rural water supply and sanitation

MRRD

MRRD is responsible for planning and facilitation of rural water supplies on behalf of the government. This means formulation of policies, project planning and implementation.

RuWatSIP has been the department responsible for policy development with MRRD.

RuWatSIP is leading the Water and Sanitation Coordination Group (WSG) which meets monthly to support in policy formulation and for monitoring sector development

MRRD participates in the Water Cluster group and will in shortly take over chairmanship from UNICEF. The WASH Cluster focus on emergency response activities.

RuWatSIP

RuWatSIP own activity and plans

RUWatSIP is implementing a water supply project for Nimroz funded by GoA (USD 6 million in 2012)

Water , Sanitation and Hygiene education (WASH) project supported by UNICEF with USD10million for 2012

Qala Naw/ Badghis project funded by Spain, ( $.28 million in 2012)

Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP) funded with USD0.8million for 2012

Hydrogeology research and capacity building $5.6 over three years. (NORPLAN project)

Project client for the project and funding support.
- Project supervision, and contract management
- Providing office accommodation and conference facilities
- Identifying staff for training
- Organization of course invitations
- Organizing and facilitation of activities in Faryab Province
- Provision of drilling equipment and staff for training boreholes and exploratory drilling in Faryab
- RuWatSIP and MRRD staff present at all training courses implemented
- Coordinating MIS-GIS development activities funded by NORAD and UNICEF for data collection, data analysis and preparation of information maps.
- RuWatSIP benefactor of equipment and software from the HGS project in addition to capacity building in general.
- Providing data and project information for surveys
- Providing technical contributions at training courses

It is envisaged that RuWatSIP will be a large USER of Hydrogeologcal information and in need that this project succeeding and its staff being trained so to better find and develop rural water supplies.

MEW

In February 2013, the responsibility of managing of groundwater resources has been transferred from Ministry of Mines (MOM) to MEW. The whole department handling hydrogeology in MoM was then transferred to MEW. Thus the jurisdiction of mapping groundwater resources now lies with MEW.

Responsible for mapping surface water resources. Working extensively though river basin structures in Afghanistan.

Now being responsible for mapping of ground water resources in addition to surface waters, MEW has shown much interest in participating actively in this project.

- submitting staff for training at most training courses. Sometimes MEW is the organization with most staff participating in the training courses.
- Providing data and project information for surveys
- Providing technical contributions at training courses
- Making equipment and facilities available for training purposes with course participants visiting MEW facilities.
- Providing important information and links to information of relevance such as surface waters, precipitations, river flow information etc.

Key interest in training on hydrogeology, geophysical investigations and quality control of laboratory services.

MEW being responsible for groundwater resources would most likely develop into ab organization being a "producer" of hydrogeological maps and information and also being the custodian of groundwater resource information in Afghanistan.

AGS

The AGS is the national custodian of geoscientific information and assist and advises the government of all policies related to minerals, coal, hydrocarbons, precious and semi precious stones, water resources, and geotechnical and environmental geology ( from web page hosted by BGS)

AFG with its assistance from USGS has provided many maps and electronic documents in order to develop hydrogeological maps for Faryab province. The GIS files is part of the national data sets for Afghanistan and thus activities under HGS project will use and recognize existing data and information.
- AFG has provided staff presenting background of AFG activities related to hydrogeological surveys and data in Afghanistan.
- AGS staff has participated in hydrogeological courses run under the project
- AGS also has a water laboratory and its staff has participated in the training.

Kabul University

University has a department covering Geoscience and also Environment. Both departments are teaching courses linked closely to the HGS project.

Professors from Kabul University is working part time on the project as resource persons.

- University staff involved in training and lecturing
- University lecturing staff working with international experts to develop training material for use on the project but also for use later at university
- Provide exposure to university staff on practical and application focused project training activities

- University students participating in training courses

DACAAR) Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees has over many years developed into perhaps the most leading international NGO covering provision for sustainable water supply and sanitation services to rural people. The large organization has also developed technical and social methods to provide basic services throughout Afghanistan. With over 30,000 water supplies developed, DACAAR has developed extensive expertise which is now fully streamed into new projects but also into training programmes for water sector staff in general.

DACAAR is the local project partner to Norplan as identified by NORAD for the project.

Provisions to the project:
- Implementing survey of water features (hydrogeological technical data) from Faryab province including geophysical survey, water-, soils-, rainfalls- and snow sampling.
- Providing data from own database covering existing water facilities in DACAAR or WSG database and updated with later years surveys for Faryab
- providing experienced manpower to plan and implement training programs at RuWatSIP and at provincial level ( Maymane)
- Provide practical information about water supply situation in Faryab based on DACAAR project
- Provide training courses through its training unit WET Centre.
- providing support to planning hydrogeological standardized maps for Afghanistan

- DACAAR benefiting from international experience brought into the training courses
- Participating in laboratory quality control courses

Ministry of Public Health is concerned about quality of drinking waters and health and hygiene education. In connection of safe drinking water UNICEF has assisted in establishing water quality testing laboratories in Kabul and in the regions under MoPH.

Staff from MoPH has participated in laboratory water quality control courses. It is believed that further training in this field has been requested for MoPH staff.

Afghanistan Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Corporation (AUWSSC)

It task is to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable urban water supply and sanitation to the Afghan population. AUWSSC has started corporatizing CAWSS and from there moving toward rectifying the problems currently experienced in the urban water sector.

Focus: Make full recovery of operation and maintenance costs. Make significant improvement in physical assets, increase number of service connections, improve quality of service.

Staff from AUWSSC participating in training courses covering hydrogeology, well drilling and well hydraulics.
- Seems interested in learning how to map potentials for groundwater resources to service urban areas ( like Maymane)
- Staff presenting and participating in courses.

WSG