Humanitarian Sanitation Hub

In the humanitarian WASH sector, there are various tools and information as well as standards and guidelines are available. However, the challenge is that many of these resources are not made available systematically and thus they are difficult to access in practice. The sanitation sector and especially faecal sludge management are particularly affected. In addition, the sector lacks practical knowledge and personnel capacities for faecal sludge management.

After a detailed analysis, the “Technical Working Group for Faecal Sludge Management” (FSM TWiG) of the Global WASH Cluster (GWC) concluded that an open source knowledge hub with all relevant and quality-assured contents would substantially improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work in the humanitarian WASH sector. Against this background, seven organizations (BORDA, CAWST, Eawag, GTO, IHE Delft, Netherlands Red Cross and Solidarités international), who are jointly active in the FSM TWiG, decided to form a consortium and develop the SANIHUB. The consortium is coordinated by the GTO. The project is financially supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In May 2023, the beta version of the Hub was officially launched at the Global Wash Cluster Annual Meeting in Budapest. A SANIHUB virtual deep-dive session is planned for June 27, 2023, to explain current and future SANIHUB content, functionality, and engagement options.

The SANIHUB will help to close the knowledge and capacity gaps in faecal sludge management and sanitation. It will make essential knowledge and the best exisiting tools available in a structured and quality-assured manner. One example for this is the integration of the Compendium of Sanitation Technologies in Emergencies. In addition to various interactive online tools and an extensive knowledge database, the hub will include a continuously and actively operated helpdesk for humanitarian WASH practitioners.

To serve this purpose, a user-friendly open-source platform is being developed that facilitates access to tools, resources and help desk support for diverse target groups via different entry points including:

• Humanitarian Programme Cycle
• Location
• Challenging Contexts
• Technologies
• Cross Cutting Issues

As global humanitarian disasters evolve dynamically and potential response options and sanitation systems are also subject to change, the Humanitarian Sanitation Hub will be continuously maintained and adapted to the state of the art. It is designed to bring together all the knowledge in the sector and is considered to become the gold standard.

Here you can find the platform.