China - Third National Rural Water Supply Project

 ICRR 12116 Report Number : ICRR12116 ICR Review Operations Evaluation Department 1. Project Data: Date Posted : 07/01/2005 PROJ ID : P003637 Appraisal Actual Project Name : Third National Rural Water Project Costs 134.0 132.4 Supply Project US$M ) (US$M) Country : China Loan/ Loan US$M ) 70 /Credit (US$M) 69.5 Sector (s): Board: WS - Water supply Cofinancing 0 0 (91%), Primary education US$M ) (US$M) (3%), Health (3%), Sanitation (3%) L/C Number : CN027 Board Approval 97 FY) (FY) Partners involved : UNDP, UNICEF, Provincial Closing Date 06/30/2003 12/31/2005 governments Prepared by : Reviewed by : Group Manager : Group : Ronald S. Parker Fernando Manibog Alain A. Barbu OEDSG 2. Project Objectives and Components a. Objectives The project's objectives were : (1) to provide access to safe, conveniently located water to rural people in 40 counties and five provinces; (2) to improve water-related health and sanitation practices; (3) to provide water at the lowest possible cost; and (4) to ensure sustainability through good maintenance and accounting practices . The Legal Agreement was amended in 2003 (see section 2c below) to include the following objective : "...to assist the Borrower in carrying out a program to control and manage the incidence and spread of SARS and infectious diseases ." The project objectives are fully aligned with IDA ’s CAS of March 1997, and they directly support the Ninth Five -Year Plan’s goal of assisting the poorest, most remote and most water -scarce counties. Initially, the project was to be implemented in five provinces: Yunnan, Hebei, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, and Jiangxi -- these are nationally or provincially designated "poor counties". b. Components (a) Water Supply ($116.4 million at appraisal [ICR does not provide final costs by component ]): the provision of sustainably financed safe water to poor communities currently lacking such supplies . (b) Sanitation and Health Education ($11.5 million) the provision of assistance to ongoing village sanitation and health education efforts by working with primary school teachers, village doctors, Women ’s Federation representatives, and public health systems in their efforts to improve water use and sanitation practices in project villages. (c) Project Management ($6.1 million) increase project office capacity to provide services to beneficiary villages, including training in project management s and health message delivery . c. Comments on Project Cost, Financing and Dates During the Mid-Term Review (MTR) in 2001, it was found that Jiangxi Province could not fully commit its allocation, and Gansu Province joined the project . After the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the winter of 2003, the Ministry of Health (MoH) requested a reallocation of SDR 571,429 from the credit for a SARS prevention program. This fourth component is ongoing and its achievements will be covered in the ICR for the Basic Health Services Project. 3. Achievement of Relevant Objectives: Despite a price hike in PVC pipes that caused procurement delays, t he physical investments for the water supply systems were implemented on time, and with good quality construction and supervision . Objective 1 Access to safe water (achieved ). The project financed the construction of piped water systems, deep-well hand pumps, and rainwater collectors to improve access to safe water . Beneficiaries opted for the higher level of service possible through piped water systems, where the project exceeded appraisal targets by 171 systems. Piped water systems bring safe water to beneficiaries' homes , thereby substantially reducing the daily time spent fetching water. About 1,610 rainwater collector systems and 1,394 piped water systems (single and multi-village) were constructed and are now providing safe water to some 5.2 million beneficiaries. The appraisal targets were 11,525 rainwater collector systems and 1,223 piped water systems. In spite of the apparent shortfall, the estimated number of beneficiaries for rainwater systems was exceeded by constructing piped systems that served wider areas than originally anticipated. The number of beneficiaries was appraised at 4.6 million in five provinces. With the addition of Gansu, the total estimated number of beneficiaries at completion is about 5.2 million (the project exceeded its target by 600,000). Tests show that national drinking water standards are being met . Objective 2 Improve Health and Sanitation Practices (achieved but with minor M&E shortcomings ). Targets for the construction of sanitary latrines in homes and schools were exceeded with 15,439 latrines built, compared to 14,180 estimated at appraisal. Provincial project offices (PPOs) carried out 729 health education courses, and distributed booklets, posters and other information to the beneficiary villages . Health education specialists were trained in the ways to customize the delivery of public health messages to the various target groups . In addition, thousands of television spots were broadcast, and numerous sets of video and audio training materials were produced and distributed to the beneficiary villages . However, the ICR presents health data from only one county in one province (Gansu). Moreover, only a few non-random household level interviews were conducted by IDA missions for the purpose of documenting project social, economic and health benefits . Anecdotal evidence from medical professionals contacted by the ICR mission in participating counties notes a declining incidence of communicable disaster and which could be the result of the adoption of improved hygienic practices . Objective 3 Provision of Water at Lowest Possible Cost (achieved with minor shortcomings ). At appraisal, the per household connection cost was estimated to be RMB 200. Most connection costs came close to the National Project Office's target, but because the actual demand for water (actual usage as opposed to number of users ) was lower than planned, the cost of providing water was higher than expected . The project overestimated the willingness of borrowers to abandon traditional water sources . Objective 4 Improve Maintenance and Accounting Practices (partially achieved ). 2,097 management training courses were held, with 95,142 participants. In addition, six overseas study tours of about two weeks visited water supply systems in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States (49 participants). While the companies' record-keeping practices and accounting improved gradually during implementation, the capacity and training of personnel in charge of water supply companies' maintenance and financial operations still varies greatly across provinces and counties . 4. Significant Outcomes/Impacts: Project design maximized community participation in selecting service alternatives . The project supported demonstration programs to increase the use of composting latrines . A comparison of the results on time savings for fetching water between the National Project Office's baseline survey and follow-up survey of 11,313 beneficiary households in five participating provinces in 2001, shows that before the project, each household spent 20 to 60 minutes per day fetching water, and that time increased in the dry season (lasting three to five months). With access to piped water supply, households saved some 183 hours per year--this time is now spent more productively on children ’s education, cultivation, and improved house maintenance. 5. Significant Shortcomings (including non-compliance with safeguard policies): Not properly assessing demand for improved piped water supply services resulted in water plants which were over-designed and under-utilized, at least in the intermediate term . Centralized procurement led to delays in delivering construction material and the procurement of unsuitable goods .The project lacked an adequate M&E framework that would compellingly support the ICR's assertions of progress in key areas . Furthermore, claims of improvements in health and village income are only supported by data from one county in one of the six project provinces, and in the case of poverty alleviation, with data from one village presented without baseline or explanation of why the income status of this village should be taken as representative . 6. Ratings : ICR OED Review Reason for Disagreement /Comments Outcome : Satisfactory Satisfactory Institutional Dev .: Substantial Substantial Sustainability : Likely Likely Bank Performance : Satisfactory Satisfactory Borrower Perf .: Satisfactory Satisfactory Quality of ICR : Satisfactory NOTE: NOTE ICR rating values flagged with ' * ' don't comply with OP/BP 13.55, but are listed for completeness. 7. Lessons of Broad Applicability: 1. Different contexts need different management models: involving the local private sector can require great flexibility in large countries. 2. Actively consulting water users during the planning and design stages can greatly increase future sustainability. 3. When ownership of treatment plants’ assets is unclear, expeditious clarification renders management initiatives more effective. 4. In very poor villages, explicit water tariff subsidies for the lowest income families need to be considered. 5.Tariff-setting processes need to be streamlined to the point that raising tariffs when necessary is not overly fraught. 6. Good coordination at the highest practicable level helps programs promoting sanitation and health to reinforce project messages over the broadest possible geographic area. 7. Successful hygiene promotion programs can use marketing techniques to strengthen the sanitation components and to trigger behavior change. 8. Training and capacity-building should be tailored to suit local conditions and made highly user-oriented if it is to be cost effective and adapted to the needs of provincial and local staff. 8. Assessment Recommended? Yes No Why? The success of the water supply and sanitation efforts will be of interest to several upcoming OED major studies. Identifying the constraints to M&E and ways to overcome them will be helpful to future poverty targeted efforts in the region . 9. Comments on Quality of ICR: The ICR is of satisfactory quality . It is well written and it provides as full an account as possible of the project experience given the data limitations that resulted from uneven monitoring .