| Project Detail |
The government of Timor-Leste announced the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) in July 2011, which is a Mid-term national development plan. The goa of SDP is to achieve 24-hour water supply in Dili and urban areas of 12 provinces so that all citizens have access to safe water by 2030. According to the Joint Monitoring Program (2017) by WHO and UNICEF, hourly water supply is currently conducted in the most part of urban areas in Timor-Leste, though the rate of access to basic treated water is 98%, leaving many challenges to achieve 24-hour water supply.
At the time of the independence of Timor-Leste in 2002, many of the water supply facilities had been destroyed, the human resources responsible for maintenance and management had been depleted, and most of the functions had ceased. However, with the support of other donors such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), water supply services are now improving. However, the National Directorate of Water Supply (DNSA) of the Department of Public Works (DPWH) was operating and maintaining the water treatment and pumping facilities, which were malfunctioning, aging and leaking. Some problems have become apparent: lack of human resources capable of operation, maintenance and leakage control, increase in water demand due to the influx of population into the cities, lack of management capability against water theft (illegal connections), weak financial base of the entities, and lack of leadership at the executive level. According to the report by ADB, water available time in Dili is less than 6 hours a day, and there is a large variation in water pressure and water supply time among districts. In addition, there are serious problems related to the management of water services, with the non-revenue water rate estimated at nearly 90% in 2016. Furthermore, DNSA reported that DNSA issued invoices to about 3,000 households out of about 9,600 households with meters in November 2019, and only about 1,000 households paid tariff, indicating that the tariff collection system and its implementation of tariff have some significant problems.
JICA dispatched advisors of water supply improvement from 2012 to 2019 to provide guidance on operation techniques for basic water purification and to support 24-hour water supply in some districts through water distribution blocking (hydraulic separation), which resulted in some improvements in water supply services. Moreover, a new minister was appointed to the Ministry of Public Works in June 2018, who is eager to improve the water supply sector, and in January 2021, the water supply business was transferred from DNSA to the Timor-Leste Water Supply Corporation (Bee Timor-Leste, "BTL") in January 2021. As a result, the foundations for water supply management in Timor-Leste are gradually becoming solid, but there are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed in order for the public corporation to proceed with its operations, such as facility operation and maintenance management, tariff collection, and human resource development.
Taking the support plan of each development partner into consideration, the government of Timor-Leste requested implementation of a technical cooperation project to improve the organizational capacity of BTL with sharing the results of the guidance on 24-hour water supply and operation technology of water purification plant. In addition, JICA requested the implementation of a technical cooperation project to increase water tariff income and strengthen the capacity of water supply through the use of water distribution blocks.
The Overall Goal
Water Supply Service in Timor-Leste (Dili city) is improved
Project Purpose
Business foundation for improving BTLs water supply management capacity is established |
