BY YULIA BUYNOVA
Yulia Buynova is a first-year MA student at Johns Hopkins SAIS concentrating in International Development and an Editor for SAIS Perspectives.
When we think about a lack of access to water and sanitation, both developing and low-income countries and places torn by conflict immediately come to mind. However, as seen in the case of Uzbekistan, rural areas within middle-income countries can fall victim to low water service provision as well.
Figure 1: Ferghana Valley spans over Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Source: SDC 2013
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the deterioration of the existing infrastructure and significantly decreased drinking water and sanitation access levels. In Uzbekistan, 64 percent of the population, or 17 million people, live in rural areas, and 40 percent of rural population lack safe drinking water Dirty irrigation canals have become the primary source of water in many villages. Truck water vendors are also present in the country, but their water prices can reach as high as US$15/cubic meter,putting a significant burden on household budgets.
Ferghana Valleyis the most densely populated region in the country with 7.5 million residents, many of whom lack basic water services. Since 1998, international organizations have been involved in the water sector in Uzbekistan, and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) entered the sector in the early 2000s with a range of successful initiatives.
Figure 2: Description of the project. Source: SDC 2016
One initiative, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program in the Ferghana Valley, was implemented in four phases between 2003 and 2018 and improved access to drinking water for 153,000 people in 40 villages.[1]International Secretariat for Water(ISW) became the implementer of the initiative, with the overall cost of the program estimated at US $12.6 million. SDC and ISW proposed a decentralized water management system as a solution, and the Uzbekistan government decided to adopt this approach. Pumps were stationed near schools, health centers and households to ensure that each household was within a 75-meter radius of the water source, significantly reducing time spent on accessing water, a task that primarily falls upon women and children.
Several factors described below have determined the success of the program.
Communities at the center of the solution
Studies suggest that the involvement of beneficiaries in the design and implementation of water and sanitation programs improves their sustainability and ensures that community voices are heard early on.
To guarantee buy-in of local communities, villages themselves were tasked with proposing their candidacy to SDC through regional administration. Instead of implementing a top-down approach, SDC supported only those villages that voiced their desire to participate in the project and receive grants.
Once the villages were chosen after the evaluation, ISW, together with Uzbek authorities, supported the legal establishment of 32 Drinking Water Organizations (DWO) in each connected village (See Figure 3for adapted methodology). ISW and SDC aimed to make DWOs as independent as possible by providing technical, managerial, and financial training to participants.
In order to join the DWOs, households needed to contribute an initial fee that equaled the costs of a street water pump for seven families. DWOs, managed by General Assemblies that were elected by and from the participating households, vote on the working hours of the system and recruit managers, technicians, and accountants to support system's functioning.
To establish an uninterrupted supply of services and support on the governmental level, ISW and SDC went beyond villages and partnered with “UzKommunHizmat”(UzKH), the Uzbek utility agency. SDC, ISW, and UzKH worked together to develop a national policy on drinking water and sanitation. UzKH also became an adviser and supporter for DWOs after the project completion and exit of international partners, therefore, ensuring the systems' longevity.
Planning ahead
One of the problems for the long-term sustainability of water and sanitation projects is the lack of funds for operation and maintenance (O&M). Since Phase I, the project adopted a full cost recovery approach. All villages agreed on tariffs through a transparent process implemented by DWOs. O&M expenses included not only running costs but also funds for depreciation and amortization,which can be used to repay loans for original connection or extensions to new villages (See Figure 4 for tariff structure).
Figure 4: Tariff Structure after five years. Source: SDC 2016
The water connections provided by the project significantly decreased household costs of obtaining safe water. The average tariff established across villages was around 30-40 cents per cubic meter of water.
The collection of tariffs and illegal connections are problems that many of water and sanitation projects face. The project review showed that the tariff collection rate could remain as high as 95 percent if the facilities are adequately maintained, and the supply is uninterrupted. In this project, the break-even point for tariff collection was 85 percent, allowing for cross-subsidy for poor households unable to pay the tariff.
Health commitments
To complement infrastructure development and systems' management, IWS and SDC implemented a comprehensive handwashing promotion strategy. The campaign's main goal was to decrease the level of water-borne diseases, and the statistics from the 2017 project reviewsuggest a significant reduction in diarrheal conditions and Hepatitis A. The campaign included training for local health workers, and teachers were tasked to lead events on hygiene promotion. The Ministry of Health considered the positive impact of such campaigns and, since 2016, started to replicate the program beyond the current project's scope.
Long-term commitment
In the first villages, water pumps were established more than 15 years ago and continue to supply water to beneficiaries today. Although there is a lack of information on the current access rate, the overall evaluation of the projects is positive, and it seems that the established water connection remain active. Various international organizations recognized the successof the program. After 2016, IWS started identifying new villages that could benefit from similar schemes in other regions but with financing from the World Bank.The long-term commitment of SDC and ISW allowed for adaptive learning throughout the project.
This project shows that successful alignment of donor priorities and local needs can exist in the world of international development and aid. Giving responsibility to local governments and communities has proven to be a fruitful solution for water sector. Complementary interventions in health sector and long-term donor commitments created a balanced approach that can remain sustainable over time. The acquired knowledge and best practices can be useful for similar projects in the country and across Central Asia.
Figure 3: ISW Methodology for transparent and participatory implementation of DWOs. Source: SDC 2016
[1]In 2007, the project was expanded to include some villages in Ferghana Valley in Tajikistan.
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Free use image from Canva Pro