| Client:
|
World Bank
|
| Region:
|
Central Asia
|
| Period:
|
2002
|
One of the major components of the World Bank's Rural Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project (RIRP) in Tajikistan is the rehabilitation of existing village drinking water systems, or the building of new drinking water systems, in five large villages in Tajikistan. Each of these five sites consists of thousands of households or families. RIRP and the World Bank are taking a Community Driven Development (CDD) approach during project implementation, giving the local communities full responsibility for managing the resources and delivering results. A key component of RIRP’s CDD approach is the establishment and development of legal Village Water Organizations (VWOs) in each of the five sites. These are non-profit
village-based organizations that will manage both the upcoming rehabilitation of their village drinking water systems, and the long-term operation and maintenance of their village drinking water systems after rehabilitation, including financing.
Working with the World Bank and RIRP’s Project Management Unit (PMU), Riverside Technology, inc. (RTi) staff helped to develop and implement a strategy whereby the villagers work with the PMU design engineers to develop a workable rehabilitation plan, and then the World Bank provides construction grants to the five VWOs. The VWOs, in turn, hire contractors to conduct the actual rehabilitation. To receive the construction grants, the VWOs must pledge a contribution
of 20 percent of the total rehabilitation cost, which may be in the form of labor, materials, and/or cash. The World Bank funds the other 80 percent of the total cost. After rehabilitation, the VWOs have full responsibility for long-term operation and maintenance of their drinking water system. RTi staff organized and conducted numerous stakeholder meetings at the five sites, trained VWO officers in organizational, technical, and financial matters, and developed workable plans for long-term operation and maintenance cost assessment. Later in the project, World Bank hired RTi consultants to conduct an in-depth assessment, and to provide recommendations for expanding and refining the VWO development efforts.
|
.jpg)
.jpg)