Community Participation in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Kyrgyzstan

1

• Community Participation in Rural Water Supply and
  Sanitation Project in Kyrgyzstan

2
1. INTRODUCTION

• 1.1 PRESENTATION
• Share the experience of RWSSP in encouraging
  Community Participation, Accountability and Non
  Discrimination
• Will look at
• RWSSP Approach to Community Participation and How
  it Encouraged Participation at all Stages of the
  Project
• Methods Employed by the RWSSP to Strengthen
  Longer Term Community Capacity and
  Accountability
• The Lessons Learnt and Suggestions for Good
  Practices
• Main Conclusions

3
INTRODUCTION

• 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND
  SANITATION PROJECT IN KYRGYZSTAN
• Access to clean water is a basic human right.
• The Problem since the end of the Soviet Union in
  1991, the Kyrgyz government has lacked resources
  to provide this service. Many villages have had
  no clean drinking water for 15 years
• Is there an alternative? Can rural people and
  their communities address their lack of safety
  drinking water and manage its provision
  themselves?
• The RWSSP
• Worked with 200 villages in 3 northern Kyrgyzstan
  to re-habilitated their water supply and
  sanitation systems between 2002-2008 Financial
  and technical assistance provided by DFID and the
  World Bank.
• INTRAC supported local CD Team, recruited from
  NGOs, to implement awareness raising, community
  mobilization etc

4
Kyrgyz Republic
5
HOW THE RWSSP ENCOURAGED COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

• 2.1. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
• The RWSSP has actively encourage, the
  participation of the whole village community in
  decision making, information campaign, planning,
  construction, operation management, and,
  monitoring of the WSS.
• Participation and involvement of local people are
  basic principles which are relevant to improving
  local governance and citizens use of public
  resources.
• Communities participated in the following ways
  and stages of re-habilitating their WSS

6
2.2 RAISING COMMUNITY AWARENESS

• Information campaign (IC)
• CD Team in cooperation with Local Self Government
  provided Information meetings with the wide
  participation of the representatives of the
  communities, Aiyl Okmoty (Village
  Administration), Local Parliament, NGOs and Mass
  Media at the 14 regional level each year.
• Leaflets distributed in all villages and
  information disseminated through regional and
  country level Mass Media about the project
  philosophy and the progress of the RWSSP
• Villages interested in tackling their water
  problems were encouraged to form and Initiative
  Group and send an Expression of Interest to the
  RWSSP Project Consultant Unit.

7
2.3 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY APPRAISAL (PCA)

• Letters of Interest used to determine villages to
  participate in PCA. Selection done by the
  Project Executive Agency-Department of Rural
  Water Supply
• PCA Implementation CD workers and Engineering
  Team in cooperation with Local Administrations
  held workshops with 4 district groups of people
  in each village the men, women, young people and
  school children. There were done separately to
  ensue as wide a participation as possible and
  also to ensure different voices (especially those
  of women, school children) could be heard.
• Methods these Workshops used variety of
  Participatory Community Appraisal exercises to
  help the groups to identify major village issues,
  the extent to which access to clean water was a
  problem and the willingness of the population to
  address it.

8
2.4 Community Mobilization to set up Community
Drinking Water Users Union (CDWUU)

• Community mobilization activities in the street
  level
• Selection to Participate in RWSSP The villages
  which had severe water problems and showed clear
  interest in addressing them were selected to
  participate and assisted to mobilize the entire
  village.
• Initial Community Mobilization was done to help
  the village to create the CDWUU was done using a
  bottom-up approach. CD Team in cooperation with
  Village Initiative Group (VIG), held series of
  community awareness raising meetings in each
  quarters and streets of the village about the
  project philosophy and CDWUU draft charter.
• CD workers with VIG encouraged consensus in
  community before holding village Constituent
  Assembly in creation of CDWUU and election of its
  Board.

9

• Street level meeting in the remote rural village
  Namatbek in Talas oblast, Kyrgyzstan

10
2.5 The Village Constituent Assembly to set up
CDWUU

• Village Constituent Assembly (VCA) is the village
  meeting made up by the household representatives.
  During quarter/street level meetings villagers
  elected their members to participate at the VCA.
  
• Role of VCA approves the CDWUU Charter and
  elects the CDWUU Chair and other members of the
  CDWUU Board as well as the Audit Commission .
• Wider Support CD Team with Local Village
  Administration supported the village to organize
  the VCA and subsequently to help CDWUU register
  with the government.

11
2.6 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN CASH CONTRIBUTION

• Raising Cash Contribution The CD workers
  assisted the CDWUU and Local Administration to
  organize to raise community 5 cash contribution
  towards the cost of re-habilitation their water
  system.
• Most effective and efficient way to mobilize
  collection was to do this by quarter
  (neighborhood) and/or clan level. Often people in
  the village are from different clans getting the
  people from each clan to collect the contribution
  from households in the quarter level or clan
  worked well.
• Contributing towards the cost of the WSS, was one
  of way of encouraging a sense of ownership by the
  village, which is vital to determining the long
  term sustainability of the WSS.
• CD workers assisted CDWUU to adopt methods to
  ensure financial accountability e.g give
  receipts to households for contributions,
  display on information boards showing the 5
  collection rate ets.

12
2.7 Ensuring Community envolement in the Design
and Construction of WSS

• Design Community worked with the Engineering
  Team on the preliminary design of WSS. After
  discussion with villagers, the Design Engineering
  Team (DET) made the detailed design taking in to
  the consideration of comments made by the
  villages.
• Tendering detailed design (DD) submitted to the
  State Commission of Executive Agency (EA) who
  organized the tender process. Representatives of
  CDWUUs and Village Administrations participated
  in the Tendering Committee
• Signing Contract CDWUUs signed the agreement
  with contractor to re-habilitate the their rural
  water supply systems.
• In kind contribution, inspection and handover of
  WSS Villagers participated in the implementation
  of 15 in-kind contribution, the inspection of
  the completed water system and were handed over
  the re-habilitated water system from the
  contractor.

13
2.8 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN TARIFF SETTING FOR
WATER

• Setting Water Tariffs In cooperation with
  Financial Experts, CD Workers encouraged the
  CDWUUs and its local partners to set up draft
  CDWUUs budget and calculate the monthly water
  tariff.
• Consultation with Community on Tariffs
  Initially, the CDWUUs draft budget and water
  tariff were distributed the households for their
  comments.
• Approval of Budget and Tariffs The draft CDWUUs
  budget have been discussed and approved with the
  comments of people at the CDWUUs General
  Assembly.
• Contracts with water users the CD workers with
  Financial Experts encouraged the CDWUUs to sign
  agreements with households, village institutions
  and private enterprises concerning their monthly
  payment of water tariff.

14
2.9 ENSURING COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN OM OF
WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

• The size and scale of the CDWUUs job to run,
  maintain, and manage the village WSS,proved
  greater and more time consuming task than the
  CDWUU had ever imagined (some WSSs served more
  than 2000-3000 inhabitants),
• Solution decentralize management of the WSS to
  in the Tap Stand level.
• Household around the communal Tap Stand in the
  street level (there are 6 -7 HH around 1 tap
  stand) were asked to form Tap Stand Committees
  (TSC) and choose 2 TSC Leaders (1 women 1man).

15
3. Methods Used by RWSSP to Strengthening
Community Capacity and accountability

• In Soviet time, all services, including water,
  were provided by the government
• As a result, community capacity weak
• In this section, we look at the Methods the
  RWSSP used to build Community Capacity
• Strengthening Community Capacity is necessary to
  ensure
• The Community can continue to run its WSS
  (sustainability)
• The CDWUU remains Accountable to its members (the
  community)
• Marginalised groups are involved (especially
  women, communites from isolated rural ares)

16
3.2 PRACTICAL TRAINING AND SUPPORT

• CDWUU Board and staff were given in the following
  8 key areas by the CD Team.
• Structure, Role, Responsibilities, and
  Organization of CDWUU
• Mobilizing the Village 5 cash and 15 in-kind
  contribution
• Financial management (financial procedures and
  management)
• CDWUUs role in Tendering and Procurement
• Financial management (focusing on setting up
  water tariff)
• Water Quality Monitoring, Water Safety Plan
• Technical Operation and Management of Water
  System
• Improvement of Tariff Collection
• Training modules were piloted in 1 or 2 villages
  before being rolled out.
• The participatory training approach worked best,
  though at times, information, a more formal style
  of training was used.
• Later some of the better established CDWUUs were
  invited to participate in the newer CDWUUs
  training.

17
3.3 ENCOURAGING WOMENS PARTICIPATION

• Rural Kyrgystan is a largely traditional and male
  dominated society
• However, women make up over half the population
• The are also the ones most affected by the
  presence or absence of clean drinking water
• Ways in which the RWSSP encouraged womens
  participation
• PCA done separately with the women to ensure
  their voices were heard
• Women encouraged to be involved in the Community
  Mobilisation
• Women encouraged to stand for election to the
  CDWUU Board
• Insisting that half the Tap Stand Committee
  members were female
• Exposure visits to villages with female CDWUU
  Chair

18
3.4 RESPONSIBLITIES OF TAP STAND COMMITTEES
(TSC) IN OM OF WSS IN TAP STAND LEVEL
Take over the Tap Stands from the contractor Look after Tap Stands Collect Water Tariff Dissemination information about CDWUUs activities among the TSC members Participation in different competitions such as Tap Stand awarded to the International Water Day
19
3.5 TAP STAND LEVEL COMMITTEES and UNIONS IN
ACTION
20
3.6 NETWORKING AND CONTINOUS LEARNING
Effective Learning CD Worker found that peer learning is a simple, powerful and successful way for rural people (in this case CDWUU staff) to learn from each other. They encouraged exchange and inter exchange visits between communities and CDWUUs and also building structures for continuous learning and development
Creating Networks The Kyrgyz Alliance for Water and Sanitation (KAWS) has emerged to support the CDWUUs It is vital that networks are initiated by the CDWUUs themselves and not imposed top-down.
21
3.7 INVOLVEMENT OF VILLAGES IN MONITORING
SUSTAINABILITY OF THEIR WSS

• Regular monitoring of CDWUU sustainability during
  the course of the project. The CD workers with
  support of Monitoring Specialist created
  monitoring tools (Check Lists with scoring, Form
  of Action Plan) to asses the following three
  areas Organizational, Economical and
  Institutional Sustainability of the CDWUU.
• Initially, monitoring was done by the project.
  Later the CD Team encouraged and trained the
  CDWUUs to self monitor as a way of assessing
  their own performance and identifying issues to
  improve.
• The representatives of community, formal and
  informal village institutions are expected to
  participate in the CDWUUs self-monitoring
  process. They score the CDWUUs sustainability,
  identify issues and produced action plan to
  improve.

22
4.1 THE MAIN LESSONS LEARNT

• Getting genuine community participation takes
  time, especially in countries where rural people
  have not been encouraged to participate and take
  initiative
• A variety of methods can be used to stimulate
  participation and build the confidence of
  communities. PCA exercises are useful way to
  start as are exchange visits to villages who have
  completed and are running their own WSS
• Participation can create a sense of ownership by
  the community in the infrastructure they create
  (in this case, the village WSS). This helps
  ensure it will be looked after and will be
  sustainable)

23
4.2 THE MAIN LESSONS LEARNT

• Capacity building helps the village to acquire
  the skills and expertise they need top operate
  and manage their WSS successfully
• Decentralisation of management of the WSS through
  the creation of Tap Stand Committees is an
  effective way of sharing responsibility for care
  of the WSS amongst the community, helps to
  improve tariff collection and also CDWUU
  accountability
• Involvement of women at all stages is essential.
  They are the ones most directly affected by the
  presence or absence of affordable and safety
  water. It is important to find practical ways to
  encourage womens participation, to build their
  capacity and confidence.

24
5.1 CONCLUSIONS

• In countries such as Kyrgystan where government
  is weak and lacks resource, communities can, with
  proper mobilisation and support, provide a
  regular supply of clean water to their villages
• To ensure the longer term sustainability of
  community managed WSS, the following
  requirements must be met
• Community Participation is essential and the
  Community must be involved at all stages of the
  process in order to create a strong sense of
  ownership in the WSS
• All stages must be properly and seriously done
  (Needs Assessment, Mobilisation etc)
• Participation of the whole community, especially
  the women, is essential (they are the most
  affected by the presence or absence of clean
  water)
• It is also necessary to build/strengthen the
  capacity of the Community so they have the skills
  to run and manage the WSS
• The CDWUU must be accountable to the Community
  through proper elections to the Board,
  involvement of the wider Community (Tap Stand
  Committees) in managing the WSS

25
THANK YOUfor your attention