The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is the global network of professionals and practitioners working to raise standards of knowledge and evidence, technical and professional competence, practice and policy in rural water supply and so fulfil the vision of sustainable rural water services for all. RWSN places a very strong emphasis on innovation, documentation, research and capacity building.
It is primarily concerned about viable technologies and approaches that improve rural water supply. It achieves its objectives by catalysing innovation, providing evidence-based documentation, supporting research, sharing information, influencing policies and practices, supporting efforts to build capacity and facilitating networking.
Find out more about what we do:
At RWSN, our goal is to spread ideas and increase professionalism in the rural water supply sector worldwide. We encourage the RWSN members, non-profit organizations, bloggers, companies news media, and the like to share RWSN talks, films and webinar recordings that are open for distribution, through social media, other platforms and public events. While sharing ideas openly is a big part of who we are, we do license our content under certain conditions listed below.
Material presented in RWSN webinars and RWSN Talks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The intellectual property image rights and copyrights remain the property of presenters and/or their organisations. RWSN and Skat Foundation do not accept any liability or give any guarantee for the validity, accuracy and completeness of the information provided.
The network is governed by an Executive Steering Committee, comprises two representatives from each of its organisations. The committee nominates a chair for a three year term, which can be extended once. The current chair of RWSN is Dr Tommy Ka Kit Ngai, since January 2022 and a new Chair will be found in 2024.
The RWSN Secretariat is the coordination unit the RWSN and plays a crucial role in coordinating RWSN activities, ensuring they are in line with the overall objectives and as per the guidance provided by the RWSN Steering Committee and communicating with the RWSN members.
With specialist support from:
An RWSN Theme is a broad area of interest that the RWSN Executive Steering Committee sees as strategically important. Each of the RWSN Themes and Topics are led by Theme Leaders, i.e. an individual from among the seven RWSN Executive Steering Committee Organisations with support from some Member Organisations who have expressed a willingness to provide in-kind support for a specific Topic.
Do you have an idea for collaboration with RWSN, or would like become a Theme Leader? Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
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Skat Foundation
Vadianstrasse 42
St Gallen, CH-9000
Switzerland
Email:
Tel: (+41)71 228 54 54
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Sample Data Privacy Policy Statement provided by the Law Offices of Weiß & Partner
Our Vision is that of a world in which all people enjoy safely managed water services that are resilient and sustainable.
We aim to improve the quality of rural water services and their management.
RWSN is a convening space for individual professionals and organisations to collaborate, develop guidelines and standards, curate knowledge, and promote lifelong learning in the rural water sector. RWSN will inspire and support more women to become active at all levels of decision-making, from remote villages to the United Nations.
Embracing diversity is central to how we work, and in everything we do we will support the voice, leadership and career
Achieving this through network activities focused on the RWSN Themes of:
Leave no one behind: Human Rights, Social accountability, overcoming barriers to access, gender and inclusion.
Multiple Use Services: Income generation, farmer-led irrigation, rural livelihoods.
Self-Supply: Household investment, market development, rainwater harvesting.
Sustainable Groundwater Development: Pump technology, drilling professionalisation, groundwater management.
Sustainable Services: Management models, financing, enabling environment, life cycle costing, resilience.
Water Quality and Safety: Water quality monitoring, treatment, Water Safety Planning, catchment protection
The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is the global network of individual professionals and organisations who are dedicated to rural water supply, with 15,000 members in more than 160 countries.
Our Vision is that of a world in which all people enjoy safely managed water services that are resilient and sustainable.
Our Aim is to improve the quality of rural water management and services.
Our Mission is to be a convening space for individual professionals and organisations to collaborate, develop guidelines and standards, curate knowledge, and promote lifelong learning in the rural water sector.
Our Theory of Change is that we can achieve this by nurturing and supporting individuals, organisations and partnership through:
Network Priorities (2024-2030)
Embracing diversity is central to how we work, and in everything we do we will support the voice, leadership and career progression of women and young professionals.
Thematic Priorities (2024-2030)
Achieving this through network activities focused on the RWSN Themes of:
The RWSN Strategy 2024-2030 underwent a public consultation in 2023 and will be launched publicly in 2024.
You can download the previous RWSN Strategy 2015-2017 here and the 2018-2023 strategy available here.
In 1992, at a meeting in Kenya, it was agreed that there was a need to create a global network of handpump experts who could make the most of the great work done by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank (WSP) in the 1980s. The humble handpump was seen as cornerstone of improving rural water supplies by making clean groundwater available to millions of people.
From small beginnings, UNICEF, Skat, the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC) and others developed the Handpump Technology Network and broadened its scope until in 2004 it was agreed, under the leadership of WSP, to change the name to Rural Water Supply Network.
Today the network has over 15,000 members in over 160 countries, continuing the mission of helping rural water supply practitioners from NGOs, governments, companies and development partners to learn from each other and work together. The scope has moved far beyond handpump technology to encompass a more holistic and integrated approach to improving rural water services as part of the wider Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights.
UNICEF, Skat Foundation and the World Bank still play a central role in the network, joined by African Development Bank, IRC WASH and WaterAid, and our open, collaborative approach has brought in many partners from all over world and from international organisations, governments, non-governmental organisations, development banks, civil society, private sector and universities.
RWSN is not a legal entity in itself. As a network it depends on the direct and indirect support of its Partners. The RWSN Secretariat is hosted by Skat Foundation, which is a ZEWO certified non-profit registered in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
Full details can be found in the RWSN annual reports below and full audited accounts are available on request:
The secretariat of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is located at:
Skat Foundation
Benevolpark
St.Leonhard-Strasse 45
CH-9001 St.Gallen
Switzerland
The registration number for Skat Foundation is:
CH320.7.052.551-3
Internet: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/
Email:
Technical realisation:
dotwerkstatt UG, Berlin, Germany
The terms of use outlined on this page govern our relationship with users who visit or interact with rural-water-supply.net. This website was developed for interactive public use, it is not an official Swiss Government website, and therefore, does not necessarily state or reflect the views or opinions of RWSN, Skat Foundation or its governing partners. By using or accessing our site, you agree to the following statements. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Agreement or to modify any features of its Services at any time.
Please refer to our separate policy for this website.
The information in this website has been carefully researched and diligently compiled. Nevertheless, Skat Foundation, RWSN and partners do not accept any liability or give any guarantee for the validity, accuracy and completeness of the information provided. Information and opinions presented in this Website have been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, but we make no representation as to their accuracy or completeness. We maintain the right to delete or modify information on this Website without prior notice.
This site contains links to third-party web sites. The linked sites are not under the control of the RWSN and we therefore are not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. If linked pages contain irritating or illegal content, the RWSN web admin team is grateful for noticing us and will remove the link immediately. Activating links on this Website may cause you to leave this Website. Such links, addresses or hyperlinks are not reviewed by us. We do not accept any liability for their contents, the offered products or services or any other offers. Using links from this Website to any website not owned by RWSN is at your own risk. RWSN is committed to respecting the privacy rights of its site visitors and to comply with the Swiss Data Protection Act dated June 19, 1992.
We shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from the use this site. We attempt to keep this site available, fully-functional, and bug-free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, because we use external service providers for internet access and select technology services, we only provide this website "as is." Therefore, the services on this site are not warranted as being uninterrupted, error free, or completely secure. In addition, we do not make, and hereby disclaim, any and all express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement of title, and any warranties arising from a course of dealing, usage, or trade practices.
Nothing on the Websites shall form any legally binding contract about products or services, unless explicitly noted.
All RWSN materials are freely available following the open-source concept for capacity development and non-profit use, so long as proper acknowledgement of the source is made when used. Users should always give credit in citations to the original author, source and copyright holder. Some material, such as photos, may have copyright restrictions from the original sources, always check.
We reserve the right to delete accounts, comments, and any site content submissions that violate these terms of use. We are under no obligation to notify you prior to deleting this information.
This legal relationship is subject to Swiss law. The place of jurisdiction is the appropriate court in St. Gallen (Switzerland).