From Brecht Mommen, UNICEF, Bhubaneshwar

Posted 29 July 2011

I work for UNICEF in Orissa as the WASH specialist. My main task is to provide support in improving access to water supply and sanitation in rural areas. I have found that access to safe water have been largely undermined by poor operation and maintenance (O&M). The contributing factors are:

• Poor ownership and awareness by communities about their rights and responsibilities
• Poor capacities,  willingness and ownership by panchayats to maintain water supply systems
• Limited accountability mechanisms for citizens to hold panchayats accountable for the provision of safe water
• Lack of spare parts and tools
• Limited availability of mechanics and lack of motivation/incentives

For this, I request the Community members to share their experiences regarding:

• Are their examples where O&M issues been addressed, reducing the downtime of safe water sources, while also limiting the pollution of the groundwater in a sustainable way?
• What are the drivers for this improved O&M?
• What accountability mechanisms have been found to be effective?
• Have these been documented, or do they need to be documented? I request members to share existing documents

Your responses will help us devise ways to improve O&M issues in rural water supply in Orissa.

Download the below attachment for response