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WASH
Institute - Background
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Provision of basic water
supply and sanitation facilities to people, especially living
in rural areas and urban slums is still a major concern for Governments,
United Nation (UN) and other agencies working for their welfare
in the developing countries. Absence of these basic facilities
leads to poor health and also affects the livelihood of the poor
and vulnerable communities, and especially children are the worst
sufferers.
Capacity building initiatives
at all levels play a very important role in the provision and
management of water and sanitation services. In reality, most
of these skills are not gained through formal education, it has
been noticed that the professionals acquire these skills &
knowledge over the year through their work experience and association
in the sector. Also, low priority and poor importance given to
Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) curriculum in the formal educational
institutions to address the issues especially being faced by the
low-income communities both at rural and urban areas is a matter
of concern in the South Asia region. Also, there is a greater
need for promoting social engineering aspects, both at implementation
and educational level to address people friendly sustainable solution.
Unlike in India and other developing countries in the region,
the universities in the west (WEDC, Surrey, Grandfield in the
UK, and IHE in The Netherlands) have several tailor made courses
focussed on these issues both on short and long term basis. But
these courses are unaffordable by many due to huge financial implications.
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Issues
such as fast depletion of ground water, water quality issues,
poor sanitation coverage, poor focus on hygiene, problems in dealing
in solid and liquid waste, fast urbanisation, emerging issues
due to climate change etc., demand adequate human resources with
necessary capacity, some how this aspect is not being given priority.
Addressing the capacity gaps assumes significant importance with
the growing complexities around the provision and management of
water and sanitation facilities in the region. Apart from capacity
building initiatives for the people already associated in the
sector, grooming younger generation / students is of prime importance
towards achieving sustainable water and sanitation solution in
the region.
In order to address the above issues, with the support of Plan
India WASHi is taking a lead role along with other like minded
organisations such as WaterAid, SEI Winrock International (India),
WEDC, SIWI, IRC. It is aimed to organize both non-formal and formal
courses on “Water and Environmental Sanitation” through
partnership with Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) / International
NGOs, Government training institutes and academic institutions.
WASH Institute aims to cater to the capacity building needs in
India and the neighbouring countries in the region.
At the core WASHi’s mandate is to train and groom water,
sanitation, hygiene and environmental professional and other functionaries
involved in this sector. Species focus given to middle level professionals
who directly involved in managing the programs on ground. Round
the year, the WASHi runs various non-formal short-term training/academic
courses, and two formal courses with the affiliations of Madurai
Kamaraj University (MKU), Madurai, Tamil Nadu. |
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Background |
| Vision
& Mission |
| WASHi Organogram |
| General
Council |
| Advisory
Committee |
| Executive
Committee |
| WASHi
Resource Team |
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