The purpose of this paper is to aid the efforts of CSOs engaging with issues of fiscal governance in the WASH sector in Bihar. The paper attempts to map the rural water and sanitation (WATSAN) programs, institutions and fund flow architecture for Samastipur district in Bihar. Further, it presents a roadmap for tracking and analyzing budgets for WATSAN programs flowing into any particular district in Bihar, taking the case of Samastipur as an example.
The paper starts with drawing the background of the district and state in terms of its rural water and sanitation situation followed by a mapping of relevant programs, institutions and officials, the different possible sources of funding and the fund flow architecture in the district. The road map for tracking budgets for water and sanitation programs has been laid out with an analysis of preliminary observations during the stage of primary data collection. An attempt has been made to highlight the linkages between issues in WATSAN services and budget issues. This is further explained by charting out the ways in how to access budget information in the district.
Author: Agarwala, T., Das, S., Shiva, R., Saha, S.
Location: India
Language: English