Introduction:
The province of Punjab is home to over half of Pakistan’s population and characterized by stark socioeconomic divides between north and south and rural and urban areas. Almost 98 percent of rural households in Punjab have access to an improved water source but continuous and treated piped water supply is rare and most households rely on groundwater pumping that is vulnerable to contamination. Most rural households in Punjab thus rely on groundwater as their main source of water, either through public supply or private investment. Access to improved sanitation is still low across rural Punjab and fecal waste is generally not safely disposed. There is almost no public investment in the treatment of fecal waste.Taking cognizance of above issues, the Government of Punjab has established the “Punjab Rural Municipal Services Company” (PRMSC) (hereinafter referred to as “Client”) as a Company under section 42 of the Companies Act, 2017) by the Government of Punjab. The Company has been placed under the Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department, Government of Punjab.
PRMSC is a government owned not for profit-company that will provide critical municipal services related to water, sanitation and waste management to rural villages in Punjab. The company will build and maintain safely managed water supply and sanitation schemes for single or multiple villages, where feasible. Solid waste will also be managed safely, with only residual waste, after recycling, composting of food and green waste, sent to landfills, The goal of the company is to ensure that all major sources of contamination through human and animal waste are minimized and villages are converted into healthier, more hygienic and more pleasant living spaces with improved civic amenities. In this regard, the Client will also focus on behavior change and capacity building for the sustainability of the improved WASH services. The Government of Punjab through the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has received financing from the World Bank to supplement the above initiative in the form of a project titled “Punjab Rural Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project” with an aim to provide equitable and sustainable access to safely managed water and sanitation and reduce child stunting in 2000 revenue villages of Punjab located in 16 tehsils of 16 different districts of the province. Each Revenue Village may have multiple Bastis/settlements and all such Bastis/settlements shall be covered. The order in which villages will be provided services will be randomized to ensure equity. The 16 tehsils/districts, listed below, to be covered by this phase of the project were selected using an index of need.
Project Components
The Project consists of following major components:
- Water Supply and Sanitation Infrastructure Development
- Behavior Change and Capacity Development
- Service Delivery Improvement
- Project Management and Monitoring
The Project will combine infrastructure investments with a comprehensive behavior change communication (BCC) campaign and improved service delivery to: (i) provide potable water through cost-effective and sustainable investments; (ii) provide safely managed sanitation facilities to reduce the total fecal burden in the village environment; and (iii) raise awareness and promote behavior change for better hygiene practices at the household and community level to promote health and ensure the sustainability and quality of the water source.
The key implementation principles of this Project are:
(i) A needs-based approach towards resource allocation and geographic targeting.
(ii) Protecting groundwater from over-abstraction and contamination to conserve it as a sustainable resource in the face of population growth and climate change.
(iii) Professional service delivery to underpin infrastructure investments, sustained primarily by cost-recovery from beneficiaries and backed by provincial budget allocations as needed.
(iv) Robust community participation in all aspects of project implementation with a strong focus on women.
(v) Better outcome tracking and greater transparency through a Management Information System (MIS) and a robust impact evaluation.