Project Summary
It is in the context of rapid urbanisation , that the project “Strengthening community centric governance through integrated water, sanitation and waste management in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar was conceptualised, designed and implemented as a model of participatory community centric governance by forming bodies of people at the most primary level, both at the neighbourhood and ward levels.
Besides water supply, sanitation and waste management, the project introduced and demonstrated the concept of integrated water management. In this context, individual toilets, community toilets, soak pits and drains were constructed and ideas for liquid waste disposal, treatment of liquid waste before emptying it in water sources, renovation of water bodies, were attempted under this project.
The concept of community mobilisation was critical to the project and was the guiding principle to bring in ownership among people towards their problems and also to ensure sustainability in all the approaches initiated. In this, processes were initiated with dialogues among members of the community to determine who, what, and how issues are decided, and went on to also provide avenues for everyone to participate in decisions that affected their lives and strengthen inclusive governance processes.
Outputs
- Mapping, studies on the wards and secondary research on Cuttack, to understand macro-level picture of services and issues. This includes entry point activities; predominantly demonstration projects centred to enable community understand the significance of interventions and its impacts.
- Building awareness, training and capacity building at two levels – ward level to gain a deeper understanding of the process and town level or beyond to appreciate such issues and models
- Facilitating, building and strengthening social platforms and social capital in wards 34 and 52.
- Demonstration of small models of decentralised, inclusive and participatory models of social and physical development such as the revival of local water bodies, construction of individual toilets, low cost, small models of waters structure to ensure access to potable water, decentralised community governed waste management systems.
- Capacity building of CMC and the elected representatives on participatory governance mechanisms b y providing technical support to CMC on the issue and Strengthening ward committees and making inclusive platforms of interface between people and the local government.
Duration
June 2009 - April 2012
Location
4 municipal wards in Cuttack and 1 in Bhubaneshwar
Grant Amount
INR 56 Lakh
Direct Beneficiaries
2 Thousand
Health and Development Initiative (HDI)
National Foundation for India (NFI)