Where did information make a difference

Where did information make a difference in the water and sanitation sectors?

Here is a first selection of short cases selected by Dick de Jong based on discussions with some IRC staff and Darren Saywell (WSSCC). Please e-mail your comments and additions to jong@irc.nl .

• Colombia - locally designed filters 40 percent cheaper
• India - CSE lobby on traditional water harvesting influences building regulations in New Delhi
• Global/South Africa - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) campaign
• South Africa - NGO gets a project through Source Weekly
• NETWAS Kenya - feedback improved research proposal
• Indonesia - the Clean Friday Movement
• Egypt - building political will
• Bangladesh - national social mobilization
• Bangladesh - arsenic pollution

Measurement is difficult

We need to realise that measuring of impact/benefits of information is difficult, as is shown in an interim evaluation in December 2001 by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) of the Electronic Networking for Rural Asia/Pacific (ENRAP) initiative implemented by IDRC to support Internet use among its rural development projects in the Asia and the Pacific region. "Measurement of benefits gained by deploying ICT has always been a challenge, even in profit-oriented enterprises. The nature of ICT use and its impact is highly contextual, and isolating the impact of a single factor on increased programme effectiveness is difficult."

From communication science we also know that the more specific information is targeted to user needs and a long-term, multi-media approach is followed, the better the chances are that the expected impact on change of behaviour is achievable.

Colombia - locally designed filters 40 percent cheaper

Local applied research and learning with design of multi stage water filters in Colombia resulted in cost reduction of 40 percent. CINARA and IRC found out in the 1989 -1997 Research and Demonstration Project on Pre-treatment Technologies for Community Water Supply that lower walls of the filter and a reduced sand bed worked well and was 40 percent cheaper than the design in use. The local design has now been introduced as the standard for these filters in Colombia.

Source: Jan Teun Visscher, personal communication.

Last updated: 21 February 2003

India - traditional water harvesting campaign

Through the information and advocacy campaign throughout India, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), its magazine Down to Earth and its allies have in late 2001 been able to stop destruction of local water management structures such as water bunds in various Indian states. From New Delhi, the publishing of a book, their lobby work and their mobilization of local leaders contributed a.o. to new legislation in Delhi that makes creating a rainwater harvesting system compulsory in all new buildings. The campaign is called Catch water where it falls

Source: CSE, 2001

Last updated: 21 February 2003

Global/South Africa - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) campaign

The WASH advocacy campaign and materials (banners, street pole ads, stickers in top hotels, bars and restaurants and toilet paper with key messages in Johannesburg) developed by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and its members were effectively used in South Africa, to help get the sanitation target for 2015 accepted by world leaders at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, in Sept. 2002.

The world leaders signed for action to halve the number of people without basic sanitation. It also helped trigger the South African Department for Water Affairs and Forestry to increase its annual target for latrines from 10,000 in 2002 to 140,000 in 2003.

Source: WSSCC, 2002

Last updated: 21 February 2003

South Africa – NGO gets a project through Source Weekly

An article from a recent Source Weekly forwarded by a South African subscriber to METCOM, a small private service provider in South Africa, resulted in a proposal approved by EAWAG from Switzerland for a small waste treatment project in South Africa.

This is an example of timeliness of an electronic news item, and quick targeted action of one of our readers to a local group, which took immediate action to get new project money.

Source: Philippe Ravenscroft, South Africa, Nov 2002, personal communication

Last updated: 21 February 2003

Kenya: NETWAS feed back improved research proposal

Feed back from Beth Karanja from NETWAS International in Kenya in 2000 helped improve a draft research protocol from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) for an international study on what makes hygiene behaviour sustainable. Project partners invloved are LSHTM (UK), GTZ (Germany), IRC (Netherlands), NEWAH (Nepal), COSI (Sri Lanka), SEUF (India), WaterAid (Uganda), CWSA (Ghana) and NETWAS (Kenya).

Source: Kathleen Shordt, 2002, personal communication

Last updated: 21 February 2003

Indonesia - the Clean Friday Movement

With the president of Indonesia taking the lead and inaugurating the movement, UNICEF Indonesia involved the Indonesian Council of Islamic leaders (MUI) in launching a campaign in l994 called the “Clean Friday and Latrine Promotion Movement.” MUI prepared a booklet entitled, “Water, Sanitation, and Islam,” a compilation of specific Islamic teachings related to WES.

These booklets were distributed to Ulemas (Islamic leaders) at the district level throughout the country and have been used in preparing Friday sermons encouraging hygienic behaviour. The movement focuses on latrine construction and use, proper storage and handling of drinking water, proper handwashing practices, and proper garbage disposal.

Although the campaign covers the whole country, it focuses particularly on five major provinces. In some districts like West Lombok, latrine construction increased 25-fold, with certain villages reaching 100 percent coverage.

Source: Y.D. Mathur. UNICEF WES Chief, Indonesia, contributed by Dr. Darren Saywell, Programme Manager, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

Last updated: 21 February 2003

Egypt - building political will

In Egypt, the WES office has given sanitation a strategic focus. After analyzing major barriers to developing a good sanitation programme, UNICEF Egypt and its partners devised a strategy that encompassed determining suitable technical options, defining a suitable policy and responsibilities, mobilizing resources, and carrying out a strategic advocacy campaign and a hygiene campaign. The strategic advocacy campaign is being designed to position sanitation as a national priority.

The campaign will reinforce positive behavioural patterns and religious beliefs and associate itself with other more politically acceptable problems. For example, it may be called the “Campaign to Eradicate Schistosomiasis through Sanitation and Hygiene.”

Schistosomiasis occurs mainly in low-income rural areas, which are a target for UNICEF intervention. By associating sanitation with what is an acknowledged major public health problem in the country, more political acceptance will be obtained.

Source: Vanessa Tobin, UNICEF Cairo. Abstracted from WATERfront, Issue 7, May 1995, contributed by Dr. Darren Saywell, Programme Manager, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

Last updated: 21 February 2003

Bangladesh - national social mobilization

National Sanitation Week was first launched in l994 as part of a national effort for social mobilization for sanitation. The prime minister inaugurated this first national activity, whose targeted mid-decade goal was 35 percent coverage. When that goal was attained even before 1994 ended, a target of 50 percent was set for 1995. By the end of 1995, 48 percent coverage had been obtained, nearly reaching the goal.

Thus, national activity was carried out with the full involvement of central and local government agencies as well as NGOs and the private sector. The effort has continued, with new targets planned for l996 and beyond.

Source: UNICEF Annual Report. Bangladesh, 1995, contributed by Dr. Darren Saywell, Programme Manager, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

See also Promoting safe latrines in Bangladesh

Bangladesh – arsenic pollution

Since in 1998 and 1999 the information about the occurrence of arsenic pollution in groundwater in Bangladesh triggered a media hype. It also effectively forced the government and donor community to shift their attention and funding to mitigate this new problem, to the cost of for instance the sanitation promotion programme.

Source: Dick de Jong, based on reports from UNICEF and media

Last updated: 21 February 2003