This Feature Story is based on the Sanitation, Hygiene and

							                                                                    Funded by the Water
 WPP Sanitation,                                                    Partnership Program (WPP)
                                                                    the service works to meet the

 Hygiene &
                                                                    needs of the poor with least
                                                                    access to sanitation. SWAT
                                                                    does so through support Bank

 Wastewater                                                         operations in (a) developing
                                                                    new operations to address basic sanitation and

 Support Service
                                                                    hygiene needs, and (b) maximizing the benefits
                                                                    and impact of existing and planned investments.


 (SWAT)                                                             The objectives of SWAT are:
                                                                    1. to increase the portfolio of World Bank
                                                                       investment and activity in sanitation and
Background                                                             hygiene;
                                                                    2. to improve the quality of the World Bank’s
Access to sanitation lags far behind access to                         investments in sanitation and hygiene; and
water supply, which has historically been a higher                  3. to build the long-term capacity of the World
priority of both governments and the poor they                         Bank and its clients in sanitation and hygiene.
serve. This lag is attributable to a number of
factors including:                                                  The sanitation portfolio of the Bank has been
 institutional    fragmentation      and     poor                  growing in recent years, and the development
    coordination between essential actors;                          context in which we work grows increasingly
 limited demand from both households and                           more complex – yet project preparation
    politicians;                                                    budgets and sector staffing have not kept pace.
 traditionally low profile as an embarrassing                      SWAT services can thus make a significant
    and taboo subject;                                              contribution to the volume and quality of
 technical complexity; and                                         sanitation activities, in bringing technical and
 limited capacity and experience in addressing                     institutional expertise to bear in all stages of
    the problem at scale.                                           project development and implementation.


Sanitation, Hygiene & Wastewater
Support Service (SWAT)
                                                                          Annual Commitments Coded for "Sanitation"
The Sanitation, Hygiene and Wastewater Support                                 Total FY05-FY08: US$ 636 million
Service (SWAT) provides fully managed expert                             including "firm" and "likely" pipeline for FY08
technical assistance to World Bank operations and
country clients. SWAT supports greater access to                                            Sanitation
                                                                        250
sanitation and hygiene services at critical                                                                 212        203
junctures in the project cycle to make it easier for                    200
                                                        US$ (million)




clients and World Bank staff to incorporate                             150
                                                                                               137
sanitation and hygiene effectively in their projects.
                                                                        100
                                                                                   84
Since its startup, SWAT has committed about US$                          50
1 million for operational support in 28 countries                         0
and 33 projects. The service has influenced a total                            FY05        FY06          FY07      FY08
sanitation and wastewater investment value over
US$ 1.1 billion.
Examples of Recent SWAT Activities                    renovation of public toilets in Monrovia. These
                                                      toilets are the principal means of sanitation for a
Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Program         large portion of the Monrovia population. A
(Pakistan) SWAT support was commissioned to           SWAT consultant shared experiences from India
review the implementation of local government         and China with the client and Bank staff to help
sanitation sub-projects, improve municipal            define sustainable management options for
capacity to develop appropriate and innovative        these facilities by local private sector operators,
sanitation solutions, and to build capacity in        with suitable community and local government
environmental infrastructure planning, operations     supervision to ensure hygienic operation.
and maintenance.
                                                      Western Province Rural Water Supply,
Sanitation Marketing Efforts in Blantyre and          Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Project
Lilongwe (Malawi) SWAT support was requested          (China) This assignment focused on Shaanxi
on behalf of the Blantyre and Lilongwe Water          Province and involved capacity building, the
Boards to assist in sanitation for the peri-urban     development of formative research, the scoping
poor, in line with the national sanitation strategy   and contracting of creative agencies, and the
that has been developed with support from WSP.        development of ToRs for mass media
A SWAT consultant provided technical advice on        production. Two consultants have worked
the planning of a sanitation marketing initiative.    closely with the provincial agencies in the
                                                      development of an overall work plan for
Integrated      Sewerage       and      Sanitation    hygiene promotion activities and the
Infrastructure Project (Egypt) SWAT has provided      establishment of specialist backup support for
services in two distinct areas to address the         the provinces in modern hygiene promotion.
hygiene and sanitation needs of rural communities
in the Nile Delta. The SWAT-developed design of
the hygiene component will now be carried             SWAT has also contributed to sector
forward by a bilateral donor in close coordination    understanding:
with the Bank project, and a SWAT consultant’s            through a web-based sanitation
review of wastewater technology is now built into            resource guide, available at
project design. The project was negotiated in                http://go.worldbank.org/R666I5SDD0;
February 2008.                                            an updated Sanitation, Hygiene, and
                                                             Wastewater Portfolio Review, and
Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project                 four sanitation and hygiene learning
(Ethiopia)    SWAT consultants are providing                 modules.
periodic review and continued support to hygiene
and sanitation components of the Ethiopia Rural
Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene project. The     Contact
consultants have offered an independent review
of operations in eight locations, and identified a    Sanitation, Hygiene & Wastewater Support
number of ways to strengthen the quality and          Service
effectiveness of hygiene and sanitation promotion     Energy, Transport and Water Department
in what is seen by many in Ethiopia as a “water       The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW
supply project”.
                                                      Washington DC 20433, USA
                                                      http://go.worldbank.org/YX5F8U2ZE0
Public Toilets in Monrovia (Liberia) During the
                                                      E-mail: whelpdesk@worldbank.org
recent years of conflict, Liberia’s infrastructure
was nearly completely destroyed. Among many
other elements of urban rehabilitation, The
Emergency Infrastructure Project also includes the