SEMINAR - 2006 OUAGADOUGOU |
AfWA Ouagadougou, July 26, 2006TRAINING WORKSHOPSUMMAR REPORT OF THE WORKSHOP ON « STRATEGIC SANITATION PLAN » AfWA conducted a training workshop on « Strategic Sanitation Plan » in the ‘’SABCE’’ conference room of Hotel PACIFIC in Ouagadougou from 24-26 July 2006. The opening ceremony was chaired by the Managing Director for Water Resources filling in for the honourable Secretary General at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Halieutical Resources. The Attendance Comprised the honourable Managing Director for ONEA, AfWA Secretary General, the Vice-President for the Specialised Commission on Sanitation and Environmental Issues, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee in the person of ONEA Sanitation Director as well as organisations and utilities from Senegal (ONAS), Togo (TdE), Benin (SONEB), Côte d’Ivoire (SODECI) and ONEA (host country, Burkina Faso ) Banfora, Fada N’Gourma, Koudougou et Ouahigouya, four localities from Burkina Faso preparing their strategic sanitation plan also took part in this workshop. The workshop was kicked off on July 24, 206 and consisted of three main components as shown below:
This ceremony was featured by three speeches. Following the inaugural speech delivered by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, the honourable Managing Director for ONEA - the utility hosting the workshop - welcomed all participants on behalf of individual, affiliated members from Burkina Faso and of AfWA’s members of honour. Expressing his satisfaction at the fact that his institution was entrusted with the organisation of this workshop, he substantiated the selection of Ouagadougou because ONEA made huge efforts as regards the implementation of strategic plan to develop wastewater treatment in Burkina Faso. And this is a topical issue as far as urban management is concerned. In the words of the speaker, the strategic planning which ONEA has been developing for sanitation related issues requires undoubtedly that such a dynamics be look into further. Hence all participants were encouraged to become the fervent proponents of this lofty cause, i.e. sanitation. On making his prolix and enriching presentation, AfWA Secretary General first explained why Ouagadougou was selected to host this workshop. He actually underscored the fact that Burkina Faso – in the person of former ONEA Managing Director – was now chairing AfWA on a rotational basis. Former ONEA M.D was paid homage to; then the newly-appointed one was congratulated hoping positively that challenges facing AfWA Steering Committee would be addressed. The speaker traced the history of AfWA, then set the goals of the Scientific and Technical Committee and finally provided a broad overview of AfWA five majors endeavours as follows:
As the honourable Managing Director for Water Resources took the floor, he welcomed the selection of Burkina Faso as hosting country for such an event because sanitation has been a central issue as regards Burkina Faso priority policies and technical matters. Giving a hint at the Millennium Development Goals, the speaker specified that the components upon which were based Burkina Faso domestic policy were threefold:
The speaker congratulated all the parties involved in the event holding and opened officially the workshop activities. - As a whole, five presentations were made. These enable all participants to take stock of the strategic plan at hand. In this regard, the entire water community was called on to arrive at an advocacy specifically aiming at the MDGs in the sanitation sector. Following this situational analysis about Africa conducted by CREPA, ONEA Sanitation Director disclosed the relevant results related to the implementation of a ‘PSA’ process initiated by his utility. He then came up with improvement outlook as to going deeper into the MDGs approach. Following ONEA Sanitation Director, a consultant-moderator started providing the guidelines to ensure sustainable, institutional, financial and technological implementation including effective community involvement. Then those responsible for ONEA Independent Sanitation Departments and Development provided all participants with an overview of the milestones for the implementation of Burkina Faso strategic planning approach and satisfaction of domestic growing demand. This approach was successfully carried out nationwide The entire workshop participants deemed this country case study proved interesting because they realised that those strategic plan could offer a variety of actual possibilities in terms of efficient sanitation implementation in Africa. Participants concerns at the end of discussions: the participants’ main concerns that were discussed centered on the following issues:
The participants looked into afterwards the three following topics during plenary sessions and came up with conclusions as follows: WORKSHOP N°1: FINANCIAL ISSUES AND ADVOCACY Discussions focussed on the following points:
1- Details relating to the relevance of the sanitation tax applied by ONEA Before dealing with this issue per se, the participants requested that ONEA should trace the history of this tax by providing further details. ONEA Sanitation Director was responsible for providing such details. This tax established in 1985 as the National Water Board (ONE) became the National Water and Sanitation Office (ONEA). Unfortunately the said tax was overused for the purpose of road asphalting, drain cleaning-out and road culvert construction. 2- Tax: its definition, context, allocation and application Before implementing the decision on tax collection, it should be necessary to agree on its accurate denomination, for the term tax is not appropriate but rather, it refers to the fact of paying it back to the Treasury. To this end collecting taxes on water bills has been termed « Fees for Sanitation Services » and shall bear the denomination « Sanitation Fees » for subscribers to the collective water network. As regards the application context for these sanitation fees, it was recommended that the operation should start gradually from larger cities towards smaller cities. And even if the fee rate is the same among a variety of localities which do not enjoy the same type of sanitation services, it is considered that the solidarity system should prevail. Countries willing to allocate resources generated from fees have been advised to accurately define the benefiting components. This is all the more important given that the company collecting the fees is the very one in charge of sanitation. The implementation of sanitation fees shall imply the consideration of the fact that its application could make local populations think that water pricing is increasing, and therefore drive some of them to resort to alternative water supply points. Then, despite the fact that these fees cannot finance all sanitation equipment investments, it should be necessary that this collection be justified. To this end, studies are being carried out in a number of countries for a differentiation of the fees based on sanitation type. 3 – Country case studies and fields of operation for sanitation and water utilities; In Burkina Faso, ONEA neither intervenes in the definition of the rainwater network development process, nor in their operation. ONEA intervenes in the production and distribution of drinking water and the collection of sanitation fees on water bills. Since 2004 and on account of sanitation-oriented investments, these revenues from water sale are used to finance sanitation, contrary to previous years. Surveys in Burkina Faso show that local populations can finance up to 70% of their sanitation facilities, sometimes through external sources such as micro credit systems. The current fee rate is based on the polluter-payer principle, in other words on cubic meter of water used and on the capacity to consume more. Another significant aspect is the important role played by training and promotion that are two components for which other water stakeholders are reluctant to cover the related costs. 72% of ONEA shares are assigned to these two activities. In Senegal sanitation resources originate from: - Government grants based on ONAS request; - Donors funding based on requests made following the identification of needs in cities; - Sanitation fees paid annually by Senegal Water Utility; - Connection application fees. ONAS is responsible for collective sanitation, self-supporting sanitation services as regards semi-collective and rainwater in entrenched systems, in cities with sanitation facilities. In Côte d’Ivoire, the emergency for sanitation dates back to the 70s when Abidjan was flooded, with its population affected by recurrent cholera epidemics. At the moment, a network system of 2,000Km and 50 pumping stations are in operation. Today the institutional organisation provides:
The financial organisation sets up a sanitation fee system which pays the farmer and collects funds. Thanks to this organisation an AFD loan was granted for the levelling of works. Yet, this framework needs to be improved, for the fees collected are no more sufficient to cover the costs related to services. 5- Advocacy This topic was not debated during the workshop. The reason is that the main advocacy components were already addressed during the previous day, more specifically when presentations stressed the need for the said topic to be covered by another stakeholder WORKSHOP 2: INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES AND CAPACITY BUILDING The discussions focussed on institutional basic principles that were recalled by the moderator, especially through the following:
The first principle consists in identifying priority actions through listening and dialogue with the local populations concerned, and by involving them through their various representatives such as associations, NGOs, mayoral, city or district councils. The second principle is centred on the exchanges among participants. In Burkina Faso, they have the Water Supply and Sanitation Office that supervises ONEA which is not only responsible for producing and distributing drinking water but also for wastewater treatment and excreta. In Senegal, ONAS, under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Prevention, Sanitation and Urban Hydraulics, is the body in charge of the wastewater, excreta and rainwater treatment. In conclusion, it was recommended that, in each country, an official in charge of developing and implementing sanitation strategic plan at the local level and nationwide be appointed. Discussions about the third principle reconsidered sanitation components that are as follows:
Each type of sanitation should be taken care of by a clearly defined organisation. In Burkina Faso, ONEA is in charge of wastewater and excreta, and urban wastes as well as rainwater drainage are the responsibility of local authorities or communes. Discussions about the last basic principle stressed on the fact that duty implementation should be carried out by private companies or local craftmen. Burkina Faso case was regarded as an example to be followed: as a matter of the fact, ONEA has the responsibility of implementing the policy through promotion and supervision as well as the training of craftmen. Self-supporting sanitation works are conducted by trained craftmen and paid by users. Collective sanitation works are done by private companies. WORKSHOP N° 3: TECHNICAL ISSUES AND PLANNINGTo start with, the speaker listed some guidelines related to technicalities and planning required for every sanitation strategic scheme as follows:
Exchanges which followed, clearly showed the relevance and the accuracy of the criteria enumerated above. However, the participants unanimously recognized that in addition to the enumerated criteria, it is necessary to:
Moreover, some participants proposed ecological sanitation as solutions to the sludge dumping related problems. The moderator concluded in pointing out that the strategic plan offers several exploring opportunities and spheres of activity. Thus, it is a tool of anticipation, dialogue and discussion which must imply research and action. Following proceedings, the participants listened to an introductory statement related to the field visit conducted in the morning on July 26, 2006. This visit allowed the participants to realize the results achieved on the ground so much in households where the systems were built and are used in community-based schools, that for the valid collective sanitation in the areas that are inadequate for self-supporting sanitation. The visit of the lagoon-operated treatment station also made it possible to see a concrete example taking into account collective sanitation in an African city. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS The workshop hereby recommends that:
The seminar- workshop also wished the issue of sanitation should be taken into account in African urban development plans. The seminar finally addressed a vote of thanks to ONEA for hosting and successfully organizing the seminar of Ouagadougou. Done in Ouagadougou on July 26th, 2006 The workshop |