Water Policy 3 (2001) S177–S180

Conference report

5.6 Water, health and development

Rapporteur: Henk van Schaik. Participants: 150

Presentations

The session doubled as ‘‘the Simavi symposium’’ and part of the celebrations of Simavi’s 75thanniversary. Valery Curtis of the London School of Hygiene introduced results of her research inBurkina Faso, which shows that poor people do not relate hygiene and diarrhoea in children, buthygiene does represent a positive social value. Emphasizing the use of attractive soap at householdlevel is also emphasizing hygiene. This provides an interesting opportunity for collaboration withthe soap industry to improve hygiene, and reduce water and sanitation-related morbidity andmortality among children.

Piers Cross, Director of the World BankFUNDP Water and Sanitation programme,explained the importance of local and international sector NGOs (such as Simavi’s WorldWater Fund) for off-market and pro-poor sector development. He referred to personalexperience as well as World Bank research findings and policies. He also quoted examples ofsuccesful NGOs such as the Mvula Trust in South Africa and Water Aid in UKFand pointed attheir weaknesses.

Roland Schertenleib of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department for developing countriesof the Technical University, Zurich, Switzerland, explained the possibilities for household levelsector improvements such as the household centred environmental sanitation model. This newperspective demands the development of new simple technical options. An example is solardisinfection of drinking water by leaving half blackened plastic bottles out in the sun for 4 or morehours.

The Pazhakullam Social Services Society (PASSS) of Kerala, India presented the chara-cteristics of its organization and of its water supply and sanitation project which wasawarded the Simavi jubilee award. The main features of PASSS are a large membership ofover 60,000 farmers and a Board with a wide membership of stakeholders including farmers,senior voluntary professional advisors and a group of dedicated young professionals forproject implementation. PASSS also developed a portfolio of self-financed activities whichprovide a financially and staffing-wise sustainable base for PASSS. In addition to the financiallyselfsupporting activities such as seedlings or raising chickens, partially self-financing projects such as improved water supply and sanitation are implemented. The community contributes aminimum of 40%. The PASSS project that received the award aims to support poor and oftenlandless local neighbourhood communities of between 10 and 50 households living in the foothills

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of Kerala. They depend mostly on seasonal open wells or distant springs to developlocally available springs with a small gravity system. PASSS only provides technical supportand covers part of the investment costsFup to 60%. Also, sanitation improvement andhygiene education are provided through the dedicated and trained PASSS social mobilizers. ThePASSS per capita costs for the water supply and sanitation improvements amount to onlyUS $5. This is even low for Indian and Keralese standards. Gradually and increasingly, theneighborhood approach is being accepted not only by the Keralese authorities but even at thenational level.

The symposium was concluded with the presentation of the Simavi prize to Martin Wegelinof the Department for water supply and sanitation for developing countries of the Universityof Zurich, Switzerland and Mrs. Christina Aristante of the NGO Yayasan Dian Desa ofYogyakarta, Indonesia. The first prize was awarded for their SODIS disinfection technology incombination with dissemination materials. The SODIS method is to introduce, through extensionprogrammes by NGOs, in rural and peri-urban neighbourhoods the simple method of solardisinfection.

Discussions in workshops

Water and Health

The workshop on Water and Health discussed the introductions by Valery Curtis and RolandSchertenleib in the light of the experiences and insights of a group of sector professionals, i.e.Bartram from WHO, Shordt from IRC and Saliku from AMREF. This group also discussed therole of an external NGO such as Simavi.

The workshop participants concluded that more can be done at the household level,through extension work and by putting more emphasis on hygiene in relation to dignityand its social importance rather than on health impact. Research about water andhealth was not considered to be of primary importance, though research in emergingdiseases such as cholera, dengue, legionella etc., and also arsenic poisoning will continue to beimportant.

With the trend to decentralise water supply and sanitation down to the household level themonitoring role and its implementation (through inspections) of the government (e.g.Ministry of Health) concerning water, sanitation and morbidity as well as mortality needs tobe reconsidered.

The workshop endorsed the potential for the private sector in this field in particular the soapindustry, and the importance that partnerships between sector NGOs (including NGOs such asSimavi) and the private sector are being built.

The workshop agreed to the importance of effective technologies fitting in the household andneighbourhood perspective, and the importance of dissemination channels for the outcomes ofthis research through the private sector, research channels and through NGO channels. For thisto happen, effective partnerships between the private sector, the research sector and sector NGOs(such as Simavi) need to be available.

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Water and management

The workshop about Water and Management discussed the introduction of Cross from theinterests and perspectives of the discussants in the workshop, i.e. Jonker, Director of the drinkingwater utility for South Holland, Trace of Water Aid UK and Mwangola of the NGO KWAHO,Kenya.

Jonker explained the willingness from the clients and the interest from the management of hisutility (social image) to contribute to sector improvements for the poor abroad, and that thissupport is best channelled through a professionally operating NGO such as the Simavi WaterFund. In return, Jonker expects from Simavi, guidance and support material about the sponsoredactivities and reports about the impact of the support. Trace of WaterAid supported Jonker byexplaining the history and activities of WaterAid, which was created in the late seventies by theUK water utilities for pro-poor sector development abroad. Mwangola emphasized theimportance of structural relations rather than the presently predominant ad hoc project funding.This demands a lot from implementing NGOs in terms of acquisition and paperwork and whichhampers security of professionals and employees and hinders sustainability in sector development.

Conclusions

The Simavi symposium essentially endorses the Simavi statement which was submitted to theWorld Water Forum. Simavi explicitly commits itself to:

* raising awareness through honest information and communication in the Netherlands aboutthe needs of the poor abroad;

* raising financial, technical and material support in the Netherlands through the development ofstructural relations with the public and the utility sector;

* channelling and facilitating the transfer of support in a professional manner to qualified andtransparent NGOs abroad;

* extending and strengthening the network of collaboration between local NGOs, externalsupport NGOs, government and benefactors by building partnerships and through commu-nication and information sharing; and

* developing a sector network to enable transfer of knowledge, through expertise and education,and material support.

Actions

Simavi feels strengthened by the endorsement of its vision and commitment statement and willfollow-up the symposium with the implementation of the intentions.

Specific actions for strategy development include:

* hygiene and sanitation are equally important in projects as good drinking water supply;* projects should focus on household level, and be implemented at the largest possible scale;

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* monitoring and evaluation followed by dissemination of results are crucial, with reporting notonly on the good news;

* NGOs such as Simavi should support innovative projects which may include acceptingcalculated risks; and

* small (external) NGOs should make strategic choices and find their own niche.

H. van SchaikMinistry of Foreign Affairs,

P.O. Box 20061,2500EB The Hague,

Netherlands

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