1 Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP)
This has been one of the most effective organizations in the water sector since the early 1980s. Its Mountain Infrastructure and Engineering Services (MIES) unit is responsible for infrastructure development, which includes irrigation channels, bridges, storage reservoir, pipe irrigation, lift irrigation, river protection, land development and hydropower generation. In 1998, the MIES started work on water delivery projects with the aim of reducing the workload of women by providing water closer to the residential area. Communities are served with communal taps and sometimes household taps (WASEP, 2001).

One of the main problems with the extension of irrigation channels in the area by government agencies had been the lack of input by the communities themselves. The AKRSP uses a participatory approach to the development of the irrigation system. Farmers are involved in surveys and consultations with AKRSP engineers during the construction of the kuhls themselves. Existing kuhls are studied by the engineers and field experiences of farmers are drawn upon. AKRSP provides non-local material such as cement, pipes and skilled labor) while the locals supply local material and supervise development work in their communities. Examples of such collaborative projects can be found in the villages of Sust and Passu (Velde, 1989) and other villages throughout the Northern Areas. Such schemes have apparently been quite successful in the region (Ahmed and Joyia, 2003).

Management committees are formed which supervise the project and also contribute 30-40% of the project cost (AKRSP, 2000b). The new land that is brought under cultivation as a result of irrigation is initially used to grow fodder crops like clover and alfalfa which increases livestock in the area. For example, in the village of Bombagh it went up by 90%. There are also significant impact on timber and fuelwood production because large tracts of new land are also devoted to agro-forestry (ibid.). Following table is adapted from the above study and shows the kind of land use resulting from additional cultivable land.

Table . Land use pattern of new land brought under AKRSP-assisted irrigation

Source: AKRSP. 2000. A synthesis of the findings from the impact studies on land development projects. Report by the AKRSP Policy & Research Section, Islamabad.

The above study has also presented many case studies whereby it examines the effects of new irrigation channels on fodder security, food, fuelwood and timber production in several villages. It finds that the impact is usually positive, although the workload of women invariably increases and that is one of the few negatives (AKRSP, 2000b). For example, a typical case is presented in the following table, in which an 8,600 feet long irrigation channel was constructed during 1987-89 for the adjoining villages of Baltaring and Deh in Ghizer district.

Table . Impact of irrigation channel in Baltaring & Deh

Source: AKRSP. 2000. A synthesis of the findings from the impact studies on land development projects. Report by the AKRSP Policy & Research Section, Islamabad.

Another example from the same report is presented in the following table. This deals with the impact of a new irrigation channel which was built in 1991-92 in the village of Tiston in Skardu district. The biggest impact of the channel was to increase fodder production and that led to improved livestock and hence food security for the people.

Table . Impact of new irrigation channel on the village of Tiston

Source: AKRSP. 2000. A synthesis of the findings from the impact studies on land development projects. Report by the AKRSP Policy & Research Section, Islamabad.

Similar statistics for many other villages all over the Northern Areas can be found in the above mentioned report.

Additionally, the following table gives an example of the involvement of AKRSP in water development schemes:

Table . Water development schemes completed and initiated by AKRSP in 1997

Source: AKRSP. 1997. 15th Annual Review: Fifteen years of development, Northern Areas and Chitral, Pakistan.

Breakdown of data for Gilgit and Baltistan regions is also available in this publication.

Example of a water supply scheme of AKRSP:
In 1998 the Government of the Northern Areas invited AKRSP, in partnership with local communities, to implement ten irrigation channel schemes for the development of barren lands in four districts of the Northern Areas. The AKRSP mobilized local communities for the projects. The Saething Irrigation Channel project, one of the largest irrigation projects of its kind the area was started in 1999 in partnership with the AKRSP, the government and the locals. The construction cost was calculated to be Rs. 12.7 million out of which the GoP-AKRSP share was Rs. 9.7 million and the rest was taken up by the community. The channel was set to be 47,000 ft. long and bring 18,000 kanals of land under cultivation benefiting 1,783 households and a population of 14,464 (AKRSP, 2000c).

Types of infrastructure developed by AKRSP for improving water supply:

To summarize the data, AKRSP has developed the following infrastructure in water in conjunction with village organizations (VOs):
• Irrigation channels to provide water for land not already served
• Inverted siphons to carry water from one side of the valley with water to the other side where there is none
• Tunnels through ridges to carry water from a valley with a stream to one with no stream
• Ram jets to raise water from a lower level to higher dry area
• Pump systems to raise water using river flows to drive pumps
• Micro-hydel electricity generation systems
• Drinking water supply from springs to villages
• Experimental water driven equipment using the flow of side stream for undershot wheels and the main river flow for propeller driven equipment (AKRSP, 1997).

2 : Water and Sanitation Extension Program (WASEP)

The Aga Khan Planning and Building Service started WASEP in 1997 in order to provide safe drinking water supply to communities and thus prevent water-borne diseases. The package includes both water and sanitation hardware and the provision of health and hygiene education (WASEP, 2000). Some of the stated goals of WASEP are:
Provide safe potable drinking water to 3800 households per year
Improve access to sanitation facilities to over 1800 households each year
Develop drainage facilities to each household receiving a water scheme
Facilitate the adoption of healthier domestic, personal and environmental hygiene

The following table shows the involvement of WASEP in water supply schemes in this region. Their schemes are in demand and many villages have applied to access safe water through their intervention (see the last row in the table).

Table . WASEP involvement in water supply schemes in the Northern Areas

Source: Salim Khan, Acting Program Manager, Engineering, WASEP Gilgit

Pre-WASEP period:

Before WASEP was formed, its precursor the Water Sanitation Hygiene and Health Studies Project (WSHHSP) of the Aga Khan Health Service had analyzed the lack of success of some water supply schemes in the mid 1990s. It had concluded that:

• the government agencies that build the schemes did not give guidance to communities how to operate and maintain the scheme
• lack of resources for minor repairs and
• sometimes availability of alternative sources of water in the village such as a nearby stream or water channel also deterred the usage of the supply scheme (Hussain and Langendijk, 1994).

WSHHSP also did a study of water quality in water channels and in piped delivery systems in certain villages of Gilgit and Skardu in the mid 1990s (Raza, 1997). It found that although contamination in the piped water was one-tenth as compared to the open channels, it was still high (Table 11 a & b). The reasons cited for this were mainly managerial and operational problems, a lack of monitoring of the village supply system and existence of some unhygienic practices among the villagers such as animals defecating very close to the channels. Therefore when WASEP started operation in 1997 it took care to remedy these problems.

Table . Comparison of water contamination in traditional and piped water supply systems in two Gilgit villages with common water supply source

a) Traditional water supply channel (Jalalabad) average contamination levels (e-coli/100ml)

b) Piped water supply system (Osikhandaas) average contamination levels (e-coli/100ml)

Source: Raza, H. 1997. Weekly microbiological monitoring of improved and traditional water delivery systems in northern Pakistan. A study of Water Sanitation Hygiene and Health Studies Project (WSHHSP), Aga Khan Health Service, Northern Areas and Chitral.

A similar water contamination data for four other villages, namely, Sundus, Hassanabad, Thorgu Bala and Shogore is also available in this report.

WSHHSP had also done another study in the mid-1900s which inventoried both traditional and improved water and sanitation conditions in 862 villages in Northern Areas and Chitral. A complete list of the number of villages by district is provided in this report (Ahmed et al., 1996). A total of 251 water supply schemes were found to be operating in the covered villages. Among the findings were :
Not all water supply schemes were providing water 24 hours a day and this contributed to villagers turning again to less safe supplies of water. The following table shows the data they gathered.

Table . Continuity of water supply in Northern Areas villages in the mid 90s.

Total number of schemes in operation = 251
The most common problems with water supply schemes were with pipes freezing and leaking. The following table gives the breakdown for various problems.

Table . Problems identified by communities with their water supply schemes

Note: some schemes are counted more than once, e.g., the same scheme could have problems with both water tank and pipes

WASEP Approach to Water Supply Schemes:


WASEP uses a participatory approach to determine the details of each project and to assess the community’s capacity to sustain the project. It puts special emphasis on involving women in all water supply schemes through Women’s Organizations (WOs). WASEP provides villagers with engineering and construction services, non-local material, skilled labor, training and health and hygiene education. The villagers must provide local materials, unskilled labor and operation and maintenance funds. The community share, including labor in kind, usually comes to over 45% of the total cost of the project.

Water rights can become crucial during planning and construction of piped water because it provides an equal amount of water to each tap and hence some may get more or less than their traditional rights. There have also been disputes over the use of springs for water supply schemes. For example, when a scheme is using a shared water source but not all parties will benefit from it, or alternatively it benefits parties that do not own the source. Therefore all such issues are taken into consideration when planning the scheme.

Water is collected in concrete boxes near the eye of the spring or nallah and sent along the mountain sides in HDPE pipes, which are sunk to a depth of at least 4 ft, to a storage tank at the apex of the village, then piped into the village where each house is provided with a tap stand.

The water quality is also tested prior to implementation of the scheme from the top, mid and end of the channel. Water is tested for heavy metals, e-coli, hardness, turbidity, pH, total dissolved solids, among others in WASEP’s lab in Gilgit (Munawar Abbas, Senior Microbiologist, WASEP Water Testing Lab, Gilgit, pers. comm.). If high contamination is found then steps are taken to remove it.

After implementation the water is also tested at the ingestion point once a month for three months. Sedimentation and up-flow roughing filtration methods are used to reduce turbidity. So far eight filtration plants have been installed in Shigar (Salim Khan, Acting Program Manager, Engineering, WASEP Gilgit, pers. comm.). Regular operation of these plants is encouraged at the village level but WASEP provides additional training or operators for close monitoring of their performance.

The community is also required to contribute a certain amount per month as fee to cover the cost of a hired plumber and female health worker who gives hygienic training and information to the villagers. However, collection of such fee has been a challenge in some communities where the collection system has broken down after a successful initial start. The reasons cited for this are usually the inability of the villagers to contribute the required monthly fee (Wilfred Schlosser, Director, WASEP, pers. comm.)

The following table shows the effects of WASEP intervention on the water quality of communities:
Table . E-coli contamination in Northern Areas water distribution system

Source: WASEP. 2000. Water and Sanitation Extension Program: program cycle 1997 to 2001.
Note: WHO standard for developing countries is less than 10 e-coli/100 ml

Latrines:
Another aspect of water management in which WASEP intervenes is sanitation and the latrine system in the region. Many people here prefer the Balti-latrine which is a single above ground chamber into which excrements are collected to be later used as manure and so WASEP has improved these latrines in many villages. It has also provided composting latrines in Baltistan and Hunza. Some people increasingly prefer pour flush latrines connected to a soak pit and WASEP has been helping to construct them where needed (Salim Khan, Acting Program Manager, Engineering, WASEP Gilgit, pers. comm.). It is headed towards achieving 70% coverage in project villages for latrines (WASEP, 2000).

4.2.3. Al-Sabah Trust
This is another NGO working in the field of health, education and water/sanitation in the town of Gilgit. It works in mohallas where no government or other NGO is engaged in water and sanitation provision. They were established in 1997 and their area of operation is Sunikot. Their method is to dig a well and then lift water up into a storage tank from where it is piped into 200 households. It is also tested in the WASEP lab and is said to meet WHO standards. Each household pays Rs.100 per person per month and receives three hours of water every day. It is a self-sustained project and plans to expand into more areas of the town (Hidayat, Chairman, Al-Sabah Welfare Trust, pers. comm.).