Experiences with strategic planning for rural drinking water and sanitation in district municipalities : pilot project to improve district water and sanitation management and sustainability - PROPILAS

In 2002, Peru embarked on a process of decentralization and regionalization. This report describes the experiences of the PROPILAS capacity building project concerning the optimization of the management and sustainability of the rural water and sanitation services. The results, experiences, and lessons learned are to be shared with the countries water authority, so that they may be included in the national policies and the project may be replicated on a larger scale. The project was carried out in six district municipalities in the department of Cajamarca : San Juan and Llacanora (province of Cajamarca); Miguel Iglesias and Utco (province of Celendin); and Lajas and Tacabamba (province of Chota). The project helped to draw up development and investment plans, or to improve existing plans.
The experience and results of the strategic planning for water and sanitation have made it apparent that with minimal technical assistance, local governments are able to coordinate and build consensus with local stakeholders and establish commitments to ensure the access of rural communities to sustainable services. Citizen participation in the process of drawing up the participatory budget at the district level has to be strongly encouraged. The local sectoral strategic plans can serve as input for the budgeting process. Municipal governments have taken the decision to allocate funds to their water and sanitation plans; a good indicator that they now realize how important it is to ensure the sustainability of the services in their district in order to achieve MDGs for water and sanitation.