The head of Kabarole District in Western Uganda has renewed a pledge to work with Triple-S on ways of improving the levels and sustainability of rural water services. Richard Rwabuhinga, Chairperson of Kabarole District local government, welcomed the Triple-S annual review and planning meeting to Fort Portal in Kabarole and said that work with the district authority was already making important gains.
Published on: 08/05/2013
Rwabuhinga said that although 81% of the district population had a safe water supply within 1.5 kilometres of home, this was no longer enough. “The demand for safe water in the communities is a number one priority. Communities expect to have a safe water source within at least 500 metres from their homesteads. To compound the difficulty, 24% of the waterpoints are not functioning and in serious need of rehabilitation.”
Work with Triple-S had helped the district to achieve some important aims, to share best practice and to avoid duplication of services. He singled out training programmes for handpump mechanics and extension workers to monitor the performance of rural water systems using mobile phones as a way to reduce the cost of communication and improve links between water users and the mechanics at sub-county level.
“Triple-S has supported the district in starting an association for the sub-county level handpump mechanics. This association is now active and involved in work throughout the district.” The association had already carried out major rehabilitation of 11 shallow wells and 10 boreholes, as well as supporting the extension of gravity fed pipelines. They were also training the community in reporting faults and the importance of paying their user fees.
He asked Triple-S to continue to support efforts to raise the capacity of sub county water supply and sanitation boards which are responsible for overseeing community water points and setting tariffs. “These boards are in place but have not yet built their capacity. We therefore implore this planning session to direct and focus some resources to the training of these boards and extension staff, especially as far as managing water sector issues are concerned.
“We do undertake as a local government to continue supporting the interventions of Triple-S and we continue to remain very good partners and we thank you for supporting and supplementing the efforts of the government of Uganda in enabling our people access functional safe water sources.”
Pius Mugabi, District Water Officer for Karabole, said that the delivery of water services that last will be a significant factor when formulating rural water programmes for the post-2015 period, and he also pledged to support the work of the water services that last project. “Not only is it important to have the right infrastructure in place, but consideration has to be given to consumer satisfaction with the quality, quantity and reliability of water services.”
The challenge was to bridge the gap between district water offices and the community level water user committees that are supposed to look after 1,600 improved water sources in Kabarole. “Presently, communities are not being held to account for failure to fulfil their obligations. The delegated functions for water users committees are not enforceable because the water committee exist on the basis of goodwill. How shall we hold our communites accountable?”
Part of the answer he said was to improve household incomes in rural areas, so that people could contribute to looking after their systems and the private sector could play a larger role. “This will ensure that demand for improved water services levels will be effective and communities can play their roles and meet their obligations.”
The annual preview and planning meeting is taking place from 7-9 May in Kabarole and includes a visit to see some of the experimental work being carried out through handpump mechanics and sub-county water boards.
Project director, Patrick Moriarty, said that as they entered their final 18 months of the project, the work had expanded to five countries and was now being conducted in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and India as well as in the core countries of Ghana and Uganda. Honduras was also starting to implement some work based on Triple-S thinking, with seven major major international NGOs.
“I think this is a very exciting time for IRC and Triple-S where we are beginning to see a lot of our ideas picked up internationally. The language we have been talking for the past four years about service delivery about full coverage and complete sustainability is becoming the normal language of our sector.”
8 May 2013
Peter McIntyre
