Resources

In this article, the authors recount the experiences of an NGO, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), in helping the community of Lele Mahadev Khola village to manage their water system through maintenance and funding. The activities carried out by the NGO through PAR is detailed with insights on what the PAR approach has been able to achieve.

The article describes the state of the water management system in Pakora, Pakistan when the PAR team made forays to assess the situation. Information on the process adopted by the PAR team is recounted and the response from the community is included on key issues such as the committee and transparency and record keeping. The article concludes by providing evidence of improvements to the water management system and assessing the gains made by the community.

The Dampara Water Management Project (DWMP) was implemented in 1998 in Northern Bangladesh for the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The task was to provide flood control to a 15,000ha area which experiences flash flooding several times annually, and the main activity was the construction of a 30k embankment along the Kangsha River. A PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) approach was taken, involving the land owners in the affected area, and the alignment of the embankment was discussed. Public negotiations were held in the fields, going plot-by-plot with land owners for them to decide what part of their land would be expropriated for the building of the embankment. The strategy used was that the people were negotiating with each other, not with the project itself. A power analysis of each community was developed through participatory wealth ranking, which helped ensure protection for the vulnerable, an also worked as a management tool. Project personnel used Venn diagrams to identify each community's powerful people, to be used in staff meetings. While the project's participatory process continued in the communities to the end of the project , assigning and adjusting ratings confidentially amongst staff, helped project social and multi-sector technical personnel to develop a common understanding and coordinated approach with community members.

This very brief discussion note for the SACOSAN conference in Dhaka 2003, describes the concept of community-led total sanitation (CLTS). It looks at the realities, vision and challenges of CLTS in improving the wellbeing for many rural and/or poor communities. It gives short comments on what has happened so far; benefits; how the technique has developed and briefly how it works; shifts from target driven partial sanitation (TDPS) to CLTS; non-negotiable principles for CTLS; scaling up of CTLS; and potential of CTLS for the future. The note also deals with some of the questions commonly asked regarding CTLS. community development, wastewater management, sanitation, sewage, hygien

This paper describes a community enumeration and mapping programme in five low-income settlements in Dar es Salaam. The inhabitants documented their settlement and its problems in detail, especially for water and sanitation, with support from the UK charity, WaterAid, and PEVODE, a Tanzanian NGO. The paper describes the planning and implementation of the enumeration and mapping, the information gathered, and how it was used. It looks specifically on some of the issues relating to the privatisation of the public water utilities. It also describes the way in which the process helped establish links between these communities and government agencies, and stimulated local action to address some of the problems identified. The community proved an essential resource in the mapping process. The authors recommend that a more holistic approach should be considered to tackle all of the issues arising in the community, water and sanity can not be specifically isolated. The mapping exercise helped the community to feel empowered to demand support for dealing with issues relating to water and sanitation. The awareness of the privatisation of the water utilities was little, and the authors of this study recommend that organisations such as PEVODE should start an awareness-raising campaign in the community. The study also revealed that other parts (than that in focus for the study) of the city would be affected by the privatisation of the water.

This book aims to provide a source of information on the key issues and constraints and capacity building necessary to implement participatory approaches in China today. It provides case studies from Chinese academics and practitioners in forestry, natural resource management, rural development, irrigation and poverty alleviation. It primarily aims to be about strengthening local government as a key player in the development of participatory initiatives.