Interview with KWASA’s Director
The Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (KWASA), a water utility based in Bangladesh, has applied the Integrity Management (IM) Toolbox in close collaboration with the Water Integrity Network (WIN), Transparency International-Bangladesh via their Bangladesh Water Integrity Network (BAWIN) and cewas. KWASA supplies water to the city of Khulna where more than 1.5 million people live. The application of the toolbox led to the development of an integrity roadmap that supports the change process for KWASA and aiming at eliminating integrity risks. Over the past one year, the organization has been implementing the set of agreed action points.
This effort by KWASA is in line with the Bangladesh government’s National Integrity Strategy that urges government institutions to establish anti-corruption and national integrity systems especially by proper implementation of rules and regulations, procedural reform and capacity development.
At the Stockholm World Water Week in August 2016, Mr. Mohammed Abdullah, the Managing Director of KWASA, shared his experience on applying the IM Toolbox and demonstrated how KWASA now operates with more transparency, accountability and participation.
Lessons learned
KWASA has noted several improvements in its operation since the implementation of the IM Toolbox, including:
- Better management information systems have been set up for billing, accounting, HR management, etc.
- Enhanced participation of stakeholders has created more transparency
- Time for creating new water connections for customers has been reduced from 30 days to 20 days, due to improved efficiency, knowledge and morality
- Continuous monitoring and evaluation has been enabled, which helps to identify backlogs
Project information
In March 2015, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Bangladesh Water Integrity Network (BAWIN) of Transparency International Bangladesh and KWASA for promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in the water sector through capacity development of KWASA.
cewas has provided technical support while WIN has provided both technical and financial support to BAWIN who administers the implementation of the MoU.
Read more about the training which KWASA received on the IM Toolbox here: https://www.waterintegritynetwork.net/2015/11/10/bringing-water-integrity-to-bangladesh/