Sathya sai water project- ANATAPUR-Applaud by UN-HABITAT

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sairam

 

Uganda's Minister praises Ananthapur Drinking Water Supply Project Ananthapur,

23 March 2005 - Ms. Maria Mutagamba, Uganda's Minister for Water and also the

chair of the African Ministers Council for Water (AMCOW) last week visited the

Ananthapur Drinking Water Supply Project in India, as part of a UN-HABITAT

sponsored study visit to Asia, and praised the achievements of the initiative.

The study visit was sponsored by UN-HABITAT’s Water for Cities Programme for

sharing of experience and best practices between Africa and Asia. The study

visit will also take her to countries in South East Asia. The reforms and

innovative practices adopted in these countries could have much relevance to

improve the performance of the water sector in Africa.

The project management team described to Ms. Mutagamba how innovative

public-private-community partnerships have been used to implement, maintain and

manage the project which provides access to more than 1 million poor in 731

villages and 3 towns who hitherto had no safe drinking water supply. Ananthapur

is a semi-arid district in the State of Andhra Pradesh, which is the third

poorest state in India. The whole district, with a population of nearly 1.5

million, has been facing extreme shortage of drinking water in its 1,000

villages and towns. This was what led to the implementation of the Sri Sathya

Sai Drinking Water Supply Project in 1998.

The project presents a new approach to financing pro-poor investment for

drinking water supply both in rural and urban areas. It cost US$ 69 million and

took 18 months to implement without any time and cost over-run. An evaluation of

the project carried out by UN-HABITAT and the Asian Development Bank revealed

that a very vibrant partnership was still active even six years after the

completion of the project. One very positive impact was that girls who were

earlier forced to drop out of the school to help their mothers to fetch water

several kilometres away could now attend school. By bringing drinking water

close to the house of each family, the project also helped the earning members

of the family to spend more time on income generating activities. Another

impressive aspect of the project was the strong management information system

for continuous monitoring and evaluation of this massive project which helped

the team to complete

the project within a short time without compromising its professional execution or quality.

Ms. Mutagamba was deeply impressed by the achievements of the project and

invited the people including professionals, who have made it possible, to visit

Uganda. She said, "I am now convinced that we can achieve the same in Uganda".