Towards more sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in Magway Region, Myanmar

Abstract

AbstractClean water and sanitation are essential for human development. Governments, international and national aid organizations have implemented water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects worldwide, notably in low- and middle-income countries. However, the majority of such projects experience failure. As a result, 2.4 billion people worldwide are deprived of improved WASH services. Research revealing how WASH projects can be sustained and which factors need to be considered is crucial. Despite the gap and its importance, existing studies on the sustainability assessment of WASH projects are limited. This study attempted to assess and compare the sustainability of WASH projects in Myanmar that used the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) approaches with the “Sustainability Check” developed by The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This research also evaluated the extent to which WASH projects contributed to the Myanmar National WASH Strategy. The study results show that both CLTS and PHAST project operations fully met the sustainability standards regarding accessibility and intra-village equity. Other sustainability indicators, such as water quality, use of sanitation facilities, and handwashing facilities, were at or above 85% and had already met the 2025 national targets. In contrast, handwashing practices have reached the 2030 national targets. The findings revealed that technical factors, institutional factors (at the community level), social, financial, and sanitation factors contributed to WASH project sustainability. The results also highlight the need for strengthening collaboration with local government to ensure that communities receive post-implementation support from local authorities, to encourage community participation and foster sense of ownership, to empower community-based bodies for O&M and monitoring of water and sanitation facilities, to integrate appropriate behavioral change activities, and to align with the National WASH Strategy. This study would be beneficial for WASH practitioners to ensure the inclusion of factors that support sustainability in the execution of future WASH projects. Graphical abstract