Mapping of water & sanitation programs, institutions and fund flow architecture for Samastipur, Bihar

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) programmes, institutions and fund flow architecture for Samastipur district in Bihar. Further, it presents a roadmap for tracking and analysing budgets for WATSAN programmes 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.

This paper is part of a series on "Decentralised Public Finance for WASH: Policy and Practice Learnings", which is based on two core projects: Watershed - Capacity Building Support for Civil Society Organisations to Leverage Water and Sanitation Programmes in Bihar and Odisha supported by IRC and Tracking and Analysing Budget Allocations and Utilisation for WASH by Rural Local Bodies, supported by WaterAid India, using the Life Cycle Cost Approach covering two districts each from both the States namely Gaya and Samastipur from Bihar and Nuapada and Ganjam from Odisha.