About WASHCost
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are central to addressing poverty, economic development, livelihoods and health. They are critical in addressing the needs of poor communities and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Lack of accurate information, especially on and in rural and peri-urban areas in the developing world, makes it impossible to estimate the true cost of extending sustainable and good quality water and sanitation services to the poor. The five-year WASHCost project (from 2008-2012) will collect and collate information relating to the real disaggregated costs in the life-cycle of water, sanitation and hygiene service delivery to poor people in rural and peri-urban areas.
Cartoons illustrating WASHCost reality in the field
A cartoon says more than a thousand words.
Main WASHCost team
A poster showing who is involved in WASHCost in the various countries in 2009.
200909 WASHCost Worldposter.pdf (1.69 MB)
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions on the WASHCost project will give more insight into what the project is about.
The WASHCost approach leaflet August 2009
The WASHCost programme is a global approach for sustained services including the poor and underserved, for investments that last and go beyond 2015.
Together, governmental agencies of Burkina Faso, Ghana, India and Mozambique, universities, private sector, research institutes and donors, are designing a state of the art approach for cost effective planning of water and sanitation services.
Planning for basic clean water and appropriate sanitation requires detailed cost information, which is still poorly understood. The WASHCost approach reveals “hidden” or “forgotten” costs and enables better planning, collaboration between stakeholders and ultimately better decision making. The approach is flexible and can be applied under a wide variety of conditions.
200908 WASHCost folder.pdf (581 kB)
On our way to results
The WASHCost project seeks to achieve sustainable water and sanitation service delivery through planning using life cycle unit costs. Knowing what sustainable service delivery costs at a national level, is a critical step towards effective planning for equitable access to water and sanitation.
See our progress as we develop and apply the research methodology for life cycle unit costs.
WASHCost flyer
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are central to addressing poverty, economic development, livelihoods and health. They are critical in addressing the needs of poor communities and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Lack of accurate information, especially on and in rural and peri-urban areas in the developing world, makes it impossible to estimate the true cost of extending sustainable and good quality water and sanitation services to the poor.
What we are doing
The WASHCost project is developing:
- A methodology for identifying life cycle unit costs
- A tailor-made planning tool
- Improved skills to deal with life-cycle costs at decentralised level
Early in 2010 the research team expects to release the first fully tested methodology component. This will include: costs terminology, common information framework for data collection, checklists for questionnaires, a field guide for data collection and types of analyses that can be done with the data.
