USE OF THE CITIZEN REPORT CARD TO ASSESS ACCOUNTABILITY IN NEPAL'S

WATER SECTOR (DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SERVICE)

Bal Krishna Prasai Jalsrot Vikas Sanstha (JVS)/ GWP Nepal

June 5, 2013

BACKGROUND

A project entitled “Strengthening drinking water and sanitation sector services through enhanced accountability measures” was implemented by Jalsrot Vikas Sanstha (JVS) with financial support from the World Bank/CECI under Program for Accountability (PRAN) in Nepal in 2012 to introduce the use of Citizen Report Card in water supply sector

Duration: 10 months Team: 3 members (Principal Social Accountability

Practitioner, Sociologist, and Engineer)

CONT… Six water supply schemes operated under three different

management system (two each) and from two ecological regions were selected, one of the schemes was managed by only women. 4 schemes were supplying water from underground sources (wells) and 2 schemes from streams (gravity flow)

Community (rural) Water Supply Schemes Small Town Water Supply Schemes (STWSS) Nepal Water Supply Corporation Schemes (NWSCS)

STUDY SITES

To carry out overall assessment of the performance of

drinking water and sanitation service providers based on the service users’ satisfaction

To strengthen the capacity of service users and

providers in effective use of social accountability approaches/tool -Citizen Report Card (CRC)

To enhance the advocacy activities on the social

accountability tool

OBJECTIVES

Schemes and service providers selection Focused Group Discussion with service providers and

service users Questionnaire Design Field Team Formation and Orientation Sample size: 4-5 % in large population and 20 % in small

population Execution of Household Survey: 826 Households

surveyed, Stratified proportionate random sampling followed

Data Analysis through SPSS Sharing Survey Results in interface Meetings and National

Workshop Individual CRC preparation

METHODOLOGY

In all schemes high level of dissatisfaction in terms of water supply timing

In terms of quantity of water, high level of dissatisfaction in NWSC schemes and high level of satisfaction in STWS schemes

In terms of water quality, high level of dissatisfaction in NWSC schemes and high level of satisfaction in STWS and RWSS schemes

Comparatively higher percentage of users satisfied in STWS schemes than in NWSC schemes in terms of tap connection quality and time taken

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Higher percentage of people satisfied in STWS schemes than in NWSC schemes in the quality and timeliness of repair

Higher percentage of people satisfied in NWSC schemes than in STWS schemes in terms of water tariff

High level of satisfaction in all the schemes in simplicity to pay the tariff

In terms of behavior of staffs/officials high levels of satisfaction in all the schemes except one (Janakpur)

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY …

Transmission/distribution pipes old and need major rehabilitation in NWSC schemes and Kahun Danda

Population increasing but water supply facilities expansion not keeping pace with population growth

Lack of resources (financial/manpower) with service providers to upgrade the systems

Difficulty in repayment of loan in STWS schemes

Technological problems in water supply

SOME KEY OBSERVATIONS/CONCERNS

No mechanism to interact with service users in NWSC schemes

High level of non-payment of tariff in NWSC schemes (eg. Rs 8 million in Nepalganj, 10 million in Janakpur)

Application of computer technology found only in Lekhnath

No long-term water supply plan in NWSC schemes and RWS schemes

SOME KEY OBSERVATIONS/CONCERNS…

Water treatment not effective in majority of the systems

Growing issues of rights over water sources

Low access of Poor and Landless People to water supply

Service users less aware on their rights to service and less demanding

No major activity in sanitation sector

No active involvement of civil societies to enhance the accountability of service providers

SOME KEY OBSERVATIONS/CONCERNS…

Service providers accepted the findings of the survey during interface meeting organized for finding dissemination and committed to improve in various aspects of service delivery

A water supply monitoring mechanism with a coordinator from water users established in Janakpur. Other service providers also showed interest to set up such mechanism

Other public district offices also expressed interest in adopting

CRC in assessing their services in future

Service providers, service users, and media people’s understanding on the use of CRC increased

KEY RESULTS OF THE STUDY

LESSONS LEARNED Higher level of satisfaction among the service users when

they are involved in management as in STWS and RWS schemes

Need for a service monitoring mechanism to be led by the

service user and service users ready to cooperate it Civil society organizations including public agencies

enthusiastic to apply CRC if their capacity is enhanced

ACTION UNDERTAKEN BY JVS JVS has requested the concerned government offices to

mainstream CRC programme in their annual plan and to provide necessary financial and technical support to the service providers

JVS has chosen one of the water supply schemes as case example to assess the impact of CRC (any improvement in water supply service delivery with WIN financial support)

Focus Group Discussion with the service users at Chitwan

Service provider with her comments during interface meeting at Dang

Focus Group Discussion with the service users at Dang

National workshop on the findings of the study at Kathmandu

THANK YOU !