Session of Operation and Maintenance at the forth World Water Forum,
Mexico City,March 19, 2006
Banamex Center Hall 7, The 4th World Water Forum, Mexico City
The day of Water Supply and Sanitation for All (Capacity-building and Social Learning)
Jointly hosted by; National Institute of Public Health, NIPH, Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, International Water Association, IWA, and Operation and Maintenance Network, OMN
The session at the World Water Forum; Appropriate Operation and Maintenance of Water Supply and Sanitation Facilities was successfully held at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico. Over 200 people attended the meeting to discuss important factors for the improvement of operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation facilities through exchanging information and sharing experiences on good examples around the world.
The session was opened by "Importance of Operation and Maintenance," by Shoichi Kunikane, Director, Department of Water Supply Engineering, National Institute of Public Health, Japan, who pointed out the rates of unaccounted-for-water in Africa, Latin Africa and Asia were around 40% even in large cities.
Regarding good examples of local actions, three local actions were presented.
"Project on Capacity Building for Water Supply System in Cambodia," by Visoth Chea, Assistant General Director and Head of Training Center, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, showed the efficiency of capacity building and important aspects for ensuring sustainability are ownership development and coordination between hardware (facilities construction) and software (capacity building). The operation and maintenance of facilities and the management of a system were successfully implemented under a good master plan and good coordination among implementation bodies and funding agencies. Another important factor was the motivation of staff, for example, by raising their salary and improving their work condition.
"Safe Water and Support for Community Activities," Masse Niang and Aminata Sow Gueye, Direction of Exploitation and Maintenance, Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulics, Senegal, pointed out the importance of sustainability of a system was supported by full cost recovery with helping the poor in small water supply system. Information exchange and sharing experiences on sustainable operation, maintenance and management were also highly effective.
"Improvement of Water Supply Management in Mexico City," Beatriz Santamaria Ramirez, General Director Department Head of Instrumental Analysis and Monitoring, Water Quality Control Central Laboratory of Water System, Mexico City showed the importance of water quality management in operation of the system.
A new IWA-OMN joint activity with an aim to support its improvement was proposed in the session by Darren Saywell, Regional Director, International Water Association (IWA) and new technical solutions for water supply system including membrane treatment system for easy-operation and robust water distribution network were presented by Shigeru Ando, Executive Director, Japan Water Research Center.Discussions were led by Francois Brikke, Regional Team Leader, Programa de Agua y Saneamiento para America Latina, World Bank, followed by his presentation on "Sustainable Operation and Maintenance for Small Water Supply System," and comments from many participants were expressed on the importance of sustainability of the system, especially on the operation, maintenance and management.
The session was closed by Masashi Mizukami, Managing Director, Planning and Coordination Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency, with the prioritization of key factors to maintain the sustainability of water supply including ownership development and coordination between hardware (design of facilities and robust water distribution system) and software (capacity building and water quality management), improvement of the motivation of the staffs, and full cost recovery system with helping the poor in small water supply system, even in small water supply system. Information exchange and sharing experiences on sustainable operation, maintenance and management as mentioned above were indispensable for the achievement of the millennium development goals.
The improvement of operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation facilities is very important in order to achieve the millennium development goals. The key issues for its improvement in local development projects include: >> Careful consideration on local conditions,
>>Application of low-cost, appropriate and environment-friendly technologies,
>>Ownership development and coordination between hardware and software
>>Development of a supporting system by developed countries, and
>>Information exchange and sharing experiences