Background

SIASAR – Rural Water and Sanitation Information System – is a joint initiative launched by the governments of Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, with the strategic purpose of having a basic, updated and comparable information tool on the rural water supply and sanitation services in place in a given country.

SIASAR is an open system that can be applied in other countries provided they have a similar water and sanitation context to SIASAR founding countries (low levels of coverage, limited self-sustainability, little information, etc.). Currently SIASAR includes Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Oaxaca (Mexico), Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay.
Economical support and technical assistance, led by the World Bank, have as main goal, develop technical staff skills in every country to improve planning, monitoring and managing the water and sanitation rural sector in an effective way.

In order to achieve the objectives promoted by SIASAR, the system has been designed as follows:

A conceptual model for sector information analysis and monitoring; a model that is standardized, regionalized and public. All sector stakeholders can consult and use this model in their programmes.
A technological platform structuring data gathering and data inventory on rural water supply and sanitation, which embeds the conceptual model. The platform is simple, accessible and public.