RésEAU Updates December 2025

News to read and/or listen to

• WHO and UNICEF have released the first-ever global Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings to support governments and practitioners in promoting effective hand hygiene outside health care — across households, public spaces and institutions.
• WHO, together with Eawag and FHNW, has released the Compendium of drinking-water systems and technologies from source to consumer. The compendium presents nine typical water schemes disaggregated six main components (source, intake, abstraction, treatment, distribution, and household-level practices), provides concise information on the different technologies under each component and cross-cutting issues addressing aspects of the enabling environment to ensure sustainable delivery of safely managed drinking-water supplies. This compendium complements the already existing Compendium of Water Supply Technologies in Emergencies
• Eawag has published the Humanitarian Aid Solid Waste Assessment and Improvement Guidelines. They are designed to support effective Solid Waste Management (SWM) in humanitarian contexts and complements the recently launched Compendium on Solid Waste Management in Emergency Contexts
• The Trend Observatory on Water has published a Trend Sheet on Building Resilience by addressing WASH in migration. It explores how integrated, inclusive WASH solutions are offering not just a short-term fix but building long-term resilience for people living in the camps and for the host communities. You can also consult the 2025 AGUASAN Workshop documents and report on the topic of WASH in humanitarian settings.
• The RésEAU Brief #9 on “Sustainable groundwater management: how much use is sustainable? And how to best ensure it?” has been published. Based on the RésEAU’s Learning Journey on Groundwater it highlights SDC initiatives that support national and local water managers in advancing sustainable groundwater use for resilient local livelihoods.
• The Container Based Sanitation Alliance (CBSA) has published a state of the sector 2025 of this Non Sewered Sanitation option particularly effective in informal and densely populated urban areas, while EAWAG published a Policy Brief providing Science-based policy recommendations for non-sewered sanitation in urban areas.
• @ UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) released the Definition and Response Framework for Climate-Resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services while indicators on water and sanitation have been set for Target 9a of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, amongst the 59 indicators under the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
• The World Bank Group as published the report Continental Drying: A Threat to our Common Future, offering new insight into where and why freshwater is disappearing and what can be done, and FAO the third edition of the The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture.

E-workshops and webinars to attend or re-discover

• 14 January 2026 – Webinar 3 Preparing for Dakar and beyond, part of the webinar series “Civil society and youth get organised for the 3rd UN Water Conference” organised by the International Secretariat for Water (ISW).
• Watch the recorded events that took place recently, such as the RWSN Late 2025 Webinar Series or the recordings of the rich 2025 UNC Water and Health Conference program.

Conferences and events to join

• 26-27 January 2026 – High-Level Preparatory Meeting for the 2026 UN Water Conference, Dakar, Senegal.
• 9-13 February 2026 – 23rd International Congress and Exhibition, by the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA), to be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon
• 12 March 2026 – Swiss Blue Symposium, to be held at Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST)
• 5-7 May 2026 – Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development (DIHAD) 2026, to be held in Dubai, UAE; Switzerland will have a national pavilion: organisations interested in participating can contact the Swiss Pavilion organisers.
• 15-19 June – Singapore International Water Week
• 13-17 July - All Systems Symposium Africa: Transformational Leadership for Water and Sanitation 2026, by IRC WASH, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda
• 31 August - 1 September 2026 - SOR4D Research Conference 2026 – to be held in Bern, Switzerland.

Opportunities to apply for

• Deadline 19 January 2026: Call for submissions - SOR4D Research Conference 2026: Researchers and non-academic actors are invited to submit proposals under the theme “Advancing Transdisciplinary Research for Global Development: Crisis, Collaboration, and Change”. A limited number of travel scholarships are available. Submit your proposal or contact sor4d@snf.ch
• Deadline 19 January 2026: CAS WASH | Certificate of Advanced Studies in Water Sanitation and Hygiene for humanitarian and developing contexts taking place in 2026.

Please consider sharing your news with all other RésEAU members by sending an email to ResEAU@dgroups.org.

Best regards and Season’s Greetings to all!

Dr. Daniel Maselli, RésEAU Focal Point, SDC

Lucien Blaser, RésEAU Backstopper, Skat Consulting Ltd.