Draft Minutes

Sphere Handbook Revision: National Consultation on Water and Sanitation Standards

Following are the draft minutes of Sphere Handbook Revision: National Consultation on Water and Sanitation Standards held on February 12, 2003 at Ahmedabad.

The Sphere Project was launched in 1997, as an international inter-agency collaboration to improve the quality of assistance to people affected by disasters and enhance the accountability of humanitarian agencies to its beneficiaries, members and donors. To realize these objectives a handbook was compiled and published in 2000 that details humanitarian principles and minimum standards for disaster response. A revision of this handbook is being undertaken to make it relevant for the global humanitarian community. The revised document is expected to be completed and circulated by June 2003.

Disaster Mitigation Institute's (DMI) Ahmedabad is an action-planning hub of disaster risk management. DMI's association with Sphere began in 1998 as one of the 14 global pilot agencies. Along with using Sphere in its disaster mitigation activities, DMI has been active in organising capacity building exercises at the national and local level, producing awareness related tools, developing assessment tools, encouraging joint local and global Sphere related work, launching a 'sphere' website (http://www.spherinindia.net) and providing local inputs to the global sphere handbook revision process.

Drawing from the experiences, insights and technical expertise of varied humanitarian response agencies in India, DMI organized two 'sector' consultations in India to inform the' global' revision of the Sphere handbook. This includes one, with shelter focal point Catholic Relief Services on revision of the Shelter and Site Planning Chapter of the Handbook (September 18, 2002), in Ahmedabad, and second on Food Aid, Nutrition and Food Security in New Delhi, on December 16-17, 2002, with focal point Tufts University, with the support of the World Food Programme and Emergency Food Security Network.

The third in this series was Community and National Consultation on Water and Sanitation with focal point Andy Bastable (Oxfam GB) in Gujarat from February 10-12, 2003. The two-day community consultation involved interaction with disaster-affected communities in Bhuj (earthquake-affected) and Ahmedabad (riot-affected) with the help of a community consultation tool designed jointly by DMI and Mr. Bastable. The shared the findings of the community consultation were shared by Andy Bastable during the National Consultation on February 12, 2003, which attracted the participation of 31 professionals with varying experience in water and sanitation in India. These included a mix of 18 CBO's, NGO's and INGO's to include, World Vision; American Red Cross; Care India; DISHA, Evanglical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief; Discipleship Centre; United Nations Development Fund (UNDP); Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA); Emergency Food Security Network; Poorvanchal Gram Vikas Sanstha (PGVS); Dasoli Gram Swaraj Mandal; Mahila Mandal Barmer Agor, Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), Lutheran World Service (India), Red-R International, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee Govt. Degree College (Allahabad) and International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Disaster Mitigation Institute.

The pre-consultation arrangements including commissioning of five focused papers on the Humanitarian Reality of Water and Sanitation in India, by Dr. A.W.P. David, EFSN (in English), Shri Omprakash Bhatt, DGSM (in Hindi), Dr. Bhanu, PGVS (in English), Shri. Aurobindo Behera, OSDMA (in English) and Shri. Michael Shiromany, IFRC (in English). These, the current draft of the current Water and Sanitation Chapter (by Andy Bastable) and information sheets on the past consultations in India were electronically circulated to the participants before the consultation and were a part of the information pack that was provided on February 12, 2003.

Facilitated by Andy Bastable with support from the DMI team the national consultation started with an update on the current revision process. Following which the participants expressed their expectations from the process, content and output of the consultation. This set the tone for the day that attracted participant experiences connected with water and sanitation in humanitarian situations, related recommendations for the revision of the chapter and action points for organizations to pursue individually and collectively in the recent future.

A session on Indian humanitarian experiences in water and sanitation, as observed during the community consultation and the vast experience of participants, revealed the need for acknowledging and addressing the special needs of slow onset disasters like droughts in the chapter. Other points related to differential standards for camps in hilly areas, harmonization of multiple standards for different organizations at different times (development and disasters), clarity on the role of the communities in realising the Sphere standards.

Participants were later divided into five groups one each with the objective of deliberating on specific sections of the chapter: Water Supply, Excreta Disposal, Hygiene Promotion, Solid Waste Management and Vector control. In addition to specific technical and non-technical inputs on revising 'indicators', the findings of the Group Exercises highlighted a range of suggestions related to highlighting inter-sectoral linkages in the handbook and the chapter, flexibility in the standards to ensure contextualization, promotion of traditional structures and knowledge and practices, balance between Sphere for the layperson and for experts, clarify the role of local communities in the process, connecting qualitative to quantitative standards, format of the chapter. These were effectively raised and acknowledged with consensus being sought on the section title and placement of the hygiene promotion section within or outside of the water and sanitation standards. The participants largely expressed the need for inclusion of hygiene promotion section at the beginning of the water and sanitation chapter with a community focus, and not as a part of the health chapter.

The consultation concluded with a summary of the key recommendations and next steps that emerged during the day with organisations being urged to voice action commitments towards realising them. Mr. Andy Bastable committed to take the findings of the consultation to the global revision team and send a copy of the updated version to the participant group for further comment. The participants arrived at the following broad recommendations and action commitemments with many agreeing to take these back to their respective organisations for pursual and action.

Key Recommendations