WaSH Training Courses: 8 Course Providers to Upgrade Your WaSH Knowledge

WaSH Training Courses: 8 Course Providers to Upgrade Your WaSH Knowledge

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Looking to learn how to plan your organisation’s newest WaSH project or get up to speed with the basics of WaSH projects?
We've curated a list of WASH training course providers for basic and advanced WaSH practitioners. This list is based on some of our experiences using these courses and how they relate to our WASH project experiences.

What's Covered in WASH Training?

WaSH trainings cover the basic principles of water, sanitation and hygiene projects all the way to more advanced courses covering specific aspects of WaSH, such as construction, community management, finance, and more.

The basics cover basic principles, strategy toolkits and more as shown below:

1. Introduction to WASH

This covers the importance of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene for public health while showing how these are incorporated into all WASH projects. 
These also cover focal areas like the five WaSH barriers prevent water-related illnesses from spreading in the community.

The 5 WaSH Barriers Diagram. You can find out more in our post on WaSH during emergencies.

2. WASH Project Assessment, Planning, and Toolkits

This covers the steps and considerations you must take when planning your projects. 
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These frameworks, checklists and toolkits can then be used together with community representatives to plan for water supply and sanitation needs as well as selecting the most applicable hygiene education methods for them.

3. Water Supply Management

This covers the basic principles of water quality assessment and management, including assessing available water sources and the community's needs to determine the most appropriate projects to focus on.

4. Sanitation Systems

This section will help you understand various sanitation systems, their pros and cons in each situation and their public health impacts. 
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It also goes through various planning steps and community considerations to improve the sustainability of your project’s impact.

5. Hygiene Promotion and Community Engagement

Hygiene promotion refers to strategies for encouraging good hygiene practices within communities, such as hand-washing, proper defecation and additional water treatment techniques.
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This goes hand-in-hand with community engagement which is about engaging communities to promote and sustain WASH practices. 

6. WaSH in Emergencies

WaSH in emergencies refers to adapting WASH services during crises such as natural disasters or conflicts. 
During times of emergencies, some compromises need to be made in all aspects to minimise loss of life. This topic will show you how to prioritise matters to best help affected communities and to respond to their needs quickly.

7. Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation:

Toolkits and techniques to ensure the effectiveness of WASH programs through careful monitoring and evaluation. 
Tools like UNICEF’s WASH Bottleneck Analysis Tool (1) and Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) also fall under this category (2).

8. Budgeting and Finance for WASH Projects:

This topic will help you to plan for these and remain within budget.
This includes planning everything from transportation, manpower, and construction requirements to the hygiene products that your community will be using during the project. 

Looking for an experienced WaSH partner for your next project? Wateroam’s water filters and WaSH projects have brought clean water to thousands of people across more than 40 countries around the world.
Contact us to find out more by clicking the banner below!

For those who have mastered the basics, you can also consider advanced topics that cover specialised areas in more depth. These range from advanced project planning, navigating policy matters to specialised knowledge like engineering just to name a few. 
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Below are just 4 examples of the many advanced courses available from the providers we’ve listed below:

1. Water Treatment

In-depth techniques for making water safe for consumption. There are specific courses targeted at engineers as well like the ‘Introduction to Public Health Engineering in Humanitarian Contexts’ course

2. WaSH Climate Resilience

Exploring new sanitation solutions tailored for different environments. One such course is called  “WaSH Climate Resilience - Risk Assessments, Appraisals and Planning”.

3. Policy and Governance

Navigating water resource management policies and governance at various levels. This includes matters like public-private partnerships and governance in humanitarian contexts

4. Financing WaSH projects

Sustainable financing strategies for WaSH projects.

5. And more

And that’s it for our quick summary of basic WaSH topics. With that done, here’s our list of WaSH course providers we’d like to recommend:

Global Online Courses

When we were making this list, we listed out the following platforms based on their course completeness, accessibility, legitimacy, and where applicable, accreditation:

   1. Unicef: 
Offers a wealth of free courses on WaSH on their Agora platform. It’s comprehensive and people can sign up and watch these courses for free. If you plan to work for UNICEF, the certificate you get for completing some of the courses here is mandatory.

You can check out their course catalogue (PDF) here.

   2. IRC WASH Academy: 
Provides free courses tailored to WaSH professionals. These courses touch on most of the essential topics. Certificates are available when you complete a course here too.

It’s important to note that accounts expire within 180 days with a notification email sent 10 days before the account expires.

Visit the IRC WASH Academy.

   3. Disaster Ready: 
Features targeted WaSH training for emergency situations also for free. We at Wateroam also use a few of the courses here for both our staff and partners.

Visit Disaster Ready

   4. International Water Association:
The International Water Association’s courses covers both basic and advanced topics. They have a curated list of courses from accredited universities such as Delft University of Technology and organisations like the WHO.

Additionally, the IWA's global network provides opportunities for professional networking and collaboration, enhancing both personal and community-level WaSH project outcomes.

You can find the International Water Association’s course list here:

Honourable Mentions 
We also wanted to list out two more useful resources for global WaSH learning:

• Coursera: Offers accredited courses from renowned universities on water sanitation.
• Claire Barnhoon: Provides a list of technically focused WaSH courses, suitable for those looking into the engineering aspect of WaSH.

Local Online and In-Person Training

If your organisation is based in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia you can look out for in-person training from the following organisations:

    1. Singapore - Singapore’s Public Utilities Board: 
The Singapore Water Webinar series offers insights into water management and sustainability. You can find more about them on Singapore’s Public Utilities Board website.

    2. Philippines - Red Cross WASH Office: 
Philippine Red Cross WASH Office delivers training on WASH skills and readiness for Philippine Red Cross members. 

    3. Indonesia - Water Stewardship Indonesia: 
Water Stewardship Indonesia provides training programs aimed at good water stewardship.
The Alliance for Water Stewardship leads these WaSH courses for Water Stewardship Indonesia, and these can be customised to fit your project’s goals, or you can join one of their workshops as an individual.

    4. Wateroam
We also contribute to the WaSH knowledge base by hosting our own training sessions and webinars covering:

1. Introduction to WaSH
2. Tools for emergency-WaSH project implementation
3. Implementing safe water projects in rural communities

These sessions are designed to equip our partners and distributors with the knowledge and skills to undertake practical WaSH projects, informed by our extensive experience in the field.

Conclusion
Education and training are pivotal for any WaSH professional looking to make a significant impact. The course providers and resources listed above offer valuable insights and practical skills to help you and your organization improve access to clean water and sanitation. 

Whether you're a manager seeking to enrich your team's expertise or a member eager for self-guided learning, we hope these resources can help you advance your WaSH knowledge and capabilities.

Want to find out more about our projects or workshops? Wateroam’s WaSH projects and partners have brought clean water to thousands of people across more than 40 countries worldwide.
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Contact us to find out more by clicking the banner below!

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(1)  WASH BAT
(2)  WASH FIT: A practical guide for improving quality of care through water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. Second edition ​