FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

By Shiva Chandra Shrestha

THE Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development Board was created in March 1996 under the Development Board Act 1959. The Minister of Physical Planning and Works is the line ministry. The board of directors is of seven members. The board consists of fur Joint Secretaries from Ministry of Physical Planning, Ministry of Local Development, Ministry of Finance, and the National Planning Commission, and three Professionals from Private and NGO sectors nominated by the line ministry. The chairman is elected from amongst the seven members. So far, the representative from the line ministry is holding the chairmanship. The board of directors appoints the executive director who is also the board secretary to carry on the day-to-day functions.

Philosophy

The board is devoted to, basically, promote sustainable and cost-effective demand driven rural water supply and substainable schemes with the idea of community ownership. Briefly, the fundamental objective of the project is to raise the living standard of the people in the rural areas of Nepal by means of sustainable health and hygiene services through improvements in water supply and sanitation by improving their level of incomes through the use of time saved in carrying water.There are other associated programmes too, like community mobilisation nonformal educational, capacity building of support organisations, and the communities and so on. One of the remarkable aspects of the associated programmes is the Women Technical Support Services, which aims at promotion of saving habits among rural women through the provision of a technical support fund.

The project fund available so far is about Rs. 110 Crores and out of that, IDA credit is about 83 per cent and the community funding is about 12 per cent and the rest comes from the Government and the UNDP grant. The project expenditure up to the end of financial year 2058/59 (up to July 16, 2002) amounts to about Rs 141 Crores. Broadly speaking the expenditures are categorised in to six heads, such as Equipment and Materials (1 per cent) Development Phase (11 per cent), Implementation Phase (70 per cent). Consulting Services and Studies (4 per cent), Monitoring and Technical Assistance (7 per cent), and Operating Cost (6 per cent). The extent of appropriate matching of expenditures would provide better realities of expenditures. Hence, caution is necessary in the categorisation of expenditures under those headings.

The whole philosophy is based on the fact that the joint efforts of the communities support organisations and support agencies and the Fund Board are the critical factors for the success of the activities of the project. The key role of the Fund Board is to provide leadership for the success of the water supply schemes and other related programmes. As to the eligibility criteria for the schemes, the benefit-cost ratio and the internal rate of return are the major indicators besides other social realities to be considered in particular areas. As to the calculation of the cost part, there are no problems. But as to calculations of the benefits, certain assumptions are made and these vary from place to place. Some refinements are called for which should be based on both technical and economical factors. The normal internal rate of return (20-25per cent), would not be applicable to remote areas like the districts in the Karnali zone. So, specific allowances would have to be made for the schemes in such areas. The communities must be make quite familiar with these basic indicators before actually initiating their share of contribution in order to avoid any likely controversy after their investment.
Currently, the Fund Board is in the process of preparation of RWSSP-II with the assistance of IDA. Other donors are also willing to extend their cooperation. The project implementation plan (PIP) is to take into account a wide range of consulations with the different stakeholders such as communities, the Government, and others. The Fund Board should have a new legal entity as a permanent institution to carry on the functions in the most economical and sustained manner. This idea should be seriously brought into consideration by the line ministry at the earliest.

In order to enhance the degree of accountability of expenditures in terms of both the use and legality including compliance, the capital expenditures, the deferred expenditures, and the operating expenditures are to be streamlined under appropriate accounting principles and practices. The assessment of benefits derived from the studies should be made more objectively and there should be full transparancy of all costs-capital and operational. For this purpose, the capital budget formulation exercise will have to be more intensively conducted in view of the practical realities at the operational level. The true and fair view of the financial statement of the Fund Board should be brought to the notice of the people in general so that the information would be public.

An organisation becomes efficient only when its human assets are properly managed and that is possible basically through two types of incentives-regular pay packages and retirement benefits besides other facilities including training inside and outside the country. The performance evaluation should be scientific and transparent in a situation of our rapidly changing environment since it is in the interest of both the management and the staff for enhancing their quality of performance, which should be reflected in the quality of service to the needy. It should make some efforts to start at least some model schemes in any one district of the Karnali zone. The real service would be rendered to the needy and the donor agencies would also appreciate the efforts in terms of both cost and need.

In the 9th Five-year plan, the allocation of investments for water supply and sanitation was about one per cent and still in terms of the modality of the Fund Board, the investment is still quite nominal. For this purpose, the fund should be made locally and domestically available. Therefore, tax-free Development Bonds may be issued to make funds available at a reasonably attractive rate of interest (7-10 per cent) being repayable/refundable in a period of 5 yrs/10 yrs or so. Nepal must realise that it ranks 78th in water quality standards among 180 countries in the world according to United Nations study, which was released recently (in March 2003).

We must invest in the development of the facilities and schemes for the supply of the drinking water and sanitation services. The availability of water is the pre-condition of progress since it is a basic need of everyone. There is a lot of advocacy for corporate social responsibility. Under it, this sector must receive the top priority. On top of that, this demand driven modality is found quite suitable in the present realities of scarcity of resources and the depressing environment of overall governance due to external as well as internal factors.

Goal

One of our developmental goals is to foster investment in the capital formation for the management of water supply to all. It is all known that gross inequalities and pervasive poverty of today is related to non-availability of drinking water in the rural areas of Nepal. It is therefore essential that the planning agencies and the government agencies must focus their primary attention to this sector by all means. The role of the Fund Board should be suitably assessed for this noble cause by all who are committed to the upliftment of the suffering people in the remote areas of Nepal.

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