A pro-poor community based approach for water and sanitation in small Mekong region towns

Achievement of the water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to halve the proportion of people without access to improved water supply and sanitation services by 2015, is a major challenge for governments of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). Rapid urbanisation is increasing the need for services in the small towns to which many rural migrants are moving, yet there are limited financial resources to improve coverage. Under the Mekong Region Water and Sanitation Initiative (MEK-WATSAN), UN-Habitat has partnered with GMS governments with the aim of achieving the water and sanitation related MDG. With a pro-poor emphasis MEK-WATSAN has developed a community-based water supply and sanitation model which has leveraged partnerships with existing institutions to effectively improve water supply and sanitation services to the urban poor in the Mekong Region

Supporting water services in small towns: the experience of GoAL WASH programme in Lao PDR

In Lao PDR, it is estimated that more than 80 small towns (approximately 65% of all small towns in Lao PDR) and 5,000 remote villages (approximately 50% of all villages) lack water supply services. The GoAL WaSH programme, a global initiative lead by UNDP and focused on supporting water and sanitation governance has addressed this challenge in Lao, in partnership with UN-Habitat. Up to now, the project has been successful in developing and obtaining approval for a national strategy for water and sanitation in Emerging Towns, and this has been complemented with operational tools for adapting technology and costs to the size of these towns. The adaptation of raw water treatment plant designs to small towns has been especially developed. Combining a governance approach with piloting initiatives in the field has proved to be very effective for getting full support and ownership from the Government