Paraguay

This impact evaluation report on three rural water supply (RWS) projects in Paraguay provided loans to the National Environmental Sanitation Service (SENASA) with "juntas... Show More + de saneamiento" (nonprofit committees legally constituted to manage water and sanitation within towns and villages) to finance the provision of safe water and sanitation facilities. These loans have led to establishing 275 functioning community-based water systems and have raised the coverage of rural areas from around 1 percent to about 20 percent over a 20-year period. In addition, SENASA delivered 952 training courses on health and hygiene, and on water system management, benefitting 160,000 people, not counting the impact of the education on their families and on the juntas themselves. SENASA helped create 424 local organizations, all of which will ultimately operate systems that deliver potable water to their communities. The RWS projects have also created employment and leadership opportunities for women in rural villages; improved income distribution and local coordination capacity; reduced disparity between rich and poor in terms of basic household amenities; improved environmental hygiene; strengthened the private sector; and at the household level, produced time and energy savings and productivity gains due to health improvements. Show Less -