Country background
- Fourteen years of civil war have seriously hampered delivery of water and sanitation services in Liberia: the war contributed to the near collapse of the managed water and sanitation systems in urban areas and a significant deterioration in both the number and quality of community based water and sanitation facilities. As a result, most Liberians have come to rely on pit latrines or on-site septic tanks. Rural village water committees or user associations that operated in the past are now largely dysfunctional.
Policies and strategies
- Liberia's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), which covers the period 2008-2011, articulates water and sanitation as key priorities for intervention. PRS targets 143.5 million to be spent on the water, sanitation and hygiene sector over its period of existence. The basic goal of the Government of Liberia is to reduce the water and sanitation related disease burden in Liberia. To achieve this goal, the government aims to provide safe drinking water to 50% of the population and to increase access to sanitation to 33% (the initial target of 40% was revised because of slow progress) by 2011.
- The National Health Policy and the National Health Plan 2007-2011 only covers water and sanitation facilities for health clinics to support the surrounding communities.
- The Cabinet recently adopted an Integrated Water Resources Management Policy (2009) covering both water resources management and use. The policy promotes a new integrated approach to manage the water resources in ways that are sustainable and most beneficial to the people. It is designed to be a broad-based charter, which must be recognized by all concerned sector institutions, and be taken into account by all programmes/projects.
- In November 2009, the Water Supply and Sanitation Policy was approved and an accompanying sector strategy has been developed.
Institutions
- The water and sanitation sector operates in a fragmented governance framework with roles and responsibilities split among several ministries and agencies of government.
- The Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy (MLME) leads in policy formulation and research. It is also involved in providing direct services in the Hydrological Bureau.
- The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) and the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) are respectively responsible for service delivery in rural and urban areas (population of more than 5,000 people). LWSC, a government owned for-profit agency, is empowered to establish, operate, manage and supply safe drinking water to all urban parts of Liberia and perform all sewerage services, as well as to maintain such water and sewerage facilities.
- The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoH/SW) is responsible for health promotion, water quality monitoring and environmental control and standards. Within the Department of Health Services, the Environmental and Occupational Health Division is directly responsible to facilitate safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services.
- The Ministry of Education is in charge of school health and hygiene.
- The Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs (MoPEA) bears responsibility for developing and preparing suitable development programmes/projects as well as giving technical guidance.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall protect the environment, and the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) collect solid waste in Monrovia and its surrounds.
- Sector Coordination: The new Water Supply and Sanitation Policy intends to streamline institutional authority by creating a National Water Resource and Sanitation Board, but so far sector coordination has been weak. To enhance coordination, the Water and Sanitation Coordination Cluster for humanitarian aid and the Liberia WASH Consortium, comprised of six key international NGOs, give institutional support for policy, monitoring and supervision. The Civil Society Organizations CSO- WASH Working Group has been established in 2008 to strengthen community participation and involvement in the sector.
