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‘Nepal Appears To Be On Track To Meet Its Mdg Targets In Water Supply’
- SANJAYA ADHIKARY
SANJAYA ADHIKARY is an engineer turned development management professional. He has experience in various development areas such as decentralized governance, capacity building, poverty reduction, infrastructure issues etc. Since Jan 2004, Mr Adhikary has been working as the Country Representative for Watet Aid Nepal - a British INGO. Adhikary spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various issues regarding sanitation and safe drinking water. Excerpts:
How do you explain the role of Water Aid Nepal in a nation wide drive to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to the people?
Water Aid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and affordable sanitation. We believe that the key to achieving universal coverage in water supply and sanitation is improved implementation practices and increased resource allocation within the sector policy framework which is more effective, efficient, transparent and accountable, and is fully owned by the government, NGOs and civil society. As the only INGO in Nepal that exclusively focuses on enhancing access of the poor and vulnerable communities to safe water, affordable sanitation and improved hygiene behavior practices, Water Aid Nepal is uniquely positioned to support, and contribute to, the implementation of national priorities and sector reforms through increased civil society participation.
Water Aid Nepal endeavors to take a pro-active role on the sector development by greater participation for improved policy and practices. We advocate for more and better resources for meeting the sector PRSP and MDTs targets, improved sector governance, and increased sector knowledge and profile through rooted advocacy efforts, research and learning.
What kinds of program WaterAid Nepal has been implementing?
Water Aid Nepal was established in 1987, in response to UN Water and Sanitation decade 1981-1990, to support provision of water and sanitation services in rural areas of Nepal. In 1992, it assisted with the creation of Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), a national NGO, which became its service delivery institutional mechanism for new water and sanitation projects in the rural areas.
Over the years, it has gradually expanded its profile with transition from a rural only, one partner program, to a program with six partners (NEWAH, Lumanti, Environment Public Health Organization, Center for Integrated Urban Development, Urban Environment Management Society, and NGO Forum for Urban Water Supply and Sanitation), an urban service delivery component, more analysis and organizational learning on the sector. Since 1987, its partners have implemented over 700 community projects in rural and urban areas that have served more than 700,000 people.
It has a 15 years history in Nepal during which it has successfully tapped a small but growing number of NGOs and civil society to provide access to a range of experience, innovation and advocacy in the sector. Its emphasis upon sectoral innovations such as integrated approaches (combining sanitation and hygiene with water) with heightened community ownership and management has been gradually implemented by partner NGOs, and some partners have been successful even in leveraging financial resources from other donors as well.
Our new Country Strategy (2005-2010), which is designed based on the analysis of the sector issues and barriers that impede access to the poor and vulnerable communities, has three key components: rural service delivery, urban service delivery, and research, learning and advocacy. We continue to focus upon sector reforms initiatives for universal access for water and sanitation, capacity building of partner NGOs and civil society, and to engage in policy debate while promoting pro-poor and innovative approaches in the sector. I think the value of long-term impact of Water Aid's work in Nepal will be largely determined by the strength and sustenance of the organizations and communities it supports.
At a time when the government is trying to fulfill the goal of MDG, how can you support government to achieve the target?
Nepal appears to be on track to meet its MDG targets in water supply (coverage figures are disputed though), but is a long way off track to meet the targets for sanitation. External financing is needed if Nepal is to meet the MDG targets for both. Sector policies in PRSP emphasize improving service delivery for the rural and urban poor as well as tackling social exclusion. While progressive policies in the sector have been articulated, their implementation and monitoring are the major challenges.
Realizing MDG targets is primarily a national responsibility. The Government, however, cannot achieve the targets alone and would require support of donor community. Role of civil society including NGOs is crucial to foster peoples' participation, voice and influence.
Any discussions on MDGs, henceforth, must shift from studies and reports to their localized action for program implementation. Our research study on MDG on water and sanitation, which was published and widely disseminated late last year, has analyzed that if MDTs were localized, water services must be provided to an additional 5 HHs every month per VDC/Municipality, and an additional 5-6 HHs have to be provided with sanitation every month per VDC/Municipality. These targets indeed look achievable, but would require steadfast commitment to realize them. Discussions are underway for localizing water supply and sanitation targets, and to find possible ways and means to accelerate the progress through scaling-up community managed water supply and sanitation projects as a pilot experimentation.
When the country has been passing through a very critical phase, how difficult is it to you to implement the programs in rural pars of the country?
Nepal is going through a critical period in its history. The worsening civil conflict, which started in 1996, has undermined some progress made on social sectors (health, education and water supply) and now presents the major obstacle to human development. The conflict is central to the problems that Nepal faces both as a direct cause of human suffering and an impediment to advancing human development. At the same time, it also provides a stimulus to social and economic transformation in Nepal by providing opportunities to address the structural causes of conflict, which many now believe are somewhat linked to endemic poverty, deprivation and inequality; social, political, economic, cultural and resource exclusion; and bad governance etc.
Based on accumulated experiences and lessons learnt, we have been adapting to conflict-sensitive development approaches, tools and responses including risk mitigation procedures. Partner NGOs are encouraged to develop and increasingly practice pro-poor and affirmative action policies to better identify, target and positively impact on poor and deprived communities by disaggregating beneficiaries in terms of poverty, gender, ethnicity/caste while also ensuring improved responsiveness, accountability and transparency - the inherent characteristics of "good governance" - are practiced at the action level. Such measures, when done with participatory approaches, are found to help win the confidence of all the people to implement projects.
How effective your partnership with the local NGOs in implementing the programs?
WaterAid Nepal has an integration of rural and urban service delivery, capacity building and advocacy work, and therefore partnership and collaboration with NGOs is built around these components to ensure maximum impact of the country program. We work with partners who have diverse background and expertise as they range from varying spectrum with large organization like Nepal Water for Health to a small one like Urban Environment Management Society. With specific skills in service delivery, technology, research and advocacy, these partners have potential to significantly add value to our work.
Partnership with NGOs is governed and managed through a partnership development framework and program/project proposals. Since the sector is dynamic and continues to evolve, these partners would require substantial capacity building initiatives which are flexible and responsive to their emerging needs, both present and future, and to capitalize on the opportunities in the sector. Capacity building of partners is aimed at their gradual transformation from service delivery to executing organizations to help build a network of strong and credible NGOs and civil society in the sector, to effectively work with the communities to enhance their access to water and sanitation services and hygiene behavior practices, and, based on lessons learnt on what works and what doesn't, contribute to policy development.
Central to partner support is program development including sustainability of projects, organizational systems including human resources, advocacy strategies and sound financial management. Increased emphasis is placed on monitoring and evaluation, research and analysis, documentation and candid exchanges of information.
As most of the programs are focused in the rural parts of the country, why did you choose the urban areas?
Many urban populations in Nepal have inadequate provision of water, sanitation and drainage systems which contribute to very large disease burden and hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. The urban population in Nepal is growing rapidly, and is expected to reach 23% by 2016 from 14% in 2001. The rate of unplanned urbanization growth itself is alarming. As population grows and water use per person rises, demand for fresh water is soaring. Yet the supply of fresh water is finite and threatened by pollution.
Even in the 21st century, many residents of Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, continue to cope up with huge water stress - not only in dry period but during wet season as well. In slums and squatter settlements, whose deprivation is hidden behind national averages, there are specific problems relating to water and sanitation provision. Land tenure issues have further exacerbated the already worsening health situation and these issues act as an obstacle to the provision of water supply and sanitation despite the fact that there is global commitment in MDG to improve the living conditions of 100m slum dwellers by 2020. To avoid a crisis, there is an urgent need to conserve water, pollute less, manage supply and demand, and control rapid population growth.
In response, WaterAid Nepal has placed an emphasis to support its partner NGOs to increase water supply and sanitation services and hygiene promotion to poor and vulnerable communities in urban, peri-urban and small towns. The focus areas are poor, slums and squatters communities. Of late, we have been encouraging our urban partners to embrace collaborative program designed from the principle of community water resource management in which water harvesting, ground water recharge, pollution control of water bodies will be the key components to address the issues of water depletion and contamination.
How do you think sector governance could be made more responsive and accountable?
Holding service providers accountable to meet the peoples' basic needs on water and sanitation is a bottom line requirement. Opening up service providers to users' participation and building partnership with civil societies will foster transparency and accountability. Institutional monitoring and evaluation that tie financing to performance can also enhance accountability.
Water Aid Nepal has been supporting NGO Forum for Urban Water Supply and Sanitation, and Federation of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Users Groups in the urban and rural sectors respectively for rooted advocacy efforts. These are nascent civil societies but are steadily gaining a public profile on their objective to provide an informed perspective to improve sector governance from below through unified and evidence based voices and experiences. As they become matured, they are expected to play a very crucial role to ensure that the sector reforms are pro-poor, environmentally sound and results in the management of responsive, accountable and sustainable sector institutions and processes.
What do you think are the most essential elements for the sector to be effective?
This is a very important question. Water and sanitation are essential for poverty reduction. This link needs to be recognized so that water and sanitation are prioritized with the PRSPs. An extra attention needs to be given to sanitation and hygiene promotion so that coverage gap between water and sanitation is minimized. There is also an urgent need to establish right to water.
I would promote and advocate for the following elements as essential: (1) increased sector financing (resource allocation in the sector stands at 6% of annual development expenditure which is inadequate to meet the PRSP and MDG targets. Nepal has seen a decline in budget allocation for the sector over the last a couple of years, and what is even pathetic is the fact that the expenditure is only 65% of the allocation), (2) an investment plan of the sector including monitoring and evaluation for policy implementation, (3) publication of an annual sector performance report and opening-up avenues for public debates and scrutiny by the civil society, (4) devolving authority, responsibility and sector resources to local bodies including a clearer road map distinguishing roles and responsibilities between various sector agencies engaged in implementation, (5) enabling and strengthening the participation of all stakeholders, (6) ensuring that it is really the poor and excluded groups who benefit from government and external resources, (7) effecting policy and practice changes by involving people and civil society, and (8) ensuring water and sanitation services use appropriate and affordable technologies for sustainability.
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