Uzbekistan: External Review of SDC’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program Phases I – IV (2007- 2018), with Emphasis on Phase IV (2013 -2018)

In Central Asia, the rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) situation has increasingly become a health calamity after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and rehabilitation of old (soviet) systems is largely lacking. Government capacity, financial and physical, has been insufficient to catch up with this lacuna. This has a negative impact on water-borne diseases, predominantly diarrhea and Hepatitis A. Most affected are women, children and the elderly.

Swiss interventions in the sector started in 1998 with Humanitarian Aid, which in 2003 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) converted into a long-term RWSS program, starting with a fouryear Phase I (2003-2007), followed by three more phases; the latest, Phase IV (2013 – 2018) is also the Exit Phase. SDC contracted the International Secretariat for Water (ISW), Canada, to implement the program. Activities first started in the Ferghana and Andijan provinces and expanded in Phase IV to Syrdarya Province.

Phases I – IV (2003 – 2018) are expected to provide 153,000 people in 40 villages with drinking water and knowledge of hygienic and sanitary behavior. Schools and health centers were also provided with water. The systems are managed by 31 Drinking Water Organizations (DWOs). Physical sanitation installations were not foreseen in the SDC Project Documents - ProDocs, other than in Phase IV for two school toilets (1 ECOSAN and 1 pour-flush toilet), as well as the renewal of an improved hospital outdoor toilet (latrine) and a simple wastewater (WW) treatment and disposal system for a tuberculosis hospital. The cost of the 15-year program amounts to about US$ 12.6 million, divided about half-half into physical infrastructure and technical assistance – TA (system design, training, coaching, tariff structure, promoting gender equality, designing hygiene / health program, establishing Drinking Water Organizations – DWO – and more). The budget of Phase IV is of US$ 6,150,000 – CHF 5.76 million equivalent. On 5 September 2017 the government devalued the Uzbek currency, the Sum (UZS), by 100%, thus, increasing the local funds available for completing Phase IV. The program phases include three major fields of activities:

(i) At village level: infrastructure development, capacity building of Drinking Water Organizations

(DWOs), and hygiene promotion in order to enhance the effectiveness and impact of the intervention;

(ii) At regional level: identification and strengthening of a mechanism that will allow the replication of the project approach beyond the lifetime of the project; and

(iii) At national level: lobbying in the water supply sector to provide enabling legislation and a regulatory environment, allowing for the recognition and replication of the project approach countrywide, and to obtain buy-in and support from other financing agencies, wherever possible.

An External Review of the SDC program 2003 – 2018, with emphasis on Phase IV (Exit Phase) was carried out from 27 November to 5 December 2017 by an international and local consultant respectively, Peter Koenig, economist – water resources and environment, team leader; and Nodira Azimov, sociologist – gender and governance.