Jalvaani 1(1)

). ' ] -'' I (\ ' i- 1 W1 &%WA - ,~~~~, An unfoldicng story 2 Phad, a traditional storytelling technique, chronicles the saga of community involvement in rural water supply and sanitation ~ omen, children- '~ V Barwara villa(ge in the heart of India watch in wide eyed amazement asa ,, - ' v brightly coloured 12 metre length of cloth is unfurled in . ' 14 . ,, front of them. There is a giggle here and a gasp L there, as a story emerges from deep in the folds of - - the cloth. Panel after panel -, flashes past their eyes pro- jecting familiar day to day aspects of their own lives in front of them. *, ., ~ The language is their very own Bundeli (spoken in l the region of Bundelkhand of Uttar Pradesh State) and - - the story is about Ramu and _l Rani, but in fact it could be of any of the couples sitting A giggle here practice used both by former Another advantage of Phad is that it among the audience. It feudal rulers as well as the folk can be produced locally in a short time chronicles the participation and a gasp entertainers of the area, a local and made context specific to the area in of the village in the Svwajal there as a all-woman NGO, Vanangana, which the message is to be transmitted. Project - a programme on has chosen to resurrect this Languages and dialogues can be changed community involvement in story emerges technique and produced two rapidly, while the visual element is the rural water supply and f deep full length Phads. The organi- distinctive to the locality and thus familiar sanitation sector. rom In sation has been working in the to the audience. What distinguishes this the folds of area since 1993 and its core The two Phads produced by unique experiment is its use t cL staff comprises local women. It Vanangana tell the story of the planning of the traditional form of the cloth provides legal aid as well as and the implementation stage of the communication, the story- imparts technical skills to Swajal project. In the first, two young girls, telling technique of Phad used in an era women in response to their needs. Chuniya and Muniya, weighed down by much before the advent of "infotain- Vanangana soon realised the advan- the water crisis in their village including the ment". Royal story-tellers would travel tages of this mode, since it was effective spread of water borne diseases, are excited from village to village carrying pictorial in conveying messages to the vast majority by the coming of Vanangana field level depictions of various battles and adven- of illiterate people in the region without facilitators to the village. They monitor the tures undertaken by kings. The panels and having to preach to them. Though story- planning phase with great interest and pictures made their narratives much more telling itself was not an easy vocation, its excitement as it covers the technological vivid, colourful and exciting. roots lay in the traditions of the villages, options offered, as well as the community's Rather than abandon this age old making the task easier. growing involvement with the project.  It csn be V i . - Iv -t effective in conveying messages to the vast majority of X, illiterate people in the region -- The sometimes painful process of the well dries up." Retorts Rani, "If you The Phad process is also an interactive collection of contributions from the were to see how red and blistered my one. As the panels unfold, the audience villagers to establish their ownership as hands get from fetching the water from shoots impromptu questions at Ramu and well as selection of the Village Water and far off places you would not make such Rani, who respond with enthusiasm. There Sanitation Committee are made simple by statements." These everyday innocuous is often an exchange of comments, which their constant banter. They a so play a domestic conversations played out in the sometimes lead to heated debates. The critical role in convincing and cajo ing open, provide valuable insights into not organisers try to moderate and address the their parents, especially their mothers, to only sharing of chores but also of larger important questions raised. participate. issues like water availability. In addition, As soon as things are calmer, the last In the second Phad, the story of Ramu other issues like community involvement, panels point to the future. A future that is and Rani highlights the issue of gender transparency and corruption, the Swajal likely to be disease free, devoid of the imbalance. Says Ramu, "Rani, all you do is Project itself and even the role of external drudgery of women undertaking the long st by the well and gossip with your support agencies like the World Bank are and physically d fficult job of fetching clean friends. You even f nd time to gossip when examined and discussed. water for the family. a roles to forge a collaborative relat onship. To ensure th s, each associate will draw on its strengths to add dynamism to Strategic a llance signed the overall objective of making safe and Strategic alliance signed sustainable water as well as sanitation Collaboration to promote sustained access of rural poor to improved services available to India's rural population. It is generally accepted that water and sanitation services the lack of these vital services remains a lirmiting factor to T he Raliv Gandhi National D rin ing economic growth and a Water Mission (The Mission) has significant cause of entered into a unique three-year poverty and ill health. strategic alliance with the Regional Water Each partner has a and Sanitation Group for South Asia clearly defined role in tihis (RWSG-SA) with the objective of assisting alliance. The responsibili- the rural poor in India gain sustained ties of the Mission include access to improved water and sanitation sharing vital information services. An agreement between the two .!.....r . with RWSG-SA on policy agencies was signed in June this year. directions and trends in To achieve this objective, both the nao , nal thinking. The Mission and the RWSG-SA (a regional hub - s . - RWSG-SA's responsibilities of the global UNDP-World Bank Water and Brian Grover (centre) and Palat Mohandas (right) signing the include assisting the Sanitation Program) recognise the need Strategic Alliance as Piers Cross looks on. Mission in accelerating for "significant reforms" in approaches to ongoing RWSS policy service delivery in the Rural Water Supply sharing with beneficiaries and innovative reforms by promoting the use of a demand and Sanitation (RWSS) sector financing mechanisms), greater community responsive approach, including increasing The reforms will focus on new control and involvement in decisions user cost recovery in the delivery of institutional arrangements (including affecting service provision. rural water and sanitation services. The new roles for Governmental, This non-exclusive partnership wi I RWSG-SA will also seek to encourage the non-governmental and private bodies), assist both parties in strengthening their participation of NGOs and private agencies new financing mechanisms (including cost relationship by focusing on complementary in the sector. a 2  * .-~,.. ~ editorial ty r.- Ipi s JOINT INITIATIVE Welcome to Jalvaani, a newsletter for rural water supply and environmental sanitation SPREADING THE WORD The Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking (RWSS). In some ways Jalvaani is not really new Water Mission, in partnership with but a transmuted version of Mission Watsan, a With a view to taking policy reforms RWSG-SA and the Ramakrishna journal of the Rajiy Gandhi National Drinking from the concept stage at the Centre Mission (a well known NGO), has Water Mission (RGNDWAM). In these days of to the ground level in the States, the decided to invest Rs 50 lakhs partnerships andl strategic alliances which build Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water ($ 119,000) in a pilot rural water on the experiences and *. '.,rIi. of Mission (RGNDWM) will conduct supply scheme in Bengal. complementing agencies, the recenit agreement regional workshops across the The unique feature of the signed between the RGNDWM and rhe country. These will help in finalising project is that the community will UNDP- WVorldi Bank Water and Sanitation a National Action Plan for institution- contribute as much as one third of Program (Regional 1A'ater and Sanitation alising community participation, the capital cost of water supply, as Group - South Asia), prcvides the backdrop capital cost sharing, user based well as 1 00 per cent of the operation for the relaunch of the newsletter. operation and main- This newsletter is meant to cater to tenance as well as important stakeholders in the RWSS sector, improved water quality including Governments (both Central and monitoring and surveil- State), NGOs, the private sector and external lance in the RWSS sector. support agencies. Oul attempt is to Capture and The first series of highlight the innovations and best practices workshops were held for /taking place all over, which dlo not qualify as the north-central region in .'news for the mainistreami media. Thirouigh this, Jaipur in September this we hope to tell you about intereSting p,rojects year. The next will be held ,like the one detailed in our lead story. It is on October 26 and 27 about the traditional technique of -f . ,, O'cir. in Bangalore for seven being applied to comnmunicate the message Ot a southern States. These are new approach in the RW'SS sector. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, We have divided the newsletter in clearly Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, definied but not rigid sections. There is space for Maharashtra, Goa and Lakshadweep. and maintenance cost. The project, newsbriefs pointing to imnportant events in the A workshop in Char'digarh on which will be implemented in a sector, as well as interesting technological November 5 and 6 will follow for the participatory manner, will also seek developmients. A notice board will c-arryv four northern States of Jammu and to mitigate the arsenic problem in announcemients of forthcoming conterences, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab the affected villages, seminars and workshops, etc. and Haryana. On November 13 and The RWSG-SA is providing tech- In the NGO section, we show how 19 there will be a workshop in nical assistance to the NGO/comm- suistaiined work in Watershed clevelopmient led Guwahati for tne north-eastern unities and will also help in building not only to adiequiate drinking and irrigation States and Sikkim. F-ir1ii, in the knowledge across the region by water for . 4i i,.. - in the arid region of second week of December, there developing a linkage between this Rajasthan, but also to the reViVal of a river that will be a workshop in Bhubaneshwar project and the Bangladesh Arsenic had been dry for years. The funding agencies for the eastern States. Mitigation Project. section carries information on UNICEF's school sanitation project in Haryana and Department - . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~for International Development's work in NOTICE BOARD RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND Maharashtra. SANITATION POLICY REFORM WORKSHOP Finally on the backtpage, wVe carryv an A National Workshop for interview with Dr N.C. Saxena, Secretary, Rural NEW APPROACH TO Ministers jointly organised by Dev elopment in th7e Ministry of Rural AreaS anid SANITATION FOR HIGH RISK Rajiv Gandhi NationalEmlyetInfurise,weiltako COMMUNITIES Drinking Water Mission,otestkhdrsitesco,inlig An International Workshop Economic Development ohrsaeocesi h etr nfdn organised by the World Health Institute (World Bank) and commnunity leadlers. We hope you find our Organisation (SEARO). RWSG-SA. efforts both informative and a refreshing change November 17 to 19, 1998. January 13 to 15, 1999. from the stream of typically "official" news- Pokhara, Nepal Bangalore, India ~~~~~letters. It is our endeavour to Make this forumi as interactive and contributory as possible. fwish you all a Happy DiwaIi. *Editorial Board: Palat Mohandas, Sanjay Mitra, Parameswaran lyer, V. Vishwanathane9 Editorial Consultant: Damandeep Singh * Design Consultant: Pradyune0 UN IAWG-WES Coordinator: Ranjan Samantaray/ Contributions, comments and suggestions may be sent to: PltMhna * INSDOC c/o RGNDWM Block 11, 6th Floor, C.G.O. New Delhi 110003. PltMhna Tel. 436-1656, 1950 & 2106 Fax. 4363152. Email: irgnrdwmrr@sirnetcl.ernet.in Joint Secretary and Mission Director * India Country Team, RWSG-SA. 55 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110002. Rajiv Gandhi National Drink in~ Water Mission Tel. 469-0488 & 0489. Fax. 462-8250. Email: rwsg-sa@worldbank.org Co~ ernnie,fl of India.  Jalvaani NGOs some time ago, it became clear to the people that a major event was happening. Singh said it was fortuitous River ru n s th rough 1It that they began work from the upstream region of the river where Reviving traditional water conservation techniques has ensured percolation from the johads brought a steady flow into a dry river, bringing it back to life water back in the wells. The excess water flowed downstream into the channels and streams which merged to become the river. . ~~~~TBS also simultaneously emphasised * that though the water works were * important, the villagers had to promise to nelp revive and protect the forests of the region. TBS explained to the villagers that if there were no forests the rain would wash away the topsoil from - their fields and damage the water ; -- - ,bodies that the villagers were building. t Ilillj3 SFTrees would also help in trapping the rainwater that would percolate into the ground and recharge the r wel s and, later, revive the river. - . - ~~~~~~~~~The villagers readily agreed and - evolved their own rules regarding protection of not only the village n the harsh, low rainfall, arid slopes of the Aravalli hills of Rajasthan, a minor inor - conservation miracle has occurred. Aravari River, which had been completely dry for many years has come back to life - - thro igh the concerted efforts of villagers, assisted by a local voluntary group, Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS). The movement is really a decade old, though the river has only recently come back to life. It is a story of perseverance, of attempts by villagers to improve their liveli- _ . - hood and living conditions and, in doing -tj - ; :, so, aiding the rebirth of a river in th s unforgiving cl mate. In Hamirpur village, w upstream of the river, where the villagers . and rBS have constructed the 50 feet wide and 1 1 feet h gh Jabar Sagar Dam, there is water all the year round and birds have started flocking to the area. to be stakeholders in whatever activity was common lands and trees but also the ' Frankly we had no idea that we undertaken. This method helped ensure barren lands classified as "forests" under wou d revitalise such a big river when we both community ownership and long term the control of the forest department. Fines began work in the villages of the region," sustainability. were instituted for those found so much admitted Rajindra Singh of TBS rather Residents of Hamirpur paid nearly a as carrying an axe in their "protected candidly. "All we wanted to do was to fourth of the cost of the dam besides areas". work on reviving traditional water contributing their labour. The dam is not Villagers claim that things have bodies of the villages called 'johads' as the only activity undertaken by the improved to such an extent that well as protect the trees, forests and villagers in this region. They have built people who had earlier migrated to wildlife of the region. " and repaired nearly 1500 water structures live in the slums of Delhi and Ahmedabad TBS started work in this region over a in this region, of which nearly 200 are in are returning. According to them, even decade ago and its efforts have borne the catchment of Aravari alone. the river has come alive with fish that fruit. Unlike the Government programmes, When water began gushing in small are two feet in length and weigh up their strategy was quite clear: villagers had streams along the course of the Aravari to 10 kg. . 4  STATES Jalvaani the whole village community. Much of the credit for the project goes to the community for mobilising Rs 1.42 lakhs towards par- tial capital cost of the project. The water tar ff has been fixed by the VWSC, after much debate and discussion, at Rs 30 per month C o m m u n it * * * V * * * * y for house connections along with a one time deposit of Rs 500. y w ~~~~~~~Users of community standposts pay Rs 15 per rnonth. Thotiah, o w n e rsh ip chairm_an of the VWSC, is confident that with this scale of tariff, A village takes over the running of its own water and sanitation project, heralding a new era of decentralised management olalu, a hitherto nondescript village of a ; Mandya district in Karnataka hit the head- lines recently when it became the first _ village to take over the management of a water and environmental sanitation project completed under a World Bank assisted project. True to its name (Holalu means echo), the village reverberates with deep sounds of hope and progress showing the path for others to follow. The unanimous demand of the people - - was that the project be managed by them: "We - are waiting to take over the water and sanitation system for operation and maintenance as we are - i enjoying the sweet, saXe and sufficient water gushng out of our taps", said the villagers with much enthusiasm. the systems could be maintained to the full satisfaction of the Project assets worth Rs 23 lakhs were handed over to Thotiah, villagers. Village personnel for maintaining the system have chairman of the Village Water and Sanitatior Committee (VWSC). already been trained under the project and have been appointed It was done in the presence of Chowdiah, Meriber of Legislative by the VWSC. Today, Holalu is a good example of corrimunity Council, K Namboodri of the NGO Vikasana, and, most importantly, based management of water supply and sanitation systems. E WEST BENGAL i'R',J! 1 latrine, t would have meant an outgo of Rs 900 crores. It was * considered impossible to mobilise such huge funds. Besides, the Demand Responsive Approacn literacy and land reform movements in the state had shown that the rural people were capable of mobilising community B uilding on the success of the Midnapur self help sanitation resources on their own", said the Minister. experiment in 1990, the West Bengal Government has People's participation is the cornerstcne of this project in B launched an ambitious scheme to replicate the programme which youth organisations and local NGC)s were invited to form in all parts of the State. Starting in right earnest in 1993-94 by sanitary marts. In addition, schoolteachers and members of all identifying zilla parishads as organisations to set up sanitary political parties were involved in the marts in each panchayat samiti, by May 1998 work had spread In a break programme. Affordable technology, with to 193 of the 341 panchayat samitis. In order to make it from st models costing between Rs 340 to Rs 3,500, different from other Government run schemes, the issue of "self- pa also ensured its rapid spread. sustainability of the programme" has been uppermost in the State practices, no The project has evolved a methodology Governmert's mind. whereby an initial small fee for the In a break from past practice, no Government subsidies are government motivator who brings the community given. Instead, the Government has stressed the need to make the subsidy is together is built into the construction cost of rural community aware of the need for sanitation, resulting in the latrine. In addition, costs for two mart creating demand. Dr Surya Kant Misra, Panchayat and Rural given managers are factored in for O&M. Development Minister, admits that "all previous attempts of the As a result of the programme, there has Government to provide sanitary facilities with high doses of been a dramatic change in the lives of the rural population. A subsidy more or less failed as it generated a subsidy dependence study by the Sanitation Cell of Panchayats and Rural Development syndrome, which is counter productive in the long run". in Tamluk II Block of Midnapur district between 1994 and 1996, "If the Government's aim of reaching 90 lakh rural families shows that incidence of disease has reduced significantly. was to be achieved with even a moderate subsidy of Rs 1000 per Diarrhoeal episodes are down from 890 to 490 over this period. o 5  jalvaani FUNDING AGENCIES -gilgiffE.1"u, DFID in Catching em' young Maharashtra LINICEF initiates an environmental sanitation programme in n a major transition from their 400 primary schools in Ambala district of Haryana past practices brought about by extensive experience in the rural iven the poor state of sanitation significant success in implementation. water supply and sanitation project in in the country, with less than one Teachers reported that, following their Maharashtra, the Department for ',,- fifth of rural households actually discussions and activities with the International Development (DFID) having latrines, the United Nations children, the schools were able to and the State Government have Children's Fund (UNICEF) has under- present a cleaner look, the children agreed to policy changes for better taken an ambitious project to inculcate were neatly dressed and most wore integration of water supply and the hygiene and cleanliness habit in footwear, and most importantly, they sanitation projects. the young. understood the linkage between health Future projects would be under- Incorporating the new thinking taken by a community based, demand on sanitation, which goes be,: l J , . led process, emphasising the recognition the simple provision of ., ,,. .: - of water as a social and economic latrines to include a . . --,.,,- . good. package of health : The other key elements of this related measures, it was l - understanding between the two felt that the best target _ . l parties include development of least group would be primary - cost solutions as well as development school children who had of institutional and social mechanisms not yet settled into set for the rational allocation of water behavioural patterns. The between competing sources of project covers aspects of demand. environmental and house- DFID has been supporting a rural hold cleanliness, as well as NoE water supply and sanitation project in personal hygiene. It is an . Maharashtra since April 1990. The ackniowledged fact that project was designed to supply health education, leading tc. piped and treated water to 186 villages an understanding of the link- and sanitation. They also started inter- and one small town in Jalgaon and ages between health and sanitation, acting with the larger village community Nasik districts. is fLndamental to attainment of such about the poor sanitary conditions of Work on one of the two schemes a change. the village and ways to improve it. in Jalgaon district was completed Children are far more receptive to Children discussed components of early this year while work on the new ideas and are at an age when they sanitation in their respective homes other is nearing completion. can be influenced to cultivate the habits as a result of which parents also Construction of the scheme in Nasik of good personal hygiene. The pro- started becoming aware. As part of district has also been substantially motion of personal hygiene and environ- the larger outreach, the teachers also completed but a number of villages mental sanitation within schools can visit their pupils' homes once a week are yet to start receiving their full help children adopt good habits during and they have found that attitudes are requirement of water. the lormative years of their childhood. changing. One of the innovations in the Besides, to get the programme going, On the flip side is the perennial lack project has been the establishment ot the rural school system offers a vast of funds to construct latrines and professional units in the zilla parishad infrastructure which can be used to storage tanks. Besides the lack of charged with the responsibility of exert influence, not just on the coordination among the various operations, maintenance and cost child,en but also on the community at Government departments, which should recovery of the schemes. large. The entire programme covers be responsible for the programme, the Building the capacity of the seven components which include lack of interest in the larger community community for management of village handling of drinking water, disposal is the biggest obstacle. distribution systems, helping women to of waste water, disposal of human Be that as it may, as long as children take on a greater decision making role excreta, disposal of garbage and animal are getting involved in improved sani- and ensuring that benefits reach people excreta, home sanitation and food tation and learning that keeping them- of scheduled castes and tribes residing in hygiene, personal hygiene and - i',,-, selves and their surroundings clean will the area are other important elements of village sanitation. lead to a disease free tomorrow, the DFID's work in this central region of A study of the project points to larger battle is being won. * Maharashtra. o 6  Talvaani ceived to ultimately evolve / - - 4ai , into a Global Information Centre on the RWSS sector. rFIllIng Xtse i E > Access to such informa- * * l l , _ ' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~tion 11elps a nation come to grig-psvith new knowledge inform atio n ga p ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and technologies used infor m at.on g p . worldwide. The RGNDWM is Documentation centre at the Rajiv Gandhi t the apex body at the nation- National Drinking Water Mission to fill in a vital resource gap al evef thate ohfferncalessa trative and financial assis- S peedy and reliable information in the hands of key stake- tance in the RWSS sector to the States. Besides, a number of holders in the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) research and development activities have been initiated by the J sector such as Government, NGOs and the communities mission and are being carried out by universities, research insti- at large is a vital asset for effective implementation of schemes tutions, government bodies and NGOs. These have generated and delivery of services. In order to fulfil this indispensable a lot of valuable data and information which will be dissemi- need, the RGNDWM recently set up a Documentation and nated through INSDOC. Information Centre (INSDOC) in collaboration with the Ind an Inaugurated in July 1998 by the Minister of State for Rural National Scientific Documentation Centre. Areas and Employment, Mr Babagouda Patil, INSDOC consists Providing sustainable access to safe drinking water and of a fully automated library and an electronic information cen- sanitation is a global problem that is acute in many developing tre which house a rich collection of literature on drinking and underdeveloped countries. The problem is being water and sanitation in the form of books, reports, journals addressed by various national and international agencies. and electronic databases. The centre also has facilities to Information is generated in the form of reports, books, access the Internet and ultimately, the centre's resources, research and technical articles, electronic databases, etc. To through its own website, wi I be open to global access. facilitate access to this, the INSDOC Centre has been con- Information products are also planned on compact discs. . a I T-13 i l clean in itself, but also prevents the the year, before returning to the first contamination of village water sources chamber, it is opened and cleaned out. like wells through seepage which is "The contents are transformed to an Dry com post I ng common in the case of septic tanks earthy garden soil like compost with Latrine and pit latrines. no objectionable smell or appea- The dry latrine consists of two rance ", claims the group. This can be covered chambers each with a urine used as organic fertilizer in the fields and defecation hole. Each of these or around trees. chambers is used in turn for six The organisation says that the months a year. Besides these, there is a individual system's average cost is wash hole and a flowerbed into which about Rs 3,500 and it consumes ten the wastewater and urine flow. The times less water than flush closet - X A f urine gets diluted by the wastewater toilets. It has the added advantage of \ /R1 /and acts as a fertiliser while neutralis- providing a source for organic fertilizer ~ } s1i3d~ Y :: ing the smell. as well as safeguarding against conta- The faeces hole has a bed of mination of drinking water sources. straw at the bottom into which it falls. For more infonnation, contact: Instead of flushing, a little lime or Programme for Community Organisation and 7The Programme for Community cooking ash i5 sprinkled over the hole Shraria Shakti at PCO. Centre, Spencer Junction, I Organisation and Shraria Shakti and the cover replaced. At the end of M.G. Road, Thiruvananthapuram 695039. have come up with a dry composting latrine design which might well be the Chamber 1 Urinate Defecate sanitation solution for waterlogged Chamber 2 Wash and high water table areas like the coastal zones of the country. The two Thiruvananthapuram based ' , Flower Bed organisations along with a British engineer, Paul Calvert, have devised this low water usage system which is cheap as well as hygienic. It is not only 7  Jalvaan i INTERVIEW G overnm ent as and very inflexible technology. They also Secretary, Rural Development, Ministry a f ciitahave few new ideas and lack the willing- of Rural Areas and Employment ness to experiment. Governments change and Departments change ony when they are forced to change, they don't change on - --.--....e:- .i. , ..their own. Gradually, we'll have to see that central funding is linked with suitable insti- . tutional reforms in the state PHEDs, after 't"'"'0-''<'' ,9'(' i'$. '. .: . ;., *;./',_S, . ,,, '.j sector studies. For example, as an incentive, , -.t<.a - a - - orF,a. t :: < the Centre could consider giving additional Ii<j;3r .-,nZ tVe t i funds to state PHEDs, which reduce statf The Ninth Plan objectives are more or and overhead costs, etc. less the same as n the Eighth Plan. Plan - ' -s objectives are always laudable and this v.j , ,, . applies notjust to the dr nking water sector. nti VVE' may thus have good objectives, but we - : ~ X on This is a major issue. We already have have st II not developed the methodology onethird panchayats headed by women. We to translate these objectives into action. need to encourage and get them nmore Ultimately, you have to evolve strategies to movingfrorthat of a pmvider actively involved in the RWSS sector in areas implement the objectives and sub objec- Government can become a pure facili- like repair of handpumps, etc Women -an tives and this is something we are working tator only when it reduces subsidy. Whi e we also play an important role in sanitation pro- upon in the RWSS sector. want to move in that direct on, water is still a grammes and in extension work. Maybe highly subsidised commod ty. If you want anganwadi workers and other local women, One of the key .c- '-....- of the -, . more of private sector investment, you must can be encouraged in the RWSS sectcr I Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission is show them some profits. This may take some think we have to make special efforts to that of v.'iy n Operation and time. Alternatively, government investment promote the role of women in this sector. Maintenance (O&M) is a key issue here. could continue but be channelised through What are your views on this? the panchayats, user groups and other bod- . i .. on the i e' . We are clear that sooner or later in all ies. Government could therefore provide the newsletter? What do you think about this drinking water schemes O&M has to be funds, but actual service delivery wou d be joint initiative of the Rajiv Gandhi Mission, decentralised and responsibility for this through other local agencies. In the short and RWSG-SA and the UN System? should be given as far as possible to the intermediate term, it would be more practical I think it IS a very good initiative It is a users. Such decentralised management, to adopt this as the institutional model. useful way of sharing best practices, inno- which is currently more advanced in forestry vations and new thinking in the RWSS sec- anc wasteland development schemes, In view of the policy reformns Government tor. You must circulate it to as many stake- needs to be more aggressively brought into is advocating, what should happen to the holders as possible, especially the engineers the water supply sectorr Capacity building Public Health and Engineering Departments in State Governments Please put as many initiatives for the users, however, are critical (PHEDs), which are in charge of the rural persons as possible on your mailing I st. to rnake this succeed. water supply sector? Ultimately, the success of your newsletter Their problems are mainly overstaffing, will depend on the number of letters, Do you see the role of the Government high overheads, corruption, politicisation responses and contributions you get. m RegiodM.Water and M Sanitation Group - l RWSeIA South Asia UN Inter Agency Working Group on Water and Environmental Sanitation Jalvaani Jd/ mean5 wdter dnd Vawriz, comrriri cationl. This newsletter aims at communicating key themes and messages on water and sanitation tc different stakeholders in India. Prrtec at SystemsVision, A-t99, Second Floor, Okhla Industria Area-1, Ne* Delh-1 10020