Highlights of RWSN's projects, partnerships and knowledge products

Project starts: 2021
Project finished: 2025
Collaborators & Partners: Aquaya Institute, Aguaconsult, KNUST, Safe Water Network, RWSN, Water Mission, UTS-ISF
Funder: USAID

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Summary

REAL-Water is now in its third year and fieldwork is well underway. In the meantime there is a pipeline of new publications from the early work:

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More Information

» Planning for India's Rural Drinking Water in the Jal Jeevan Mission Era

The rural drinking water sector in India is undergoing rapid changes driven by a $45-billion nationwide program called the Jal Jeevan Mission, committed to providing household tap connections to all rural households by the year 2024. It is transforming rural domestic water supply, water use, and water resources management in complex and diverse ways.

This synthesis report, compiled by USAID’s Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) program, provides an overview of the current state of planning for rural drinking water supply in India and in select states. The focus is on drinking water planning and the barriers and enablers to achieve more holistic water resources planning.

The report addresses the following key questions:

What is the current state of rural drinking water planning at multiple levels of governance?
What issues arise in the practice of rural drinking water planning, specifically holistic water resources planning?

» Evaluating Water Quality Assurance Funds In Ghana: Baseline Assessment

This report, developed by USAID/REAL-Water, summarizes baseline data collected before the launch of a two-year impact evaluation of the Water Quality Assurance Fund implementation model. This evaluation consists of a randomized stepped-wedge trial, which allows for rigorous impact measurements alongside a gradual intervention rollout. The evaluation involves 28 water systems in rural Ghana —21 that were randomly assigned to one of three groups successively entering the Assurance Fund program at six-month intervals; and seven that were non-randomly assigned to the first group. At baseline, we measured the same indicators that will be measured subsequently over the course of the stepped-wedge trial:

Chlorine residual and E. coli in piped water (the primary outcome indicators for the trial);
Water treatment practices;
Water quality knowledge of water system operators and local government officials;
Consumer awareness of and perceptions of water safety; and
Consumer willingness-to-pay for increased water treatment and testing.

» Evaluation of Water Safety Plans in Rural Ghana: Baseline Assessment

Much of the global population is exposed to contaminated drinking water. In piped systems, contamination can be mitigated at the water supplier or household levels, but it is often easier to mitigate at the water supplier level where it can be centrally managed. A water safety plan (WSP) is a holistic tool for proactively ensuring the safety of drinking water supplies from source to tap. WSPs are at the early stages of implementation in Ghana, and an evaluation of their implementation approaches and impact would help guide nationwide adoption and provide evidence useful to water service providers.

This study from USAID’s Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) includes 92 piped water supply systems operated by a non-profit, private water supplier in Ghana. The water systems are located across nine regions in southern Ghana, primarily in rural towns ranging in size from approximately 1,000 to over 10,000 people.

REAL-Water designed a randomized controlled trial to test the implementation effectiveness and outcomes of WSPs. This report presents the results of baseline data collection to understand the existing conditions of the water systems and communities prior to implementing WSPs. It discusses preliminary implications for water safety planning in rural, low-income settings.