Participatory strategies in water, healthand rural development programmesby K. Balachandra KurupWater supply and sanitation schemes, hygieneeducation programmes, and operation and main-tenance strategies will never work unless theyhave been developed with the community .

DURING THE last decade, globalpolicies and strategies haveevolved, and a new approach forprogress in the water supply andsanitation programme has emerged .Many countries, including India,adopted the goals of the Interna-tional Drinking Water Supply andSanitation Decade (IDWSSD) andwere committed to providing cleanwater and sanitation to all by theyear 1990. India has decided topursue comprehensive coverage,and the Decade period has beenextended beyond 1991 .

It is not enough, however, to planfor `coverage' of the populationwith facilities ; we must also plan forthe sustained functioning of thesefacilities, such as feasible operationand maintenance, cost recovery,etc. In providing safe water andimproved sanitation facilities topoor rural communities, slum dwell-ers, and other vulnerable areas, theso-called appropriate facilities suchas public standposts, handpumps,or public latrines are often specifiedaccording to standard designs .Moreover, the community as awhole must be educated to realizethat clean water is a scarce andcostly commodity, that they mustpay for what they use, and that itshould be used with little or nowaste. Further, they must also un-derstand the precautions necessaryto avoid polluting the water beforeuse, and the ways of ensuring thatthere are protected water suppliesand safe water for drinking . It hasgenerally been noticed that im-provements in water supply andsanitation play a crucial role inreducing the high mortality rates inmany poor countries .

K. Balachandra Kurup is Executive Co-ordinator, Socio-Economic Units, Kerala,Kerala Water Authority, Post Bag 6519,Vikas Bhavan P.O., Trivandrum-695 033India .

The principal objectives behindthe Socio-Economic Units (SEUs)are :•

To help foster community par-ticipation and mobilization in allactivities under the SEU um-brella .

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To involve the communities, es-pecially the women, in the selec-tion of standpost sites, coveragestudies,

rural

water-supplyschemes, and the operation andmaintenance of schemes .

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To monitor the implementationof the schemes, with the partici-pation of Ward Water Commit-tees, and be directly involved inworking out detailed designs forproviding 90 per cent coverageto the community .

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To introduce meaningful, cost-effective, and appropriate hy-giene education activities withmore focus on traditional andlocal media .

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To implement cost-effective sani-tation programmes (householdand institutional latrines) in theselected pilot areas .

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To develop a systematic built-inmonitoring

and

evaluationmechanism for periodically as-sessing the progress, weaknesses,and failures of the schemes .

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To strengthen the capacity ofexisting government depart-ments and local organizations toplan and implement their drink-ing-water supply and sanitationactivities .

Community participationThe core element of the project isensuring community participationthrough the involvement and mobi-lization of the communities in theselection of public standposts, thelocation of sites for latrines, and theorganization of hygiene educationprogrammes and beneficiary meet-ings at the ward (local) level . Toimprove living conditions and im-

plement activities effectively at thelocal level, some sort of organiza-tional network or social group basedat the local level is imperative .

There is still no established defi-nition of a local area, however, andthe term `local' has a variety ofmeanings: settlement, village,ward, panchayat, area of a chief orsub-chief (traditional native admin-istrators), district, even province .The local unit should be givenstructural identity, delegation ofpower in principle and practice,decision-making power on the so-cio-economic development of thelocality, and the required financialresources to develop communityconsensus and commitment in themanagement of the social and eco-nomic uplift of the area . For practi-cal reasons appropriate areas areto be selected based on the localneed, variations, and landscape . Inthis programme a ward is the lowestlocal-level unit .

With the help of an establishedgroup, such as a Ward Water Com-mittee (WWC), it is possible topromote effective dialogue and ex-press the interests of thenity .

`The formation

commu-

of local pressuregroups is necessary to bring aboutstructural changes and reforms, toachieve a more suitable sharing of thebenefits of development, to demandbetter services from government agen-cies, or to exercise a larger voice in thepolicy and programme decisions affect-ing their lives' . ]Community participation is re-

garded as the mainstay of socialdevelopment, yet this is more oftenrhetoric than reality . One way bywhich practical community partici-pation in water supply and sanita-tion schemes can be encouraged isby the involvement of WWCs .These are representative groupswhich determine the patterns bywhich water supply and sanitationprogrammes can be implementedin their locality . Selected memberswill be given a one-day orientationcourse on organizing and on otheraspects of the drinking-water andsanitation programme. These com-mittees, supported by the SEU, willwork closely with other sectoraldepartments. WWCs are involved

in site selection for public taps andlatrines, distance criteria discus-sions, surveys of existing waterpoints, the identification and resolu-tion of water problems, the provi-sion of training and informationregarding the operation and mainte-nance of public taps and latrines,and the establishment of links be-tween users and relevant institu-tions such as panchayats, KWA,departments of rural development,and social welfare voluntary organi-zations. The whole process shouldbe flexible and should incorporatelessons learned from mistakes andexperiences .

In the SEU activities, great em-phasis is placed on promoting therole of women, since they are themain users and managers of waterresources and therefore influencefamily sanitary habits and effectchanges in basic hygienic behavi-our. The time taken and effortmade by women in water collectionand storage can affect socio-eco-nomic and health conditions inmany ways. Proper community in-volvement has enormous potentialand there are conditions underwhich local people can indeed be incharge of successful rural water-supply projects . Handpump pro-jects in several countries have pro-moted the concept of Village LevelOperation and Maintenance(VLOM) as a means of overcoming

WATERLINES VOL .10 NO .2 OCTOBER 1991

some of the obstacles to sustainablewater-supply schemes . Sustainabil-ity is more often dependent on thesupport provided for the operationand maintenance of the facilities :people do want improved services,but only if these meet their per-ceived needs . The members of theWWCs will be selected democrati-cally after considering their compe-tency, dedication, and motivation .The SEU has developed a manualand curriculum for training theselected members. The experiencewith more than 300 WWCs over thepast year proved that with theirsupport and involvement it is feasi-ble to implement the anticipatedactivities . In order to provide ade-quate support to these committees,panchayats and district level com-mittees have also been established,and this system will be strengthenedsimultaneously .

Location studySEU has added a social dimensionto its engineering activities : thecentral involvement of the peoplein selecting their public standpostlocations. The SEUs, in consulta-tion with the WWCs and KeralaWater Authority (KWA), intro-duced the process of socio-eco-nomic site selection to cater betterfor the needs of the poor sectionsof the population . This process

The core element of the programme is community participation .

involves the community in the plan-ning and design of their water-supply scheme. It is also the pointto prepare a local maintenance andfault reporting programme .

In order to facilitate the process,a meeting will be held with thepanchayat authorities along withthe concerned KWA staff as a firststep. The KWA distribution designmap will be discussed with eachpanchayat ward member, and dur-ing the process the panchayat mem-bers will identify the main areas leftout in the design. WWC membersvisit all the wards with the map andlater a sketch map will be preparedfor each and every ward . Followingthis the field staff will visit all theareas to demarcate the deservingareas (where a concentration ofpeople below the poverty line isdwelling) in the maps . During thisexercise the number of potentialbeneficiaries (households) for pri-vate connections (middle-incomeand above), and those who need theservice of a public tap (peoplebelow the poverty line), will belisted on the map .

Hygiene educationEffective hygiene education re-quires the combined use of differentapproaches, like interpersonal com-munication and group discussions .There is no inherent contradiction

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Local women are selected for neighbourhood committees and are then trained to implement effective hygieneeducation programmes in their community .

between these approaches; each hasits own advantages and limitations .The main goal is that the workersshould be able to select the rightapproach or combination of ap-proaches for each situation, and usethem effectively . It is easy to makechanges in technological and otherhardware aspects, but appropriatechanges in attitudinal and behav-ioral practices have to be devel-oped. This involves more than sim-ply explaining the importance ofhygiene education to the people .Local women are selected for neigh-bourhood committees and aretrained to implement effective hy-giene education programmes . Ade-quate provision will be made tostudy and understand how beliefsand attitudes influence behaviour(especially hygiene practices), andthus affect disease transmission .Such feedback may provide usefulinformation about community or-ganization, participation, and edu-cation .

Supportive systems are requiredboth to strengthen the communitiesand to enable them to respond byorganizing themselves for activeinvolvement implementing the hy-giene practices promoted by healtheducation efforts . Action-orientedand pragmatic health education pro-

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grammes, carried out with the helpof local youths (both men andwomen), have been used to pro-mote health-supportive behaviour.Similarly, most of the field activitiesand production of materials havebeen carried out through participa-tory approaches .

Targetting schoolsSchool Health Clubs have beenformed in twenty-one selectedschools . Through their activitiesthey have improved children'shealth and awareness. The mainobjectives of the School HealthClubs are :•

To increase the awareness ofpupils about the value of water,water management and otherassociated factors .

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To educate them about how touse and safely handle drinking-water.

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To educate them about the haz-ards of gastro-enteritis and otherwater-borne diseases, and aboutthe need to use sanitary latrines .

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To make them aware of the factthat the health of a person is thehealth and wealth of the familyand society .Improved water supply and sani-

tation are considered to be a pre-

requisite for better health and socio-economic development, and thisgoal would not be possible throughwater-supply schemes without ade-quate sanitation coverage . Severalinstitutions, the government, andsome voluntary organizations areinvolved in the rural sanitationprogramme in Kerala. A clear pic-ture of the involvement of variousbodies in the sanitation programmeand what their impact is, however,is not available . When SEU consid-ered a sanitation programme, it wasrealized that in spite of all theefforts the coverage of rural sanita-tion in Kerala was only about 22 percent . 2 The challenge was to equipas many households as possible withproper sanitation, but in such a waythat the beneficiaries understoodand appreciated the facility, andused it properly. Right from thebeginning, we came to the conclu-sion that a different approach wasrequired to construct cost-effectiveand technically sound latrines on aslarge a scale as possible . So, de-pending on their need and impor-tance, and with assistance fromSEU, a pilot sanitation programmewas carried out in selected needypanchayats . Through this pro-gramme, SEU introduced appropri-ate technologies and built in moni-

WATERLINES VOL.10 NO.2 OCTOBER 1991

toying procedures for measuring theeffectiveness of the pilot program-mes. Another aim was to involvethe beneficiaries and the local peo-ple directly in the programme aswell as the governmental and non-governmental agencies .

Different approaches were usedto implement the programme, andit is worthwhile comparing varioustechnological approaches and pro-grammes. Such comparison mightindicate which factors are importantin the different situations, and whatthe respective strengths and weak-nesses of each approach could be .A detailed study of the variousapproaches adopted by the SEUs ispresented below . The main inten-tion of the pilot programme was totest and compare the followingapproaches :•

planning and implementationwith voluntary organizations ;

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planning and implementationwith panchayat (local govern-ment) ;

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planning and implementationwith a semi-governmental institu-tion (Technical College); and

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planning and implementation bySEU .In all the areas local masons were

trained to build the latrines . Toensure compatability and to solveany problems, `Sanitation TaskForces' were formed in which allpartner agencies and the relevantSEU staff met as and when re-quired . Health education, organiza-tion, mobilization, and motivationwere the most time-consuming andcrucial activities, and the partneragencies were not very enthusiasticor effective in carrying out thisaspect. An implementation commit-tee at panchayat level and a benefi-ciary committee at ward level wereestablished (at least three monthsbefore the programme was due tostart) to provide the necessary sup-port for carrying out the construc-tion activities as well as the motiva-tion and mobilization work . Thepanchayat-based implementationcommittee was responsible for theprocurement of materials, storage,monitoring, and supervision of theconstruction activities. The day-to-day managerial jobs were carriedout by the beneficiary committeeat the ward level .

During the pilot programme SEUexperimented with several combina-tions of beneficiary contribution .Probably about 50 per cent of thebeneficiaries were committed to digthe pit and to provide casual labour,tnd transportation of building mate-

WATERLINES VOL.10 NO.2 OCTOBER 1991

rials to the site . The imputed valueof the labour portion is deductedfrom the 25 per cent of beneficiarycontribution, and the remainingportion is accepted in cash. Excep-tions were, however, made for thevery poor and for other deservingcases . In addition to householdlatrines, SEU has been involved inthe construction of sanitary latrinesin schools, health units, ICDS cen-tres, and market places .

From the experience of the pilotsanitation programme, it has beenproved that the panchayat is themost appropriate organization atthe local level to implement acost-effective sanitation pro-gramme . The hygiene educationand awareness programme will befacilitated by the SEU in collabora-tion with sectoral departments, thehealth education sub-committee,and the WWC. The cost of theprogramme and the effectivenessof the programme was very satisfac-tory .

Through the pilot sanitation pro-gramme we learned that constantmotivation and mobilization arerequired in all the areas at leastthree months before the implemen-tation of the programme ; and thatfor at least one year latrine use hasto be monitored very carefully toachieve the expected results . TheWWCs have developed appropriateprocedures for effectively monitor-ing the use of latrines . As a resultof this, 95 per cent of the house-holds (out of 5200 latrines) are usingtheir latrines and keeping themclean. Similarly, the incidence ofdiarrhoeal diseases has been consid-erably reduced as a result of thisprogramme. We have recognizedthat in Kerala, sanitation can beused as an entry point for startingnew activities .

SummarySocial and economic aspects shouldbe given equal importance in awater and sanitation programme toget the full support and commit-ment of the community at everystage of the programme . This willhelp a great deal in solving prob-lems connected to selection of sitesfor public taps or latrines, mainte-nance, misuse, or water manage-ment at the local level . In hygieneeducation and in sanitation pro-grammes, the concurrent monitor-ing and evaluation of the involve-ment of the community is quitevital . It is, however, a virtual cer-tainty that social information should

be given prior importance in settingobjectives, designing, implement-ing and evaluating water supply andsanitation programmes . In order tomeet such requirements, a revisedprogramme strategy has to beadopted based on our initial results .Special efforts have to be made forproblem-solving in a - programmeby increasing the capacity of theinstitutions at all levels (ward, pan-chayat etc.) to assess their ownproblems, analyse the problems andidentify possible solutions, and actto marshal the resources necessaryto implement those solutions . Moreimportant, they must learn to reas-sess the results of their actions,reanalyse the solutions, and modifytheir actions on a regular basis . Itis worthwhile noting that the SEUprogramme has succeeded in foster-ing more intersectoral co-operationand co-ordination between govern-ment departments and voluntaryorganizations . There has been con-siderable progress in this respectover the past year, and, drawinglessons from these experiences, wehave incorporated new approacheswhile planning the activities for thefuture .

Efforts will be made to collectdata about the sources of water-points, distances, quality, healthservice coverage, incidence of di-arrhoeal diseases, and the Knowl-edge, Attitude and Practices (KAP)of the people. In the SEU pro-gramme additional emphasis willbe given to the formulation of abroad policy framework with suffi-cient detailed decisions based oninformation relevant to each of thelocal areas of the project . Withoutsuch information there will be adanger of applying uniform solu-tions over the whole project area.The monitoring of the programmeimplementation and an evaluationof the impact will be undertaken,with a view to enhancing cost-effectiveness and achieving themaximum possible impact and cov-erage of the beneficiary population .During the three-year demonstra-tion phase the effectiveness of eachof the approaches mentioned abovewill be documented and dissemi-nated for wider replication .

References1 . Coombs, H. Philip (ed .), Meeting the

basic needs of the rural poor : the inte-grated community based approach .

2 . Scott, W., and Mathew, N.T ., `A devel-opment monitoring Service at the locallevel : Monitoring change in Kerala on thefirst five years, Vol .111, UNRISD, Ge-neva, 1985 .

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