The SSWMNA (Sustainable Sanitation and Water Resources Management Network Asia) project is a public private partnership between GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and Seecon International as well as respective country partners from India (Ecosan Services Foundation – ESF), the Philippines (XU SUSAN Center) and Nepal (Environment and Public Health Organisation – ENPHO).

The 2-year project officially started in August 2009 with a kick-off meeting in Pune India. The aim of the SSWRMNA project is to improve local capacity for sustainable sanitation and water resource management in Nepal and the Philippines and to consolidate and mainstream the efforts in this area in India. In order to do so, the project will establish a Sustainable Sanitation and Water Resources Management Network and provide necessary capacity building at the individual, institutional and inter-institutional levels.

The overall idea of the SSWRMNA project is to bring together and share knowledge on sustainable sanitation and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and compile the existing knowledge in an interactive online learning tool and conduct corresponding SSWM training courses in the partner countries.

During the course of the project a comprehensive toolbox (SSWM toolbox) has been developed that compiles existing information on sustainable sanitation and water management helping to get an overview on sustainable sanitation and water management issues and guide to respective information and open source material that has been prepared and published by a large number of organizations worldwide. The SSWM toolbox helps to develop capacity for sustainable sanitation and water management at the local level and is designed to to get ideas on how one can improve the local sanitation and water management system and make it more sustainable. It considers the entire water cycle from source to sea, and back. It focuses on human influence on the water and nutrient cycle, and presents ideas on solutions for a sustainable use, treatment and reuse of water resources on the local level, thereby linking water management, sanitation and agriculture.

The SSWM toolbox will be officially launched in October 2010. Corresponding training modules have been developed and tested in the 3 partner countries (Philippines, Nepal & India). The training courses comprise a comprehensive 2-week expert course, a 1-week training of trainers module and individual hands-on modules.