A rights-based review of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector

The Right to Water Programme (RWP) of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) has released on 23 February 2009, a report on the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector. This publication reviews the existing legal and policy framework of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector using international human rights standards. The objective of the review is to determine the extent to which the framework guarantees the right to water and sanitation in accordance with Ghana’s international human rights obligations. The report titled A rights-based review of the Ghanaian water and sanitation sector, highlights key areas requiring attention and makes specific recommendations for improvement.

Read the full report here and executive summary here.

SADIeau-AfricanWIS: African Water Information System

AWIS (African Water Information System) is an ACP-EU water facility funded project (2007-2010)  that aims to interlink water resource centres in sub-Saharan Africa to enable information exchange via a web-interface. The web site is bilingual, French and English, with most information available only in French at the moment – SADIeau stands for système africain de documentation et d’information sur l’eau.

Partners in the consortium are:

• Réseau Africain des Organismes de Bassin (RAOB)
• Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS)
• Office International de l’Eau (OIEau) (France)
• Centre Régional pour l’Eau Potable et l’Assainissement à faible coût (CREPA) (Burkina Faso)
• Programme Solidarité Eau (PSEau) (France)
• Water, Engineering and Development Center (WEDC) (UK)

Two years into the project, still none of the outputs have been made available on the web site.  But the logo is nice.

In the Pipeline: Water for the Poor Investing in Small Piped Water Networks

ADB (2008). In the pipeline : water for the poor : investing in small piped water networks. Manila, The Philippines, Asian Development Bank. 116 p. ISBN 978-971-561-747-5

Small piped water networks (SPWN) refer to the delivery of piped water services by a water provider, using materials conforming to the main utility’s standards, operated legally to bring affordable, safe, and reliable water to a community until the main utility is able to reach these consumers directly.

The SPWN toolkit is one of the major outputs of the Asian Development Bank’s Regional Technical Assistance on Implementing Pilot Projects for Small-Piped Water Networks (2005-2008). Four pilots were implemented: two in the Philippines and one each in Viet Nam and India. The toolkit includes case studies from these pilots and from similar pilots from the USAID-funded Environmental Services Program in Indonesia.

The toolkit contains five modules:

1. Project Study. This module contains the preliminary agreements must be obtained from the different stakeholders during the initial stage of the project and the conduct of a project study.
2. Business Models and Instruments. This module provides templates of implementation (business) models and contract documents that can be used by a main utility, small-scale water provider, or community-based organization in setting up the SPWN.
3. Financing. This module assists proponents in where and how to secure financing.
4. Sustainability and Acceptability Measures. This module provides measures to ensure the acceptability and sustainability of the SPWN.
5. Regulatory Measures. This module gives the proponent the requirements for creating legal and contractual conditions (formalizing licenses, exit and take-out procedures) in order for the SPWNs to be integrated into the water supply chain to the extent possible.

Read more about the toolkit here

Download the toolkit here

Pakistan drinking water and sanitation web portal planned

The Ministry of Environment, with UNICEF support, is planning to set up a web portal on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to contribute to enhanced knowledge management for the sector under the umbrella of the National Year of Environment-2009.

The Ministry has sent out a request to organisations to send them Pakistan-specific water, sanitation and hygiene related materials and programme descriptions by 27 February 2009.

For more information go here or contact:

Jawed Ali Khan
Director General (Env)
Ministry of Environment
Government of Pakistan
G-5/2, LG & RD Complex Building,
Islamabad.
Tel: 051-9245528, 9245533
e-mail: jawedalikhan [at] hotmail.com

India Water Portal launches – Schools Water Portal

India Water Portal has launched the Sch2ools Water Portal, a platform for teachers and educators, students and parents, principals and school management to share learning resources on water.

The portal contains several colourful presentations, plays, debate topics, quizzes, poems and jingles all with water as the focal theme. There a sections for teachers and students. A special section for school principals has information on how to conduct a water audit and how to implement a rainwater harvesting system.

A wide range of partners, including educators, research institutes, government and non-government bodies, writers and artists have contributed to the portal.

Multiple Use Water Services

IDE announces the publication of Multiple Use Water Service Implementation in Nepal and India: Experience and Lessons for Scale-Up by Monique Mikhail and Robert Yoder. The book explores the practical implementation of the multiple-use water services (MUS) concept in Nepal and India, focusing on community-level lessons and implications for scaling up the approach. Lessons are drawn from projects that attempted to move beyond the segregation of irrigation and domestic water systems to allow the poor to access water for domestic needs as well as enable income-generating vegetable production.

The MUS work in both countries included application of the learning alliance approach, allowing idea sharing at the national/state, district, and local levels. These community, NGO, and partner efforts to integrate water resource use will inspire professionals to look at village water use and service delivery in new ways.

The book is jointly published by IDE, the Challenge Program on Water and Food, and theInternational Water Management Institute

Download here

Program evaluation of Partnership for Africa’s Water Development Program (PAWD)

Plan:Net Limited and Mosaic International (2008). Program evaluation of Partnership for Africa’s Water Development Program (PAWD) – Global Water Partnership : final report. Prepared for Canada Fund for Africa, Canadian International Development Agency. Stockholm, Sweden, Global Water Partnership. 143 p.

Download here

Abstract

The $10 million Partnership for Africa’s Water Development (PAWD) was implemented by the Global Water Partnership and managed by the Canada Fund for Africa at CIDA. PAWD is one of four water initiatives in Africa funded through the $500 million Fund set up after the 2002 G8 Summit as a gesture of Canada’s support to the G8 Africa Action Plan.

PAWD was to support five African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Senegal and Zambia) to manage their water resources in a sustainable manner in order to contribute to poverty reduction, human well-being and the protection of natural resources.

At the country level, PAWD focused on three components, which are directly related to the project’s outcomes/longer-term results:

• Support to National Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Frameworks;
• Support to the institutional development of existing, new and emerging multi-stakeholder national and
  regional water partnerships;
• Support towards the integration of water into Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs) or their equivalent.

By and large, the evaluation concludes that PAWD is a success, delivering substantially on four of its six program outcomes. The program fit well with the IWRM needs and aspirations of the five participating countries, and, over four and a half years, has helped them move their IWRM agendas forward. In turn, their experiences have helped other country water partnerships pass through a similar process.

It is clear from the literature, and from conversations held during the evaluation that the philosophy and methodology of IWRM is integral to the larger, longer-term water sector reforms underway. This bodes well for many of the gains made in PAWD. It seems very likely that implementation of the IWRM plans will occur as part of these continuing reform initiatives. Having struggled with roles and accountabilities for half the program, there now appears to be a level of comfort that government is driving the IWRM process with a disposition honouring interdependency and seeking complementarity. By all accounts, the philosophy and approaches of IWRM will help equip stakeholders to learn about, mitigate and/or adapt to the effects of climate change.

Well supported by GWP, the nascent Country Water Partnerships have demonstrated the value of multistakeholderv participation in policy and planning. While PAWD is leaving some of them with important financial, legal and organizational questions to resolve, there are good reasons to believe that they all have a future. They enjoy a higher public profile and continue to be connected to a well spring of water sector/IWRM expertise. They are roundly appreciated for a basic but profound role that is so necessary given the inter-disciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi-scaled nature of IWRM – that is to share and exchange information, and to coordinate action.

World Bank Water Weeks presentation guide 2001-2007

World Bank (2007?). World Bank Water Weeks presentation guide 2001-2007
Includes links to presentations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2001 – PPPs for Community Water Supply & Sanitation
2002 – Water Forum
2003 – Water & Development
2004 – Diving Into Implementation
2005 – Water Security: Policies & Investments
2007 – Water Futures: Sustainability & Growth

*The 2006 Water Week was an internal event for World Bank staff.

View the publication (PDF file) here.