Water and Sanitation Group for Afghanistan - WSG Minutes of Meeting Held on 29th October, 2014

Transcription

1 Water and Sanitation Group for Afghanistan - WSG Minutes of Meeting Held on 29th October, 2014 Venue: Ru-WatSIP conference room/ MRRD Chaired by: Eng. Ghulam Qader, Executive Director of Ru-WatSIP Minutes by: Naseer Ahmad Nazari, Reporting Officer Meeting started at: 10:00 am Meeting Ended at: 12:10 pm Date of the Meeting: 29 October, 2014 Present Agencies: DACAAR, ACF,QRCC, CARE, Caritas Germany, Afghanaid, MoUDA, WHO, Solidarities International, AKF, RI, SCA, Tear Fund, & Ru-WatSIP Absent Agencies: UNICEF, MoPH, MoE,, NAC, Save the Children, OHW, & AUWSSC No. Agenda Point Discussion Result/Decision Action by: 1. Introduction and brief on the world bank project, Program for Results (P for R) _ (Eng. Ghulam Qader) The chairperson welcomed the participants and thanked for their attendance in the meeting. In the very beginning of the meeting, as usual practice the participants introduced themselves. Chairman Then, the participants were updated about the World Bank (WB) project, Program for Results, by the chair person. Eng. Qader mentioned that the WB project identification mission carried out before election, follow up activities has been done and they will come in mid November 2014 for further discussion of project. It was mentioned that this project will be implemented in 19 provinces of Afghanistan where there is poor sanitation less than 45%, poor hygiene practices, lack of safe drinking water and higher children mortality. The project will mainly cover Western, North, North east and central regions. These 19 provinces are selected based on data collected from various In response to question, raised by Afganaid, about how those 19 provinces are selected, the chairperson added that those province are selected based on four studies done including: 1) institutional options, 2) water and sanitation coverage, 3) technical options, and 4) options for supporting the sector. For more details, Eng. Samay Saquib promised sharing the presentation; he had delivered about this project. Eng. Samay Saquib 1

2 ministries and INGOs. He mentioned that in that project, high priority is given to capacity building and Operation and Maintenance (O&M). 2. Update about SACOSAAN conference and WASH transition. (Eng. M.A. Safi) Eng. Safi the national program advisor of national Ru-WatSIP gives brief information about SACOSAN conference. Eng. Safi stated that normally there are two meetings which are held before and after SACOSAN conference. In the meeting which he has recently attended (Feb, 2014), the idea was to know the progress which is made after the conference and what action plan each member country has made so far. Eng. Safi added that Afghanistan has 10 commitments for SACOSAN and has already made an action plan as well as SACOSAN reports. He then updated the participants about the place and time of SACOSAAN conference. It was said that the sixth SACOSAAN conference will be held in Bangladesh either late in 2015 or early to 2016; however the time is subject to Parliamentarian Election of India. If India s election happens at late 2015, then the conference will take place at early 2016 In Bangladesh. It was also mentioned that unlike the previous SACOSAAN conference, this time more participants from Afghanistan will take part in All the participants agreed that coming with touchy and an interesting slogan for the conference need sufficient time and thinking; therefore, time was given to the participants to think about this and send their slogan to Eng. Safi. Eng. Safi will then sit with two-three person and will jointly select one theme. All participant were asked to share their theme by COB Monday 3 rd November There was a suggestion by DACAAR for sending the staff to districts for enhancing coordination on district levels. But the chairperson said that working in districts of some provinces is impossible due to bad security situation like southern provinces, but he added that the MIS system of Ru- WatSIP will help in this regard. In response to a question that why the transition process took long. The chairperson assured that from Ru- WatSIP side, there was no problem, but it depends on UNICEF decision. It was mentioned that UNICEF will WSG Members & Eng. Safi 2

3 it. The national Ru-WatSIP senior leadership asked an increase in the number of participants from 20 to 30 seats for Afghanistan. These seats will be represented by INGO/NGO, Civil Society, Line ministries and other interested organizations working in WASH sector. Besides, the theme or slogan for that conference was also discussed: different attendees come with a number of slogans for upcoming conference such as Safe sanitation, healthy life, safe sanitation, better life, better sanitation, healthy life, etc. But none of these slogans were finalized by all. appoint a person for this purpose, and after the person is on board, the process will be rather accelerated. Besides, WASH transition process was also discussed in the meeting. It was said that based on UNICEF demand, a number of staff has been shifted to provinces, and now, the provincial staff has been strengthen, so the coordination on provincial level be rather strengthened. 3 Update on Water TWG meeting (DACAAR) The Water Technical Working Group (WTWG) meeting had been held in this month; however, low participation of the members was reported. WSG members were updated about the issues, having had discussed in WTWG meeting: Firstly, it was told to the participants that the springs and gullies (Kariz) are going dry, and this concern was reported a green indicator to the water sector. Secondly, the WTWG had discussed replacing Pamir Hand pumps with solar pumps. There had been reasons that Pamir hand pumps have not been functional for deep wells, so it s replacing with solar pumps had been suggested. Regarding the ground level water and deep wells, the chairperson said that there have been some problems in the previous WASH policy, but in the new policy these problems will be taken into account. Plus, deep wells were banned based on presidential decree; deep wells were only allowed for drinking purposes only in places where there was no other option. Therefore, this issue will be taken to cabinet meeting. Regarding replacing Pamir hand pumps with solar pumps, Eng. Safi Ru-WatSIP 3

4 4 Update on Hygiene Technical Working Group (HTWG) meeting (Dr. Alami MoPH) Nobody from MoPH could participate in WSG meeting of this meeting, so the participants were not updated about Hygiene Technical Working Group (HTWG) meeting. will call for a meeting in which ACF, Afghanaid, DACAAR, UNICEF, GIZ, SCA, ANSA, Ministry of Commerce and Eng. Saquib will be invited so that to discuss this issue from all angles and take decision about it. Eng. Safi & member organisations 5 Update on Sanitation TWG ( Eng. Naeem) The participants of WSG meeting were updated about the sanitation TWG meeting, and members participation in it was reported well. It was reported that the emergency latrine kit has been approved, and the drawing of it was shown in the WSG meeting through a power point presentation. During the STWG meeting, the indicators suggested by Bangladesh had been also discussed, and these indicators were reported to the WSG members to be ambitious. The action plan of STWG was reported incomplete and yet work has been being done on it. The emergency latrine kit, which was planned to be made of wood, was liked by some of the participants. In reply to a question about its cost, it was mentioned that the cost is not yet estimated but it will cost around dollars. For the indicators, a fourth column in the action plan was suggested: in this fourth column, the possibility and impossibility of indicators will be illustrated. In addition, it was decided that Eng. Safi is to call a meeting on Tuesday of the next week (4 th November 2014) and invite representatives from some INGOs and organisation like ACF, SCA, Afghanaid, SCO and Eng. Samay Saquib to discuss the indicators and decide which of those indicators are feasible for Afghanistan. Eng. Safi 4

5 6 Update about ODF villages in Parwan Province (Noorzai) 7 Update on procurement process of consultancy for revision of WASH policy - (Takashi UNICEF) Eng. Noorzi give a detail information about ODF status in all nine provinces including (do remember the name of provinces, if yes add it here). He also mentioned that they have accelerated the verification process as the winter season is coming. Takashi could not participate in WSG meeting. Noorzai 8 AOB The issue of members low participation in the WSG meeting was raised by the chairperson and asked the members what could be done so that the participation is enhanced. The chairman also mentioned about MIS and added that currently the design of MIS is completd. The MIS/GIS department planned to conduct MIS training; therefore, they will send you an inviting you for this training. It would be very helpful if each related organization nominate their MIS focal point in this training. Writing the terms of reference (ToR) of WSG meeting, and disseminating it through ACBAR site was suggested till people know about WSG meetings and its activities and importance. RuWatSIP/MRRD. The last point mentioned by chairman of the meeting was about completion of national Ru- WatSIP website. He added that now all partners of Ru-WatSIP can access to our website through ( link for visiting or for finding any other documents, reports, manual or whatever information they may need. 5

6 List of participants in WSG Monthly Meetings Date: October 29, 2014 Time: 10:00 AM- 12:00 pm Place: Ru-WatSIP conference room No Name Tile/Position Organization Contact No Address 1 Abdul SamaySaquib WASH Specialist Volunteer Samay.saquib@gmail.com 2 Leendert WASH Co-lead DACAAR Leendert.Vijselaar@gmail.com 3 Najibullah WASH D HoD ACF washdhod@af.mission-acf.org 4 Eng. Jabar QC QRCC M. Hamayoon PS CARE Mohd.hamayoon@yahoo.com 6 Ahmad Program Advisor Caritas Azahir.caritas@gmail.com 7 Nasiruddin Dareez Head of training Ru-WatSIP ndareez@gmail.com 8 Eng. Mehrabi WASH coordinator Afghanaid jmmehrabi@afghanaid.org.uk 9 Mustafa Noorzai Hygiene Officer Ru-WatSIP m.noorzai@mrrd.gov.af 10 Farhad Noor Specialist WSIP-GIZ Farhad.noor@giz.de 11 Ali Mohammad Project Manager Ru-WatSIP Ali.mohammad.@mrrd.gov.af 12 Dr. Siddequllah Coordinator DACAAR Siddequllah.sayd@dacaar.org 13 Dr. Betam WASH Advisor DACAAR Betman.bhandari@dacaar.org 14 Hafiza Buniadi Sanitation Eng. MUDA Uhma.buniadi-2014@yahoo.com 15 M. Naeem Technical Advisor Ru-WatSIP m.naeem@mrrd.gov.af 16 M. A. Safi N. P. A. Ru-WatSIP m.safi@mrrd.gov.af 17 Eng. Niamatullah WASH Officer WHO Ali Reza Dep. WASH Coo. S. I Afg.deputy.washcoo@solidarities.afgh anistan.or 19 Dr. Matiullah No. health AKF Matiullah.safi@akdn.org 20 Eng. Dost Mohammad Senior Engineer RI Dost.sediqi@ri.org 21 Hamida Niazi H. E. O SCA Hamida.niazi@sca.org.af 22 Charuka WASH Advisor Tear Fund Afghan-wash@tearfund.org 23 Fariba Arzhung C. B. C Advisor Ru-WatSIP 24 Naseer Ahmad Nazari Reporting Officer Ru-WatSIP Naseer.nazari@mrrd.gov.af 6