RWSN Newsletter November 2009

On a slightly different note, the 2009 Water and Environment Sector Performance Report from Uganda shows a worrying trend with respect to overall environmental sustainability, with concerns that the country known for its lush vegetation and fertile soils is likely to be water-stressed by 2020. See below for more information.

Pour les francophones - Si vous souhaitez recevoir le bulletin trimestriel en français, veuillez nous écrire un e-mail à rwsn@skat.ch intitulé Bulletin Trimestriel en français. Nous sommes graduellement en phase d’introduire un réseau bilingue (français et anglais). Comme deuxième étape de ce processus nous avons groupé toute la littérature en français actuellement disponible sur notre site Web en une seule place. Merci de visiter le lien http://tinyurl.com/ot42to

Cost-Effective Boreholes

RWSN, with UNICEF/USAID support, is developing a Code of Practice for Cost-Effective Boreholes which aims to bring about: a healthy water well drilling sector; acceptable costs and excellent construction quality. It is envisaged that ultimately, country stakeholders will operate according to tailor-made country protocols for cost-effective water well drilling which consider the national context but also follow best international practice. Clearly this is a very ambitious goal and a long term process. As part of the work, studies have been carried out in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Zambia.

In Zambia, work is ongoing to develop standard procedures for the design and construction of protected water points. However, the country lacks regulation of water well drilling enterprises, there are concerns about construction quality and there is considerable scope for simplification of drilling contract terms and procedures. Unfortunately field supervisors of borehole drilling tend to be few in number and lack experience. For more information, you can read the Cost-Effective Boreholes Status Report for Zambia, available here.

We shall share the other two country reports with you in early 2010. Please contact Kerstin Danert (details below) if you would like to find out more about the ongoing work on the Code of Practice for Cost-Effective Boreholes.

A Study of Public and Private Borehole Drilling in Nigeria by UNICEF has just been published. It found that there are up to 1,000 private sector drilling companies in Nigeria. Drillers have realised the benefits of small light duty rigs and are using them where appropriate. Unfortunately, contract packages tend to be small, discouraging long term investment in drilling equipment by the private sector. Of the sampled rigs, 30% are made in Nigeria, where rig construction is steadily growing. Where feasible, manual drilling was found to be more cost effective than mechanised drilling. Boreholes are often drilled deeper than they need to be and there is a tendency to specify geophysics on all drilling sites even where it is not necessary. The capacity for proper supervision in terms of experienced personnel and equipment is limited at state level, and post construction monitoring is rarely undertaken. The full report can be downloaded from here. 

WHYMAP: Groundwater is the largest accessible and often still untapped freshwater reservoir on earth. Its world-wide resources are assessed at 10.5 million km³. Regional water shortages and water crises can only be met with a rational and sustainable use of this resource. Such sustainable use requires understanding and knowledge as well as careful planning and management. Yet, information on groundwater resources is still weak in many places. In order to provide data and information about the major groundwater resources of the world and thus make a contribution to their reasonable management and protection the World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme (WHYMAP) was launched in 2000. The programme compiles data on groundwater from national, regional and global sources, and visualises them in maps, web map applications and services. The generated products provide information on quantity, quality and vulnerability of the groundwater resources on earth and help communicating groundwater related issues to water experts as well as decision makers and the general public. For more details, click here.

RWSN has just published a directory of hand drilling, providing the following information:

• Summary of each of the techniques hand drilling techniques being utilised today;
• Country by country overview of the extent of manual drilling taking place in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger and Nigeria;
• Annotated list of organisations involved in the promotion and support of hand drilling.
• List of literature and available documentation on hand drilling.

Click here to download the directory.

If you would like more information on the Cost-Effective Boreholes Flagship or would like to share information through the newsletter to other RWSN members, please contact the flagship coordinator, Kerstin Danert, SKAT (kerstin.danert@skat.ch).

Sustainable Rural Water Supplies

Is community management enough to sustain the Millennium Development Goal efforts? This question was examined at the Aguasan Workshop 2008, a 5-day event organised by the Swiss community of practice, gathering water specialists and development practitioners from all over the world. Community management is by far the most widespread approach for rural water supply services in low-income countries, but has often failed to deliver the expected level of sustainability. The key ingredients for success in managing rural water supply services were found to be the existence of a legal framework with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, adequate human and financial resources to enable local authorities to play a central role in decentralised countries, making the management of water supply services attractive for the private sector, capacity building and technical support. The workshop publication can be downloaded from here. You can also contact agnes.montangero@skat.ch for further information.

Sustainable Services at Scale (Triple-S): The International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has launched a multi-country learning project which aims to move from project based, one-off construction of water systems to indefinitely sustainable rural water services delivered at scale. The project will work with partners in developing countries to research and learn about the bottlenecks and solutions for improving service delivery. The initiative is starting in Ghana and Uganda and seeks to expand to a further two countries over the next five years. Importantly, the project aims to build momentum at international level, working collaboratively with a wide range of partners, towards a re-assessment of how development assistance to the rural water supply sector is designed, costed and planned. For more information about this project visit: http://www.irc.nl/page/45531. As part of this project, an International Symposium will be held in April 2010 (see Events).

Management for sustainability in Tanzania: WaterAid Tanzania has just published an interesting booklet that analyses the financial management of rural water supplies, examines private operators as a possible solution and looks at regulation and the sustainability of projects in Tanzania. Surveys found that only 54% of existing rural water points are functional, and that only two years after installation, already a quarter of water points no longer work. The older a scheme, the more likely it is not to function. The booklet draws upon recent studies and uses them to recommend practical ideas for actions by district water departments and other agencies. The booklet can be downloaded here.

The detailed background studies can also be downloaded from the WaterAid website:

• Haysom, A, 2006. A study of the factors affecting sustainability of rural water supplies in Tanzania. MSc Thesis, Cranfield University. Published by WaterAid Tanzania.  
• Moon, S, 2006. Private operation in the rural water supply in central Tanzania: Quick fixes and slow transitions. WaterAid Tanzania. 
• Nkongo, D. 2009. Management and regulation for sustainable water supply schemes in rural communities. WaterAid Tanzania.

For more information about the sustainable rural water supplies flagship of RWSN visit our website or contact pharvey@unicef.org

Self Supply

Enterprise Works/Vita has just started a project to pilot low cost rainwater storage in Uganda. Some of you may recall the competition that was held early this year to develop a new product. Enterprise Works/VITA is still keen to encourage people to look in new directions and to come up with even better and cheaper rainwater storage products, which can ultimately be affordable for households themselves. You can view the product which will be piloted on: http://drwh.enterpriseworks.org/. Please note that you need to register on the website in order to access the information.

For more information about the self-supply flagship, and ongoing work by partner organisations, visit our website or contact Sally Sutton (sally@ssutton.fsbusiness.co.uk).

New Research, Publications and Websites

In 2009, students from the Cranfield University MSc course in Community Water and Sanitation undertook a wide range of thesis projects, many of which were directly inspired by RWSN themes:

• Three students (in Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania) were exploring the question of rural handpump sustainability. These case studies have given more in-depth understanding of the processes which take place before, during and after pump breakdown – more than simple counting broken down handpumps.
• One student (in Uganda) continued an initiative to pilot the low-lift Canzee pump, and move it towards local manufacture.
• In the UK, two students worked together on developing a model for costing borehole drilling, and explored the sensitivity of costs to aspects such as well depth, diameter and lining materials; drilling equipment used; and other factors which may offer potential for drilling cost savings.

If you are interested to know the full list of titles and topics of theses carried out in 2009, or if you would like copies of any of these theses, please contact Dr James Webster at Cranfield University (r.j.webster@cranfield.ac.uk).

The Ministry of Water and Environment, Kampala, Uganda has just published the 2009 Water and Environment Sector Performance Report. This is the first report that incorporates the environment and natural resources sub-sector as well as water supply and sanitation. As ever, the comprehensive report includes an update on the status and trends of rural water supplies in the country. National access to safe water officially stands at 63% but varies extensively throughout the country. However, particularly worrying for the country is the alarming decline in forest and tree-cover as well as land degradation, both of which have major implications for the long term in terms of water supply and livelihoods of the fast growing population. The report can be downloaded from here.

Getting on the Water Ladder is a new book, published by IRC which shows how multiple-use water services can offer an effective root to improve livelihoods.  . It draws on case studies in Ethiopia, Nepal, Bolivia, Maharashtra (India), Columbia, Thailand and South Africa. It shows how livelihoods can be improved from increased access to water, in the form of a ‘multiple-use water ladder. The publication can be downloaded or ordered from http://www.irc.nl/page/49660

The Water Channel (http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/) provides a number of videos on drinking water supply, intended to improve understanding and knowledge among professionals and non-professionals alike.

RWSN Member Requests and Sharing

We are keen to find out if any of you have experiences regarding monitoring of groundwater resources by communities.  If you have any information, please contact Kerstin Danert on kerstin.danert@skat.ch

Events

13th and 14th April, 2010. International Symposium on Rural Water Services - Providing Sustainable Water Services at Scale, Kampala, Uganda. Hosted by the Thematic Group on Scaling Up Rural Water Services and the Ministry of Water and Environment of the Government of Uganda. The symposium will bring together research findings and lessons learned on how to improve sustainable rural water services at scale, debate and analyse these lessons and identify common principles to improve policy and practice. The target audience includes practitioners and policy makers from governments, donor organisations and local and international NGOs. There will be no open call for papers, but instead participants who have specific experience are encouraged to submit inputs in the form of short presentations with a two-page summary. More details on the format of the symposium, guidelines for submission of presentations and for registration will follow in the second announcement. In the meantime, you can contact ruralwatersymposium@Irc.nl or click here for more information

Membership and Subscription

RWSN membership is open to individuals and organisations that support rural people throughout the world to access improved water supplies. RWSN currently has over 2,000 members, including professionals in numerous Governments, NGOs and the private sector.  RWSN members contribute to the network by sharing information, contributing their time and providing financial resources for specific activities. If you wish to join, please contact us on rwsn@skat.ch, or kerstin.danert@skat.ch. If you have any problems loading down documents, please send us a mail to and we can send you the information by email.

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