Drinking Water Quality Management in Rural Areas of Lao PDR

ICEM has been commissioned by the World Bank to undertake the project ‘Drinking Water Quality Management in Rural Areas of Lao PDR’. ICEM has formed a team of Lao and international water quality experts to undertake this project over the 13-month project starting in Feb 2011 and completed in March 2012.

The objective of the project is to develop and test improved institutional and operational arrangement for safeguarding the quality of water in rural areas of Lao PDR based on the combined experience of Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR.

The outcome of this project will be a safeguarding of Lao PDR rural drinking water quality through improved government and stakeholder institutional operational arrangements and management of drinking water. Thereby improving government and stakeholders capacity to help rural communities gain sustainable access to improved water.

This project is being undertaken in three phases:

Phase 1 Situation analysis: Conduct situation analysis of current drinking water quality management in rural areas of Lao PDR and identify lessons from regional experiences;

Phase 2 Pilot Project: Implement 2 pilot project in Lao PDR to test and refine operational arrangement for safeguarding rural drinking water quality and develop an operation model;

Phase 3 Document and Disseminate: Document and disseminate lessons leaned from pilot projects.

The World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) works with partners at regional, country and international level to help poor people gain sustained access to improved water and sanitation services. It is a multi-donor funded program and has developed the Sanitation and Water Partnership for the Mekong Region (SAWAP). The program aims at improving water and sanitation services by assisting to build capacity, reform policies, strengthen institutional and develop human resources. For this project the WSP has partnered with the Department of Hygiene in the Ministry of Health’s Nam Saat.

Nam Saat is responsible for rural water supply and the promotion of sanitation and hygiene for rural and urban areas. This project aims to build on and develop further the framework and operational systems to safeguard the quality of drinking water in rural areas on Lao PDR. Nam Saat has some significant financial, human resource and technical challenges. It is therefore essential for success that this project takes into account the current situation of the department.

Recently in Lao PDR, there has been an increase in support of the management, supply and quality of rural drinking water. These have predominantly focused on technical options concerning water quality. There has been little attention on the institutional and operational arrangements that safeguard rural drinking water. In 2008 - 2009 water quality standards in Lao PDR were developed and in 2011 there was a review of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Strategy. This project is working closely with this National Review, assessing the existing arrangements in Lao PDR for water quality management in rural areas. The regional workshop proposed for this project will be an important platform in linking up with the National Review, and other governmental and SAWAP activities from which lessons can be shared and project findings can be consolidated. In addition this project will involve piloting of improved institutional arrangements through the use of the WHO guidance on Water Safety Plans.

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