Suryabarti (Surya) Majhi is a Project Engineer in Odisha Water Supply & Sewerage Board.  She joined the department as a young assistant executive engineer in 2016 before which she worked in various government agencies. She calls herself an “engineer by mistake” because she wanted to study English- literature before she decided to study engineering. As a project engineer, Surya held the key to ensuring effective implementation of the state's Faecal sludge management. This has earned her a spot on the sanitation hall of change on the NFSSM alliance portal.

Water is the condition for (a healthy) life, which is why access to clean tap water and sanitation has been included as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Agenda 2030, the international agreement for global development. In a global comparison, Germany is very well positioned, but we increasingly have to deal with issues such as water pollution and - due to the increasing impacts of climate change - water scarcity too. In reference to sanitation in Germany, the main question we have to ask ourselves is how we can use our tap water as economically as possible. Because of its outstanding quality in Germany it should end up in the Germans' stomachs rather than in their toilets.

In 2023, members of the SuSanA Secretariat, Global Steering Committee, Forum Moderators and the Africa Chapter met during the Policy and Practice Forum organized by the Center for Sciences and Environment (CSE). The Secretariat conducted an interview with some SuSanA members on the theme of "Decolonizing the WASH Narrative". This interview touched on the shift in knowledge ownership, representation and collaboration between the global North and South in the WASH sector.

Elisabeth von Muench, former moderator of the SuSanA discussion forum, is a dedicated Wikipedia editor. With over nine years of editing experience and nearly 50,000 edits to her name, she ranks among the top 2,000 editors globally for the English Wikipedia. Through volunteer work and paid assignments, she has improved and written numerous Wikipedia articles on WASH, climate change, and SDGs. In this interview with Paresh Chhajed-Picha, Elisabeth explains her motivation, the need for wider participation in editing Wikipedia articles, and the challenges in doing so. 

Eva Muhia is a Kenyan WASH entrepreneur and advocate who started her career manufacturing and supplying detergent to schools and institutions then progressively transitioned to WASH. She is the founder and owner of Varet products and Global sanitation environmental programme a NGO focused on advocating for sanitation and menstrual hygiene management. She is also the vice president of PASA and a appointed member of the Nairobi rivers commission. 

On this special occasion of World Toilet Day, we are honoured to have Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, join us for an enlightening conversation. After founding 16 companies and gaining financial independence at 40, Prof Jack Sim retired from business to devote the rest of his life to social development. He founded the World Toilet Organization in 2001, made the 19th November the official UN World Toilet Day approved by all 193 countries at the UN General Assembly, and broke the taboo on Sanitation globally. He is fondly known as Mr Toilet by the global media and is a founding member of SuSanA since 2008. In this interview, Mr Sim shares his insights on a range of critical issues, from his pioneering efforts to shift global media attention from water to sanitation, to the profound impact of the lack of toilets and proper sanitation on women. He also sheds light on the urgent need to break the taboo surrounding toilets and sanitation, and the steps needed to ensure that sanitation takes its rightful place on the global agenda.