2149 पटक हेरिएको Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN) under the Municipalities Network Advocacy on Sanitation in South Asia (MuNASS) II organized Policy Dialogue on Urban Sanitation in WASH Policy and Act as well as Shit Flow Diagram (SFD) Institutionalization in Nepal on 2 August, 2022 at Hotel Shanker, Lainchaur, Kathmandu. The program was organized to discuss on components of drafted WASH policy and to establish network among relevant ministries and stakeholders.
Mr. Ashok Kumar Byanju Shrestha, President of MuAN chaired the program.The program commenced with opening ceremony. Er. Mani Ram Gelal, Secretary of Ministry of Water Supply applied compost to plant made from faecal sludge during opening ceremony. Mr. Kalanidhi Devkota, Executive Director of MuAN while highlighting the objective of the program said, “The solutionfor waste management is same all over the world and the major action point for it is institutional and technical administration. Thus, this program aims to discuss on these two aspects for sanitation with special focus on faecal sludge management.” In the opening session, chief guests Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha, Deputy Director at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Er. Mani Ram Gelal, Secretary of Ministry of Water Supply put forward the remarks.
During remarks, Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha said, “The regulation for Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) that has been established in Nepal is not present in India as well but to implement it smoothly, responsibility of local government is crucial. Furthermore, proper governance is required for accountability of local government and thus formation of national level regulatory body for FSM supports in proper governance. In addition, the regulatory body also supports in monitoring system.”
Also, Er. Mani Ram Gelal, during the remarks mentioned, “Ministry of Water Supply is pragmatic towards improving sanitation. Recently, Bill of WASH Policy have been approved and Ministry have planned to prepare 80 WASH plan in the municipalities based on it. The WASH plan intends to prepare and capacitate local body supporting NWASH plan for improving sanitation. Recognizing the remarks from Dr. Roshan Raj Shrestha, the process to form regulatory body for FSM will also be focused.”
Mr. Ashok Kumar Byanju Shrestha, ended the opening session with remarks sharing the examples of Dhulikhel Municipality on FSM and overall WASH. In addition, he focused on necessity of parallel attention economic status improvement and public health along with construction of structures for improvement of sanitation.
The technical session began with discussion on topic “Urban Sanitation Issues in WASH Policy/Act. Ms. Sudha Shrestha, Acting Chief Technical Advisor of UN-Habitat remained moderator for the session and presented reflection of WASH Policy. Er. Prabhat Shrestha, Senior Divisional Engineer at Ministry of Water Supply, Mr. Rudra Singh Tamang, Joint-Secretary of Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA), Mr. Siddhi Shrestha from UNICEF, Mr. Govinda Shrestha from Water Aid Nepal and Ms. Bhawana Sharma, Representative of NGO sector were panelists for the session. The major highlight of the session was on working modality of WASH policy, need of campaign on urban sanitation, financing and efficient use of resources for FSM, GESI in the policy and specified role mention for NGOs in the policy.
Likewise, the second topic of technical session was “SFD Institutionalization”. For the session, Mr. Rajendra Shrestha, Program Director of ENPHO was moderator. Mr. Shrestha commenced the session with a presentation defining SFD and its major focus for understanding sanitation status. For the session, the panelists were Mr. Yogendra Chitrakar, Senior Divisional Engineer of Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management (DWSS), Mr. Nawaraj Pyakurel, Joint-Secretary of Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Mr. Mingma Sherpa as representatives of private sectors. The session focused on importance of SFD on sanitation status improvement with sensitization of public, technical and non-technical human resources, supporting tool for further planning of sanitation services, and need for integration of SFD on NWASH.
Both technical sessions ended with question-and-answersession between participants and panelists. The program ended with a presentation on action point of the event presented by Mr. Sanjaya Adhikari and remarks from Er. Prabhat Shrestha.
MuAN is implementing MuNASS II program with technical partner Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) in support of United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) under funding of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
