As is the case for other aspects of the policy legislative review process, inputs, Information and insights for the review of the LWSP were obtained from a number of sources, including a review of international water policy, a high-level stakeholder survey and a series of stakeholder workshops of which Lesotho Water Partnership played a pivotal role.
The review of International Water Policy was carried out to glean lessons, ideas and best practice from the experience of other countries. The countries covered included India, South Africa, Botswana and Malawi. Some of the documents covered water and sanitation, while some only covered sanitation.
The second key source of information was a survey of high-level stakeholders carried out between October 2016 and February 2017. This was a limited survey that addressed decision makers in the sector across a wide spectrum of organizations, including Government, parastatals, ICPs, civil society and the private sector. The focus here was on a critique of the current LWSP and where changes and amendments needed to be made.
Useful inputs were also received from an extensive process of stakeholder consultation that was effected by means of participative workshops. These were carried out in every single district in the country, commencing in November 2016. A follow- up workshop was held in December 2016 and the balance was held between September and November 2017.
Not only did these workshops provide practical inputs in terms of the experiences of people on the ground in the water sector, they also allowed a significant outreach and capacity-building process to be undertaken. The latter was able to inform stakeholders around the country about the content of the Water Act and Water and Sanitation Policy, so that they had a better idea of their rights and responsibilities and what the Government had committed itself to. The stakeholder process therefore had two very specific objectives in mind.
Based on the feedback and review it was apparent that the view, in general, was that a large part of the current document was still valid and does not need to be revised. On this basis, the decision was made to use the existing document as a basis and to make additions and edits to it, rather than to develop a new document from first principles.
A new Policy Objective, that is related to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was proposed). This recognizes the importance of SDGs internationally, as well as Lesotho’s commitment towards achieving them. One of the most exciting new developments in the water sector in Lesotho is the growing trend towards the adoption of integrated catchment management (ICM) as an approach and philosophy. An additional Policy Objective related to this was therefore been added.