The Dhaka Water Services Turnaround

By Manoj Sharma and Melissa Howell Alipalo

The Asian Development Bank's investment program in the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority provided a breakthrough in approaching urban development, particularly the delivery of clean, reliable, affordable water and to the poor, no less. And not just a breakthrough for Dhaka or the rest of Bangladesh, but for the region of South Asia. This publication looks at the key success factors that other utilities are taking note of: the zonal approach to rehabilitating and managing urban water services, trenchless technology for expeditiously laying pipes, and how to connect the urban poor---and keeping them connected---through community-managed approaches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9789292610258

Manoj Sharma

Dr. Manoj Sharma, MBBS, PhD, MCHES®, is a public health physician and educator with a medical degree from the University of Delhi and a doctorate in Preventive Medicine from The Ohio State University. He is currently a tenured Full Professor and Chair of the Social and Behavioral Health program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the School of Public Health and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. In his career, spanning over 35 years, he has trained/taught over 6,000 health professionals. He has worked for local health departments; state health departments/agencies; federal government agencies; nonprofit agencies; professional organizations; and international agencies including governments of other nations in his career. He is ranked in the top one percentile of global research scientists from 176 fields by Elsevier. He has been awarded several prestigious honors including American Public Health Association’s Mentoring Award, ICTHP Impact Award, J. Mayhew Derryberry Award, and William R. Gemma Distinguished Alumnus Award at The Ohio State University among others. His research interests are in developing and evaluating theory-based health behavior change interventions, obesity prevention, stress-coping, community-based participatory research, and integrative mind–body–spirit interventions.

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THE DHAKA TURNAROUND STORY

A Shining Example of South–South Learning

Since 2007, Dhaka’s water utility has been turning around its water services without leaving the poor behind. By creating closed hydrologic systems to break the megacity down into more serviceable and manageable zones, otherwise called district metered areas (DMAs), the utility has swiftly rehabilitated networks and connections, is now able to detect and reduce leaks, and delivers pressurized, clean water 24 hours a day to everyone, including the poor. The utility’s top management has also adroitly pushed through sensitive but essential reforms, and tested and validated its assumptions about the technical as well as financial viability of connecting slums. The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has thus become South Asia’s replicable model of an inclusive, enterprising, and commercially viable urban service utility.

A major reason for DWASA’s turnaround has been the $212.7 million Asian Development Bank (ADB)–financed Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Program (DWSSDP), under a multi-donor partnership for the entire urban water sector in Bangladesh. The partnership combines sweeping yet pragmatic and phased reforms, innovative technology and management approaches, and a determination to connect slum areas.

What factors made DWASA’s turnaround possible? How did the utility navigate laws, policy, inertia, prejudice, and accustomed practice to get a megacity and its mega slums connected? More importantly, is DWASA’s success sustainable?

Cities across South Asia have begun turning to DWASA to learn about its technology and tactics, and replication is under way. This is South–South learning at its best, says Manoj Sharma, the ADB project manager who worked with DWASA for 6 years through its least hopeful to its shining moments. The multilateral development banks, including ADB, are also learning that investments in water distribution networks, and not only in bulk water supply, provide surety that the investments do not just speak for the poor but deliver the benefits of development dollars directly to them. Rather than simply pushing a loan condition, ADB took a more direct and proactive role in connecting urban poor households in Dhaka. Project designers cannot assume that networks will be extended to the poor. Design must be deliberate—not just pro-poor but for-the-poor design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Through the DWSSDP and a unique collaborative landscape of development partners working to support DWASA’s turnaround, DWASA is demonstrating how utilities can become government standard-bearers, both financially and in service to the public. Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) are finding their optimal role as facilitators rather than the small-scale development contractors that many have become, and the poor are proving to be a financially viable market that can also deliver their own development when basic social services are accessible. Once connected, communities invest in more durable housing, community assets, and sanitary environments. Pathways are paved; household and community toilets are built and maintained. Water inspires work. It encourages investments and construction, and sparks community