Sarvodaya's integrated approach to water and sanitatio

Palitha Jayaweera (7219112)

Vinya S. Ariyaratne (7219109)

English

Loughborough University Institutional Repository

A   COMMUNITIES, HEALTH, PEOPLE: ARIYARATNE and JAYAWEERA3120th WEDC Conference Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1994AFFORDABLE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATIONSarvodya’s integrated approach to water and sanitationTHE SARVODAYA SHRAMADANA MOVEMENT (SSM) of SriLanka is by far the largest Non Governmental Organiza-tion (NGO) in the country. It is also the largest NGOworking in water and sanitation sector in Sri Lanka. Themethods and techniques developed by Sarvodaya inbuilding community awareness, ensuring communityparticipation and sustaining community management ofintegrated community water supply & sanitation schemesin hundreds of Sri Lanka villages  on a national scale hasbeen its greatest achievement.Based on its expensive field experience Sarvodaya haspostulated a five-stage model of village community de-velopment (Figure 1) and, water & sanitation relatedactivities are initiated in the Third Stage of village devel-opment. The First Stage is that of psychological infrastruc-ture building. It begins quite simply with a village leveldiscussion about local needs and organizing self-helpactivities. Villages enter the Second Stage of social infra-structure building when they have formed one or morecommunity groups of; farmers, mothers, children, youthand elders. The Third Stage of the Sarvodaya developmentprocess is a very critical one. At this stage the village isorganized to satisfy its own basic and secondary needs. Itis at this stage that water & sanitation related programmesare initiated. In addition the village Sarvodaya groups arebrought together and institutionalized as a legally incor-porated body (the Sarvodaya Shramadana Society) whichis entitled to open its own bank account, obtain loans andstart economic activities with support from District leveland National Level Sarvodaya structures. Villages in theFourth Stage are expected to become self financing in theirSarvodaya activity and they assist neighbouring villagesas well in their Fifth Stage.The Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services (SRTS) whichis one of the 8 main programmes of the SarvodayaShramadana Movement, is responsible for implementingintegrated community water supply and sanitationprojects in 16 out of 25 administrative districts in SriLanka. It provides technical and financial assistance tovillage societies in relation to meeting their basic needsprimarily with respect to water supply, sanitation, energyand transport. Community water and sanitation needsare satisfied through the construction of gravity watersupply schemes, hand dug shallow wells and low-costlatrines, with maximum community participation andmobilization of local resources.Once the legally independent Sarvodaya ShramadanaSociety (SSS) is formed at the Third Stage of villagedevelopment, the society could own land, buildings,Vinya S. Ariyaratne and Palitha Jayaweera, Sri Lanka.vehicles, equipment, and receive loans and seed capitalfrom any external agency other than Sarvodaya itself.A close contact is maintained between these societies bya full-time Sarvodaya worker known as the GramadanaWorker. “Gramadana” is a word which means “sharingof resources” at the level of villagers on a voluntary basis.Several clusters of such villagers are organized aroundSarvodaya Divisional Centres, and a several divisionalcentres around District Centres which corresponds to thegovernment administrative units.The decision making process involved in a typical SRTSwater project is presented in Figure 2. Firstly, a formalrequest seeking assistance for the need for improvedwater and sanitaion is submitted to the Sarvodaya Dis-trict Coordinater by the officials of the SSS through theGramadana Worker. On receiving such a request theDistrict Coordinater will assess the availability of fundingand hand it over to the SRTS technician for further action.The technician will visit the village with the GramadanaWorker and the members of the society and have apreliminary participatory survey to check the technicalfeasibilty of the project. This survey will lead to thediscussions with the SSS to decide the technology andoptions which will be selected for the project. If the projectis technically feasible SSS will start the mobilization andeducational activities with the assistance of the GramadanaWorker. In the mean time SRTS technician will preparethe necessary plans and the cost estimates for the ap-proval of the Sarvodaya Head Office. The financial inputprovided by Sarvodaya will be complimentary to whatever the villagers themselves can provide within theirmeans. This would ensure village self reliance and selfconfidence. All critical decisions as to the choice of tech-nology, levels of service, location of facilities etc., aretaken by the community, in additon to their cash, materialand labour contributions.As soon as the Head Office approves the project, thefunds would be released to enable the SRTS technician tostart the construction work on a “shramadana” basis.With the commencement of the construction work, theSRTS technician will train two village youths who havebeen selected by the SSS as Caretakers for the mainte-nance of the project. While SRTS contributes financiallyand technically, the society will provide the available rawmaterials at village level and the unskilled labour re-quired. On completion of the project, the scheme opera-tion and maintenance (O & M) will be formally taken overby the society and trained caretakers will look after theproject under the guidance of the SSS. O&M will be theA   COMMUNITIES, HEALTH, PEOPLE: ARIYARATNE and JAYAWEERA32Figure 1. Sarvodaya 5-Stage Village Development Model.A   COMMUNITIES, HEALTH, PEOPLE: ARIYARATNE and JAYAWEERA33sole responsibility of the SSS but if there is any technicalproblem which goes beyond the capability of the caretak-ers the SSS can still contact the SRTS technicians forassistance.During construction phase, an accompanying hygieneeducation activity is implemented through the pre-schooland other social programmes initiated by Sarvodaya inthe village. Women are involved through mothers’ groupand are represented in the village SSS. Thus, Sarvodaya’sholistic approach addresses both technical and socialissues related to community water supply & sanitationwhile the activities that are carried out during the suc-ceeding stages of village development directly addressthe root causes of ill-health; poverty and powerlessness.Further, Sarvodaya has successfully demonstrated thatwater & sanitation needs could be satisfied through anintegrated community development approach which rec-ognizes amongst others, the spiritual values cherished bythe people.Figure 2. Decision making flow-chart of a typical SRTS scheme

Sarvodaya's integrated approach to water and sanitation

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Sarvodaya's integrated approach to water and sanitation

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