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by Vijita Fernando

It was as a result of the call by the United nations to the non-governmental community to supplement State activities in water and sanitation in many of the developing countries, that Sri Lanka's NGO water Supply and Sanitation decade Service, a consortium of NGOs, was born.

This was at the beginning of the United Nations Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990). Sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the project launched in 1982 covered the developing countries of Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, a consultation with concerned NGOs, bilateral agencies and the Government resulted in the formation of the NGO Water Supply and Sanitation decade in 1983, twenty years ago.

Training program in Moneragala for women on using solar energy for making water safe.

Today, on its twentieth anniversary, the Decade Service, to use its shortened name, still remains the only NGO consortium in Sri Lanka devoted entirely to providing water and sanitation to rural and urban communities, countrywide.

Twenty years is a long haul. During this time the DS has served a number of communities not only by providing the "hardware" of water and sanitation needs such as toilets and wells, but also stepped into ancillary services of health education, nutrition, gender and the women's role in water management, the role of children and schools. It has also expanded into providing the know how to manage small enterprise development projects, home gardens, revolving funds and through these, empowering the women in these rural based remote villages.

The DS has a membership of little over thirty national NGOs. The role of the DS is primarily to co-ordinate the activities of its members in water and sanitation activities, provide training and function as a conduit for channelling funds whenever possible.

A well at last. This family watches with joy the first bucket of water from their very own well - at Mahawilaththawa.

Through the years this role has expanded to the DS undertaking several projects while keeping its primary function of a co-ordinating agency. For ten years between 1985 and 1995 it has channelled funds from the London based water agency Water Aid for a large number of water and sanitation projects covering about five hundred villages.

In many of these rural projects, the participation of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) has been invaluable. CBO members have always articulated their needs and preferences in water provision and carried on the project with only supervision from the DS. There have been many instances when men and women of these rural communities have provided their own labour, making bricks and extending the funds to cover the cost of even more toilets or wells than they originally requested.

To make these projects successful the DS has trained volunteers, provided them with a handbook of health in both Sinhala and Tamil and organised health education sessions to ensure that toilets are hygienically used and water that comes to them from wells is safe for drinking. Children have been willing participants and rural schools have been some of the beneficiaries of these projects.

Communication among members, other organisations, local, regional and international agencies and networking with them have been of primary concern to the DS. This need has been met with the publication of a quarterly newsletter in all three languages - a record unbroken in the past two decades. The links we have made through this means has resulted in our forming mutually profitable partnerships with overseas agencies. On occasion it has helped the DS to facilitate regional meetings and be involved with several international publications on water and sanitation.

The role of women in water has been another of our main concerns. We have incorporated a gender approach in all our projects, held workshops to introduce this concept and have had grass roots discussions with many of the DS beneficiaries on the importance of involving women at all levels of a project, and not only as fetchers and carriers of water.

The women have been involved with the choice of siting wells and toilets and their conventional wisdom has contributed to the success of many a project.

Practical, cost effective methods of water purification have been welcomed by many communities. The most recent - and hopefully the most acceptable - of these is SODIS, purification of water through solar energy. Those communities which have participated in our pilot project have overcome a number of difficulties and are on the way to accepting this as a practical method where boiling water has proved costly and time consuming. Our project through schools has been most rewarding.

At another level the DS has had a number of workshops to introduce the need for more professional approaches to NGO activities. One of these is the Logical Framework Approach (LFA). The DS has translated this manual into Sinhala and Tamil and held a number of workshops in all three languages to popularise this approach.

The DS has also launched a Good Policy and practice Training kit and its guidelines, originally formulated by the Commonwealth Foundation, London translated it into both Sinhala and Tamil and conducted workshops on its use in specialised training.

Also developed by the DS is a Gender and Development Training Manual in Sinhala with experiences from the field incorporated in it as well as gender and water, a research study together with the Centre for Society and Religion. The first research study in 1985 "Women and Water" focused on rural beliefs about water and how these affected the lives of communities, mainly women.

Of the greatest support in continuing and expanding our activities are the NGO members and government representatives who serve on our Board of Management. The assistance from the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) has always been forthcoming as has been the help and guidance from several ministry representatives.

Some of our member NGOs have been more active than others but the strength of our organisation, the extent of how much we can serve depends on their full participation and support. A landmark event in its history is also a moment look into the future. The prognosis for water is fearsome around the world.

According to the World Bank only 67% of our people have access to safe water. Sanitation is woefully inadequate. While we need to maintain our focus on the provision of water and sanitation, the DS must also look at its activities from the perspective of environmental changes that are taking place. Communities are more and more being entrusted to look after their water sources. To meet this need their institutional capacity has to be built up for greater effectiveness. It is the role of the DS to impart knowledge on the protection of water sources, the harmful effects of chemical effluent into water sources and the importance of communities being aware of good governance and transparency in their activities.

This is the challenge we must meet in the rest of this decade. As problems increase in the sphere of water and sanitation so will our mandate become more flexible. From provision of safe water and hygienic toilets we have to move forward heeding the oft heard cry that "water will become the most pressing environmental issue of this century" as stated in the State of the Earth by John Vidal.

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