ABOUT US

CARE has supported water and sanitation (WASH) activities for over forty-five years with a current portfolio of more than 150 projects in 43 countries. Water, sanitation and hygiene are connected to virtually every aspect of human development and are critical to the achievement of each of the Millennium Development Goals. This wiki is a resource provided by the Water Team of CARE USA to help staff around the world improve the quality of their WASH programming and share their experiences.

The State of Water
These are changing times for the water sector. Climate change, population growth, rising living standards, and the increasingly water-intensive food and energy (for biofuels) demands of the planet are making this precious resource scarcer. In many countries, women and young girls are burdened with water-related tasks, which sometimes prevent girls from pursuing the same education as boys. Preventable diseases continue to debilitate and kill because 1 billion poor people are denied the right to safe drinking water. Almost 2.5 billion people do not have access to sanitation and are forced to live in degrading and unhealthy environments.

All the trends are pointing towards a crisis that will have consequences on efforts to fight poverty and prevent conflict, and the water sector is now acting with a renewed sense of urgency.

What does this mean for us at CARE?
It means that our approaches have to keep pace with the changing times. More than ever, we need to promote community-managed, government-led and sustainable access to WASH services. Therefore, we are focusing increasingly on water governance and policy. CARE's Water Strategy addresses inequities caused by water and sanitation issues by emphasizing capacity building, partnership and gender equity.
In 2007, CARE created a framework for the Vibrant Water Sector concept. The goal of this concept is to enhance the livelihood security of rural and urban poor communities through equitable access, efficient use, and sustainable management of limited and dwindling water resources.

OUR APPROACH

CARE’s approach to water and sanitation activities reflects the organization’s breadth of experience and expertise. During the 1960s, CARE focused on the provision of water supply hardware to poor rural communities in the developing world. As CARE’s experience grew over the next thirty years, other components such as latrine construction, watershed protection, and health and hygiene education were gradually introduced. Most recently, the emphasis has been on building the capacity of local institutions (through working in partnerships with local NGOs and local governments), cost recovery and a more integrated approach to water management, so that the stream of benefits and their impact can be sustained.

Although projects supported by CARE have been predominantly rural, CARE has undertaken an increasing number of urban projects since the early 1990s. These include water supply, drainage, on-site sanitation and sewer construction, and solid waste management. CARE’s water and sanitation programming has two objectives: to increase economic and social opportunities for households by bringing a safe reliable water supply closer to the household, and to assist households and communities to manage the risks to their health from water and excreta-related diseases.

WHAT CAN THE WATER TEAM DO FOR YOU?

The Water Team embraces the program approach and provides support to multi-country water partnerships that provide the opportunity for long-term presence, collaboration and more holistic interventions. We also work with individual CARE country offices to strengthen their work in WASH and procure funding for WASH work.

If you are in a country office that is seeking assistance in WASH or believe your existing programs could benefit from a stronger linkage to WASH, we invite you to contact us or take our Vibrant Water Sector Survey. This will tell you how well your work in WASH measures up to that of other CARE countries. We will follow up with guidance, resources, and recommendations for improvement and connect you with countries that have done interesting work.

If you are interested in how water can link to other programs in areas such as natural resource management, health, education (through water in schools) or climate change, feel free to contact us as well. We invite you to be a part of our team and to make us part of yours.

WASH Programs in the News

Resources for the WASH program can be found here.

*RSS Feed or link to other sites
* Mention of CARE programs in press/media
** Upcoming events/conferences/projects dealing with WASH i.e.,

World Water Day is an annual international day of observance and action to draw attention to the plight of the more than 1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean, safe drinking water.