National Rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Policy 2010

The Afghanistan Rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Policy is a national Policy aims to improve the quality of life in rural areas of Afghanistan through easy access to safe drinking water, promotion of public hygiene, and elimination of open defecation. The timeframe of the Policy is 10 years between 2010 to 2020, in line with the Afghanistan National Development Strategy. The main objectives of the Policy include: to increase the quality of drinking water and enhance the rural people’s access to 25 liters of safe and sustainable water per day (from 27% -now- to 50% in 2014, 70% in 2016, and to 100% in 2020); to improve sanitation and make the country open defecation free by 2020; to improve hygiene behavior in households, schools, and communities; to reduce morbidity and mortality rates, particularly under-five child mortality; to improve the quality and safety of the traditional latrines and provide schools, clinics and houses with new latrines; to dispose the solid and liquid waste safety; to provide hygiene trainings and education in schools and communities. The Policy is based on the principle that improvement in health, wealth, and productivity of the society is rooted in the access to safe potable water and sanitation for all. In this regard, the Policy recognizes the importance of education, capacity building, and public awareness. To achieve its overall objective and improve the people’s access to safe water, there are a number of challenges that shall be dealt with, including the lack of adequate infrastructure, low capacity for water quality monitoring, inadequate technical experts, lack of attention to indigenous waterworks systems, inappropriate use of technologies, dependence on ground and underground water resources, and vulnerability of the country to drought, flood and landslides. The Policy encourages the participation of the community and community-based management approach for implementation of water and sanitation strategies. The Policy protects the human rights of people, including safety, security, privacy, and dignity. In the sanitation and hygiene sector, the Policy requires gender equality and increases in women participation in decision-making processes and service delivery. The Policy emphasizes the role of community development councils to facilitate public access to basic services. The Policy also deploys strategies to protect the natural environment, including water resources. All water and sanitation facilities shall be resistant to natural disasters. The Policy has been enacted to strengthen the Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Irrigation Program and the National Solidarity Program. The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development is the authority responsible to implement and monitor the provisions of this Policy. The Ministry shall take all necessary actions to improve the coordination between various Ministries, including the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Education, different Departments, NGOs, communities, donors, and all implementing partners. The Policy sets out a monitoring and evaluation system to control the progress of the WASH sector for the mid-course review and corrections in 2014.