Review of policies for building climate resilience in urban sanitation systems and services in Nepal

ABSTRACT Building resilience of sanitation systems and services to changing climate is necessary to ensuring continuity of essential sanitation services in the face of hazardous events. An approach towards this solution is to create a robust enabling environment through policies for planning and implementing adaptation measures. The objective of this study is to review the climate change and water and sanitation policies in Nepal to assess the adequacy of the documents in addressing climate resilience in sanitation systems and services, with focus on urban on-site sanitation. This paper is based on desk review of existing policy and plan documents related to climate change and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Nepal. The review has revealed that sanitation and climate change are addressed only to a limited extent, while focus on urban on-site sanitation is inadequate. These documents are therefore insufficient to provide guidance to build resilience in urban on-site sanitation systems and services. The paper concludes that sanitation-specific policies and programmes can tackle the sanitation challenges more effectively and address climate-related vulnerabilities in urban on-site sanitation systems and services. Enhanced collaboration among different stakeholders can create an environment conducive for policy changes and investments.