Water Services That Last
Life-Cycle Costs Approach
Philanthropedia medal

Executive Summary

 

Project outline

  • Eight drinking water and sanitation supply (DWSS) and three integrated water resource management (IWRM) projects from seven countries were reviewed to identify the extent to which they incorporated integrated water resource management principles.
  • The review covered a wide range of scales, from the micro-catchment (700 people, 900 ha) to the river basin (1.5 million people, 4,300 km2); landscapes, varying from the humid to the semi-arid; and socio-economic and developmental backgrounds. They all shared a commitment to participatory approaches aimed at empowering communities and giving them the maximum possible control over their resources.
  • Eight principles of IWRM were identified. These were based on the Dublin principles and other more recent developments. A participatory assessment methodology was developed by project staff to assess the degree of implementation of the eight principles. The eight principles are as follows:
  • Water source and catchment conservation and protection are essential
  • Water allocation should be agreed between stakeholders within a national framework
  • Management needs to be taken care of at the lowest appropriate level
  • Capacity building is the key to sustainability
  • Involvement of all stakeholders is required
  • Efficient water use is essential and often an important "source" in itself
  • Water should be treated as having an economic and social value
  • Striking a gender balance is essential

Principle conclusions

IWRM principles are internationally accepted but not yet truly applied to DWSS. While many national governments are addressing the issue of IWRM through the development of legislative frameworks, movement towards practical application remains slow. DWSS continues to be poorly integrated into wider IWRM strategies, while principles of IWRM are only partially present in DWSS programmes.

  • Water source and catchment conservation is gaining recognition but requires further work. Water source and catchment conservation are increasing, but the necessary frameworks to ensure the required communication and cooperation between sectors and levels are often lacking. Within DWSS projects the focus continues to be on limited interventions close to the water source.
  • True stakeholder involvement in water allocation decision making remains limited. While conceptually widely accepted, stakeholder, and particularly user involvement remains limited. The reality of conflict between competing uses and users is often glossed over. Where stakeholders are involved it is frequently at an information, as opposed to decision making, level. Good, appropriately presented hydrological information is essential to informed decision making.
  • The framework to allow management at the lowest appropriate level is often not available. The lack of clear legal frameworks enshrining rights and responsibilities within the decentralisation process often causes confusion. While community-based approaches are now accepted as the norm, the necessary underpinning capacity seldom exists in support agencies.
  • Capacity building is promoted but not at all levels, and its effectiveness is not monitored. Proper monitoring of the effectiveness of capacity building programmes is essential to their success. While widely promoted, capacity building programmes frequently pay insufficient attention to the lower and intermediate levels within decentralised support agencies - with the result that they are unable to fulfil their role in facilitating user decision making.
  • Stakeholder involvement is growing, but is still too limited and too narrow in focus. Community involvement in the management of DWSS systems continues to show promise, however communities frequently remain uninterested in becoming involved in wider IWRM because of high transaction costs and lack of genuine decision making powers. National and regional fora generally use community involvement in a purely consultative form. Users have multiple perspectives and agendas; the skills needed to reconcile these are lacking and where mechanisms for conflict resolution are in place they remain ineffective.
  • Efficient water use is gaining attention but requires much higher emphasis. Water use efficiency and demand management is gaining attention, however guidance is often lacking in how to integrate it into projects. Water is generally valued most highly where it is scarcest, or where tariff structures make waste expensive.
  • Water is increasingly viewed as having an economic and social value. The principle of paying for water is now widely accepted and many projects are introducing water user charges. However the role of water as a social good needs to be kept in view while planning water charges, and the rights of vulnerable groups protected.
  • Striking a gender balance is often taken as enhancing women's involvement. The case studies concentrated solely on the role of women within projects and agencies. In general women are insufficiently involved in both, but their absence is particularly striking within the staff of support agencies. A wider understanding of gender as encompassing other important aspects of community dynamics such as age, wealth, class, cast etc. is missing.

Recommendations for further work

  • Organize a number of case studies to review different projects within the same country and present these at a national workshop;
  • Establish national or regional workshops to explore IWRM issues with the 'stakeholders';
  • Promote IWRM and include it better in existing training activities to encourage other projects and programmes to adapt their practices;
  • Re-visit the participating projects in one or two year's time to explore the effect of the participatory review and the new experience in applying IWRM recommendations;
  • Stimulate training of extension workers and community training on IWRM;
  • Include monitoring of the eight IWRM principles in ongoing programmes.
  • In addition a suggested programme of participatory action research is outlined. The research will be aimed specifically at strengthening the technical and organizational capacity of both communities and the lower levels of support agencies with the aim of giving communities a genuine voice in lower level IWRM fora. The programme will pay particular attention to the management, sharing and use of hydrological data and knowledge, and the mainstreaming of stakeholder analysis, gender, and equity issues into IWRM projects.

Preface

This report is based on work and inputs from all involved in the project "Promising Approaches in Water Resources Management in the Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Sector". The project reviewed experience of the application of the principles for good water resources management formulated at various international fora.

The project was initiated with financial support of the Directorate General for International Cooperation of the Netherlands (DGIS), the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), UNDP, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). Furthermore it received support from the participating projects who financed the participation of their staff in the fieldwork and enable them to come to both the preparatory and the synthesis workshop.

This report presents a review of the experience with water resources management principles from eleven projects in seven countries. This experience was assessed by staff from these projects under guidance of an international advisory group and staff from the IRC. The project examined the way in which projects apply internationally accepted water resources management principles particularly in the drinking water supply and sanitation sector. Projects were identified in consultation with external support agencies who were asked to suggest projects they considered promising in the light of the principles set out in the 1992 Dublin meeting. The project was coordinated by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and implemented together with staff from eleven participating projects with inputs from an international advisory group.

This document is oriented towards professionals, managers and policy makers involved in the water supply and sanitation sector and in water resources management programmes. In addition to the work of the staff from the projects, an important input was provided by Elisabeth Lucas, a research associate from IRC who together with IRC colleagues Peter Bury, Esther de Lange and David Saunders prepared a first document. Subsequently this report was used as a basis for the current document that was prepared by Toby Gould, Peter Bury and Jan Teun Visscher. Throughout the project the participants and the IRC team benefited greatly from advice and inputs from the members of an advisory group, Dinesh Ryakural, Jan Lundquist, Gerrit van Vuuren, Mary Boesveld and IRC colleague Christine van Wijk.

The support and enthusiasm of all parties involved is acknowledged with great appreciation. In view of the crucial part water resources play in our lives it is hoped that the results presented here make a contribution to narrowing the gap between policy and practice in improving water resources management. There is long way to go but their are indeed signs that we are able to learn from past experience as presented in this report.