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The participants in front of Kathmandu University main building

Participants and volunteers in delightful mood after the training

  

Three Day Short Training Concluded

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The three day short training program on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) organized by the Department of Environment Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering with the support from Water Aid Nepal (WAN) concluded today in Mini Auditorium Hall, Kathmandu University.

The training was conducted with the aim to impart understanding of different dynamics of WASH including health, social, economic, technical and political aspects. Resource persons from Government bodies, NGO/INGOs, academic institutions and practitioners provided trained. Around two dozen participants from Morang to Karnali ranging from practitioners to members of Citizen Forum, and individuals in NGO/INGOs to students aspiring to work in WASH participated in the training. 

In the concluding session of the training, Prof. Dr. Sanjaya Nath Khanal and Mr. Kabir Rajbhandari awarded certificates to the participants. Ms. Lakpa Sherpa (Central Department of Environment Science) and Mr. Narayan Wosti (Citizen Forum Biratnagar), representing the participants described the training as very useful and asked the organizers to continue such programs.  Speaking in the session, Dr. Bim Shrestha thanked all the participants and wished that the participants would make the sessions more useful by applying, and sharing the knowledge. He also promised that such programs will be continued in future also. 

18 March 2012

Mr. Rajbhandari handing over certificate

Prof. Khanal awarding certificate

Dr. Shrestha extending his wishes to the participants

Third Day of the Training

The third day of the training with the focus on planning and monitoring aspect of WASH was facilitated by Mr. Henk Veerdig (SNV); Mr. Madhav Pahari (UNICEF); and Mr. Dinesh Manandhar (Research Fellow, KU).

Mr. Veerdig spotlighted on the sustainability and functionality of WASH in Nepal. With the very low percentage of projects functioning properly, he said, the challenges are numerous. Along with the financial matter, the sustainability and functionality of the projects depend on the model of operation, he added.

Addressing the participants' question concerning slow progress in the sector, Mr. Pahari presented on some of the hindrances that marred the progress. To overcome the drawbacks in the existing mechanism, he said, an alternative, Sector Wise Approach (SWAs) has been envisioned. The approach focuses on sector actors' alignment with  the governments planning and linkage with the stakeholders. The collaborated and coordinated plan, he added optimistically but with certain reservations, would produce desired outcome.

Mr. Manandhar trained the participants on developing a marketable WASH Project Plan. During his presentation, he discussed on the components required for the plan and the co-relation among the components.

The trainees developed their plan
In the post-lunch session, the participants who were divided in 5 groups developed their projects. After each presentation, Mr. Kabir Rajbhandari provided feedback to the projects.

Mr. Bhandari commenting on participants' project 

Second Day of the Training

The second day of the training, with its  four-fold learning outcomes concerned with water, sanitation and hygiene, concentrated on both technical, policy and implement aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene. The resource persons for the day were Dr. Nawaraj Khatiwada (Associate Prof., DESE, KU); Mr. Bhusan Tuladhar (Regional CTA, UN-HABITAT); Namaste Lal (Project Officer, UNICEF); Mr. Rabin Lal Shrestha (Research and Advocacy Manager, WAN); and Mr. Uddhav Timilsina (LDO, Chitwan DDC).

Starting with a short exercise to the participants, Dr. Khatiwada presented on technologies which are successfully operating in both hilly and terai regions. He also showed advanced technologies which are not applied in Nepal but used very successfully in countries like Japan. The problem in water sector, he concluded, is not an unavailability of technology but the affordability of equipment.

Dr. Khatiwada during his presentation

Mr. Tuladhar demonstrated simple looking but very useful tools that can be utilized for sanitation. In this  sector, he said, doing very simple acts can help achieve significant things. A major step to accomplish the task, he added, demands awareness and action of simple type. He made the participants rethink on people's general tendency to anticipate the availability of high-tech instruments to maintain healthy environment.

Mr. Tuladhar delivering presentation

Mr. Lal availed the participants with the optimistic picture that is appearing visible now in sanitation and hygiene. The change, he highlighted, is due to the commitment from sector actors under NHSMP. He added that the sector actors have been brought together for common goal. The coming together and the commitment fro the sector actors would successfully accomplish the task set for 2017, he appealingly said.

Mr. Lal requesting participants for action

Mr. Uddav Timilsina, who has been working with great commitment in ODF and made it possible to declare Chitwan as second ODF district, added enthusiasm to the participants. Speaking very succinctly and with determination, he shared both the difficulties that he had to undergo during pre-ODF phase and the measures that he had taken. He also expressed his happiness to see his friends who used to call him satirically as ODF LDO now praising his work.

Mr. Timilsina sharing his experience

Apology and Supplement
The organizers needed to make a change in the schedule due to unavailability of Dr. Bhimsen Devkota. Dr. Devkota, who had agreed to train the participants with the focus on hygiene education, could not be available during his session.

To meet the schedule, the organizers requested Mr. Rabin Lal Shrestha who instantly accepted to be present a day before the scheduled time. He delivered his presentation on financing in WASH and showed two major problems that exist in this sector: one, financial factor; and two, utilization factor. On the one hand, the allocated budged for WASH is not sufficient if it is seen in the light of required budget per year to meet the National Target, but on the other, the budget allocated in this sector is not used up at the end of fiscal year.

Mr. Shrestha during his presentation

Social Event at DLR
The organizers arranged a social event at DLR. The event aimed to mix-up the participants, the resource persons and the organizers so that they would interact with each other and could make plans for future.

Participants during the social event

First Day of the Training

The first day of Short Training Course on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) covered a range of issue in the domain. The resource persons who facilitated and trained included Mr. Ashutosh Tiwari (Country Representative, WAN), Mr. Suman Pd. Sharma (Director General, Department of Water Supply and Sewerage), Mr. Nanda Khanal (Water Supply and Sanitation Division), and Mr. Binaya Shah (Water and Sanitation Specialist, ICON).

Mr. Tiwari, based on the comparative assessment of incidents in Jajarkot of 2009/10 and London of 1850, shed light on health, social, economic and political aspects of WASH in Nepal. Moreover, he highlighted on why WASH counts as one of the most important issues in development.  

Mr. Suman Pd. Sharma provided an overview of WASH sector in Nepal. He also illustrated the progress done in the sector so far, the challenges faced till the date, and the opportunities ahead along with the potential distracting factors. He ended with the note that the goal set by MGD for 2015 and National Target for 2017 can only be achieved only if all the stakeholders put an extra effort with their good commitment.

Mr. Nanda Khanal elucidated the components in National Hygiene and Sanitation Master Plan which was launched a few days before. He highlighted on what has been done in policy aspects, strategies and master plans and shared on MPPPW’s initiative on SEIU and JSR recommendations.

Mr. Binay Shah offered a comprehensive understanding of the stakeholders in WASH. With this illustration, he focused on the reasons and the nature of institutional mapping. One of the major problematic in WASH, he clarified, is the nature of link among the stakeholders – the dominant link i.e.¸ vertical is unlikely to create synergy which can be attained through horizontal one.  

Overall, first day of the training concentrated on fundamentals of WASH, the existing scenario, government policies, and the problems due to institutional mapping of key stakeholders. 

Short Training Course: An Overview

Short Training Course

on

 Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Organized Jointly

By

 Department of Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering

 At

 Kathmandu University

with support from

WATER AID /Nepal

March 16^th 18^th 2012

Dhulikhel, Kavre

1.      Context and Rationale:

WASH Access Coverage: The existing Coverage in access to Water and Sanitation facilities in Nepal is respectively 81% and 43% repectively and this indicates that Nepal is on track to achieve MDG targets for Water and is off track in achieving MDG target for sanitation by 2015. And much more concentrated efforts are required not only to achieve MDG target but also to achieve national target of universal access to water and sanitation facilities by 2017.

This sanitation figure again comes down when compared with the JMP report which only counts on the improved sanitation facilities. In addition, when considered about the functionality and reliability in terms of quality and quantity, the water access figure comes down to somewhere 57% and water around 27%. 

Out of the total having access to sanitation facilities, only 12% are connected to Municipal sewer systems or open drains without prior treatment. Majority of piped sewer systems are released directly to water bodies without prior treatment. 

Scarce water sources are reaching to vulnerability: The surface water, ultimate sources of water supply, is now most vulnerable to pollution for their potable water supply. Most of the urban towns are increasingly suffering from various natural calamities such as drought and flood in Tarai belt whereas landslides in hilly areas and these are getting increasingly unpredictable climate affecting seasonal rains. Therefore, despite water often being available, safe supplies are often far from settlements, discouraging use or increasing burden of fetching.

Benefits that contribute to Nepal’s development: It has been estimated that the economic returns-in terms of health, education and livelihood benefits – from every dollar invested on water and sanitation are worth about nine US dollars (Source: WHO 2008. Sanitation generates economic benefits, fact sheet). Similarly, educating people about hygiene and promoting the practice of hand –washing with soap is a simple and cost effective measure that can help prevent diarrhea by 45% (Source: Fatal Neglect Report, WaterAid, 2009).

Existing Efforts to plan and manage Water Resources and Gaps in WASH access coverage are still not enough: The country’s population growth is in an increasing trend, but the current efforts in WASH development from the sector actors are relatively insufficient to meet the national target of reaching universal access by 2017. The resulting population and development pressures, competing uses, and poor water resource management serve to compromise quantity, quality and therefore access to water and sanitation. Most of the population of the country; be it in urban or in small town or in rural areas; all are now facing acute shortage of water. The surface water, one of the ultimate sources of water supply, is now most vulnerable to pollution for potable water supply. This however is indicating that WASH sector requires more investment; and more coherent and coordinated approach than ever before. However, the current trend of efforts in both the cases by the sector actors is clearly indicating its insufficiency to meet to meet either MDG target of sanitation by 2015 or national target of achieving universal access to WASH facilities by 2017. The actors in this sector is less and still the preferences of the government and development partners are not strong in WASH thus not being able to address the issues of WASH holistically (i.e. from diversified aspects such as function of town, settlement pattern, demography, degree of autonomy, degree and type of inter-connectedness etc.). May be one reason for this the complexity of the issues to deal. For this, the strategies, approaches and systems versus existing systems and mechanisms as well as capacity and structure of implementation require more investment.

Absence of locally elected government bodies: The difficulty this posed to nurture long-term relations with local government officials for WASH delivery and advocacy was compounded by frequent changes of key officials at local and central levels. It is necessary to strengthen and keep local government officials responsive and accountable to local demands. Weakening of local government and the lack of elected representative as a result of the internal conflict further led to lack of local level capacity and resources to develop and deliver effective services is a significant constraint in municipalities, districts and villages. Because of this, the existing non-responsive and non-accountability of the  local bodes resulted many actors, including NGOs and bi-lateral programmes, don’t engage with Local Government and keep them informed of their plans and open their programme up for external monitoring. This mandate was however made provisioned in LSGA, 1997, but very less actors do follow the suit.

Less priority resulted lack of coordination: Very less prominent actors are on the scene in improving WASH access and for the WASH sector. In addition, local governments’ interests are limited to only environmental sanitation and that too for solid waste particularly landfill sites and drainages. INGOs/NGOs involvement in WASH sector is very limited. Considering this, local government now through the structure currently visualized by national sanitation and hygiene master plan should make efforts that lead to stronger coordination for coordinated work through joint efforts among sector stakeholders at their respective levels.

Institutional fragmentation, and limited sector coordination: Despite published policies, an Interim Three Year Plan, the sector is characterised by its diversity of sector institutions (several working in parallel with overlapping responsibilities), and a project focus (with a range of modalities of project implementation to some extent undermining each other). There has been a tremendous growth in this sector with many actors, both government and non-governmental, with varying in size and scope and are supported by diverse funding streams, seeking to fill the gap in service delivery and policy-practice fissure. Information on the sector is not collated, data is unreliable and definitions are not consistent.

Besides, there exists a lack of clear roles and responsibilities between different line agencies, specifically Ministry of Local Development (MLD), Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW) and Ministry of Health (MoH) and their respective Departments. In addition, sector monitoring systems for accounting functional access and linking services to financial allocations is still in infant stage. Information on financial flows for sector decision-making exists neither at local nor at national level. Although efforts in recent years to improve coordination in the sector have resulted in the formulation of sector effectiveness improvement unit (SEIU) to have effective sector coordination, and monitoring system in place along with centrally owned MIS system.

Others:

§         Limited engagement of the private sector with the sector and the capacity amongst the many NGOs is uneven. The reform of urban institutions is proceeding slowly.

§         Globally small towns are crack between Rural and Urban; But in Nepal, Urban WASH itself is in a crack.

2.      Objectives:

Aims: To explore, as a WASH development actor, how WAN can best contribute to WASH sector development by capacitating the development professional in WASH discourse; develop projects and market them among the appropriate development partners within or beyond WASH sector in Nepal.

Key Objectives: The basic objective of this training is to provide basic WASH literacy and awareness knowledge to the development professional primarily from beyond WASH sector to enable them to contribute in WASH sector development by enhancing their knowledge and understanding on WASH sector particularly in developing a WASH project plan / proposal for any geographical area irrespective of size.

Specific Objectives:

§         To make the participants understand the importance of WASH in Development discourse

§         To provide basic technical know-how on the existing technological options to adopt and replicate while delivering water and sanitation services in their respective working areas

§         Understand the issues and challenges, regarding ensuring sustainability and functionality of the WASH services, to be addressed while delivering water, sanitation and hygiene services

§         To build capacity of the development professionals representing from different development agencies and build mutual support networks across them

3.      Learning Outcomes

Day – I: Able to gain:

§         Knowledge and understand the importance of WASH in Development

§         WASH sector development trend including opportunities and challenges in the sector development

§         Knowledge and understanding on the policies, and plans; key gaps and key stakeholders related to WASH for building networks and mutual supports

Day – II: Able to understand:

§         Basic technical know-how on technological options for delivering water, and sanitation services and promoting hygiene education 

§         Process of promoting hygiene education integration with water and sanitation and monitoring the changes brought by

§         Understand the process of declaring ODF of any geographical area and knowledge to combat with the possible challenges

Day – III:

§         Understand sustainability and functionality issues in WASH sector development

§         Sector Financing in Nepal’s WASH sector and How to resource funds at local governance level to achieve universal access to Water & Sanitation in any geographical location at local level

§         Acquire the knowledge and skills in developing a credible and marketable comprehensive WASH project proposal mainstreaming with local government’s planning process

§         Able to have insights from cross experiences to understand and tackle the issues and challenges that will be faced while initiating and declaring ODF districts/VDCs 

A the end,

§         With backdrops of understanding on WASH sector development trend in Nepal, Participants will be able to develop a credible and marketable comprehensive project plan / proposal related to WASH discourse in line with local government’s planning process meeting the requirements of higher government authorities and of development partners

§         A first version of training handbook / manual is developed to be used as a reference resource for similar events.

4.      Target Participants:

The training is primarily focused towards developing intellectual and professional capital in the WASH sector. Hence, WaterAid in Nepal (WAN) in collaboration with Kathmandu University (KU) is undertaking a WASH training course of 3 days targeting development professionals of WASH sector and beyond WASH sector mostly from the Local government planners, programme officers, and technical officers including similar position holders from other development organizations like GOs/ INGOs/NGOS/CBOs etc. Specifically, this training will target the following potential audiences representing from:

·         DDC; Municipalities, (preferably planning /technical officers)

·         ADDCN, and MUAN

·         NGOs/INGOs/CBOs

·         Private Sector/Corporate Sector

·         Academicians and school education stakeholders 

Three Day Training Commenced

Short Training Course Started

March 16, 2012

Three day training course on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) organized by Department of Environment Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering with the support from Water Aid Nepal (WAN) commenced in Kathmandu University (KU) today.

Addressing the delegates and participants in the training, Dr. Bim Shrestha welcomed and briefly introduced the training program. Mr. Ashutosh Tiwari, Country Representative of Water Aid Nepal spotlighted on multiple aspects that go along with WASH such as economic, political, health among others. Chief Guest of the program, Registrar of Kathmandu University, Prof. Dr. Bhadra Man Tuladhar, welcomed and wished for productive training session. Prof. Dr. Sanjaya Nath Khanal from Kathmandu University highlighted on the major components of three day training program.

Around two dozen individuals from NGO/INGOs working in WASH sector, Government Institutions concerned with WASH, WASH stakeholders, WASH practitioners and Academic institutions with course on WASH have participated in the program. The training covers various dynamics of WASH ranging from social, economic, health and political aspects of the domain.

Resource persons of the training program include experts from Nepal Government bodies, NGO/INGOs sector, independent consultants and academic experts like Mr. Ashutosh Tiwari (Country Representative, WAN), Mr. Suman Pd. Sharma (Director General, DWSS), Mr. Nanda Khanal (Water Supply and Sanitation Division), Mr. Binaya Shah (Water and Sanitation Specialist, ICON), Dr. Nawaraj Khatiwada (Associate Professor, KU), Mr. Bhusan Tuladhar (Regional CTA, UN-HABITAT), Namaste Lal (Project Officer, UNICEF), Mr. Uddhav Timilsina (LDO, Chitwan DDC), Mr. Henk Veerdig (WASH sector leader, SNV), Mr. Rabin Lal Shrestha (Research and Advocacy Manager, WAN), Mr. Madhav Pahari (UNICEF), Mr. Dinesh Manandhar (Research Fellow, KU).

The training program aims to introduce the participants with the existing policies, functioning of concerned stakeholders, technologies in use and feasible ones in WASH.

Participants: (the organizations will be updated instantly after the information is available)

1.      Indra Prasad Dahal

2.      Rameshwoar Ghimire

3.      Mohan Kunwar

4.      Karna Bahadur Nepali (United Mission to Nepal)

5.      Kamal Prasad Chapagai

6.      Surya Raj Acharya

7.      Lakpa Sherpa

8.      Anusha Airi

9.      Restan Kadel

10.  Yagya Raj Panta

11.  Dhananjaya Poudel

12.  Birodh Adhikary

13.  Ram Basnet (Citizan Forum, Udayapur)

14.  Chandra Neupane (Citizen Forum, Itahari)

15.  Dilli Prasai (Citizen Forum, Biratnagar)

16.  Mohan Bhattarai (Citizen Forum, Biratnagar)

17.  Narayan Wasti (Citizen Forum, Biratnagar)

18.  Krishna Bahadur Karki (Australian Embassy, Nepal)

19.  Roshan Kumar Joshi (District Development Committee, Morang)

20.  Nirajan Rijal (Sigma College, Kirtipur, Kathmandu)

21.  Nabendra Poudel (Kathmandu University)

22.  Md. Latif Mansur (Kathmandu University)