People power

Clean water is the number priority for TA Kuluunda, Traditional Chief for the Kuluunda area of Malawi.

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

The voices and views of the world's poorest people are rarely heard by decision makers, but in our new Citizens' Action project WaterAid is helping communities to demand their rights to water and sanitation services. Tom Burgess reports.

Despite international agreement that access to safe, affordable water and sanitation are human rights, too many poor people are seeing their entitlements to these basic needs unmet.

At the current rate of progress the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportions of people without access to water and sanitation will be missed by some distance. In these dire circumstances poor people are not only asking where is the water and where are the toilets, but also, who can be held accountable?

WaterAid believes that since poor people in developing countries are asking the question they should also be the ones to engage in dialogue with service providers and governments to hold them to account; this is the essence of Citizens' Action.

The first projects are already underway in Ghana, India, Nepal and Uganda, with others in Ethiopia and Bangladesh at an early stage. With projects soon to start in Mozambique, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali and more to follow millions of people will be engaged.

While differences in circumstances and culture will require differences in approach across locations, empowerment is the key to successful engagement between citizens and their government agencies or service providers. Non governmental organisations like WaterAid and our partners will facilitate the dialogue, rather than mediate on behalf of citizens which is often the case.

In each project, partner organizations work alongside WaterAid staff to ensure that local people develop a fuller understanding of their entitlements to water and sanitation, their current water and sanitation situation and the range of responsibilities for policy and service delivery.

Because information is power, citizens are then being assisted to collect data from their areas. By backing up their case with irrefutable evidence of the state of service provision, or lack of it, any dialogue with those responsible for water and sanitation services will be constructive and informed.

A range of suitable methods have been employed across the countries where Citizens' Action projects are under way:

• Slum enumeration and censuses: slum dwellers and street sleepers join together to map accommodation and amenities in their area. These can be huge in scale, spreading across vast tracts of land where tens of thousands of people live and work.
• Mapping access to water and sanitation: this literally puts amenities on the map, making issues about the equity of their distribution clear. The mapping process is often carried out by professionals first, with the idea being to embed the process in the community so that they have ownership of the follow-up.
• Report cards: this is like an opinion poll. The resulting report card can be taken as a barometer of public satisfaction with services.
• Community scorecard: local people rank or score the range of their services and are assisted to engage with service providers and government agencies to discuss the findings.

Community scorecards have proved to be an effective tool in Ghana's Upper West Region where WaterAid's long-standing partner organisation ProNet North has been working with the people of Wa Municipality with the ultimate aim of improving water and sanitation for the poor rural communities in the area. When the scorecard had been completed ProNet gathered together all the relevant parties
- citizens, district and regional government agencies, and service providers - to discuss the findings.

Women share their knowledge of hygiene education in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Credit: WaterAid / Abir Abdullah

Present at the forum was Mrs BB Batir, Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA). She said "It was especially beneficial hearing from the community representatives themselves and not just from the facilitating NGO, ProNet. [They] put on board really how they felt about their water and sanitation service provision and what the problems were for them.

If people have open minds, do not mind being criticised, […] are willing to listen to the voiceless, then services can improve. We are so used to telling the poor what they need and what they should do, now we need to listen, we need to turn it around the other way."

Groups providing water and sanitation services found solutions to the problems expressed by the citizens during the forum. The District Water and Sanitation Team were told to repair broken systems, and that regular maintenance should be carried out. ProNet went on to disinfect wells to get rid of worms and also committed to a programme of latrine building to make good on an earlier promise. Since then 30 household latrines have been built in the Eggu community.

WaterAid believes that processes like these help to knit the fabric of the social contract for development between the state, service providers, NGOs and the people. The Citizens' Action project is trying to ensure that the act of listening and responding directly to the concerns of citizens happens at all levels, from local to national. Only then will governments and service providers be held accountable.

On World Water Day, 22 March 2006, WaterAid published its first Citizens Report, a detailed account of Citizens' Action so far. We have distributed the report far and wide to share our experiences and spread the word about this exciting approach to gaining access to water and sanitation for more of the world's poorest people. To read the full report or find out more visit www.wateraid.org/citizensaction

Tom Burgess is WaterAid's Publications Manager.