Community participation in water and sanitation within the Latin American context

FAQ sheet on community participation, prepared by Cinara, Colombia

Introduction

Today, community participation is considered a key component of community management, not only because of its potential democratising impact but also because of its positive effect on governance [1]. In the case of public services, especially in rural areas and small municipalities, community intervention can contribute efficiently to the establishment of policies and the technical and economic sustainability of basic water supply and sanitation services. Towards this end, it is necessary to understand the environment, and to know the organisational structures that guarantee good services, transparency and participation.

For participation to serve as an opportunity to decide on the community’s collective well-being and as a means to decide on the provision of water services, persons are needed with technical knowledge, sense of property, negotiation skills and the capacity to call meetings where participatory decisions can be taken. All of this can be achieved through the development of a process centred on people, which involves community and institutional actors in the project cycle.

The Declaration of New Delhi (UNDP/UNICEF 1990), the Nordic Freshwater Initiative (1991), the Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992), and the Dublin Declaration (1992) recognise that participation and community management are essential elements for the sustainability of rural water and sanitation projects [2].

Participation: levels and conditions

Gustavo de Roux [3], analyses participation from the point of view of the relationship between the State and the community in terms of power, and classifies it as: a) a collaboration, in which the community is excluded from decision-making (subservient) and its members are subject to institutional decisions, b) joint management, which allows community intervention regarding decisions, in other words, a degree of autonomy, c) self-management, a form of participation that emerges independently within the community, and, d) negotiation, seen as the mechanisms and strategies used by the community to fulfil its needs.When a water and sanitation project is considered, it is important to establish the type of participation that is pursued in the agreement, as stated in the objectives and organisational mandate.

Participation demands a minimum of objective and subjective conditions. Among the objective conditions a set of rights—freedom of speech and assembly—should be highlighted as being fundamental. The State must guarantee people’s participation in matters that are important to them, as well as the use of means for fostering participation (e.g. community action committees, local management boards,inspection committees, participatory development and committees that monitor household public services). Subjective conditions refer to the willingness, motivation and interest to participate and the promotion of a democratic culture.

Community participation in the water and sanitation sector

In Colombia, community participation in the water and sanitation sector has a long tradition, especially at rural and small communities level. This tradition has been promoted by INSFOPAL (National Institute for Health), based on the community’s participation through their labour in the construction of aqueducts, sewers, latrines, etc., and on awareness raising, to guarantee the sustainability of the services. The sector has used different concepts of community participation:

• contribution of labour and materials to reduce construction costs or to cover the lack of resources,
• financing of investment and operations, with responsibility for the administrative board in the collection of fees to recover investment costs and to support the operation of the system,
• a community organisation in place with little knowledge and experiencein charge of supplying water services

These forms of participation, which were promoted throughout the country especially during the Water Decade (1980s), did not produce the expected results: a sense of ownership and responsibility by the communities.Water systems were found abandoned and had operation and maintenance problems. The lack or minimal participation of the users in the planning, design, construction and management of the systems is considered the main reason for this failure.

Cinara, through its work with institutions and communities in water and sanitation projects, has found an alternative for this collaboration: Joint Learning Projects (JLPs), a methodology directed towards promoting opportunities, whereinterdisciplinary and inter-institutional work is encouraged, community and academic knowledge are both acknowledged,and research is carried out in a process of continuous dialogue. The communities are not considered as the project’s beneficiaries, but as actors who foster their own development.

Community participation in the project cycle

In Colombia, the experience with water and sanitation projects has demonstrated that in order to ensure a sense of ownership and the users’ responsibility for the facilities, it is necessary to involve the communities in every phase of the project. These phases include planning and design; management of resources; construction of facilities; administration; operation and maintenance, and monitoring and quality control of the services. They should also include information actions, training, community building, supervision, decision-making and resource management. Institutions that are going through this process assume the role of facilitators, and together with the communities they create solutions according to local situations. Through community participation projects seek to strengthen local capacity and sustainable solutions.

Challenges

Although in Colombia there is an opening for linking community participation to water and sanitation projects, it must be recognised that there are legal and cultural constraints that affect the performance of this social action. During an electronic conference of GARNET, it was recognised that there are still many obstacles, such as the lack of an appropriate legal framework for small municipalities and rural areas with respect to among others, tariffs, tariff structures, invoicing and fee collection. [4]

Furthermore, in the process of decentralisation the facilitating role of the municipality is not clear. This role should imply that conditions are created so that communities have access to resources, supervise municipal management, have the right to ensure the transparency of contracting processes, and that there is a continuous flow of information to the community.

The need to work with institutions at local, national and regional levels is acknowledged, as well as the need to incorporate a broader concept of participation that involves decision-making in every phase of the project, the acknowledgement of cultural diversity and autonomy to make decisions. Also, it is necessary to develop permanent and continuous capacity training programmes for implementing participatory methodologies as well as to develop the potential of the Joint Learning Projects (JLPs) that involve community participation as a key alternative for generating development. [5]

References

[1] González, E; (1995). Manual sobre Participación y Organización para la Gestión Local. Ediciones Foro Nacional por Colombia, Cali, Colombia.

[2] Ministerio de Desarrollo Económico- Findeter; Instituto Cinara. 1998. Servicios Sostenibles de Agua y Saneamiento. Marco conceptual, Cali, Colombia.

[3] De Roux, Gustavo (1993), Participación: Tutelaje o autonomía En: Taller de análisis sobre dificultades de la planificación participativa, Alcaldía de Santiago de Cali.

[4] Restrepo, I. (2000). Saneamiento para pequeñas comunidades. Conferencia Internacional Agua y Saneamiento en comunidades medianas y pequeñas en el marco de la VISIÓN MUNDIAL DEL AGUA. Cali, Colombia, Cinara.

[5] Niño de Guzmán, J; Zevallos, M. (2002). Construyendo la Equidad de Género. Metodología e Instrumentos para su inclusión en Proyectos de Agua y Saneamiento. Programa de Agua y Saneamiento, América Latina y el Caribe, Lima, Peru. URL: http://www.wsp.org/publications/and_genero.pdf(1,4 MB).

Bibliography and additional reading

Cernea, M (1995). Primero la Gente: Variables Sociológicas en el Desarrollo Rural. Fondo de Cultura Económico. México D.F

CINARA -Cali, CO ; IRC -Delft, NL, International Water and Sanitation Centre (1999). Proyecto de aprendizaje en equipo, PAE's : Joint learning projects, JLP's. (video). Cali, Colombia, Cinara.

Cinara-IRC (1996) El desarrollo del proyecto en Colombia: Balance de los dos primeros años. Informe del proyecto “El rol de las comunidades en la gestión de los sistemas rurales de abastecimiento de agua en países en desarrollo”. Cali, Colombia.

Espejo, N. ; Pol, I. van der (1994). Mejor, cuando es de a dos : el genero en los proyectos de agua y saneamiento : Better when together : gender in water and sanitation projects. (Occasional paper series / IRC; no. 26). The Hague, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

García, M; Alianza de Género y Agua. (2000). Colocando el enfoque de Género a todos los niveles y todos los sectores relacionados con el manejo del Recurso Hídrico. Conferencia Internacional Agua -2000, Cali, Colombia.

Gómez, C. (2000). La participación comunitaria como fundamento de la gestión comunitaria de servicios públicos. Seminario taller “Gestión comunitaria en sistemas de abastecimiento de agua y saneamiento en pequeñas localidades”. Cali, Colombia.

Quiroga, E., Visscher, J.T. (1999). Transferencia de technologia en el sector de agua y saneamiento en Colombia : una experiencia de aprendizaje. Cinara, Cali, Colombia.

Torres C, A. (1997). Modernidad y Nuevos Sentidos de lo Comunitario. Revista Pedagogía y Saberes. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional N° 10. Bogotá, Colombia.

Velázquez, F. (1996). Gestión local y participación. el consejo municipal de planeación en Cali. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales y Económica. Cali, Colombia.

Visscher, J.T. (1997). Technology transfer in the water supply and sanitation sector : a learning experience from Colombia. (Technical paper series / IRC; no. 32-E). The Hague, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. URL: http://www.irc.nl/index.php/content/view/full/1892

Visscher, J.T. ; Quiroga R.E. ; Garcia V.M. ; Galvis C.G. (1999). Capacity building through holistic joint learning projects, p. 413-428. In: Alaerts, G.J. ; Hartvelt, F.J.A. ; Patorni, F.-M. ; UNDP Symposium on WaterSectorCapacityBuilding - 2. Water sector capacity building : concepts and instruments : proceedings of the second UNDP symposium on water sector capacity building, Delft, 1996. Rotterdam, The Netherlands, A.A. Balkema.

Contact persons

• Dr. Betty Soto, consultant World Bank
• Soc. María Lucia Borba, consultant for IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, based in Brazil
• Soc. Mariela García, lecturer Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

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Creation date: 15 Jul 2003
Revised date: Feb 2004
Author: Sandra Patricia Bastidas, Social worker, Univalle, Cinara, Cali, Colombia
Peer reviewer: Ton Schouten, senior professional officer, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre
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