Colombia: testing innovative models for rural water and sanitation services

Photo: IRC

NGO “Give to Colombia” will implement several pilot projects that will serve as models for the Rural Water Supply and Wastewater Management Program in Colombia. This large-scale programme is financed with the help of a US$ 60 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The pilot projects have four components:

• School water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (SWASH), which will implement and evaluate UNICEF’s model for SWASH interventions in at least 25 rural public schools
• Post-construction support and the sustainability of rural water projects with a focus on innovative financial models
• Sustainable models for the financing and provision of household connections
• Sustainable self-supply models for disperse rural communities

The AquaFund and Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction are financing the pilot projects. Contributors to the Aquafund are IDB, the governments of Switzerland and Austria, and the PepsiCo Foundation.

The pilot projects will cost about US$ 2.1 million. The implementing agency Give to Colombia (G2C) receives resources from the Embassy of Japan and the General Electric Foundation. PepsiCo Colombia is supporting the dissemination of the innovative models being developed in the projects.

In 2011, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and CINARA carried out a study on behalf of IDB, about post-construction support on rural water supply services in Colombia [1]. The study [2] shows that those service providers that receive more structured support perform better.

[1] IADB publishes report on post-construction support on rural water supply services in Colombia, IRC, 21 Aug 2012 ; Webinar – Impacts of post-construction support on the performance of rural water supply in Colombia, IRC,

[2] Smits, S. et al., 2012. Gobernanza y sostenibilidad de los sistemas de agua potable y saneamiento rurales en Colombia. (Monografia; IDB-MG-133). [online] Washington, DC, USA: Inter-American Development Bank. Available at: <http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=36986189>

Related websites:

• IDB – Rural Water Supply and Wastewater Management Program (CO-L1105)
• IDB – AquaFund
• Give to Colombia (G2C)
• IRC – Triple-S/Water services that last – Colombia

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune, 10 Oct 2012 ; IDB, 02 Oct 2012

Central America: Seminar on Sanitation and Governance – papers

From 1-3 February, 2010, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre organised together with RRAS-CA Red Regional de Agua y Saneamiento de Centro-America) and RAS-ES ( Red de Agua y Saneamiento de El Salvador ) a seminar to share experiences on governance of sanitation services focusing on the Central American region. The workshop took place in San Salvador and brought together 30 participants mainly from government organisations and NGOs. The workshop was funded by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)

All workshop related documents (papers and presentations) can be found on the Spanish IRC web pages by clicking here

Brazil, Sao Paulo: participatory sanitation project wins Mario Covas Award 2009

On April 8, 2009, the Project “Environmental Rehabilitation of Vila Machado: shared territorial management linked to Action Monitoring for Effectiveness” received the ‘Mario Covas Award 2009′ under the category Innovation on Public Management. The project, coordinated by the São Paulo State Basic Sanitation Company SABESP in a partnership with the Post-Graduate Programme on Environmental Science of the University of São Paulo PROCAM, uses an adaptation of Action Monitoring for Effectiveness (aMe) to involve city dwellers in the implementation of improvements on sanitation in a peri-urban community. An earlier development of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre by Katheleen Shordt, aMe was considered an innovative element of public action. Maria Lucia G. Borba, a former IRC staff member and now with PROCAM, is collaborating with SABESP in this project.

The Mario Covas Award was created in 2004 as an effort by the São Paulo State Government to continuously search for the modernization of administrative action through its Secretariats and other governmental institutions. In 2009, of 184 public initiatives featuring projects being implemented in the state of São Paulo which were received by the organizers of this important event, 15 received the Award under two categories: Excellence on Public Management and Innovation on Public Management. For more information on the 2009 Award (only in Portuguese) see here and here.

For more information on the project contact Maria Lucia G. Borba, maluborba [at] yahoo.com 

Prize winners: from left Márcia Alice Alves – SABESP, Carlos Roberto Dardis – SABESP, Maria Lucia G. Borba – PROCAM/USP and Dilmara Veríssimo de Souza – SABESP.