Funded by SDC the WATSAN Partnership Project (WPP) was an innovative demand-oriented project in rural water supply and sanitation. Activities were implemented through local 15 partner NGOs with the backup support from three collaborative partners (CARE, DASCOH and IDE) to support the demand of Village Development Committees (VDCs).
WPP worked through a framework of collaborative partnerships among various stakeholders in the water sanitation sector: the international NGOs – CARE, DASCOH and IDE -, the private sector, government institutions, local partner NGOs and villagers who are the ultimate users of WATSAN services. The strategic mission of the project was to promote community management through village development committees, improvement of hygiene behaviour practice of communities, facilitating people to develop arsenic mitigating options in the contaminated areas and development and marketing of affordable technology for safe drinking water.
WPP was located in Rajshahi and Chanpai Nawabgonj districts, with 640 villages organised in Village Development Committees (VDCs), and 558 village committees for arsenic activity only. A total of 15 PNGOs (ACD, ASED, AUS, Bikash, KSS, MSP, Niskrity, Proyas, RULFAO, Sachetan, SDP, SEDAEPO, SNKS, Swallows, Trinamool-N, Trinamool-S) implemented their activities in 315 Wards of 36 Unions of 10 Upazillas.