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MAKING INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM ) WORK:
LESSONS FROM THE EVALUATION OF WATER SECTOR PROGRAMMES
6.4 Small Group Discussion on the Local Dimension
It was agreed that the term “local” should encompass the community, district and
municipal levels and that all these are subject to national level influences. A key
theme implicit in the discussion of local level issues was decentralisation.
Defining Goals for the Donor Community
A distinction exists between the ultimate required outcomes or super-goals of water
related policy and the more directly attainable goals. The higher aim or super-goal is
to alleviate poverty, assist economic development and ensure sustainable resource
use, (an outcome of which may be environmental protection), through the availability
of water. The goals that can help to achieve these are the provision of sustainable
and affordable “basic” services, including an adequate supply of safe water and
sanitation. Income generation, well being and livelihoods can all be enhanced by the
provision of or access to sufficient water of adequate quality. Protection from
extreme events is an outcome in itself and also a means to achieving other goals,
including the super-goals.
Defining Strategies for the Donor Community
Education and awareness raising at the local level in areas including health and
sustainability of water resources, are crucial elements to the success of water-related
projects or programmes. To enable this, the project or programme at its inception
and throughout development must have a clear and easily communicable purpose.
However this purpose should not be preordained but should be developed from
expressed needs and must be demand responsive.
Governance is one of the main foci for local level water issues as it is necessary to
improve the roles of, strengthen and reform local governments, including municipal
governments and to build their capacity to ensure they have sufficient control and
can be effective in their role. User and community groups also play a key role and it
is necessary to assist them and enable them to help themselves. To accommodate
the roles of the local government and the needs and roles of community groups, local
regulatory and legal frameworks must be established or strengthened. To support
this, land and water rights should be improved or established to ensure the
community has a sense of ownership.
Development of autonomous service providers for efficient service delivery, through
any combination of public, private or public-private partnerships (ppp) should be
promoted. With this, a price structure should be introduced but with a “safety net” to
ensure poorer groups are able to afford these services.
Where infrastructure is required for water provision or sanitation there should be
mechanisms for provision of finance, with the emphasis on enabling the building of
infrastructure rather than building it directly.
Conflicts often arise over water, particularly at times of stress on resources, therefore
strategies should be designed to resolve conflicts and to deal with water trade-offs.
The "Twin Track"
It is envisaged that a long-term programme is required which puts in place the right
structure and system. This should include milestones for achievement (monitoring
and evaluation), together with components for infrastructure development. A system
based on this should provide the incentive for development.
Furthermore, the approach should focus on facilitating local groups to undertake
work based on situation analysis. There should not be a single “blue print” for
development activities in the water sector at the local level but they should arise from
the needs in the local situation.
Integrated Water Resource Management
It is important that the term IWRM does not form the focus but that an “intuitive
understanding” of it is put into action. In practice IWRM should enable identification
or clarification of stakeholder roles and assist in establishing a dialogue between
these groups, to ultimately provide mechanisms for resolving local level water
conflicts. It is therefore critical that local level systems are understood. IWRM is
theoretically and often practically an ideal solution to water related issues, however it
must be urged that it not be used as a panacea but only put in place when
necessary.
What do we need to know? Who should do what?
Local government level:
Local government must clarify their responsibilities both internally by creating the
right structures and terms of reference, and to third parties by making these
transparent. The human resources element of local government is invaluable,
therefore they must provide incentives to make jobs desirable and to ensure that
fewer personnel who receive training as local government employees take that
expertise to private organisations. Local governments should take the example set
my many NGOs and determine service development mechanisms and undertake
conflict resolution. To ensure the fair allocation of water resources between different
users.
Community level:
To enhance their effectiveness, all aspects of community level action must be
supported by the local government and NGOs. The community should participate
fully in local consultative committees, catchment councils or water parliaments, to
ensure activities meet local needs and to reduce conflicts. Self-help schemes, the
installation of facilities, especially in remote areas, and small enterprise development
to maintain infrastructure could all be carried out by local community groups.
Funds for such activities could come from a number of sources including the
communities themselves, especially for operation and maintenance costs. Initial
outlays could be made by the central or local governments and donors, perhaps with
an “in kind” contribution from the community, which would lead to far greater
ownership. Credit, especially micro-credit is often critical to local water schemes (as
exemplified by the Grameen Bank), hence more emphasis and investment should be
made in this area. For any of these options to be effective at the local level, it is
necessary for transparent mechanisms for the attainment of funds from higher tiers of
authority.
What needs to be changed? The Donor Role
The main role of the donor should be to be supportive of local groups who are using
existing structures and mechanisms, rather than imposing new ones upon them,
based on the donors agenda. Furthermore, any programme that is implemented
should have a substantial time commitment (at least 10 years) but should be
periodically evaluated and action, including discontinuation of the programme, should
be taken where necessary.
To improve the performance of programmes and to ensure that they are most
effective, good in-country partners could be selected who would become role models
or “champions” for the work being undertaken. The introduction of competition for
resources and funds from beneficiaries could ensure that the most dedicated and
effective partners are chosen, and also increase the choice of partners, to improve
the diversity and originality of programmes.
Training support is an area that needs substantial attention. More attentions should
be paid to practical, skills-based learning, with the focus on the local conditions and
situation. “Soft” skills should be improved to facilitate improvement in: areas
requiring negotiation; procurement of resources; water diplomacy; and conflict
resolution. It is also envisaged that twinning could occur between local governments
and groups, and private service providers, to share expertise.
Within the donor community there is a requirement for internal reform to foster a
better understanding of the decision making process and to improve the criteria for
choices made. Donor coordination must be improved to remove the fragmentation of
donor support at local level. Rules and regulations, especially bilateral and within
European Union Member States, should be harmonised to prevent repetition or even
conflict of work. This is especially important where different donors are working in a
single location and where resources could be pooled.
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