Role of HWTS in streamlining safe water and water quality

Amreeta Regmi - Monday 22 May 2006

My name is Amreeta Regmi, Municipal Water Services Advisor with USAID Indonesia. I am happy to share some of USAID Indonesia’s experiences in promoting HWTS and safe water through the country water projects, under the Basic Human Services program. These projects promote point of use chlorination technology at the household level through the ‘Safe Water Systems’ Aman Tirta program and promotion and maintenance of water quality standards at supply, conveyance and delivery points for household use through the Environmental Services Project (ESP). ESP is a reef to ridge project that recognizes the linkages between people, environment and water. Both these projects are in the second phase of implementation and some interesting results have already started emerging through the respective projects as well as through inter-project integration efforts. The paragraphs below may be relevant to some of the discussions and postings, of Theme 1 and 2. This message is rather long, so please bear with me.

The above mentioned two projects support safe water: ‘water quality’ improvement through two strategic yet different project entry points: household (Aman Tirta) and municipal levels (ESP). This approach provides plenty of opportunities and possibilities to interlink technology at both the household and institutional levels as well as horizontally and vertically in guiding a national vision that all Indonesians should have easy access to safe drinking water. This message is also consistent with Government of Indonesia’s water policy and legal framework which requires all water utilities to use chlorination as a method of disinfecting water. The challenge of course is in overcoming the entrenched normative behavior of boiling. However, data from the field reveal that if technology is designed to provide incentives (social, health, economic and environmental benefits) to the consumers, diffusion can occur rapidly, granted that these messages are conveyed to the consumers through appropriate communication strategies and channels.

At the household level, “Aman Tirta” project adopts a combination of social and commercial marketing approach in introducing point of use water technology ‘Air RahMat’, 100 ml bottle of 1.25% sodium hypochlorite solution to the consumers. One bottle is sufficient to meet safe drinking needs of a family for a month at a cost of about 30 cents per month. Information from the field is showing evidence that some families are spending as much as 30 cents per day on their kerosene use for boiling and cooking purposes and yet other information indicate that the price of wood is rising with trees being cut down every day, not to mention the environmental costs. ‘Air RahMat’ bottles are produced locally in Jakarta through public-private partnership involving various Indonesian private sector groups and sold to the consumers through both traditional and non-traditional retail outlets. Check the website provided at the bottom of this message for further information.

Aman Tirta experience indicates that affordability is closely linked with benefits. Technology diffusion occurs rapidly if technology is made affordable when ‘prices’ do not exceed the consumer’s current ‘costs’ of boiling or the ‘costs’ associated in the purchase of water. Another point to note is that ‘pricing’ at full cost recovery will remain important in ensuring sustainability of technology; recognizing this at an earlier stage of technology design can allow a mixed marketing strategy to implement this model. Air RahMat caters to a segment of the society who are neither able to purchase bottled water nor have access to municipal services and those who otherwise continue to pay more for safe water needs.

At the institutional level, the Environmental Services Project directly interfaces and provides technical assistance to various water utilities that supply water to about 39 percent of the population. The projects are also reaching out to professional water and water quality associations and networks. While there is no single apex body or institutional entity that regulates water quality standards, a plethora of institutions and activities are undertaken in an uncoordinated manner. Health, Environment, Water and Public Works laws, all prescribe to water quality: while the law from environmental viewpoint recognizes legislative power of government and right of individuals to a clean and healthy environment; health and water law prescribes to water quality: governance and enforcement is an issue across sectors. Chlorination is required by the water law and sets ambitious target that requires all citizens to safe water by 2008.

Past interventions supported by USAID/USAEP in Indonesia, successfully introduced “safe water zoning” in various water utilities distribution networks by ensuring that water quality standards are maintained at the source, conveyance and delivery points. For example, the water utility in Medan (Tirta Nadi) has reached coverage of 30 percent within the area of the service network and is now able to supply safe water to consumers. However, most of the consumers continue to boil their water despite the fact that they can drink safe water directly from the faucets. Informal discussions with the consumers indicate that some of the consumers were not aware that the water provided by the water utility was safe to be consumed directly.

The following questions/points deduced from some of Indonesia’s experience can be further deliberated:

1. Is there a scope for HWTS intervention to bridge some of the existing gaps of municipal service providers and link the domestic and the institutional sectors in the promotion of safe water and water quality to the consumers? Can HWTS combine effective messaging/strategies to stimulate institutional changes and thinking in targeting their consumers?

2. Behavior change and affordability are linked with incentives derived from the attributes of the technology, either in the form of time saving, money saving, health benefits, environmental benefits etc, which eventually translate into “costs”. Social marketing approaches alone may not be adequate in promoting HWTS as a sustainable technological option.

3. Safe water provision and water quality standardization is a responsibility overseen by various institutions. How do we leverage on this existing institutional pluralism in promoting HWTS and safe water?

For further information on Aman Tirta project in Indonesia, check out the website: www.jhuccp.org/asia/indonesia/aman_tirta.shtml