IRC launches WASHCost campaign

IRC launches WASHCost campaign

The Hague / Accra / Ouagadougou, 23 October 2012: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is launching the online WASHCost campaign on the 24th October. WASHCost will promote the life-cycle costs approach which calculates the long-term costs of lasting Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Services.“The Life-cycle costs approach takes into account all cost elements of building and maintaining WASH infrastructure against the services actually received by users over time”, explains WASHCost Director Catarina Fonseca.”The campaign will be launched with an initial focus on sanitation. Every month we will compile the most relevant findings from the country research for an international audience. The campaign will run until March 2013”.

The long-term costs of sustaining rural and peri-urban water and sanitation services

Life-cycle costs approach (LCCA)

The Hague / Accra / Ouagadougou, 23 October 2012: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is launching the online WASHCost campaign on the 24th October. WASHCost will promote the life-cycle costs approach which calculates the long-term costs of lasting Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Services.“The Life-cycle costs approach takes into account all cost elements of building and maintaining WASH infrastructure against the services actually received by users over time”, explains WASHCost Director Catarina Fonseca.”The campaign will be launched with an initial focus on sanitation. Every month we will compile the most relevant findings from the country research for an international audience. The campaign will run until March 2013”.

The IRC’s WASHCost campaign will look at four topics during these coming months:

  1. The first month of the campaign will run from 24 October to mid-November. The main theme is “Costing Sustainable Sanitation Services”
  2. As of mid-November, the campaign will focus on “Water services” up until the end of December
  3. In early 2013,  the campaign will focus on the uptake of LCCA by organisations and in countries
  4. And in its last month the campaign will focus on hygiene findings

The campaign aims to get governments, NGOs, donors and interested individuals to use the   life-cycle costs approach in policy and planning processes for sustainable and equitable WASH services by linking the cost with the service delivered to the users.

IRC’s WASHCost is a five-year (2008 - 2013) action research project. “Our WASHCost teams, together with several governmental partners, have been gathering and using information related to the true costs of providing WASH services that last in rural and peri-urban areas of Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, and Mozambique.WASHCost has embedded the concept of life-cycle costing with donors, national and local governments and NGOs, so that services continue to meet national standards reliably for generation.We would like very much to share those good practices broadly”, says Catarina Fonseca.

Further information:

For more information on the WASHCost campaign – visit the IRC website

Contact: Vera van der Grift at grift@irc.nl or by phone at +31 (0)70 3044000 +31(0)6 2019 5160.