From February 19 to 23, 2023, Abidjan, the administrative capital of Côte d'Ivoire, will be the African capital of water and sanitation for a week. Indeed, the 21st International Congress and Exhibition of AfWA and the 7th Conference on Faecal Sludge Management of FSMA will be organized there. The launching ceremony of this double event took place this Thursday, September 29, 2023 in Abidjan in the presence of the Ivorian Minister of Hydraulics, Sanitation and Hygiene, Bouaké Fofana.

On the sidelines of the International Water Congress held in Copenhagen from september 11 to 15, 2022, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the International Water Association (IWA), convener of the event, and AfWA. The purpose of this agreement is to establish and promote a strategic and cooperative relationship between IWA and AfWA, by identifying areas of convergence and value added of working in partnership for both parties.
Through this MoU, both parties seek to connect their respective networks to achieve their shared goal to promote positive change through research, education, innovation, knowledge development and capacity building.

About IWA

The International Water Association (IWA) is a non-profit organization and knowledge center for the water sector. It has more than 60 years of experience connecting water professionals from around the world to find solutions to the challenges of the global water resource.

On the sidelines of the IWA Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, AfWA held a session at its stand to promote its 21st International Congress and Exhibition to be held from February 19 to 23, 2023 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Several actors of the sector took part in this session during which several communications were made. Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of AfWA took the opportunity to present AfWA and its activities, including the congresses. Ahmadou Bakayoko, Director General of SODECI invited the actors to participate massively in this meeting in Abidjan which will be a Congress of Solutions.
It should be noted that this double event will be organized jointly with the 7th conference on the Management of Faecal Sludge.

The 21st AfWA International Congress and Exhibition will be held from 19 to 23 February 2023 in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire on the theme: "Acting for sustainable resource management and access for all to water and sanitation in Africa". More than 2000 participants from all continents, and more than 100 exhibitors on technologies and management approaches of the sector are expected . This AfWA Congress will be held in conjunction with the 7th International Conference on Sludge Management (FSM7).

The organizers invite the scientific community, professionals of the sector as well as all actors committed to sustainable resource management and access to water and sanitation for all, to submit papers for the event.

The deadline is extended to October 14th, 2022.

Click on the link to submit your Abstract https://acs.fsm-alliance.org 

Download the call for papers here

The IWA International Water Congress and Exhibition opened this Sunday, September 11, 2022 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. The opening ceremony was marked by numerous communications as well as awards to actors who have made a significant contribution to the access of populations to water. The opening ceremony was followed by the inauguration of the exhibition.

The Islamic Development Bank is organizing a training on City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) and Faecal Sludge Management for its staff and partners in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. AfWA and TA Hub Africa are selected to conduct this training which will take place online from July 19 to August 4, 2022.

For more information see the training brochure.

The training sessions will be conducted in French and English, with simultaneous translation..

Please click here to download the flyer of the training session

Reducing Non-Revenue Water: AfWA is organizing a training session of experts, in Dakar

As part of its capacity building activities water and sanitation operators, the African Water Association (AfWA) is organizing a training session from July 20 to 22, 2022 in Dakar, Senegal, on the theme: Theory-Practice and Innovative Tools for reducing of Non-Revenue Water in Drinking Water supply Networks. This training session is intended for water utilities’ technical and sales directors, drinking water network operators, network technicians, customer managers, billing and sales staff.

For more information on the training objectives, key topics to be covered, trainers and conditions for participation, please download the flyer.

The training will be in French.

Click here to download the flyer

The 89th AfWA Scientific and Technical Council Meetings started this Monday, June 13, 2022 in N'Djamena, under the theme: "Environmental challenges and climate change: what water resources and sanitation management for universal access to services in Africa".

Opening the series of speeches, Dr. Papa SAMBA DIOP, President of the STC, welcomed the organization of these meetings in person, after the difficult period of Covid-19. He gave an overview of the difficult situation of access to water and sanitation in the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and then said: "The STC is made up of engineers, researchers, technicians, innovators, experts, in short a wide range of intelligence capable of finding solutions, answers, to transcend the issue of water and sanitation for the continent".

Following the President of the STC, the Executive Director of the African Water Association, Mr. Sylvain Usher, affirmed that in the search for solutions to the problem of water and sanitation, no one should be left behind; he was thus talking about women, "the very ones who are in charge of fetching water in households, the first victims of the lack of water and sanitation". Then, referring to the women's pre-forum held prior to the conference, Mr. Usher said that women "have demonstrated their ability to take part in the debate, in the search for solutions for access to water. They shared with us very enriching experiences and allowed us to understand that they have intelligence, know-how and competence to sit at the decision-making table in this sector.

Mrs. Koubra Hissène ITNO, the only woman on AfWA Executive Board and Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the 89th STC meeting, emphasized the importance of such conferences, which promote the exchange of experiences for the improvement of services to the population.

Concluding the series of speeches, the Chadian Minister of Urban and Rural Hydraulics, Mr. Alio Abdoulaye Ibrahim, acknowledged that his country, Chad, is facing challenges in terms of water and sanitation, despite the considerable efforts made with its partners. That is why he stressed that "all initiatives that contribute to the development of the sector are strongly encouraged and supported. He concluded by urging the Chadian actors present at the ceremony to take advantage of this framework for sharing among peers.

It should be noted that about 200 delegates from Africa and Europe have made the trip to N'Djamena for the STC meeting which is taking place from 13 to 17 June in the Chadian capital.