How important is water and sanitation services in reducing poverty and enhancing peoples lives?
Imagine Nepal in lasting peace, and free of poverty. Nepal - where quality of life guarantees human dignity for every children, women and men.
But the reality, however, is that every year 10,500 children die, before their fifth birthday, from water related diseases caused by lack of safe water and effective sanitation services. Women and girls in rural areas travel long distances to fetch a bucket of water. In doing so, girls often miss schools and also fall sick at times. Many urban communities face acute water shortages. Water bodies are increasingly threatened by pollution as you can see from the rivers around you. Despite its importance to public health improvements, poverty reduction and environmental protection, sanitation has had a low profile when compared to water . Simply put, water and sanitation sector is in a stage of moral “crisis” – a crisis which does not capture national headlines, but I think the one that can be more catastrophic in the longer run.
Safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene services are basic human rights, which underpin health, education and livelihoods, forming the first, essential step in overcoming poverty. Nepal is rich in water reso urces and in people with the technical knowledge to provide these services and yet 54% of people remain without access to sanitation and 24% without water (these coverage figures, however, are highly contested due to lack of an acceptable definition). What this situation implies is the need to improve the sector performance.
At a time when Nepal is drafting a new Constitution, how do you see the importance to include water and sanitation as a fundamental right?
Despite being consistently cited as one of the top priorities by poor communities in advancing their lives, sanitation and water have received less priority in development agenda and national plans. With the right political will, resources and drive it is possible to ensure water and sanitation for all and to thereby enable people to a healthy life and a life with dignity.
Nepal is going through a critical period in its history. The preparation of a new Constitution provides a unique opportunity to include water and sanitation as a basic human right. We are working closely with the civil society, through end water poverty campaign, to push for this fundamental right of the people. The engagement of civil society organizations in South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) III was instrumental in recognizing the right to sanitation and water in the official declaration . The results of end water poverty campaign thus far have been encouraging and we are certain that, with concerted effort, this objective will be realized.
How will federal structure affect sharing of water resources?
As Nepal gears towards the design of federal structure, another issue at stake is discourse on water resources planning and management – who controls water resources, how decisions are made in the allocation and sharing of water resources, how will deprivation of, and inequality in, water resources addressed? These issues need urgent attention and only with critical thinking, analysis and shared learning, will Nepal be able to respond to these new challenges that are in front of us.
Can you pls explain the kinds of programmes WaterAid Nepal has been implementing?
As the only INGO in Nepal that exclusively focuses on water, sanitation and hygiene, WaterAid Nepal works with its partners on demonstration projects. It has a 20 years history in Nepal during which it has successfully tapped a growing number of NGOs and civil society to provide access to a range of experience, innovation and advocacy in the sector.
Over the past couple of years, it has been building a stronger policy focus and quality documentation of its work to meaningfully contribute to sector development and influence sector policies and practices based on learning and evidence from the ground. In others words, WaterAid Nepal is gradually building itself as a credible sector catalyst.
What is your experience of leading and managing development programmes?
Responsive, accountable and transparent institutions of governance are often the missing link between policies and practices. Even when a country seeks to implement pro-poor national policies and target its interventions, faulty governance can nullify the impact. So to get effective services delivered on the ground, reforms of governance institutions, both at the supply and demand side, need to be emphasized. For this, capacity development for enhancing governance effectiveness is central to improve the ability and authority of leaders, governments and public organizations to realize development results.
When national or local governments don’t respond to development priorities or are less unresponsive, people rely on civil society organizations to hold leaders, governments and public organizations to account. The goal is not for civil society is to take over the legitimate functions of the state, but to forge, on behalf of the poor, a strategic alliance between three organs of the state (legislative, executive and judiciary) and people so that the state effectively behaves in responding to the rights and priorities of citizens.
How do you think sector governance can be improved then?
Holding service providers accountable to meet the peoples’ development priorities - in the context of water and sanitation - the basic rights 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.
I would promote and advocate for the following fundamentals as essential: (a) including the right to water and sanitation in the new Constitution, (b) preparing a coordinated sector effectiveness development programme, (c) increased and better sector financing, (d) policy focus on sanitation and hygiene, (e) clear distinction of institutional roles and responsibilities, (f) enabling and strengthening participation of all stakeholders in policy and practice dialogue, (g) joint peer reviews on sector performance and identifying barriers that impede access, (h) ensuring that poor and excluded people benefit from services, and (i) strengthening knowledge management in the sector.
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