National goal in water and sanitation

National goal in water and sanitation

By: Bal Krishna Pokhrel

Right to water and sanitation is a basic human right and it is a basis for a good health. Considering the importance of water and sanitation, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution, which recognizes access to clean water and sanitation as a human right. According to a statistics, 16 million people in Nepal still defecate in the open everyday. Around 80 percent people have access to drinking water facility while only 43 percent have access to sanitation facility. 

Statistics show that only 18 percent water supply projects are running in a systematic way while 29 percent projects are in dilapidated condition. A joint monitoring report of World Health Organization and UNICEF shows that only 27 percent of the total population in the country has access to latrines.
Annually more than 10,500 children under five years of age die of water-borne diseases due to poor hygienic and sanitary condition. Under the Millennium Development Goal, the Government of Nepal has to ensure 53 percent sanitation coverage from the current 43 percent, while it has to ensure 73 percent drinking water coverage by 2015. Similarly, the government has set a national target to provide basic sanitation and drinking water facilities to all by 2017. 

In the present context when only 95 Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the country are free from open defecation and only 43 percent of the total population have access to sanitation facility, it seems that it is too ambitious for the government to meet the national target of declaring all the VDCs in the country free from open defecation and provide sanitation facility to all by 2017.

It seems that the budget allocated for the drinking water and sanitation is gradually increasing since 2047 B.S but when compared to budget increase in other sectors it is negligible. The non-government organizations have invested a lot in WATSAN sector. But, there has been more talks and less work by the NGOs and the government’s investment in the sector has been just like pouring water in sand.

It is very sad that WATSAN sector has got less national priority and investments made in the sector has not given a good return. There are many reasons for not getting desired feat despite so much effort in the sector. The trend of giving priority to the new projects by neglecting the old projects and handing over the completed project to the users committee without any preparations is worsening the situation. Similarly, the projects do not last long due to poor government monitoring system and duplication of projects is on rise due to lack of coordination between different agencies. Allocation of inadequate budget for WATSAN sector compared to other sector and lack of proper utilization of the allocated budget are aggravating the problems in the sector.

Still a large number of people in the country, where it be rural or urban areas, do not have easy access to safe and adequate supply of drinking water despite continuous efforts of the government and non-government organizations in the sector. Similarly, thousands of people in the country are becoming victims of various diseases every year due to lack of public awareness and negligence of the aware communities. A large number of girl students are compelled to drop out of their school without completing their schooling due to lack of proper toilet facility in the schools. Similarly, people are suffering a lot due to lack of public toilets in public places.

Thanks to lack of awareness on sanitation and hygiene practices, there have not been qualitative changes in sanitation situation except counting the number of toilets. More than 80 percent communicable diseases are caused by lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation and hygiene practice. Nepal continues to bear the loss of some Rs. 10 billion annually in terms of health expenses, loss of productivity and adverse effects on tourism due to lack of water and sanitation.

Looking at the present scenario, Nepal has to do a lot to achieve the millennium development goal and national target on water and sanitation. Implementation of the practical projects and support and coordination of all the sectors can help to achieve these goals. Preparation of integrated rules and regulations on water and sanitation sector and implementation of the existing rules and regulations and policy is the need of time. Right implementation of the existing act, rules and regulations, policies can solve half of the problems in the sector.

The government should work in water and sanitation realizing that water and sanitation is not the services to people but their fundamental right and invest more in the sector. Effective monitoring system and plenty of budget allocation and its implementation is equally important. It is the need of time to make the government bodies responsible by giving more emphasis on capacity building of the consumers and people-oriented advocacy to solve the existing policy-oriented and practical problems in water and sanitation sector.

Source: Annapurna Post, December 24, 2010 via ngoforum.net