From Vijay Krishna, Arghyam, Bangalore
Posted 7 January 2011
Arghyam, WaterAid and the Water Community held a series of meetings in November and December 2010 around the country to discuss inputs for the approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan. There were six regional meetings and a national meeting in Delhi (The proceedings from the regional meetings are available here - ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-07011102.zip, ZIP, 350 Kb. Conducted at the behest of Planning Commission Member Dr. Mihir Shah, around 290 practitioners from the grassroots, including panchayat members, participated in these meetings. The discussions were on drinking water sources, drinking water supply, sanitation, governance and external factors that influence water and sanitation in rural areas. The Commission also supported the process and Dr. Shah attended the national consultation. People identified the issues, and made suggestions and recommendations. These were compiled and presented to the Planning Commission at the end of December. We are circulating these recommendations for your comments to seek further inputs that will be sent to the Commission. Kindly go through the file ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-07011101.pdf, PDF, 650 Kb and respond to the issues, suggestions and recommendations in the five themes. The file is a consolidation of the discussions at the regional meetings by experts who attended the national consultation.
Some pointers are the themes identified for discussion and the broad issues that emerged. You may also look at the suggestions and recommendations provided in the document for comment. Different regions have highlighted different issues, as expected, but there are common points across the regions as mentioned in the document. Please suggest any you feel have been left out or inadequately covered. You may want to keep the following considerations in mind:
- For existing or new suggestions please state which different organizations/individuals should be involved and how
- How can they be financed?
- Has the issue been worked on before? If so, by whom and what were the results?
We will compile and submit these to the Planning Commission as additional inputs.
Please see below attachment for the response