Mainstreaming DEWATS and the Subsequent Need to Introduce a Quality Management System

Numerous pilot- and demonstration projects for appropriate waste water management solutions for the urban poor in developing countries have been conducted and can be considered as good practices. In order to have a chance to achieve the MDGs it is urgently necessary to scale those pilot implementations up and reach a mass dissemination.

However, the task to multiply those pilots and mainstream the “good practice” to become mass dissemination is a challenge where most approaches have failed so far.

The paper reflects on the experiences gained in Indonesia during the up-scaling of DEWATS implementation by a community of practitioners. It shows the process of the development of “good practices” from a small number of applications to a “Quality Management System with internal certification” for large numbers of implementation packages.

The main components of the system are:

1. The Quality Management System for technical aspects of DEWATS planning and implementation

2. The Certification system for Human resources who occupy key positions in the implementation process of DEWATS

3. The Certification system for the implemented DEWATS service packages

4. The organizational setup to maintain such a system.

The paper describes each of those components as well as the challenges and lessons learned during its application.