Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP)

Facing a demand of over 600 villages and the constraint of only being able to assist 28 per year, WASEP developed a set of criteria to short-list a potential set of candidates. WASEP used a participatory approach in determining each of the village's needs and assessed its ability to carry out and sustain an intervention project. Priority was assigned to villages where access, quality, and reliability of water and sanitation facilities were limited and where community dynamics suggested that the greatest possible benefit could be achieved from the intervention.

The approach taken by WASEP incorporated engineering solutions with education to maximise facility usage and improve hygiene practices. Intervention components delivered by WASEP using appropriate technologies in an integrated manner were water supply, water quality, drainage, and sanitation.

Specifically, WASEP provided incentives for community members to construct latrines by contributing non-local materials (less than 15% of the total cost). The communities then undertook all construction work with guidance from WASEP engineers. Organisers collected an Operation and Maintenance (O and M) fund, established a village organisation, and increased its capacity in an effort to keep the latrine initiatives running. The O and M endowment provided salaries for workers; regular tariff collection allowed the committee flexibility in supplementing salaries and savings for long-term maintenance. Organisers hoped that the availability of spare parts from the village store would ensure that timely maintenance is possible. WASEP also made arrangements with vendors in larger centres to stock the materials used in scheme construction.

Cultural preferences and taboos about handling of waste led to the creation of several options for latrines to ensure their use. Tap stand effectiveness was strengthened by incorporating flexible designs to address religious interpretations of the use of running water for clothes washing and personal hygiene.

WASEP's Community Health Intervention Program (CHIP) educated villagers, primarily women, about the collection and use of water and proper use and maintenance of sanitation facilities. WASEP's Health and Hygiene Promoters (HHP) addressed women in education sessions and visited households to discuss health and hygiene, causes of disease, prevention of food- and water-borne illness, and treatment of diarrhoea. The School Health Intervention Program (SHIP) designed special awareness programmes aimed at children attending primary schools.

Implementation schedules were flexible so the programme could respond to the characteristics and dynamics within each village.

Water Supply, Sanitation, Health/Hygiene, Children.

Organisers were motivated by the fact that in children, malnutrition, lack of safe water, poor sanitation, poor hygiene, early motherhood, breastfeeding practices, and inadequate health care are among known risk factors for diarrhoea.

The Northern Areas and Chitral of Pakistan is rural, mountainous region with a population of 900,000 living mostly in small villages. These villages differ by location in topography and geography, as well as in language, ethnicity, and socioeconomic development. The main health facilities are run by the government and the Aga Khan Health Services, Pakistan (AKHS,P) of AKDN. Initially, WASEP selected 109 villages (population 100,000) based on pre-set criteria. At the end of 2001, 99 villages (population 88,000) were enrolled in the project: 68 from Northern Areas and 31 from Chitral.

Organisers claim that, as a result of WASEP, 50,000 villagers have safe drinking water piped to their doors and over 70% of households have constructed their own latrines.