Multi-agency Approach for Selection of Sustainable Water and Sanitation Projects for Small Communities

The selection and provision of water and sanitation systems for small communities for successful sustainable development should involve various agencies and beneficiaries at all the key project stages. This is a complex and challenging process for all those involved. This paper presents an approach to the selection and provision of the best water and sanitation scheme with due consideration of hydraulic performance, economics, environmental and social-cultural issues such as gender, health, cultural heritage and acceptability. This approach involves project beneficiaries, various agencies and engineers at different project stages to ensure sustainability. It uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to facilitate the decision-making process. The efficacy of the AHP as a decision-making tool when dealing with quantitative and qualitative data combined with multiple agencies and stakeholders of different technical background and expertise is demonstrated using an example. The importance of considering multiple criteria is also highlighted.