“Capacity building and knowledge support for Preparation of Water and Sanitation Safety Plans” in the State of West Bengal


Understanding the need to build capacity of stakeholders for creating a sustainable and livable society, the School of Water and Waste, AAETI, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in collaboration with South Asia Urban Water (SAUW) of Asian Development Bank is organizing an online training programme on “Capacity building and knowledge support for Preparation of Water and Sanitation Safety Plans (WSSPs)” for stakeholders of West Bengal.

ADB’s South Asia Urban Water (SAUW) division is currently supporting the Government of West Bengal through the West Bengal Drinking Water Sector Improvement Project (WBDWSIP), to provide safe, reliable and continuous drinking water to about 2.6 million people in selected arsenic, fluoride, and salinity affected districts of West Bengal. The WBDWSIP will supply continuous potable drinking water to 66 Gram Panchayats (GPs). The GPs covered under the project are now being supported by ADB, through engagement of 3 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other consultants, and also in partnership with World Health Organisation (WHO) to develop three sample GP-level Water and Sanitation Safety Plans (WSSPs). WSSPs are considered international best practice for assessing and managing public health risks from drinking water supplies and sanitation systems. These concerns are most important when dealing with widespread contagion like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

CSE’s School of Water & Waste will train the relevant stakeholders mainly the concerned people from the 3 NGOs, consulting firms, project management unit, project implementation units, and GP representatives on already established WHO recommended approach, methodology and steps on developing WSSPs for their particular selected GP.

The training would highlight the importance of managing and investing in improvement on water and sanitation systems based on adequate understanding of the actual health risks. The training programme aims to develop the capacities of the participants in preparing a draft WSSP for their GP at the end of the training period.

Learning Outcomes

  • Gain understanding about the concept of and need for Water and Sanitation Safety Planning (WSSP)
  • Understand how to arrive at/narrow down to WSSP objectives, how to prioritise them and set the scope, boundary, and team for an WSSP
  • Demonstrate the need for an inclusive stakeholder engagement from the initial stages of an WSSP for a better outcome
  • Capacity to develop a framework of potential hazards and prioritise hazardous events in a sanitation system.
  • Enhanced skills to develop an independent criteria for a robust operational and verification monitoring plan.
  • Acquired capability to review and update WSSP outputs with effect to changes occurring in the internal and external environment. 

Programme Design

The online training programme is based on state-of-art teaching – learning tools consisting of pre-session readings, videos, PowerPoint presentations, interactive discussion of concepts, group work sessions to practice data collection methods, and quizzes to assess comprehension of material. 

The training is divided into two parts:

Part A (9 hours): Online training engagement with essential and recommended reading materials and video documentaries. It is expected that the participants will take about 9 hours to complete it at their own ease and comfort.

Part B (21 hours): Weekly virtual sessions with group exercises and home tasks to be conducted for 10 weeks. This will involve the exposure to various steps involved in making a WSSP.

Visit the previous training programmes conducted by SWW on the related topic: