Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Project Name Region Sector Project ID Borrower(s) Implementing Agency Environment Category Report No. PID7124 Rwanda-Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (@+) Project Africa Regional Office Rural Water Supply & Sanitation RWPE45182 GOVERNMENT Date PID Prepared March 21, 2000 Projected Appraisal Date April 10, 2000 Projected Board Date June 6, 2000 Address DEA/COMMUNES Directorate of Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Energy, Water and Natural Resources Address: Contact Person: Mr. Bruno Mwanafunzi, Director, DEA Tel: + 250 08301148 Fax: +250 87331 B 1. Country and Sector Background Rural Rwanda is supplied by a total of about 700 piped water systems that feed into 6,800 standpipes and 2,200 private connections as well as by 17,000 spring catchments. Coverage ratios vary based on the statistical criteria applied: 72t of the total population has theoretical access to a water point that serves less than 200 users, but the actual percentage is much smaller, due to the bad condition of facilities. Topography increases the hardships associated with access distances. Given that Rwanda is spread out over approximately 1,800 hills and that populations have tended to settle in high-lying areas, women and children are often required to carry water uphill from low-lying springs. One response to this phenomenon has been the construction of rural piped distribution systems fed by higher-lying springs or surface water sources where they do occur naturally. Fifty such systems span two or more communes and ten straddle more than one prefecture.according to UNICEF's surveys, the sanitary situation of the rural population is problematic. Even if 85 percent of the population has access to traditional pit latrines, they are generally poorly maintained and safe hygienic practices are not prevalent. Only 20 percent of the rural schools and health centers are equipped with VIP latrines and rural markets are totally devoid of sanitation facilities.rural water supply (RWS) in Rwanda has traditionally faced a range of issues from top-down programming of investments, poor cost recovery, limited private sector participation and high per-capita investment costs for system construction. Early attempts to introduce community participation and to transfer the responsibility/ownership of RWS facilities to the communes failed in the absence of strong Government
commitment to actual decentralization and its insistence to keep investment decisions at central level. Those issues have been compounded by deep community-level distrust engendered by the 1994 genocide and by the demands of post-war reconstruction which placed immediate emergency relief ahead of longer-term sustainability considerations in the choice of investments. An innovative framework for the management of water facilities, which was based on the establishment of water users associations failed to provide the expected sustainability of services, following interference and conflicts between the communal administration, appointed by the central government and beneficiaries. It was subsequently recognized that the commune is not the most adequate level for building social cohesion and sense of ownership among various group of water users who are actually served by a multiplicity of point sources and piped systems.government Strategy The sectoral RWS strategy commits the government to decentralizing the DEA, revising the project cycle to allow for demand-driven community choices, increasing private sector participation (PSP) in the operation of major systems and integrating sanitation/hygiene education initiatives into RWS projects. The key elements of that new strategy include:promoting a demand-responsive approach through which communities decide if they want to participate and their preferred service level based on willingness to pay, contribute to a portion of investment costs and pay in full operation and maintenance costs of their facilities;decentralizing planning and management of services by (1) making communities the decision-makers, owners and managers of their facilities, and (2) making the communes, particularly the Community Development Committees (CDC) able to assist communities in obtaining improved services;redefining the roles of various institutions involved in the delivery of water and sanitation services, including a transitional arrangement and related capacity building to move from a centralized planned approach to a demand-responsive approachsupporting the private sector (including NGOs) as provider for all goods and services; andredeploying the public sector as facilitator, with DEA providing assistance and support to the CDCs and water user associations ("regies associatives").in parallel, the Government has actively promoted decentralization and participation through local elections at the level of cells, sectors and communes. Communal councils established Community Development Committees (CDCs) with administrative and financial autonomy to ensure participation of the local population in a decision-making process which is complementary to the local administration. Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) were carried out with the assistance of various donors which helped 40 communes to define local priorities and prepare community development plans (CDP). 2. Objectives The project development objective is to increase the availability and sustainability of water supply and sanitation services (WSS) in rural areas. The specific objectives include: (a) implementing demand-responsive and sustainable WSS services, by promoting simple water supply and sanitation systems that are planned, operated and maintained by communities with private sector support in selected communes; (b) strengthening community capacity to manage services, by assisting communities in planning, implementing and administering services, forming and training water and sanitation committees and water users associations, and training community members in better hygiene practices; (c) building the capacity of water agencies, communes, users and the private sector to -2 -
assume roles consistent with the new water sector strategy; and (d) mobilizing communities' support for the rehabilitation/expansion of the Mayaga-Bugesera system and its operation by the private sector. 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement The Bank and WSP-ESA sponsored the preparation of the sectoral strategy. Both are at the forefront in promoting the demand-responsive approach to the development of water services in rural areas and small towns, as evidenced by the World Conference on Community Water Supply and Sanitation organized in Washington in May 1998. As there is a need to operationalize the new strategy with a specific project, the Bank may bring forward the design and implementation experience accumulated elsewhere in Africa.As importantly, the Bank will cooperate with the Government to demonstrate that sectoral investment programs can be prepared and implemented by CDCs and communities using a standard institutional and financial framework developed for multi-sectoral initiatives, thus strengthening the case for community action programs. 4. Description The project comprises four components, as follows: 1. Subproject Grants: this component will assist water users associations in ten communes to plan, finance and execute improved water and sanitation facilities. WUAs will select technologies and service levels (from simple protected sources to piped systems and sanitation facilities for schools). The project will provide technical assistance and community development assistance and grants to execute the subprojects. 2. Rehabilitation of Major Rural Water Supply Systems: this component will help to rehabilitate a major piped system serving six communes in the Mayaga Region. The rehabilitation and expansion of the secondary networks will follow the participatory and decentralized approach of the first component. This component will also help to assess the condition of the systems in the Lava Region and finance related community development activities. 3. Capacity Building: this component will help all actors and stakeholders to acquire and maintain technical, social and management capacities required to carry out their respective roles, through training, evaluation and exchange of experiences. This component will also help to set up a decentralized monitoring system. 4. Project Management: this component will help to finance incremental operating costs of DEA and CDCs related to the execution of the project. 5. Financing Total ( US$m) Government 0.07 IDA 20.00 COMMUNITIES 0.88 Total Project Cost 20.95 6. Implementation DEA, assisted by consultants prepared a draft Project Implementation Manual (PIM) that outlines the rules and procedures for project implementation. The draft manual is being discussed with stakeholders involved in the community water and sanitation goods and services. This -3 -
manual will be adopted by the project effectiveness. Executing agenciesin line with the Community Action Program initiative and to avoid overlapping and potentially contradictory structures at communal level, the present project will largely follow the institutional and implementation arrangements already developed by the Ministry of Local Administration under the Community Reintegration and Development Project (CRDP).Project CoordinationDEA will have primary responsibility for guiding, promoting, facilitating, supervising, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on project activities. DEA will also implement the institutional building component. Project coordination will be deconcentrated at the prefecture level, with the DEA's prefecture services (REAP) playing a key role in providing technical assistance to the Community Development Committee (CDC) and building private sector capacity for smooth subproject implementation.project ExecutionFor Component 1, CDCs will first validate and pre-select WSS subprojects already identified in their Community Development Plans. WSS subproject proposals will then be developed by communities with the assistance of partner organizations contracted by the CDC. Subproject proposals will be submitted to the CDC and DEA for approval. Communities will open bank accounts and deposit the required cash contribution as a condition of subproject appraisal. CDC will be in charge of contracting works, goods and services required to execute the subprojects. Communities will participate in the selection process sign off on completed works. Small-scale subprojects (e.g. point sources and latrines) may also be directly executed by communities. Communities will be responsible for sustaining services and encouraged to undertake participatory monitoring and evaluation of their activities.for Component 2, DEA will select a partner organization to assist communities in the six communes wholly or partially covered by the Mayaga-Bugesera network to prepare subprojects. Once the subprojects closely related to the Mayaga network are identified and appraised, DEA will carry out in parallel the rehabilitation of the production facilities and of the main trunk of the network in accordance with the detailed design studies carried out under the Second Water Supply Project. DEA will also assist communities in setting up an inter-communal water board ("Association Inter-communale") that can contract a private sector operator for the inter-communal network. As the Mayaga-Bugesera network serves only about 120,000 of the 300,000 residents of the six communes it reaches (25 of 58 sectors), participating communities would also be eligible for Component 1 financing for the remainder of their water supply/sanitation needs.dea will coordinate capacity-building measures (Component 3) defined with the assistance of project cycle consultants and the local partner organizations.implementation PeriodThe project will be implemented over a 6-year period (2000-2005). 7. Sustainability The sustainability of the water and sanitation services in rural areas of Rwanda rests on two key elements:a. Mutual trust between local/central administration and local communities. The effective decentralization of decisions and the leading role played by communities in the planning and design of the WSS facilities will ensure that investment decisions are transparent and demand-responsive. Similarly, building such mutual trust will eliminate the risk of local administration interference with the management of facilities.b. Community willingness and capacity to manage and sustain services. Experience elsewhere demonstrates that the sense of ownership by communities reinforces the likelihood of successful community - 4 -
management and use of facilities. This sense of ownership will be increased by the up-front commitment requested from communities which will have to take the initiative, prepare a proposal, make cash and in-kind contributions and undertake organizational responsibilities. To help communities manage their services in the long-term, capacity will be strengthened in community organization, operations and maintenance, financial management, hygiene education and effective water usage and disposal. 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector The implementation experience with the Second Water Supply Project and community-oriented projects in Rwanda and experiences with Bank-financed, demand-driven community water supply and sanitation projects in sub-saharan Africa, provide the following lessons:the design of the project builds on experiences with Bank-financed demand-driven community water supply and sanitation projects in Ghana and Benin. The Ghana Community Water Supply & Sanitation project in particular has underscored the need (a) for technically well-grounded partner organizations to advise communities on piped systems and (b) for pre-identification of prospective project communities that later self-select based on effective demand.experience under the on-going Rwanda Community and Reintegration Development Project as well as similar projects financed by other donors (UNDP, USAID) have demonstrated that communities are keen on taking on more responsibility, that CDCs cooperate with local administrators and that CDPs may be developed and updated in a participatory approach. It also demonstrated that training must be reinforced to ensure sound management by CDCs and communities, and must start early in the project cycle. Women are the key players in the delivery of community water and sanitation services and must be empowered to facilitate community action. Special attention have been given to their representation among the CDC.The Rwanda Food Security & Social Action project (PNAS) has pointed out that to ensure the sustainability of community infrastructure, there is a need to have communities be part of the planning process and contribute to infrastructure sub-projects, in terms of materials, complementary infrastructure, or labor, before procurement of a construction contract. The PNAS also demonstrated that there is local implementation capacity for small contracts. The private sector has responded well, however greater flexibility is needed when implementing the project, so as to adjust to the local entrepreneur capacity, community's space, interests and capacity rather than adopting a common approach to all. The experience under the Rwanda Second Water Supply Project showed that community willingness to pay for services may be much higher than expected and this is often not reflected in financial policies that have high subsidy levels. The project will promote cost recovery schemes based on the results of a willingness to pay study that is being carried out as part of the project's preparation. 9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) N 10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues The project will sensitize communities to the environmental aspects of their subprojects, and train them in the sustainable use of water and sanitation facilities. The approach is meant to incorporate environmental concerns into the project design and focuses on environmentally sound criteria for construction methods, waste water - 5 -
disposal techniques, and appropriate on-site latrine location. The proposed training programs will primarily focus on water source contamination, ground water depletion and vegetation loss, reduction in waste water production, erosion prevention and control, proper human waste disposal, and hygienic use of water and sanitation facilities. The latter will be further supported through the project's hygiene education strategy. The monitoring component of the proposed project will include monitoring water quality, particularly spring water contamination. The Project Implementation Manual will include a section covering environmental criteria for subproject appraisal, compensation guidelines, environmental requirements for contractors, and terms of reference for technical assistance. 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Richard Verspyck The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473 45 33 Fax: (202) 473 82 49 12. For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project. Processed by the InfoShop week ending March 24, 2000. - 6 -
Annex Because this is a Category B project, it may be required that the borrower prepare a separate EA report. If a separate EA report is required, once it is prepared and submitted to the Bank, in accordance with OP 4.01, Environmental Assessment, it will be filed as an annex to the Public Information Document (PID). If no separate EA report is required, the PID will not contain an EA annex; the findings and recommendations of the EA will be reflected in the body of the PID. -7-