Water and sanitation coverage is low in rural Sri Lanka. In 2001, only 40% of rural households had access to safe drinking water. This causes health problems. Also, people spend hours fetching water daily.
• Communities selected based on demand and needs; responsible for:
- planning, implementation and maintenance of sub-projects with NGO support
- contributions to the capital cost in cash or in kind (mostly labor)
• Local governments in charge of sub-project supervision
• Sanitary latrines built with community-managed revolving funds
About 46,000 households in rural Sri Lanka now have access to safe water supply within 200 meters. Health indicators have improved. Time saved from fetching water is also having a positive impact on income generation.
Highlights:
- The project started on a very small scale and is gradually being scaled up. Completion of the first two batches so far has benefited about 46,000 households with access to clean water mostly in the form of either house connections or yard taps.
- 94% of households in the project villages have not experienced water-borne diseases such as diarrhea since the completion of their sub-projects. In a village called Rathmalkatuwa in Central province which was known for a very high rate of children affected by diarrhea before the project, there have been no diarrhea cases reported.
- The project is creating awareness among rural population about the importance of proper hygiene and environmental protection. The project is providing loans to build latrines and so far about 10,000 have been built. 93 percent of the people in the project villages now wash hands with soap after using the toilet. 98 percent of the people now wash hands before meals in these villages.
- Previously, many people in these villages, particularly women, spent significant amount of time each day just to fetch water (one to five hours per day). The time being spent to fetch water in these villages after the project has been reduced to just two minutes per day, on average, and the time saved is being used for productive purposes: 38 percent of people spend the saved time on farming, 27 percent on home gardening, and 10 percent on wage labor.
-In the case of Gurulawela village in Central Province, a woman is now earning Rs. 7,500 per month by making and selling small toys, instead of fetching water.
- IDA helped the Government to shape the National Rural Water Supply Policy, which involved the institutionalization of the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Division (RWSSD) at the Ministry of Urban Development & Water Supply.
- It also involved local governments to support communities in construction and operation and maintenance aspects.
- IDA also helped the Government to test a new and innovative approach for provision of sanitation facilities in rural areas—a community-managed sanitation revolving fund.
- This approach has proven to be successful and cost-effective in many villages, and the average recovery ratio of the loan is about 75 percent.
-The project is being scaled up in the Central and Northwestern provinces, and being expanded to the Northeastern province. The project to continue to monitor not only ongoing sub-projects but also completed ones to keep track of how community-based organizations are managing the completed water supply schemes.
-Issues directly related to sustainability such as water tariff and operations and maintenance will need to be monitored. The experiences of the first few years have suggested that sustainability is enhanced because of increased ownership by beneficiaries.
-However, weak capacity of local governments to support communities in operation and maintenance remain a risk. Scaling up the successful model beyond the project areas is a challenge.
RSS