SOIL at World Water Week 2024
Sasha with partners from Safisana at World Water Week 2024
Last week, SOIL's Executive Director, Dr. Sasha Kramer, traveled to Stockholm to represent SOIL at World Water Week! For over 30 years, this annual event, organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) has convened experts from around the globe to tackle pressing water-related issues. Among the many dimensions of water challenges addressed this year was sanitation - the core of SOIL’s operations and programs.
The need for versatile and water-smart solutions, such as SOIL’s circular sanitation model, is crucial now more than ever. Recent studies suggest that the global water crisis is more severe than previously understood, with over half of the world’s population lacking access to safe drinking water. Exacerbated by the climate emergency, water scarcity and a lack of access to safe sanitation poses a serious threat to the wellbeing of billions of people. With determination, World Water Week connects policymakers, business leaders, researchers, and activists to exchange ideas on improving water management practices and propel unified action.
This year’s event, themed “Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,” featured a dynamic series of sessions and seminars. Among those sessions was a discussion hosted by WASHWeb and openwashdata, titled “The hidden potential of open WASH data”. As a member of the openwashdata network, Sasha was invited to participate in the discussion.
The principal idea presented was that rather than working in isolation, small organizations can collaborate by pooling their data, creating a more comprehensive dataset to track progress and challenges in WASH efforts. With leaders from the University of KwaZulu-Natal WASH R&D Center, BASEflow Limited Malawi, and other global partners, the discussion panel outlined the steps required to develop a robust network for collaborative data sharing within the global WASH data ecosystem.
SOIL has long been committed to data stewardship: from publishing data files on the Humanitarian Data Exchange Website to sharing key findings on GitHub, our research team has built and maintained a comprehensive database to ensure the efficacy of our operations and guide our team.
When she wasn’t busy brainstorming solutions to make the world a better place, Sasha found time to catch up with friends and colleagues, including Guito Eduardo, Director General of DINEPA, the team from IDB, our partners at Safisana Ghana, and many others.
Needless to say, we had a productive and successful time at World Water Week and are looking forward to joining again next year!