Taking Responsibility for Water and Sanitation Delivery: Community Based Water and Sanitation in Periurban Areas

Abstract

Following its mandate, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Nepal and its partners (e.g. WaterAid Nepal) have been reaching out to communities with serious WATSAN problems, by supporting community based WATSAN projects in the fringe areas of Kathmandu (periurban). This research is an evaluation of two of those projects in Siddhipur and Lubhu respectively, located in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Focussing on the factors which could lead to a more effective community based approach of these projects in periurban areas. Setting up a project it is important to carefully analyse the needs and wants of the people in these complex and changing periurban areas, which has major implications on the institutional setup of the areas. It was found that the projects have been successfully community based and the approach had many successes, though it was also found that the poorest were less involved in the project. While those should be the main beneficiaries. The outcomes of the projects thus show a lower impact on the poorest in comparison to the better off. Concluding it can be mentioned that giving many responsibilities to the community there is a loss of pro-poor objectives. The pro-poor objective should be a focal point in areas where there is an active collaboration between citizens, poor and non-poor and water authorities.