August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 19: The World Bank has prescribed a recipe to the NWFP government, which will cost around Rs6 billion and take 10 years to improve sanitation conditions in the province.The draft NWFP Sanitation Strategy is the latest solution to the NWFP’s worst sanitation situation offered by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme.

The proposed strategy, prepared in line with the National Sanitation Policy, had been reviewed by the authorities concerned and its implementation would start following its approval by the provincial cabinet, an official said.

According to the draft strategy, a copy of which is available with Dawn, a system of incentive-based sanitary solution has been proposed under which union councils with better sanitation will be receive rewards.

The strategy proposed special performance-based grants for tehsil and municipal administrations, which have ‘excreta-free’ union councils. A UC with this status will be characterised by ‘excreta-free open spaces’ and ‘excreta free open drains, discharges’.

Likewise, performance grants have also been proposed for TMAs on the basis of the number of ‘litter-free’ union councils in their jurisdictions. A UC will be classified as ‘litter-free’ if it is free of indiscriminate disposal of solid waste.

To achieve this status, a UC has to establish a system for safe and efficient segregation, collection, recycling, transportation and disposal of solid waste.

Similar performance grants have been proposed for TMAs on the basis of the number of ‘foul water-free’ UCs in their jurisdictions. To be eligible for this reward, a union council must first have secured ‘litter-free’ status.

The strategy further suggests a competition to identify the cleanest UC in the province that will ensure that the desired health and quality of life outcomes are being delivered from ‘safe defecation’, ‘litter-free’ and ‘foul water-free’ union councils.

Statistics present a bleak picture when it comes to the overall sanitation situation in the NWFP. For example, various district-level studies indicate that less than 22 per cent of people practice hand washing before eating and after defecation. Of them, less than 9 per cent wash their hands usually with soap. Likewise, two-thirds of the people have access to any kind of toilets, however less than half of these are adequate sanitary latrines. The usage of sanitary latrines is particularly poor in rural areas.

To achieve the targets, the new strategy identifies different methods, which have worked in different third world countries of similar poor sanitation indicators.

Marketing of hand washing is one of the innovative approaches and is part of the proposed strategy. It proposes fund-based and family- and child-centred marketing techniques employed by private sector manufacturers of soap.

For example, it proposes that TMA-soap manufacturers’ collaboration for promotion of hand washing and cheaper availability of soap in homes and schools can be a good option.

Likewise, sanitation marketing is another approach, which according to the strategy has been successful in Africa and West Bengal, where providers of sanitary goods also undertake social mobilisation to benefit from the sale of sanitary wares.

Apart from these options, micro-credit, cooperative models, community-led total sanitation (CLTS) and some school-centred approaches are also part of the proposed strategy.

The draft strategy says Rs5.48 billion will be required to deliver the stated objectives over a 10-year period. Likewise, it says, the provincial government will be also required to allocate a further Rs96 million for capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and commissioning of various studies.