EU-WOP VAKIN & WaterAid Sweden Joins VA Guiden’s New Podcast Episode

In a podcast episode of VA Guiden, Elin Bäckman, the Communication Officer at Vatten- och Avfallskompetens i Norr AB (VAKIN), and Julia Shalk, the Director of Policy and Programme Partnerships at WaterAid Sweden, were interviewed about sustainable water, wastewater, and solid waste management. The interview covered the story of the EU-WOP project with Godawari-Prabalya-WASH funded by the European Union.

In the project, VAKINn’s role is to contribute with technical expertise to aid the municipality of Godawari in their work to increase water capacity and improve the management of sludge and waste. The project comprises knowledge exchange between all partners – Godawari Municipality, WaterAid Nepal and VAKIN. Elin highlighted how challenging it is to solve problems without access to resources taken for granted in Sweden, such as access to machinery, manpower, legislation and, most importantly, clean water. She also mentioned that these challenges lead to innovations that benefit both the local and regional levels.

Ensuring the sustainability of projects like the one in Nepal is a vital part of WaterAid’s mission. It’s essential to make a lasting impact and create positive change for local communities. To achieve this, it is crucial to engage stakeholders, such as the local population, businesses and the municipality. Another critical factor in achieving long-term sustainability in the project, according to Julia, is building competence around water and sanitation issues so that there is the capacity to manage and develop them in the future. This is why the exchange between different stakeholders, both locally and globally, is so valuable. She also pointed out that they shared many common challenges, such as heavy rainfall and drought, which means there is much we can learn from each other.

Listen to the podcast in Swedish here