Center for Water and Sanitation (CWAS), CRDF, CEPT University

The Center for Water and Sanitation is a part of the CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. CWAS carries out activities related to action research and capacity building by working closely with city and state governments and enabling them to improve the delivery of services. CWAS began work in 2009 with a pioneering WASH Performance Assessment System which has now been deployed in over 1000+ Indian cities. PAS has precipitated more programmes that align with the current priorities and policies of India including a series of city sanitation projects for piloting innovative approaches in faecal sludge and septage management and the principles of CityWide Inclusive Sanitation. Lessons from these cities feed into state-level implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission, where CWAS is a technical partner to the Government of Maharashtra. With water re-emerging as a focus in development discourse, CWAS is revisiting its efforts in water governance towards supporting governments in their water and sanitation reform by providing policy and technical advice, developing water governance knowledge and helping to strengthen institutional capacity