Skip to content

Open Knowledge Ecosystem & Attributions

SafeWater.wiki stands on the shoulders of the global open-access appropriate technology, humanitarian engineering, and WASH research movement. We synthesize, structure, and curate technical knowledge in collaboration with the wider open-source ecosystem.

Key Partner Initiatives & Open Repositories

1. Engineering for Change (E4C) (engineeringforchange.org)

  • Organization: Founded by ASME with IEEE and EWB-USA.
  • Contribution to Sector: The premier open database for standardized engineering evaluations of humanitarian hardware, lab validation studies, and manufacturing supply-chain benchmarks.
  • Application in SafeWater.wiki: Technical validation of commercial and open-source water treatment hardware, flow rates, and pathogen reduction claims.

2. Efficiency for Access & VeraSol (verasol.org | efficiencyforaccess.org)

  • Organization: Co-led by CLASP and Energy Saving Trust in partnership with the World Bank / IFC.
  • Contribution to Sector: International quality assurance frameworks, ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory test methods for off-grid appliances, and verified performance testing of solar submersible and surface pumps.
  • Application in SafeWater.wiki: Independent Q-H pump performance curves, ingress protection standards, and solar pumping quality guidelines.

3. Appropedia (appropedia.org)

  • License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA 4.0 / 3.0).
  • Contribution to Sector: Over 600 open-source water, sanitation, and sustainable development articles documenting DIY innovations, Papa ram pumps, solar pasteurizers, and low-cost filtration molds.
  • Cross-Link: We direct engineers looking for community-edited DIY prototypes to Appropedia's Water portal.

4. CAWST (cawst.org)

  • Contribution to Sector: The gold-standard open manuals on BioSand filtration construction, water quality testing, and sanitation training manuals available under open non-commercial educational licenses.

5. Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) (rural-water-supply.net)

  • Contribution to Sector: International standard specifications for the Afridev, India Mark II, manual drilling field guides, and sustainable groundwater governance frameworks.

6. Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management (SSWM) (sswm.info)

  • Contribution to Sector: Holistic open-access methodology linking water source development, purification, distribution, hygiene promotion, and nutrient recovery into unified planning matrices.

7. WEDC Loughborough (lboro.ac.uk/wedc)

  • Contribution to Sector: 40+ years of peer-reviewed engineering technical briefs, water distribution handbooks, and humanitarian field guides.

8. GIZ / FAO Solar Pumping Working Group (energypedia.info)

  • Contribution to Sector: Standardized tools and training manuals for solar-powered irrigation and community drinking water infrastructure.

9. Akvopedia & Akvo.org (akvo.org)

  • Contribution to Sector: Open portal for smart water harvesting, groundwater mapping, and rural WASH monitoring.