The Delta River Municipality.

A recent assessment in the municipality found that

deterioration of water quality has resulted in depleted fish stocks; reduced catch and falling income
among fishing families; and there is an increasingly high incidence of waterborne diseases and
illnesses, particularly among poor families and children under five. There are high levels of fecal
waste and household/business refuse in the river alongside the community; and some of the
numerous factors that contribute to the problem include:

• Low public awareness of the dangers of dumping household waste;

• Low access and use of sanitation facilities for the disposal of fecal waste;
• Weak oversight (both ineffective and corrupted) by the Environment Protection Agency
over the local textile industry; and
• Inadequate government budgets result in the ineffective treatment of business waste
(where services exist) and wastewater does not meet environmental standards.

It is obvious in this scenario that there are many potential areas where a project could intervene
(consciousness raising, waste disposal, business waste treatment, advocacy for increased budgets,
fecal waste disposal systems, etc.) Realistically, however, a project must concretely identify where it
WILL intervene, and where it WILL NOT. Ultimately, these are decisions about strategy and
resource allocation that must be made by identifying highest-priority intervention criteria. In this
case study, those criteria are:

• Needs Prioritization – Households indicate that a need requires urgent intervention.

• External Program Considerations – Working on sanitation facilities suits the policy of
both the local government and the implementing agency.
• Existing Capacity Considerations – The implementing organization lacks capacity in the
area of waste water treatment engineering but has extensive experience in behavior change
as it relates to disposing of household waste.
• Resource Availability – A major international donor’s five-year plan for the region
included resources for improving health in the region.