Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION (RWSS)
The water sector reforms have transferred all functions of rural water supply from the Department of water Affairs (DWA) in the Ministry of Energy and Water Development (MEWD) to the Department of Housing Infrastructural Development (DHIS), Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH). The transfer entailed building institutional capacity within DISS to assume these new functions. Therefore GRZ established the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Unit (RWSSU) in 2003 in MLGH-DHIS to carryout central level functions as provided in the National Water Policy and subsidiary strategies, such as to co-ordinate and promote the affairs of rural water supply and sanitation in the country. The skills composition and requirements for the RWSS Unit is multi-disciplinary; policy and institutional, public health, sociology, information management and communications and advocacy water engineering.
The RWSS sub-sector has for a number of reasons lagged behind the urban WSS. In spite of central Government streamlining responsibilities and passing appropriate policy and legal framework for the sector, institutional developments have been slow such as the full transfer of executive functions currently undertaken by other line ministries, delays in increase of resource allocation to the sector, and institutional capacity building in local authorities, amongst others. In an effort to address such issues immediately the Unit has developed a work plan in consultation with major stakeholders, which consists of the following ten components:
1. Institutional and legal framework for the RWSS Unit
2. Review and consideration of Scaling up of the Water, Sanitation and Health Education (WASHE)
3. Design of appropriate Resource Mobilisation and Utilisation Arrangements
4. Development of investment programme for RWSS
5. Promotion of stakeholder participation and coordination
6. Development of RWSS Management Information System
7. Development of Monitoring and Evaluation systems
8. Promotion of capacity Building at national, provincial and districts levels
9. Engagement in Policy/Strategy Review and Improvement
10. Raising sub-sector profile through publicity and advocacy
