During the past 2 years, GTLI has provided 13,000 people access
to clean water and disease prevention (healthy hygiene and sanitation behavior)
training. Here’s a brief insiders-look at “what it takes” to construct a water
scheme in an arid land with few aquifers, difficult road access, great
distances and flash floods.
Pre-Funding:
Securing funding for WASH (water supply, sanitation and
hygiene) projects in this area is complicated and difficult. First of all, it’s
really expensive. The cost/beneficiary ratio is much higher than projects
closer to Addis Ababa. And, donors like specifics (type of well, estimated
costs, etc.), local government water employees want to help design the scheme (but
with long lead times and high turnover of government employees, what is
designed vs. what actually can be implemented changes), and the community elders
who know likely water sources are concerned about “sacred grounds” which often conflicts
with the best location.
Geo-tech experts must use sophisticated equipment to
assess potential sites and determine the best combination: location and preferred
water scheme design for anticipated depth. The depth determines the type of
water scheme, hand dug or drilled bore-hole, or hand dug well used as a
reservoir recharged by a sub-surface dam. Unfortunately, these activities cost
money – and government permission – and at this point, we have neither!
So –proposals need to be as general as possible but specific enough to get
funding. Not only is it complex – it’s a gamble. Everything is variable . . . nothing
is for sure.
Securing
contractor/permission/location post- funding.
This should be easy – but securing reliable contractors to
work a two-day drive from Addis Ababa is challenging.
Inside scoop on what really
happened during the construction of our latest four water schemes. . .
The first
contractor “snuck out of the area” literally in the middle of the night after
drilling one of the 4 contracted wells. It took us 6 months to get the other 3
water schemes in (two shallow-drilled and one hand dug) – and cost 124% more
than the original budget.
During that time, the communities had to improve
road access – which they did – multiple times because of contractor broken
promises and flash floods. It slowed down healthy hygiene/sanitation behavior
training significantly because the community felt GTLI “lied to them” – and
refused to participate. Frustrating – but fortunately, through perseverance, at
the 11th hour, a reliable contractor agreed, showed up, dug the
wells and now the projects will meet their objectives – but over budget.
Our agreements with donors and government stated shallow-drilled
wells, as specified by the geo-tech study in three specific locations and one
to-be-determined location. Fortunately, the donors were flexible, allowing us to modify
water scheme designs and locations.
A – Only
two-shallow drilled wells were constructed according to the original plan
B– One
shallow drilled well was constructed 45 minute walk away from the intended
location because that’s where water was found.
C – One well was hand-dug because we just couldn’t get the
drilling rig to the site. It was impossible to adequately improve the road. The
hand-dug well took forever. After digging through six meters of sand, the
diggers had to chip away rock. Every week, they threatened to quit – the work
was just so hot, buggy and unbearable. Finally, adequate water was found at 12
meters.
Imagine – being in a
one meter wide hole, 12 meters deep, chipping rock, day after day, plagued by
bees desperate for water.
Flexibility is the
key – location, type of well, etc. Now, if only the budget was flexible. . .
Additional
Construction activities:
After “drilling or hand-digging the well,” Top work –supplying the pumping
mechanism and constructing the cement platform and Cattle trough – creating a livestock watering area by extending the
run off cement trough requires a lot of cement. The cost of cement is skyrocketing;
the price has tripled over the past two years.
Fencing the well and demarcating the Defecation Free Zone, DFZ, (as marked by white paint on tree) is done by the community. They also construct four community pit latrines
at the far corners of the DFZ.
Maintenance:
The community selects a WatSanCo (Water Sanitation Committee),
7 members, 50% female, trained by local government with our technical and
financial support to maintain the well, monitor the Defecation Free Zone
surrounding each water point, and ensures the fencing around the scheme is
maintained. The committee learns the 10 component parts of the pumping
mechanism and how to repair the well. The tricky part is providing access to
spare parts. Most GTLI projects supply WatSanCo with beginning inventory and a
mechanism to purchase spare parts in the future. Currently, that funding mechanism
is female goats whose offspring can be sold to purchase required parts. Even
though the local government water office is mandated to maintain the wells, the
challenges of transportation, communication and budget constraints appear insurmountable
and so GTLI builds sustainability mechanisms into the beneficiary community.
Longevity
of the water schemes:
When we began working in the area, less than 10% of the
129 water schemes in the woreda (area of approx 2,000 sq. km) were functioning.
NGOs (non-government organizations) and local gov’t bodies constructed wells
but because mechanisms were not created to sustain the wells, after a short
time new wells become non-functional. Unfortunately, organizations tend to
construct new water schemes, not refurbish existing water schemes! GTLI is
working hard to reverse the trend.
Over the past two
years, GTLI has constructed and/or refurbished 26 water schemes – and all of
them are functioning.
Of course, we still work in the area and constantly check-in and support each
WatSanCo. Our long-term goal is to increase Hamar people’s resilience to
climate change and encroaching agri-business, which will allow our 13,000 beneficiaries
time to gain confidence, resources and skills to maintain their schemes while
GTLI is available to “lend a helping hand.”
