COMMUNITY WATER MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION: HOW TO ENSURE PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES

Contextualization

The session discussed the possibility of participatory approaches to water management and sanitation. Given the emphasis on participation in the management of something that constitutes a fundamental human right (water), and considering the current moment, marked by the scarcity of water in some regions of the country and the world, it is relevant to discuss this participatory experience. Therefore, the involvement of all actors involved in the search for community management of water resources must be constantly sought. Care should be taken to ensure that this involvement reaches complete governance, as in the Chilean example the communities perform the administrative and operational management of the service, as well as the maintenance of the infrastructure. However, its governance, its environment and its sustainability are not guaranteed. Management in all countries is usually centralized in large cities, making access to rural populations difficult.

Recommendations

In this scenario, it is necessary to ensure gender equity in water planning and management processes; youth involvement; volunteer mechanisms; political support; quality rural sanitation; exchange and partnership processes between fragile institutions (given the lack of legitimate representatives); control the actual demand for water and sanitation; training of political managers; training of new students; improve institutional arrangements; integration of society to enable the management of small communities.

Conclusions

The challenge is to provoke efforts to broaden the capacities of social agents, covering all actors, especially the most vulnerable and excluded, so that, organized, they can overcome the existing difficulties. In the case of sanitation, the non-deliberative nature of collegiate organs is a major difficulty. An important conclusion was the need to value local knowledge, promote greater family participation and make decisions with transparency and democracy. Empowering politicians and students to carry out institutional and multisectoral arrangements is vitally important to such projects, as is clarity about their roles, functions and activities. It is important that all actors can positively interfere with public management, directing government actions and spending towards collective interests, in this case, in defense of access to a most important asset: water.