Zambia- Situational Analysis on CLTS/SLTS/ULTS

Zambia- Situational analysis on CLTS/SLTS/ULTS

Contents

1.Zambia overview

2.Sanitation overview

3.Pan Africa CLTS programmein Ghana

4.Institutional mapping

5.Already existing platforms(networks, LAs)

6.Country situational analysis- Zambia

Annex 1: Reference review

1.Zambia overview

Population: 12,935,000

GDP/capita PPP: $1,541

Main economic activities: subsistence agriculture, mineral exportations

Major cultural groups: Kuomboka and Kathanga (Western Province), Mutomboko (Luapula Province), Ncwala (Eastern Province), Lwiindi and Shimunenga (Southern Province), Likumbi Lyamize (North Western), Chibwela Kumushi (Central Province), Ukusefya Pa Ng’wena (Northern Province).

Religion: Approximately 85% of the population are Christians.Approximately 5% of the population are Muslims with most living in urban areas

Political regiume: constitutional republic. Independence from the United Kingdom- 24 October 1964.

Geographical context: tropical

2.Sanitation overview

Figures

Total population with access to ameliorated sanitation facilities in 2008: 54% (JMP, 2008)

Zambia aims at achieving 80% (check) coverage for water supply and sanitation by 2015.

Responsible authorityfor sanitation

Responsibilities in the sector are clearly separated between the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (policy), National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (economic regulation) and local government as well as commercial utilities owned by local government (service provision in urban areas).

Policy

The Ministry of Local Government and Housing is in charge of sector policies. Within the Ministry the Department of Infrastructure and Support Services (DISS) is responsible for water supply and sanitation infrastructure planning and resource mobilization. DISS has established a specific Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Unit (RWSSU) in 2003 and shortly thereafter also a unit for peri-urban water supply and sanitation.

According to the 1994 National Water Policy seven principles govern the state's policy in water and sanitation

Separation of water resources management from water supply and sanitation
Separation of regulatory and executive functions
Devolution of authority to local authorities and private enterprises
Achievement of full cost recovery for the water supply and sanitation services in the longrun
Human resources development leading to more effective institutions.
The use of technologies more appropriate to local conditions
Increased budget spending to the sector

By 2008 at least the first three principles had been put into practice. However, full cost recovery was far from being achieved and budget spending remained far below what is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for the sector.

Challenges in country

In 2004 only 58% of the population of Zambia had access to an improved source of water supply and 55% had access to adequate sanitation. Concerning water supply, there is a stark contrast between urban areas (90% access) and rural areas (40% access). For sanitation, access rates are similar for urban (59%) and rural (52%) areas. In urban areas, only 41% have access to water connections in their house or yard and 49% rely on water kiosks and standpipes.

Concerning sanitation, only 29% of the urban population are connected to sewers while 30% are served by septic tanks or improved household-level latrines. While these figures are low, they are actually higher than the average access in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lack of access to water and sanitation has significant negative social impacts, in particular on girls and women who are often in charge of collecting water for their villages and homes – sometimes walking extremely long distances to do so. After that girls are too tired to come back home and concentrate on education.

Major ongoing programmes/initiatives

History of CLTS

In Zambia, Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is opening the door for the rapid spread of improved sanitation to rural and urban communities[1]. Led by government and traditional leaders working side by side, CLTS is increasing awareness of sanitation’s importance from the household to the district level and motivating a desire to improve living conditions for all. Through the promotion of self-reliance, CLTS is empowering local stakeholders and serving as a catalyst for sustainable development that extends beyond the sanitation sector.

3.PanAfrica CLTS programmein Ghana

Target:120,000

Geographic area: Mansa Program Unit

Overall objective:

To contribute to the reduction of child mortality and improvement of households’ food security in ten (10) wards of Mansa District, Zambia with a total population of 120,000.

Specific objectives:

To improve access to safe water sources to reduce water borne diseases that contribute to high child morbidity and mortality rate;
To promote the concept of multiple uses of water in order to encourage communities to grow nutritious food to address the stunt growth in children, high morbidity and mortality rates.
To increase the sanitation coverage through the CLTS approach in order to reduce infections diseases associated with faecal contaminations that contribute to high child morbidity and mortality rates.
To improve hygiene practices in the communities order to reduce communicable diseases.

Challenges:

Delay in enacting a policy formalizing CLTS as the national hygiene promotion strategy
CLTS volunteer motivation
Resistance of CLTS in some areas because of heavy latrine subsidies experienced in the past

4.Institutional mapping

5.Already existing platforms(networks, LAs)

National level

INGO Water and sanitation forum
National rural water supply and sanitation technical working group

Regional level

Pan-African CLTS network

Provincial level

Provincial water and sanitation stakeholder’s network

District level

District Water supply and sanitation committee

6.Country situational analysis- Zambia

Introduction

Water supply and sanitation in Zambia is characterized by wide discrepancies in access to an improved water source between urban (90%) and rural areas (40%), as well as limited service quality in urban areas. Major institutional reforms have been carried out since 1989 with a focus on urban areas: Ten regional commercial utilities were established to replace fragmented service provision by local governments. A regulatory agency was created which has substantially improved the availability of information. Nevertheless, the reform process has been slow and has only partially achieved its objectives. Investment levels remain at only a fraction of what would be needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. And although the level of cost recovery of urban utilities has improved since 1989, the effect of tariff increases has been partially offset by a significant increase in non-revenue water from an estimated 28% in 1987 to around 50% in 2006.

Water kiosks, which were first introduced in Zambia in 2006, are operated by private individuals who have signed an agreement with water utilities and municipalities. The kiosk operators buy piped water in bulk and sell it at a slightly higher regulated price of about 1 US Cent per 20 litres to users who carry the water in gericans to their homes. The kiosk operators supplement their income by selling various other items of daily life. There were about 170 water kiosks in Zambia in 2008, providing water to 200,000 people. Another 100 kiosks were expected to be added in 2009.

Regulation

Economic regulation of water supply and sanitation services is the task of the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO). It oversees tariff adjustments, minimum service levels, financial projection and investment planning and corporate governance. NWASCO has made “significant progress in benchmarking, reporting and engaging users” despite being “underfunded and understaffed”. However, its effectiveness remains limited, among others because “the mechanisms for enforcing regulatory rules remain unclear”. NWASCO's lean structure is augmented by Water Watch Groups and Part Time Inspectors who monitor the quality of service on the ground.[9]

According to the German Technical Cooperation, NWASCO is so successful that it “can serve as a role model for other countries in the region”. NWASCO reports to the Ministry of Energy and Water Development, not to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing that is in charge of sector policy.[4]

Service provision

By law service provision is a responsibility of local authorities. However, most of them have formed regional commercial utilities to which they delegate service provision. In 2006, ten commercial utilities, each covering several municipalities and owned by the local authorities, provided water services to 86% of the urban population with access to improved water supply. (WB) An 11th utility is expected to start operating in 2009 in Luapula. Often the utilities were established without further capital leaving them hampered in terms of operational sustainability. The capacity of the utilities differs considerably. For example, in 2006/2007 the regulator ranked the Nkana utility first and the Chambeshi utility last of the 10 utilities in terms of performance.

There are also 6 private schemes that are run by commercial entities that supply water and sanitation services to their employees as a fringe benefit. These are owned and run by companies whose core business is not water supply.

Service provision in the mining towns of the Copperbelt of Zambia, the most financially viable service area, has changed hands many times. After the collapse of ZCCM in 2000 the responsibility of water supply and sanitation service provision to these areas was entrusted to the Asset Holding Company-Mining Municipal services-AHC-MMS for continuity purposes, since local governments were not ready to assume the responsibility for service provision. In 2001 a management contract was signed with the support of a World Bank loan to pay for management fees and network rehabilitation. The contract was terminated in 2005 on the grounds that the privatized management did not perform any better than publicly owned utilities. In December 2005 the service responsibility was transferred to another public utility in the province, Nkana Water and Sewerage Company, pending their transfer to the respective commercial utilities. Although this was a temporal arrangement, it meant that a given area or town had more than one service provider. Finally, in 2008 service provision was entrusted to the three commercial utilities in the area.

Role of CLTS in Zambia

Zambia’s CLTSprogramming is based on the core principles described in depth in the Handbook on Community- Led Total Sanitation by Kamal Kar and Robert Chambers.4 Notable adaptations in the Zambia programme include co-leadership by traditional and civil leaders, the inclusion of non-traditional stakeholders such as the media and the judiciary, and the adaptation of CLTSto the urban environment.

CLTSin Zambia has depended almost entirely on local leadership, with traditional and civic leaders working side by side to spread and promote total sanitation; there is no NGOleading the process. Tight collaboration between elected and traditional leaders has helped to plant deep roots for the programme at the community and district levels. The Joint Monitoring Team for Sanitation (JMTS) in Choma includes all five of the district’s traditional chiefs, the district commissioner, the mayor and the district director of health as well as staff from the district council and various line ministries. Districts take the lead in motivating local engagement and adapting CLTSto match the needs of each context.

In 2008, Zambia achieved its 10th successive year of economic growth; however, progress on the MDGs remains uneven. The country suffers from a high disease burden and rampant poverty. Two thirds of the population lives under the poverty line, and wealth disparities continue to increase. Under-five mortality is one of the highest in the world, at 182 deaths for every 1,000 live births. In 2008, Zambia ranked 165 out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index. Among Zambians, 48 per cent of the population – some 6 million people – lives without improved sanitation; 22 per cent defecate in the open. There are a vast geographical disparities, with coverage ranging from 17 per cent to 89 per cent by province.3 With the goal of closing this gap and accelerating progress towards the MDG sanitation target, the Government of Zambia formulated the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (NRWSSP). As part of this detailed strategy, the Government, together with UNICEF, introduced CLTS, one of the country’s first non-subsidy-based sanitation programmes.

First piloted in Choma District in 2007, CLTShas met with great success: Between October 2007 and October 2008, sanitation coverage increased from 38 per cent to 93 per cent across 517 villages, 402 of which have been declared open defecation free (ODF). More than 14,500 toilets have been constructed by households, without any hardware subsidy, and approximately 90,000 people have gained access to sanitation.

In 2007, UNICEF and the Government of Zambia commenced the CLTS pilot in Southern Province, where sanitation coverage hovered at 40 per cent. Launched as the ‘One Family, One Toilet Campaign,’ the pilot aimed to determine whether CLTScould be an effective sanitation strategy for the country. It represented a strategic effort to make sanitation programming more holistic and to bring dedicated attention to the sector vis-à-vis water.

The deliberate strategy to include a wide range of stakeholders, and in particular, the immediate appreciation of the benefits of CLTSby the Mayor of Choma and local leader Chief Macha, led to rapid buy-in from other partners and leaders, including the district’s other four traditional chiefs, and the elected councillors. This led to the rapid spread of CLTSthroughout the district.

Key steps: Implementing CLTS in Zambia

In 2007, UNICEF and the Government of Zambia commenced the CLTS pilot in Southern Province, where sanitation coverage hovered at 40 per cent. Launched as the ‘One Family, One Toilet Campaign,’ the pilot aimed to determine whether CLTS could be an effective sanitation strategy for the country. It represented a strategic effort to make sanitation programming more holistic and to bring dedicated attention to the sector vis-à-vis water.

The deliberate strategy to include a wide range of stakeholders, and in particular, the immediate appreciation of the benefits of CLTS by the Mayor of Choma and local leader Chief Macha, led to rapid buy-in from other partners and leaders, including the district’s other four traditional chiefs, and the elected councillors. This led to the rapid spread of CLTS throughout the district.

Initial pilot, introducing CLTS to stakeholders. UNICEF held national and district training courses in November 2007. The national course was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Health and NGOs. The district-level course was attended by the chiefs of Choma District and the village headmen of the 12 pilot villages. Both workshops trained participants in CLTS and the triggering process, while the local-level course also focused on building active support and leadership in each of the pilot communities.

Selection of the pilot area. Choma District in Zambia’s Southern Province was chosen as the CLTS pilot area because of its low sanitation coverage, accessibility to Lusaka and the particularly dynamic sanitation staff at the district office. Selection criteria for the first 12 communities included relatively low sanitation coverage (approximately 40 per cent) and no past subsidized sanitation projects. Because there was also a need to select communities in close proximity to one another, one third of the pilot communities had sanitation coverage of greater than 50 per cent before the introduction of CLTS. This provided a useful opportunity to assess the relative success of the approach in communities with different starting points.

Key elements for success

Identification of CLTS ‘champions’. Identifying champions of the CLTS approach and engaging high-level local leaders from the outset has helped to ensure strong promotion and momentum for CLTS. Government ownership of CLTS and formal links with the district councils have been key enabling factors for achieving dramatic increases in sanitation coverage with little outside assistance. Likewise, strong leadership from the chiefs has helped ensure sustained action from communities.