A three day workshop on Needs Assessment for Capacity Building Programme Intervention in Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation Sector was held in Nagarkot, Nepal.  The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Narayan Prasad Silwal, Secretary for the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works. The meeting was organized by the Town Development Fund and the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage with the assistance from UN-HABITAT Water for Asian Cities Programme, Nepal.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Silwal stressed that special effort should be made to make government projects consumer orientated, “The failure of projects to meet targets entails an increase in per capita cost which ultimately makes drinking water expensive. The time saved from faster water collection and adequate sanitation facilities can be utilized by consumers in other income generation activities. However, it is important that consumers take part in projects to ensure their sustainability."
The workshop was aimed at assessing the gap in institutional development of Water User’s Association, to raise awareness of the quality of water and its monitoring system, to provide basic concepts on sanitation and its gap in the project, to raise awareness of the need for gender mainstreaming and mechanism for social inclusion, and to assess the gap on financial management, cost recovery and repayment of loans.
 By the end of the workshop participants were able to identify activities to be carried out to enable sustainable service delivery of water supply and sanitation systems currently being implemented under the Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project.
UN-HABITAT’s Water for Asian Cities Programme, Nepal, is assisting projects funded by Asian Development Bank to increase access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation in the Asian countries. |
