The Water for Asian Cities Programme (WAC) has been implemented by UN-HABITAT since 2003 with local partners in India, the People’s Republic of China, Nepal, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The programme contributes to improving pro-poor local water demand management actions and sanitation improvements in urban slums, and is being extended to Cambodia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

In early 2007, both Asian Development Bank and UN-HABITAT extended this collaboration until 2011 with an enhanced commitment of 20 million dollars grant for capacity building and one billion dollars investment in water and sanitation.

The Tri-Chandra College in Kathmandu is harvesting rainwater and explains to the public how it works. The logo with the umbrella is used centrally to support the rainwater harvesting campaign supported by UN-HABITAT. Photo: IRC/Dick de Jong

IRC has completed various outputs on regional communication and media work to generate public awareness for WAC. Regional UN-HABITAT WAC activities during 2008 included:

• Media workshops for journalists;
• International programme for mayors and chief executives from Asia, Africa and Latin America on Urban Water and Sanitation in Nanjing, China;
• Implementation of a regional communications strategy;
• Capacity building in project implementation for partners;
• Human Values-based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (HVWSHE) in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Central Asia;
• Extending cooperation agreement with South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) on HVWSHE.

Communication work shaped by field missions

Dick de Jong from IRC produced four outputs focused on communication planning and media support. Field missions to Madhya Pradesh (India) and Nepal helped shape this communication work which has progressed most in Kathmandu valley, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Indore, based on fast track and pilot activities.

This has resulted in four communication strategies:

• Communication strategy for awareness on water demand management action and sanitation improvement in Nepal;
• Communication strategy for awareness on water demand management action in Madhya Pradesh;
• Communication strategy for awareness on sanitation improvement in Madhya Pradesh.
• Generic communication strategy for new cities in the WAC programme.

Three regional media workshops

Media support included co-organising and facilitating three regional media workshops and a regional media strategy and conducting distant mentoring.

The first regional media workshop in New Delhi, India in December 2006 was attended by 21 journalists. Participants felt there were too many content presentations, too much of an Indian focus and not enough dialogue with the journalists. This feedback was addressed at the second workshop in Singapore in July 2007. Sixteen journalists attended and there were more sessions on media, focusing on journalists and their stories on water/sanitation, and making a plan for a strategy for working with UN-HABITAT on future stories.

UN-HABITAT, the United Nations University UNW-DPC (Bonn, Germany), and the Regional Centre for Urban Water Management Tehran organized a third Capacity Development Workshop for Asian Water Journalists in Tehran from 26-28 November 2007. It attracted 26 journalists. IRC’s inputs on engaging users and media were adjusted on the spot to fit the flow of the programme, as requested by the key organisers. As an immediate follow up Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced that he will organize a second capacity development workshop with journalists from all the Nile basin countries, as we reported in the last Source Bulletin 55.

In general, the feedback from the three workshops suggests that all journalists found the workshops useful in terms of increasing awareness about various water and sanitation issues. All wanted more national workshops in future.

In all three workshops, journalists developed story ideas relating to the key water demand management and sanitation topics of the WAC programme, through working in groups. In the third workshop, they linked their planned stories to various international events such as: World Water Day (22 March), World Health Day (7 April), World Environment Day (5 June), World Toilet Day (19 November).

The three media workshops have provided valuable lessons on which the WAC communication programme 2009-2012 should build.

Dick de Jong

Tags: advocacy, information and communication, sanitation, south asia, urban wash, water resources management, water supply