WASMO's aim is to empower local communities, particularly village level institutions such as Ggram Panchayats and Pani Samitis, to manage their own water supply and sanitation networks. Two things are required to achieve this:

• An enabling policy environment and legal framework within which local communities can be empowered; and
• Exposure of local communities to successful projects, creating greater awareness and building up their knowledge and skills.

WASMO is directly engaged in creating awareness and transfer of skills and knowledge to local communities and Pani Samiti members, as well as to Implementation Support Agencies (ISAs) through workshops, training and exposure visits.

Capacity building of village communities and Pani Samitis

Orientation workshops are held for the village community for improving their level of awareness so that they can take informed decisions. Training programmes are also held on financial and technical issues. Pani Samiti members are trained on book-keeping, record maintenance, technical and quality issues. Training on operation and maintenance (O & M) and tariff fixation is also imparted to the members of Pani Samiti and water supply system operators. Technical details of the facilities created, routine operation and maintenance schedules, inventory management, attending to minor repairs, methods of fixing tariffs and record keeping are part of this training module. An extremely participatory and practical training module is prepared by the villagers wherein the activities and skills needed, the associated expenditure as well as the water tariff that needed to be charged and accordingly fixed, emerge.

Exposure visits are an important component of capacity building and learning. Visits to villages where the community initiated, owned and managed water and sanitation as well as village development are organised. These visits are essentially to enlighten the villagers about their potential and what they could achieve themselves. Reflection workshops are regularly organised to evaluate and monitor the progress of the programme by the community themselves. These reflection workshops help the community to review their performance critically, reflect on implementation processes and take appropriate decisions for improvement in the future. These also serve as a platform for cross-learning among different Pani Samitis.

Capacity building of ISA and WASMO team members

Orientation workshops are held for the team members of ISA and WASMO to sensitise them on the concept, scope and provision of the programme, work organisation, implementation procedures and their roles to ensure better facilitation, effective and focused implementation. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) training programmes are conducted for the team members of ISA and WASMO. They are exposed to PRA techniques like resource mapping, transect walk, activity analysis and preference ranking. As part of the training, a field visits are also organised to apply the techniques learnt.

The technical team members of ISA and WASMO are imparted adequate training to facilitate work execution. They were familiarised with the scope and provision under the programme, various processes involved in implementation of the programme, social dimensions of water supply, their roles and responsibilities, technical and quality aspects of the programme as well as supervision of construction work. These training programmes are backed by field visits. Training programmes are also organized for masons for upgrading their skills. Training programmes are also organised for school children, teachers and the village community to promote hygiene practices, use of sanitation facilities and maintenance of clean village and household environments.