The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Amazing examples of good governance come to the fore

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Thursday, Jun 28, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Amazing examples of good governance come to the fore

‘The secret of good governance is public, private participation’

HYDERABAD: Can you imagine a battered nation like Afghanistan providing 24-hour water supply in some of its provinces?

A tsunami-devasted coastal village, Patong in Phuket province of Thailand, turns around to become a vibrant city with more tourists than its own population.

While State funded public toilets turned dysfunctional in many cities, an NGO shows the way to run them successfully in Mumbai and Pune.

There were more such experiences shared by delegates from various Asian countries based on good governance practices at the on going regional conference on good urban governance in South Asia for replicating and scaling them up by others.

Recovery phase

Sharing the success story of Patong, ex-Governor of Bangkok and Executive Director of Asia Disaster Preparedness Centre Director, Bhichit Rattakul, said though the damage was extensive, tsunami failed to destroy the spirit of people in Patong and their solidarity. With the urge to rebuild their lives, livelihood, public wholly participated in the recovery phase launched by Patong municipality administration.

The municipality in turn implemented projects identified through the needs expressed by people and private sector, specially the hotel industry, to gain back confidence of visitors. The projects, economic, social, natural resources and environment, infrastructure development were implemented not by Government alone but through the collaboration of donor agencies, local body, community and NGOs, he said.

Moves pay off

“And within one year the efforts paid off and the city gained the confidence of visitors and its economy is thriving. The secret of good governance is thus public, private, community and NGO participation,” he says.

Nearer home, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) showed the way to run public toilets successfully, a public health issue where the municipalities mostly failed. Sundar Burra of SPARC, who analysed the situation, said public toilets failed as they were either State centric or private centric.

Sound measure

“When the Government provided sanitation with no consultation with community, it did not find takers and the maintenance was abysmal as there was no accountability from local body or community. The cost factor of Rs.2 per person for every use proved to be unaffordable for poor and slum dwellers and they continued open defecation. Sanitation in fact is a sound anti-poverty measure that should get priority as it reduces medical bills and prevents loss of wages,” he says.

Affordable

Yet any facility free would not be valued and would fail. Thus SPARC did things differently in partnership with municipality and civil society. Municipality constructed public toilet block with 20 seats and we charged a family with Rs.25 to 30 for a month.

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