THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

Sustainability assessment of three rural water supply systems namely Patle lamasthan WSS, Thilwar WSS and Kaldhar WSS were under taken as part of this study. These water systems serving people of ward no 2, 5 & 7 respectively of Temal Rural Municipality of Kavrepalanchok district were re-constructed by a NGO namely Shanti Jana Adarsha Sewa Kendra in partnership with CRS Nepal after the rural municipality requested to support the water systems as they remained incomplete even after the palika and ward allocated budget and started the work in previous fiscal year. These systems have completed 2 years after they were handover to the community for smooth operation. Mixed research approaches was followed by using various participatory tools like Household questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with consumers and WUC members, Key Informant Interview, water quality test and field observation for the collection of primary information and published report, research paper, progress report, journals, WUC documents, ledgers, stock books were reviewed for the secondary information. To analyze the sustainability of water supply system managed by WUC, four key sustainability dimensions; i) Institutional ii) Technical iii) Financial iv) Socio environmental were defined and corresponding major / core factors contributing to these dimensions were identified by discussion with WUC members, users and project staffs. Core factors and sub factors were given weightage following Multi Criteria Approach (MCA). Cumulative percentage of sustainability was compared with the sustainability ranking developed by Water Aid Nepal. Institutional sustainability was assessed through analysis of existence of WUC, its functionality and inclusiveness, assignment of trained Village Maintenance Worker (VMW), their skill and capacity transparency and ownership of WUC, tariff setting and collection mechanism in the system and water source registration plus coordination and linkage of WUC with other agencies and local government. Technical sustainability was analyzed through verification of Quantity, Accessibility, Reliability and Quality (QARQ) and physical status of water supply system. Financial sustainability was analyzed through growth of operation and maintenance fund, financial documentation & account keeping, growth of emergency fund and the productive use of water. Socio environmental sustainability was analyzed through improved sanitation and hygiene practices, reduction of women work load, utilization of saving time, gender and social inclusion, community participation and environmental effect due to operation and maintenance of water supply system. From the ranking of sustainability, percentage of Technical and Socio Environmental sustainability was 75.3% and 83.3% respectively, whereas Institutional sustainability was 53.3% and financial sustainability was limited to 38.7%. Percentage of overall sustainability was achieved as 62.7%. From this result, it can be concluded that technical and social dimensions were found good, technical dimension was weak and financial dimension was very weak which put the project in the categories of “non-sustained project”. It is very iv important and urgent step toward improvement of institutional and financial dimension to turn these rural systems in to sustainable WSS. Low capacity of WUC in management of financial accounts, improper documentation & non-transparency, limited capacity / skill of VMW, frequent breakage of pipelines basically due to improper pipeline depth & difficult terrain, passiveness of WUC and no or low tariff collection were identified as major challenges faced by the water systems and WUC in sustainable management of systems. Reduction in the discharge of water source and frequent interruption of electricity & fluctuation of voltage also contributed in increasing the challenges for operation and management of systems. Centralizing and outsourcing the management of financial accounts, outsourcing operations & maintenance to local professionals, outsourcing pipe laying to local professionals, compulsive post construction activities/program from donor agencies after completion of system construction to strengthen institutional capacity of the WUC, lead by ward and palika in monitoring and collection of tariffs in vulnerable systems for system sustainability and insurance of water supply system to cover the loss or damage of its structures etc. were some of the alternative options or methods explored to enhance the sustainability of the water supply systems.

Keywords

Sustainability, Weightage, Tariff, Alternative approach, Outsourcing, Social inclusion