About RWSSP

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (RWSSP) funded by the Government of Papua New Guinea and the European Union commenced in February 2006 under the supervision of the Department of Health. Phase I of the Programme was completed in August, 2008.

The Phase I budget included a provision of Euro 3.5 million for the implementation of RWSS projects over two years and eight months. Due to a satisfactory performance, Phase II started in January 2009, and will run for three years with a substantially larger budget for RWSS project implementation.

The RWSSP has been designed to optimise rapid implementation by channelling grants through NSA with existing experience and capacity for implementing integrated, community demand driven, small-scale RWSS projects.

NSAs will be contracted for the implementation of RWSS projects based on the approval of proposals they submit to RWSSP. The proposals will be evaluated by a committee comprising the Department of |Health, The Department of National Planning and Monitoring and the Office of Rural Development.

A key area of concern for RWSSP was the sustainability of the RWSS schemes constructed. This was addressed during Phase I through an appropriate community development strategy and procedures, including arrangements through which requests for RWSS schemes were driven by community demand.

This strategy is considered essential in order to avoid the mistakes of previous RWSS projects in PNG which failed to create sufficient sense of community ownership due to a top-down implementation approach of donors, government and implementing agencies. To promote community ownership and sustainability of RWSS schemes community contributions to a project, in cash and in kind, will continue to be required during Phase II.

To become implementing partners NSAs need to have existing general management capacity as well as capacity either for the complete implementation of integrated RWSS projects or else capacity in one or more of component areas (community development, capacity building, RWSS technical design/construction, training or awareness raising on cross cutting issues of HIV/AIDS and gender) gained from the other projects of a similar nature.

An NSA capacity building component was developed by RWSSP to enable an increasing number of NSAs to access and manage programme funds over the programme period and to broaden the geographical coverage of the Programme. Capacity building was, and will continue to be, directed primarily towards strengthening and supporting the NSA to implement and integrate the various component areas of RWSS projects as required by the RWSSP.

In order to improve sustainability further, and to prioritise hygiene and sanitation, capacity building of NSAs during Phase II will concentrate more upon Community Management, Community Led Total Sanitation, Participatory Hygiene & Sanitation Transformation and Participatory Water Supply & Use Decision Making. This is expected to produce higher sustainable outputs, and results which may be considered international standard of working best-practice.

Under Phase II the networking of communities, NSAs and local level government will receive increased attention. By bringing together the stakeholders involved it is hoped that the projects and the capacity of the NSAs will be enhanced so that on the completion of the programme there will remain well maintained schemes and the skills to further meet the needs for clean water and improved access to sanitation. In addition the creation of working partnerships between stakeholders should result in longer term development benefits in the area.