Tackling sustainable water services at scale

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre pilots “Triple S” approach to achieve large-scale sustainable services

A US $22 million (€ 16.1 million) grant over six years has been provided to support a new IRC project to address some of the most critical bottlenecks for improved rural water services. Sustainable Service at Scale (“Triple S”): a multi-country learning initiative to improve rural water service delivery aims to move from project based, one-off construction of water systems to delivering indefinitely sustainable rural water services at scale. The project will work with partners in developing countries to support a paradigm shift at district level, by harmonizing and coordinating service delivery within a commonly agreed approach to address not just construction, but all aspects of planning, long-term support and eventual capital replacement.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and partners in up to four countries will research, develop and test country and district specific Service Delivery Models. In each country, national and district level learning alliances of existing stakeholders (government, donors, NGOs, community based organisations and private companies) will be formed to develop and learn from the implementation of Service Delivery Models and to enable their replication. By involving all these actors, learning alliances will tackle deep rooted problems of organisational behaviour that have served to constrain more effective action for service delivery in the past.