The SMART Center: A learning hub for water, sanitation and hygiene technologies
WaterAid has been working with communities in Nicaragua for nearly seven years.
Together, we:
- build rainwater harvesting tanks
- dig wells
- promote hygiene education
- install toilets
- pilot and support countless new projects in remote regions of Nicaragua.
While we still continue to do all of this work, WaterAid has also launched the SMART Center.
What is the SMART Center?
In 2017 WaterAid built the SMART Center in Tipitapa, Nicaragua. The center (pictured below) is a place where partners (private companies, governments, academic institutions, NGOs) along with aspiring local entrepreneurs can work together to find sustainable water and sanitation services for everyone, everywhere in Nicaragua.
SMART stands for:
Simple, Market-based, Affordable, Repairable, Technologies in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.
SMART Center
The center is a learning hub for water, sanitation and hygiene technologies.
How is this done?
Sharing knowledge
The SMART Center’s mission is to build connections among different sectors to equip the general public with the right tools and resources to dramatically improve their water, sanitation and hygiene situation at home. That means clean water and reliable toilets for more families!
The center has six main functions:
Together we make a lasting difference.
Learn more about our training program at the SMART Center.
Training at the SMART Center
The ripple effect of knowledge
Beyond the technical details, the SMART Center is also a learning hub, a place where people can train. The SMART Center WaterAid offers training for entrepreneurs in manufacturing, installation and marketing of SMART technologies and products.This training means that more people can implement and, more crucially, maintain water and sanitation services in their own communities.
Meet Ada Luz
Ada Luz is a vibrant woman who lives in the Arenas Blancas community located in Waslala, Nicaragua. Ada Luz has received training as a mason and recently came to the SMART Center to expand her expertise. She is an inspiring woman that is always looking for different ways to help improve her community.
I had the opportunity to learn and share my knowledge with other masons. We all successfully completed the trainings at the SMART Center. In the near future I can work as a service provider and have this as a source of work and like this, I can share my knowledge with other people of different communities in my municipality.
Nicaragua was the first program WaterAid launched in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in just seven years our team has reached more than 19,500 people with clean water, 7,200 people with decent toilets and more than 53,000 people with hygiene education. To learn more about our work in Nicaragua click here.
