Technology and balanced development

The 1998 AGUASAN workshop, which was hosted by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and organised by the Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management (SKAT) took place from June 22 to June 26, 1998 for the 14th time at Rotschuo Hotel in Gersau. This year‘s topic was ”Technology and Balanced Development” in water supply, sanitation and solid waste management projects.

More than 30 participating professionals from all over the world exercised new methods and models for the assessment of sustainability criteria. Facing a world-wide dramatically increasing scarcity of safe drinking water, no doubt is possible about the major challenge of the water sector: All involved organisations, professionals and users are bound to contribute to sustainable drinking water supply and sanitation systems. This view is also incorporated in the sector policy of the Water and Infrastructure Division of SDC. The participants realised that sustainability is more than a trite slogan and that SDC‘s sector policy with its strategy of a balanced development is fully prepared to compete with the challenge of sustainability in water supply and sanitation development activities.