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88. Before major infrastructure is undertaken the contractor and government should
work together to insure that there is an appropriate level of capacity at the
national, provincial, district, municipal or village level and mechanisms for
collaboration and oversight. Along with the technical assessment of a project
there should be a governance assessment to ensure that legitimate representatives
of the community participate in all decentralized aspects of project governance
including policy formulation, implementation and delivery.
89. Despite some efforts in recent years in the large cities of Karachi and Lahore in
Pakistan, significant participation of the private sector in the provision of urban
water and waste management did not materialize due to inability of defining and
implementing a well designed policy framework for private provision, including
tariff policy. Attention to rural water has been deficient, and has been a serious
constraint to poverty reduction in the water scarce rural areas of Baluchistan and
Sindh.
90. By contrast in Bangladesh, public spending along with supportive NGO role has
enabled a sharp increase in the access to safe drinking water. Also, one positive
development in air pollution management has been the banning of leaded gasoline
use in 1998. The problems here largely reflect weakness of the underlying
institutions and corruption. Additionally, policies, standards and monitoring of
water and air pollution are constrained by weak progress with environmental
management institutions.
91. The Pakistan government embarked upon an ambitious program to overhaul the
management of the irrigation network in 1995. The aim was to empower farmers
Convention