Environmental sustainability

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About Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability ensures the management of water and sanitation resources for current and future generations.
This means placing WASH interventions in the wider context of the natural environment and implementing an approach of integrated and sustainable management of water and waste(-water) flows and resources. This way WASH interventions can connect to and affect the natural environment and hence people’s livelihood.

Our activities

From the perspective of environmental sustainability, our services take into account how WASH strategies and interventions connect to the natural environment (ecosystems and natural resources). And in return how the status of the natural environment affects the availability and quality of WASH services. We do this by integrating the following environmental sustainability approaches:

  • Thinking with the landscape: understanding of water flows and community needs
  • 3R approach: Recharge, Retention and Re-use of water resources
  • 3R approach: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle of waste(flows)
  • Low cost, low maintenance environmental friendly technologies
  • Ecosystem services approach: maintaining resources and services of natural environment upon which community depends

Below you can find a complete overview of the Environmental Sustainability Factsheets.
Download the complete package here or click on the individual factsheets below.

In WASH projects

As part of the 'FIETS' strategy

In the storage, management and use of water

In WASH projects by the DWA

As part of the DWA FIETS strategy

In purifying water and keeping it clean

Check out these tools to learn more about rainwater harvesting technologies and environmental sustainability.

Rain is Gain tool

Develop a GIS map

Environmental sustainability