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| Capacity
Building by WASMO |
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| Capacity Building -
Ghogha Project |
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| Capacity Building -
Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project |
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WASMO's aim is to empower local
communities, particularly village level institutions such as
gram panchayats
and pani samitis,
to manage their own water supply and sanitation networks. Two
things are required to achieve this: |
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1 |
An enabling policy environment
and legal framework within which local communities can
be empowered; and |
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2 |
Exposure of local communities to
successful projects, creating greater awareness and
building up their knowledge and skills. |
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The 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of
India and the 1999 sector reforms, both of which emphasise
community participation and decentralisation of village level
water and sanitation systems, provide an adequate enabling
environment for the empowerment of local communities |
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| To take
advantage of these shifts in policy, the Government of Gujarat
created WASMO in 2002 to oversee the initiation of a decentralised, demand-driven
water supply and sanitation programme in the state. |
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| The state government
of Gujarat introduced two further resolutions on the
formation of pani samitis on October 24,
2002 and on
Swajaldhara on September 5, 2003. |
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| WASMO is directly
engaged in creating awareness and transfer of skills and
knowledge to local communities and
pani samiti members, as well as to
Implementation Support Agencies (ISAs) through workshops, training
and exposure visits. |
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Gram Sabha
Gram Panchayats can be efficiently managed
with periodic gram sabhas (village meetings). A gram
sabha ensures participation of each section of society and
gives an opportunity to reflect and ensure their needs. It is an
important tool in raising awareness among the community and
eliciting their participation. It facilitates decision making,
helps in resolving conflicts and contributes towards building up
transparency in the entire process of programme implementation.
Gram sabhas are conducted for forming pani samitis,
preparation of village action plan, deciding on community
contribution, acceptance of village action plan, presentation of
work plan arrangements including contracts, approval of
expenditure, appraisal of work and for final settlement of
accounts. More than 3,700 gram sabhas have been conducted
in the programme villages. These gram sabhas are attended
by representatives of ISAs /CMSU. |
