Water Aid Sustainability Framework u572

Water Aid Sustainability Framework Review Background of the paper: problem statement, or “why” they are writing the paper: The aim of Water Aid’s Water Sustainability Framework is to assess the performance of various Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services that have been implemented by the organization in various countries over the world. The organization recognizes that in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal targets in the water sector, it is not sufficient to install mechanisms for water supply facilities; progress can be attained only by guaranteeing lasting change — the facilities that are put into place (both ‘hardware’ and ‘software’) must be able to withstand the test of time, while the communities themselves must acquire the capacity to maintain, enhance, and build on these improvements, otherwise the investment will have been wasted. Studies conducted by Water Aid on WASH services worldwide reveal that despite delivery of equipment and machinery to countries in need, these often fall into disrepair after a certain period, leaving its beneficiaries in a worse situation. According to theses studies, while responsibility falls mainly towards the s and benefactors of the facilities, communities do not always have the ability to effectively manage the infrastructure without external . Thus, the continued development in the water sector relies heavily not just on the stakeholders, who, before anything, must clamor for improved services, but on the national government, who are ultimately responsible for ensuring delivery and means for delivery of utilities to local governments and the private sector, non-governmental organizations, who must help link governments with their constituents and assist in the formulation of projects and policies that take into the elements necessary to achieve lasting change. Issues indicated in the paper: I.

Sustainability

“Sustainability,” according to Len Abrams, “is about whether or not WASH services and good hygiene practices continue to work and deliver benefits over time. no time limit is set on those continued services, behavior changes and outcomes. In other words, sustainability is about lasting benefits achieved through the continued enjoyment of water supply and sanitation services and hygiene practices.” To construct their Framework, Water Aid used WASH projects as an evidence base to pinpoint the challenges faced by sustainability, as well as the factors needed to achieve the latter. Among the challenges noted were the following: capacity, financial revenue, and integration of context-specific implementation with a wider national policy. As regards the first, Water Aid observed that the beneficiary communities have limited capacity in of knowledge, skills and material resources to manage the systems that are put into place. Fiscal revenue is likewise inadequate to cover the costs to operate, maintain or replace the infrastructure when these inevitably deteriorate. Finally, the services are more often than not delivered to dispersed communities, following isolated agendas, and without an

accompanying understanding of how the provision of these facilities ties into the larger government framework of water security. Considering the aforementioned challenges, the Framework outlines several factors that come into play when working toward achieving sustainability. First, there must be an evident need or demand for improvement, expressed by the stakeholders themselves, serving as the basis for a sustained drive for change. This demand must then be channeled into the design and implementation of programs that seek to address the following aspects: full- participation, technology is fit for the purpose and chosen by the s, capital contribution by s, high quality of implementation, a suitable tariff structure, environmental aspects are taken into , and a sufficient monitoring system is established. Upon implementing the program, efficient and reliable external- systems must likewise be established to ensure that the services are managed well. These systems include the revenues to be collected and recorded, the upkeep and maintenance of facilities, strong links between community and the organization, environmental monitoring, technical assistance, and to supply chains and service providers. II. Delving into more detail, the Framework ran through certain aspects of sustainability, highlighting the importance of each. Demand, as opposed to a mere positive response to offered assistance, refers to the real need for improved services. Demand is an indispensible precursor to the achievement of sustainability, for without the collective acknowledgement by the s of the need for change, and a more or less unanimous commitment to improving the water supply and sanitation for the sake of privacy, dignity, safety, and cleanliness, the system will inevitably break down. The technology utilized in these programs must also be appropriate. Poorly installed equipment (e.g. rapid corrosion of hand pumps in a Zambia case study) actively reverse the effects of an investment, adding to the costs, and leaving the communities in a situation worse than before. The failings of physical infrastructure and poor quality in their construction will only undermine efforts at maintenance; corruption, short-changing by contractors and the use of sub-standard materials, and other unprofessional practices must be eliminated through professionalization of the WASH sector, adequate supervision and monitoring, transparent procurement procedures, and rigorous enforcement of standards. Because all services inevitably incur in costs, longevity cannot be achieved unless sources of revenue, the need for subsidies, and a true understanding of the cost of a service are considered. Costs must be covered, or the systems will deteriorate, thus the following concerns must necessarily be addressed: by whom shall the costs be borne, for whom will they be subsidized, and what form shall the tariff structure take. Hindrances to implementing a working tariff structure include lack of information as to what the recurrent costs of a particular service are, revenues do not adequately cover operation and management costs, and when the poor or disadvantaged are subsidized, the tariff collected by the rest of the community is not adjusted upward to compensate. As a result, communities do not look beyond purchase costs, rendering them unable to cope when entire facilities fail to perform, or deteriorate. Cost-sharing may also be considered as a viable option.

Environmental aspects must be considered to protect to the quality and quantity of water resources, and to ensure that sanitation services do not pollute the environment and threaten the health of s. With the pressure placed on the natural environment by exponential population growth, it is crucial that programs effectively safeguard water resources with good health as the objective, and conceptualize sanitation not in the simplistic manner of solid waste disposal, but by viewing the latter as a resource to be safely-reused. Throughout the process of development, communities are forced to solve major problems ranging from internal breakdowns of voluntary service for the upkeep of facilities and technical problems to insufficient revenues for maintenance costs and capital replacement, and even external interventions such as livelihood or climatic shock. In such cases, external management and external technical must be available to the community; the former, to serve as intermediaries when management issues and instances of conflict in relation to sanitation or water supply services cannot be resolved by the households or communities themselves, and the latter, for when technical problems exceed the service s’ ability to cope (e.g. rapid corrosion of hand pumps, damaged piped systems due to landslides, inundated latrines, saltwater intrusion, etc.). This must also be prepared to address changes arising from Finally, there is a need for governments to provide a stable environment for supply chains to function properly — the sourcing, provision and delivery of equipment lie outside the control of communities that need access to them, and it is the Finally, supply chains need a stable environment to function properly. The sourcing, provision and delivery of necessary machinery involve a complex business process that lies outside of the water s’ control. Thus, it is imperative that governments provide for both the demand for and quality of supply chains and service providers, whether it be business for small scale providers of good and services in the form of registration and licensing, training and technical assistance, access to capital, financial and istrative services, or through encouraging capacity-building on the part of communities with regard to income generation, development of contingency plans, and adapting strategies to reduce vulnerability. Conclusion: After analyzing the aspects of sustainability, the paper then distilled certain core elements that formed the basis of Water Aid’s approach, and arrived at the following conclusion: fulfillment of a community’s expectations of better services and improved health cannot be attained if the services granted to water s fall into disrepair after a certain period has ed. Thus, development in the water sector necessarily incorporates sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and good stewardship, as measured by improvement in functionality and reduction in costs, all with longevity in mind. Sustainability can be achieved only if the following requisites are met: 

“Real demand from s, evidenced in consistent use of improved water and sanitation services and the practice of improved hygiene behaviors.”

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“Adequate revenue to cover recurrent costs, with appropriate tariff structures that include the poorest and most marginalized.” “A functioning management and maintenance system, comprising tools, supply chains, transport, equipment, training, and individuals and institutions with clear responsibilities.” “Where systems are managed by communities or institutions, there must be effective external to those community-level structures and institutions.” The natural resource and environmental aspects of the system need due attention.”

In light of the need for sustainability as outlined above, Water Aid commits to the movement in three ways. First, on the level of knowledge, Water Aid commits to generating data on the functionality and sustainability of WASH projects currently in place by maintaining full inventories of these projects’ various outcomes, and to maintain records of data to serve as the basis for studies commissioned from Water Aid, or in of studies conducted by other consulting organizations and national monitoring systems. Second, Water Aid commits to the development of conceptual frameworks for sustainability that are both backward and forwardlooking: backward-looking, in evaluation of how systems have failed or succeeded, and forwardlooking, as prospective analyses of a particular WASH system and improvements that guarantee that that system shall continue to provide good service. Finally, Water Aid commits to incorporating sustainability in the design of all its future WASH programs.