PROGRAM PLANNING FOR THE DECADE FOR WATER
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PROGRAM PLANNING
FOR THE DECADE
FOR WATER - extracted text
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S°^NJTY,
CELL
PROGRAM PLANNING
FOR THE DECADE
FOR WATER
HEALTH C^L
326, V Main, | Block
Koramongala
Bangalore-560034
India
All peoples, whatever their stage of
development and their social and
economic conditions, have the right to
have access to drinking water in
quantities and of a quality equal to their
basic needs.
Resolution on
Community Water Supply
United Nations
Water Conference 1977
This language, and the
recognition of the problems in
developing nations that
occasioned it, was the spur for
the creation of the International
Drinking Water Supply and
Sanitation Decade. Declared by
the United Nations, the Decade
has as its goal clean water and
adequate sanitation for all people
by 1990. As of mid-1982, 81
nations have established Decade
committees to develop
countrywide plans for meeting
this goal. National governments,
private foundations, and bilateral
and multi-lateral donor agencies
have joined the effort with plans,
programs, technical assistance,
equipment, and money.
Perhaps shielded from view by
all the things being done are the
basic questions of why a given
country should do anything
about the Decade for Water and
how it should do it. There are,
after all, competing needs for
scarce resources, and water and
sanitation facilities development
is a complex process, given the
numbers and limited
coordination of the participants.
Nonetheless, there are solid
reasons for national investment
in this process.
The "Why" of Water Supply
Improved water supply and
sanitation facilities make an
important contribution to
healthier populations, more
productive economies, and more
vigorous societies. These are
adequate long-run reasons for
national investment. At the same
time, governments undertaking
such investment can also reap
short-run political rewards,
always a consideration when
spending priorities are being
established.
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Health Benefits
The number of water taps per 1,000
persons is a better indication of health
than the number of hospital beds.
Dr. Halfdan Mahler
Director-General, World
Health Organization
Many diseases, including the
scourges of cholera, typhoid, and
the many diarrheal and
dysenteric diseases, can be
reduced by adequate water
supply and sanitation. In the
developing countries, diarrheal
diseases are among the leading
causes of death, especially
among children. In many of
these countries, one of every
four children dies before his or
her fifth birthday. The role of
water supply in improving
health is not limited to diseases
transmitted directly through
ingesting water in food or drink.
With adequate water supplies for
bathing, washing of clothes and
cooking utensils, food
preparation and other purposes,
reductions can occur in diseases
of the eyes and skin, diseases
caused by parasites, diseases
COMMUNITY HE (. H CELL
326, V Main, I Block
Kcamann’la
Ban
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I-
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transmitted by insect vectors,
diseases associated with water
contact, and food-borne diseases.
While the precise measure of
the effect of water supply and
sanitation on disease may be a
matter of dispute, there is no
question that adequate facilities
are associated with a healthier
population. Water-related
diseases are invariably among
the leading causes of death in
countries that do not have
adequate water supplies and
sanitation. Most of these
countries are developing nations.
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
326. V Main, 1 Block
Koramangala
Bamainre-560034
In Jia
Economic Benefits
The degree of efficiency of water supply
systems can be used as an indicator of
the standard of development a
community has reached.
Colombian Ministry of Health
Somewhat like health benefits,
the economic development
impacts of water and sanitation
facilities are difficult to measure
but few people doubt that such
impacts exist. For example,
industries are not attracted to
rural villages simply because
they have good water supply
and sanitation systems, but we
know that industries do not
locate in villages that lack these
facilities. Water supply and
sanitation facilities can be viewed
as part of the essential
infrastructure of a community
without which economic
development will never occur.
Improving village water
supplies may be an essential step
in the development of village
and home industries (fish
processing, fruit production, and
beer brewing, for example) and
can increase the productivity of a
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village's residents by decreasing
the amount of time and energy
that must be spent fetching
water and by increasing workers'
outputs because of better health.
Other economic benefits may
include home gardening and
small-scale livestock production.
Rural water supply and
sanitation improvements can also
help to slow migration to already
over-crowded cities and serve to
redistribute income to some
extent from wealthier cities to
poorer rural communities. These
economic impacts are difficult to
quantify but that does not mean
they are insignificant. Indeed,
entire sectors of an economy,
such as livestock production or
mining operations, may be
dependent on water.
Social Benefits
A young girl in Sudan carries a 22-liter
tin of water on her head twice each day
for her family. Asked what she would do
if her village got a well, she replied:
"Then maybe I can go to school again."
UNICEF
To rural villagers, the most
important benefit of an improved
water supply or sanitation
system is likely to be
convenience. They may applaud
the positive health and economic
effects once they are aware of
them, but it is the end to the
daily struggle to find and fetch
water that is paramount. It is not
unusual for six hours per
household per day to be spent in
this way. The social aspects of
gathering at the river to do the
wash or fill water jugs
notwithstanding, most of the
women who are the primary
drawers of water would vastly
prefer a reliable supply requiring
less of their time and effort. So
would their children.
A second social benefit of
water supply and sanitation
projects is the opportunity they
provide for community
organization and the
development of leadership
within the community. This does
not necessarily occur naturally. It
must be fostered from the outset
of the effort and treated as one of
the project objectives. The results
are well worth the trouble. The
skills acquired by a community
as it develops and maintains its
own water supply or sanitation
system are transferrable to other
types of improvement projects
and other kinds of activities. The
community and the country
benefit from greater self-reliance
and stronger leadership.
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Political Benefits
Although water supply and
sanitation benefits are largely
socio-economic, the decisions to
pursue these benefits through
facilities improvement are, in the
end, political. For several
reasons, giving high priority to
water and sanitation is a good
political choice.
First, these programs are not
usually matters of deep political
controversy. There may be
differences on timing and
financial levels of commitment,
but most political leaders can
agree on the general proposition
that people should have
reasonable access to clean water
and a sanitary means for
disposing of their wastes. The
United Nations resolution
launching the Decade for Water
received universal support in a
body often torn by ideological
disagreement and regional
conflict.
Second, water supply and
sanitation projects, if handled
properly, receive great popular
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support. While such projects can
be made controversial if the
community is given no chance to
participate in decision-making or
if community education is
ignored, very few people are
opposed in principle to a better,
more convenient water supply
and a healthier way to dispose of
human excreta. People like
improvements in their lives,
especially those, such as a
convenient water supply, that
can be enjoyed immediately.
Third, the pace of many
development projects is often
slow, almost glacially so. Many
of the benefits of water supply
and sanitation projects are
immediately apparent to
community members which
builds their support and
confidence in the development
process.
Fourth, and more narrowly,
development of water supply
and sanitation systems usually
involves self-help by the
community with the assistance of
substantial sums of money from
the national government and is
thus a convenient way to
disburse political rewards.
Political leaders and
governments can use village
water supplies as a means of
showing their rural constituents
their concern with development
and progress, of allaying political
opposition, and of rewarding
political supporters.
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The "How" of Water Supply
Let us assume that the
decision has been made to
undertake a rural water supply
and sanitation program that will
address the country's needs.
How does one proceed with such
a complicated and potentially
costly effort? The United States
Agency for International
Development has developed a
set of materials called "Water for
the World" that provides many
of the answers.
There are two kinds of
materials in the "Water for the
World" series. First, there is a
volume titled Safe Water and
Waste Disposal for Rural Health: A
Program Guide. This book was
written for people in the
developing nations who have or
are interested in having the
responsibility for developing a
countrywide rural water supply
and sanitation program. It is not
primarily a technical manual,
although it describes the water
supply and sanitation
technologies best suited for use
in village settings. It is written
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for the program manager and
includes advice on almost every
aspect of setting up a program—
technology, planning,
community participation, human
resource development, and
economics. The second part of
"Water for the World" is a set of
about 160 technical notes which
describe in detail water and
sanitation methods, their
planning, design, construction,
and operation and maintenance.
These technical notes are
intended for people working in
the field on water supply and
sanitation projects, and they can
be used in a variety of ways.
Begin working on your water
supply and sanitation program
by reading these materials,
especially the Program Guide.
Study them, talk about them
with other people, distribute
them to anyone who is also
interested in a program for the
Decade. But, most of all, use them
to plan a program for your country.
The greatest usefulness of
these materials lies in their ability
to help the program planner
understand water supply and
sanitation programs and what
they involve. This understanding
must then be turned into a
detailed design for the program
best suited to meet the needs of
a country and accomplish the
objectives the country considers
important. This program design
should be done in-country and it
should reflect the health, social,
economic and political benefits
that a country's leaders want to
achieve through the program.
Something will happen in all
of the developing nations as a
result of the Decade for Water,
and everything that happens will
to some extent be beneficial.
There are enough technical
assistance and financing agencies
involved in the Decade to ensure
that ever)' country that is willing
to accept help gets it—at some
level and in some form. Without
a detailed in-country program
and plan, however, available
external resources—not the
needs and desires of the
country—may dictate what is
done. Programs, plans and
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solutions from outside the
country will receive highest
priority. In the end the goals
achieved may be those of the
donor agencies, simply because
local goals have not been
clarified and promoted.
Seize the initiative, plan the
program, control the resources.
Use outside help, of course, but
use it to further the goals of your
country's own program. It is
especially important that people
in the country prepare the
program plan. A country that
has a water supply and
sanitation program plan
prepared—knows what it wants
to do and generally how it wants
to do it—has the best chance of
obtaining outside resources and
of making maximum use of them
for its own purposes.
ACT- e-rs#
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
32G, V Main, I Clock
Koram, rg '|a
Bangalore-560034
India
Editorial Advisory Board
Gordon Alexander*
United Nations Children's Fund
Mary Elmendorf
Consultant
P.A. Stevens*
World Health Organization
R.C. Ballance*
World Health Organization
Leon Jacobs
Consultant
Dennis Warner*
Water and Sanitation for Health Project
James Bell*
Peace Corps
John Kalbermatten*
World Bank
Gerald F. Winfield
Consultant
Horst Otterstetter*
Pan-American Health Organization
Robert Worral
Population Reference Bureau
Fred Reiff*
Pan-American Health Organization
Martin Young*
University of Florida
Ex Officio Members
Project Manager
Photographs
John H. Austin*
Agency for International Development
Mary E. Morgan
Institute for Rural Water
Raymond Victurine
Michelle DeNevers
Michael McQuestion
Noel Perry
Christopher Walter
Martin Beyer
United Nations Children's Fund
David Donaldson
Pan-American Health Organization and
Water and Sanitation for Health Project
Earle Lawrence
Agency for International Development
Victor Wehman*
Agency for International Development
Edwin L. Cobb
National Demonstration Water Project
*Did not serve for full duration of project
Prepared by
National Demonstration Water Project
for
U.S. Agency for International Development
under
Contract Number AID/DSAN-C-0063
Knowledge Synthesis Project
Environmental Health Information Activitv
This document is a summary of a book entitled Safe Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Health: A Program Guide published as a part of
"Water for the World" materials prepared under contract to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Other parts of "Water for
the World" include about 160 technical notes on narrowly-defined technical topics and two documents similar in length to this one
entitled Executive Summary, Safe Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Health: .4 Program Guide and Program Implementation for the Decadefor Water.
The views expressed in this document are the responsibility of National Demonstration Water Project and do not in any wav represent
the policy of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Information on this and other 'Water for the World" materials may be
obtained from the Development Information Center, Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C., 20523, U.S.A.
July, 1982
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