Liquid assets

To ensure the long term sustainability of projects ongoing management and maintenance programmes must be put in place.

Credit: WaterAid / Geoff Crawford

With a safe, clean water source life can flourish. In communities where a new water supply has brought an end to widespread disease, empty schools, and arduous journeys, people have seen this for themselves.

However, when a water source falls into disrepair all those gains are lost, the hard work and funding that went into building it disregarded, and people's hopes for a better life fade. For this reason, it is vital that sustainability is a key objective in any water project and that there are strategies in place to support it.

In Uganda WaterAid has seen that where good water source maintenance processes are put in place, communities take over the running and upkeep of their water points. And when communities can successfully sustain their water point, the benefits of safe, clean water are permanently secured.

But the benefits of water source maintenance can reap fortunes beyond clean water. In many communities, a maintenance fund also serves a secondary function as a shared financial resource. 

In the Lukolo community in the Jinja district, small monthly community contributions are collected for operation and maintenance. The accumulation of these contributions are managed by a Water User Committee which decides how best to use the money.
The community's contributions (600 shillings per month per household - around 17p) accumulated up to two million shillings. The community used this money to lobby the government for support with a new health centre. As a result, the government has now taken ownership of the centre and provides both drugs and medical staff.

The coordinator of the health centre Mr Stephen Mugulusi says,
"Socially, the borehole has had a great impact on improving the standards of living in our community. Lukolo is almost becoming a model village. Services are rendered to local people and diarrhoea cases have also reduced as a result of having clean water and a full time medical attendant."

The Amuria village in the Katakwi district has 84 households that depend on one borehole. Through their monthly maintenance contributions, the committee managed to collect 400,000 shillings in their water source maintenance account.

With this money the community started a soft loan micro finance scheme. Members of the community can now borrow money from the Water User Committee to start up small businesses and return the amount taken with ten percent interest when they can.

By considering successful cases of water source maintenance as found in the Lukolo and Amuria communities, WaterAid has been able to draw up recommendations and learning points for ensuring success in other projects.

With this knowledge less people will have to face the disappointment of finding their water source broken and their new found freedoms lost. Instead, they can face the future with the security of safe, clean water and the benefits it can bring.