In a bid to improve community management of rural water services, the Kabarole District Water Office is considering piloting sub-county rural water boards which will be responsible for managing all water points in the sub-county through a structure connecting Water User Committees (WUC), Hand Pump Mechanics (HPMs), technical staff and political leaders. Peter Magara, Triple-S Uganda National Learning Facilitator explores the circumstances necessitating the introduction of the proposed model.
Published on: 31/07/2012
The management of rural water services in Uganda is mainly community-based through village level water user committees (WUCs) elected by users. This practice has a long history dating back to the 1960s and has evolved over the years. However, practitioners in the Water sector still have mixed feelings on its effectiveness in addressing the current rural water service demands.
In January 2012, IRC/Triple –S commissioned a study to assess the performance of rural water service delivery models to identify gaps and propose improvements. The study was conducted in eight districts of Kabarole, Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Kasese, Lira, Alebtong, Nwoya and Kitgum. Preliminary findings from the study show that: the long upheld spirit of volunteerism among WUCs is dying out due to the challenging economic times that force people to spend more time striving to provide for their families. The committees that persevere hardly get any support from the sub counties in an environment where users are not willing to pay for water services.
Take Kabarole district for instance, with a population of 403,200 people and over 1,200 point water sources. One would expect to find 1,200 highly motivated WUCs working tirelessly to ensure that their communities have continuous access to safe water. This is far from the reality. According to the Water Supply Atlas 2010 only 23% of the WUCs in Kabarole are working and several members have fallen off and lost the enthusiasm to work for the good of their communities.
Up to 90% of the water users interviewed in the Kabarole said cannot afford to pay their user fees, which is usually between UGX 200 and UGX 1000 per month. But the same people said that their monthly expenditure on mobile phones is almost six times more than the amount charged for water. Conflicting messages from technocrats and politicians further complicate the matter as technocrats try to mobilize communities to pay while politicians advance water as a human right that should not be paid for. In the end the water user committees are caught in a web of complications without anyone to run to.
Water users on the other hand blame WUCs for not being transparent in the management of fees collected. Out of the 200 households interviewed, half of them expressed dissatisfaction with the way their payments are managed. The main reason advanced is that most committees’ do not keep records and are not able to provide accountability to users on how funds are utilized. Even in situations where funds are appropriately used for repairs and maintenance as stipulated in their guiding constitutions, there are no records to show.
In the ideal situation, extension workers based at the sub county level should be able to support the WUCs in addressing these issues. However, they have no systematic mechanism for providing support and also have capacity constraints. An interview with extension workers in Busoro Sub county revealed that for the financial year 2010/11, with the meager resources they had, they could provide supervisory support to only 10% of the WUCs in the sub county. Since the extension staff are the main contact persons for majority of government programs at the lower local governments, they may not always have enough time to dedicate to WASH. This has created a capacity gap at the sub-county, pushing water-related issues to the sidelines.
In a meeting organized by IRC/Triple-S to validate and interpret the research findings, Kabarole district stakeholders were very keen on addressing the capacity issue at Sub county level and proposed to establish a structure to manage and coordinate water services. The DWO is considering piloting Sub county Rural Water Boards as the option for improving institutional capacity at Sub county level. The boards will be responsible for managing all water points in the sub county through a structure that will connect WUCs, HPMs, Sub County Technical and Political staff, and the District Water Office. The board will have capacity to mobilize resources from users through WUCs or appointed agents, the Sub County and District Water Office to run its operations. The details on how the model will operate are still being worked out. However, the district is hopeful that this is a viable solution for providing post construction support to WUCs.
The other key issues that will have to be addressed are the willingness of users to pay and the conflicting messages that technocrats and politicians send out to communities. This can be handled with ease once the District Local Government (DLG) develops a strategy for joint mobilization, monitoring & support supervision for politicians and technocrats. Prior to implementation of the strategy, water users will have to be brought on board through intensive public campaigns on the value that the proposed initiative will add to water services, and roles of water users. With these proposals in action, the district will have made great strides on its journey of improving community based management.
Peter Magara
30 July 2012
