rate of sustained use, rate of adoption). CAWST, however, believes that household water treatment is a process or series of practices which can be adopted by the user to improve the quality of their domestic water. We, therefore, focus on teaching people about these practices so that they could use them effectively and sustainably. To that end, our measures of success are different…number of people with better water, number of organizations implementing household water treatment programs, number of organizations using our training material etc.
2. People talk about sharing knowledge, yet when the opportunity presents itself, much knowledge and information is not shared. Why? What can you suggest to stimulate sharing?
(a) Perhaps people don’t speak because they don’t know what others want to hear; they don’t know if what they have to say is useful.
(b)I think that the organizers of the conference have done a good job at stimulating sharing. You have provided a very comprehensive report by Susan Murcott who has bravely invited feedback, and to whom I plan to respond. You have provided leading questions intended to stimulate thinking and debate on relevant topics, and you actively shared your own thinking.
3. In your mind did this e-conference get to the heart of the HWTS issues posed?
It may have gotten to the heart of the issues posed. But I’m not sure if they got to the heart of the issues that we feel passionate about, because, as indicated in (1) , we may have a different focus.
4. Does promoting household water treatment and safe storage allow the government to shift the responsibility to individuals to finance their own safe water?
That is not our experience. CAWST has clients which are government agencies which are planning to implement household water treatment programs. Many of these HWT programs are extensions of existing hygiene education programs, and/or a part of broader water supply and sanitation programs for rural areas. These government agencies, in general, view HWT in much the same way as CAWST….as a good place to start the sustainable delivery of W&S services to the poor.
(a) HWT prevents people from getting sick, now.
(b) HWT allows people the ability to use a different number of water sources with some degree of confidence. In many instances, water sources vary markedly in availability and quality throughout the year.
(c) HWT is a good place to start the education that needs to happen if clean water is to be available to all.
5. How can implementers promote water treatment and safe storage without reflecting negatively on existing water sources, which may or may not be safe to drink?
Actually, we don’t believe that it’s necessarily a bad thing to reflect negatively on existing water sources. As your Nepal study showed, many times people have no concept of the level of contamination of their drinking water. Many of the NGOs that we work with plan to develop community expertise in water quality testing, in part to stimulate interest in the community for people to treat their water, and in part, to monitor their environmental water quality for the long term.
6. Can organizations working to improve access to water also promote HWTS without sending a confusing and conflicting message to their communities?
Absolutely. As Murcott, Shrestha, Saladin and others have pointed out. There is no conflict at all.
Orlando Hernandez asked:
7. I ask the group what objective measures of water treatment are possible, which have been used, and how useful have they been? In addition, what should we do given the wide range of water treatment options? Can we incorporate such objective measures to household surveys?
The most objective measure of water treatment is the difference in water quality between the source water and the quality in the stored container at the point of use. Such measurements need to be quantitative, not just presence/absence otherwise there is no way of determining relative risk to health.
Incorporating water quality testing into monitoring programs would mean that water quality labs need to be built or available to communities and that community personnel are trained in water quality testing.
8.If no cross water treatment method objective measure is possible, should we develop one? Should we develop one that can be incorporated to household surveys?
I’m not sure what you mean by cross water treatment method objective. But, most times organizations are successful in obtaining money for implementing a community water and sanitation program, but they have no money for the continued monitoring thereafter. And money for monitoring is difficult to get. Monitoring programs therefore need to be designed to take into account the capability of the responsible institutions over the long term.
Jaap de Peels asked
9. What boggles my mind is how to convince donors, governments and the private sector to finance opportunities for knowledge sharing and what approaches would work better on top of this E-conference. I expect no silver bullets but love to hear stories and hints.
CAWST is itself an organization dedicated to knowledge sharing. What works for us is:
1. Being clear (and boastful) about our results……how many people in the end have cleaner water as a result of our activities.
2. Being clear about our strategies, direction and expected impact.
3. Being reputable both in our governance and professional practices.
Thank you for the opportunity for sharing.
Yours truly
Camille Dow Baker
President & CEO, CAWST