Taking the initiative

By Mr Wattoo, President of ASB.

In Pakistan one of WaterAid's partners, Anjuman Samaji Behbood (ASB) in Faisalabad, has taken another approach to solve the problem of waste in urban slums with a sewerage system financed and managed by the community. Mr Wattoo reports.

Previously the communities in the lanes of Faisalabad had no water or sanitation. But since 1995, the community has been working with ASB to change this.

Initially they worked to connect 1000 houses to the water mains linked to the city's water supplier. Inspired by this success they then set about the task of sanitation.

ASB looked at the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Karachi as an example of how community-owned sewers can work.

There, the OPP has helped over 90,000 households in the Orangi low-income settlement to finance, build and operate their own sewers.

Working closely with the OPP, ASB planned to replicate this approach in Faislabad. But unlike Karachi, both tertiary and secondary sewers had to be built, with secondary sewers plumbed into the city's drainage systems.

ASB had to work closely with the Government and Faisalabad Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to enable the communities to link their sewers to the city drains. This was the first project of its kind to be undertaken in Pakistan.

Now over 4,000 households have invested a total of Rs12.86 million (£140,000) and 306 lane sewers and six large secondary sewers have been laid.

The project is particularly notable because it is completely funded by the communities, using loans they pay back to ASB. Because it used simple designs and was managed by the communities, the costs were half the amount that WASA originally estimated. Contractors were only used for labour as ASB provided advice and training to the communities.

To ensure the communities' contributions were fair, community members and representatives have decided on different costs for families of different wealth.

Each community then pays a fee to WASA to be connected to the water and sewerage mains. WASA then bills the community for the service, and the community manages the household contributions through project committees with members from all of the benefiting settlements.

The communities take sole responsibility for the maintenance and operation of their water distribution and sewers, while WASA is responsible for delivering water to the community boundary and accepting waste from the community sewers.

The programme has been a huge success, extending to 34 settlements, with more settlements requesting support.

The first part of the secondary sewer was opened on 1 April 2002 with a huge crowd of onlookers. The unity and enthusiasm of the community impressed everyone and all visitors praised the work, calling it a miracle of community participation.

Mr Wattoo is the President of ASB.

Find out more about our work in Pakistan