WASH Promotion

Promoting Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services
Water operators often cite lack of customer willingness to pay and/or accept services as a major barrier for service expansion and improvement. On the one hand, customers must be educated about the value of water and especially wastewater services; on the other hand, operators may also need to better understand customer preferences and concerns in order to provide more relevant and appropriate services. 

To support water operators in developing WASH campaigns, USAID developed a 10-Step Promotion Program Toolkit that walks water service professionals through this process of understanding and outreach.  WaterLinks development partners has also developed the following partnerships on WASH Promotion. Capacity building initiatives emphasize the following major areas:  

  • Understanding (e.g. through surveys) customer demand and preferences; 
  • Developing a targeted and effective promotion campaign; and
  • Strengthening organizational capacity to adapt, replicate and change promotion strategies to different situations.

Current and Past Water Operator Partnerships on WASH Promotion

  • The Municipality of Phnom Penh, Cambodia worked with the City of Iloilo, the Philippines, both ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities, to develop a range of sanitation and hygiene promotion activities for the peri-urban community of Russei Keo.  The City of Phnom Penh developed an environmental health survey of the district, tested the WaterLinks 10-Step Promotion Program Toolkit, and organized Cambodia’s first-ever water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) Promotion Day, which drew over 1,200 participants.
  • PDAM Tirtanadi, Medan, Indonesia's water service provider, convinced 750 households to connect to sewerage facilities by increasing demand for sanitation services (including willingness-to-pay for services) through improved customer outreach and awareness raising.  Indah Water Konsortium of Malaysia worked with Medan to review and recommend changes to their sanitation strategy, and shared its experience and expertise on promotion activities, including information campaigns and marketing.
  • Hai Phong Sewerage and Drainage Company (SADCO) in Vietnam developed two promotion campaigns, with assistance from Indah Water Konsortium and the local NGO CEFACOM, asking households and commercial businesses to increase their frequency of desludging and to use SADCO's services, which are the only ones in town to properly dispose of collected waste. 

>> See Other Partnerships on WASH Promotion

Featured Publication: 

  • The 10-Step Promotion Program Toolkit for Water Services Professionals
    This Toolkit provides a comprehensive 10-step guide to the design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of promotion programs for water, sanitation, and hygiene.  The resources of this toolkit combine international best practices from a variety of fields, including health, environment, marketing, and mobilization.  A summary of the 10-Step Toolkit is available, in addition to the online website, which provides clear directions and printable or downloadable tools and worksheets.

>> See Additional Resources on WASH Promotion

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