Gender and Development

Papua New Guinea

Provincial Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project, 2001

Currently, large sections of PNG towns suffer from severe service inadequacy and unsanitary conditions. The coverage of PNG's urban water supply and sewerage system stands at about 43 percent and 20 percent respectively.

As in many developing countries, it is most often the poor in these towns who do not have access to safe water supply and sanitation facilities. However, it became clear during the project preparation that those most in need of would not necessary benefit from one of the project's major deliverables, that is, reticulated sewerage. It was found that the cost of providing such sewerage facilities to poor residents living on the urban fringe or in areas with difficult physical and topographical conditions was simply prohibitive. In response, the project officer decided to find a way to include low-cost sewerage solutions in the project.

A grant finance from Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) was tapped to develop a pro-poor component called Low Cost Sanitation and Community Awareness and Health Education (LCS-CAHE) Program. In developing a proposal for the program, women in the project area were widely consulted. The consultation revealed that there was a major gap between the key role played by women in managing water, sanitation and hygiene requirements and the lack of formal decision-making opportunities allowed to them.

The primary aim of the Provincial Towns Water Supply Project in Papua New Guinea is to promote human and economic development through improved access to safe water and sanitation facilities in a sustainable and affordable way. This will be achieved by:

• Increased coverage and improved delivery of basic water and sanitation services by developing affordable and sustainable water supply, sewerage and sanitation schemes, and;
• Improved management and coordination of the water supply and sanitation sector through sector policy reform, institutional strengthening, and capacity building for the Water Board.

As a result of the project, new or expanded water supply services will be provided in the provincial towns of Kerema, Mendi, and Wabag; and new or rehabilitated sewerage services in the provincial towns of Alotau, Madang and Mt. Hagen.

The parallel JFPR LCS-CAHE program has two main components: (i) provision of low-cost sanitation (LCS) and (ii) community awareness and health education (CAHE).

The LCS component is designed to provide low-income groups and the urban poor with low cost sanitation facilities. The LCS will be implemented in five towns over three years. A total of 4200 ventilated improved pit latrines will be installed, benefiting a total of 36,000 people. In the first phase, one VIP latrine per household will be constructed in selected urban and peri-urban settlements of Lae and Madang with water supply connections from the Waterboard. The second phase will see VIP latrine construction extended to the towns of Alotau, Mt. Hagen and Wewak. Depending on rain water supplies, shallow water wells, spring and other water sources will be utilized. Household and community contributions will mainly be in the form of labor and partial costs of the VIP latrine materials (in the order of 10 percent of the cost of materials).

The main objective of CAHE activities is to educate women and the community more generally on the linkages between sanitation and health. CAHE activities will also be designed to support the operation and maintenance of VIP latrines. Most CAHE programs will be delivered by NGOs and community facilitators. NGOs will select and train community facilitators in order to mobilize women and women's groups and encourage behavioral change following training. Training materials for community health and awareness program will be prepared jointly by NGOs and the relevant government department and include printed material, popular theater, media presentations and focus group discussions. Government agencies will also prepare and conduct special training courses on the hygiene, sanitation and maintenance of VIP toilets to community-level groups and village/community facilitators

Women's Involvement in CAHE

In general, the CAHE component targets women, as women are primarily responsible for health, sanitation and water-related activities in their communities. Features to ensure women's participation include:

• At least 50 percent of community facilitators will be women.
• Training and awareness programs will target existing women's groups, and where these do not exist, community facilities will help with the formation of new women's groups.

Women's Participation in Consultative Processes

Women's participation in further consultative meetings will also be enhanced in recognition of their role as household and community managers of water and sanitation. With regard to women's participation during the planning and implementation of the LCS-CAHE activities:

• Both the LCS Coordination Unit and the CAHE Coordination Unit - established in each provincial town - will include (i) a women's NGO representative and (ii) the president of the town's local government Women's Council.
• These female representatives will provide input into addressing gender dimensions in planning and implementing sanitation facilities, and ways to maximize women's overall participation in health and hygiene activities.

Further, in the overall project design:

• A specific assurance was made in the Provincial Towns Water Supply Project that at least 50 percent of community representatives on each Provincial Town Coordination Committee will be women.