Events

With the end of the ‘Millennium Development Goal” (MDG) era in sight, policy makers and sanitation specialists are planning how to achieve universal access to sanitation and reaching ‘last mile’ communities by 2030. Many countries made good progress in achieving their MDG targets, but for all countries the Sustainable Development Goals will be more challenging. To achieve these new targets a ‘mind-shift’ is needed away from business as usual. New tools such as the fecal waste flow diagram and political economy analysis are emerging which focus on analyzing city wide needs and the specific issues in poor communities without sanitation and possible models to provide services.

Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries in East Asia share common challenges of low levels of adequate sanitation. Over the last 10 years the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program has been supporting Governments in East Asia to develop their urban sanitation programs and investment plans. This has involved focusing on the sustainability of and improving on-site sanitation by developing fecal sludge management systems; reviewing the use of community decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS); and improving the efficiency of sewerage system by increasing the number of households connected.

This seminar will provide ‘snapshots’ on the above topics as the start to a deeper open discussion about how these tools and lessons learned by apply in India.

Isabel Blackett has been the Senior Sanitation Specialist for the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program and has been based in the World Bank’s office Jakarta for the last 8 years. She works working mainly in Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea and is co-leader for WSP’s global urban sanitation agenda.

Previously Isabel as a sanitation advisor in Africa and East Asia for UNICEF, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), KfW, in the private sector, and NGO’s and other bi-lateral development agencies. She has a Master’s degree from the Water, Engineering and Development Centre, University of Loughborough, United Kingdom.