Report: Integrated Water Resource Management Lake George Uganda

Objectives of the project: Operational objective: Sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the rural population through an improved access to drinking water and sanitation;Strategic objective: Stimulation of IWRM in the catchment area of Lake G

Intermediate report august 2008.

Progress.

PROTOS in Uganda is engaged in the implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management in the Lake George Region. In this context the providing of drinking water by installment of specific infrastructure is a major part of the program. The infrastructure mainly consists of shallow wells and protected springs. Due to the complementarity to safe drinking water providence, PROTOS also focuses on safety and hygiene training and basis infrastructure. Since September 2007 BPR contributed $ 12.000 that was mainly used for the development of drinking water infrastructure and supporting activities (training water user committees, school health clubs, drama groups, etc.).
PROTOS works in Uganda in close cooperation with two local NGO’s, being JESE and FORUD. The cooperation with these organizations provides the project “on the field experience” and an adequate platform for the supporting activities; such as training in hygiene and infrastructure maintenance.

Since September of the year 2007 the ongoing project has resulted in the setting up of 9 shallow wells, 2 protected springs, and rainwater tanks in 2 schools, providing drinking water for approx. 5.000 persons and different sanitation infrastructure (8 EcoSan toilets etc.).

Building the infrastructure is combined with the set up of management structures (Water User Committees), in order to guarantee its operation and maintenance on the long term. This with the aim of achieving sustainable improvement. On this matter PROTOS, in cooperation with other organizations (SNV, Unicef, District and local governments, private consultants, … ), is engaged in the further development in realistic strategies for these committees (e.g. to define the fee to be paid, creation of association of water user committees, etc.)

Water Users Committees will contribute a yearly fee for using improved springs or a fee per jerrycan tapped water from shallow well handpumps or rainwater harvesting tanks. This will be sufficient for future repair and maintenance costs.

Project management
The project is managed by a management team composed of the coordinators of PROTOS, JESE and FORUD. JESE and FORUD are local NGOs. The field activities are managed on daily basis by two team coordinators, one for JESE in Mahyoro sub-county and one for FORUD in Nyabbani sub-county. Planning and monitoring of the program is done jointly with the district and sub-county local authorities. PROTOS bears the final responsibility.

Intermediate report august 2008.

Learnings.

In the implementation of infrastructure and good practices on hygiene and sanitation, different problems may occur.
For example problems with the tippy-taps, or hand-washing stations, are experienced, because hand soap that is supplied and the jerry cans are stolen from time to time. To address the problem, students are mixing OMO (a powdered soap) with water in the jerry can (instead of just water) and at night they're bringing in the part of the tippy tap where the jerry can is connected.

At the Mahyoro Moslem Primary School, JESE had provided a 4-unit latrine structure a few years ago, while UNICEF recently added 18 plastic latrines. Knowing that the school has no running water, investment in rainwater tanks may have been a better option. This emphasizes the necessity of profound coordination between donors, in order to deliver a maximum result for the available funds. Being aware of this, PROTOS and its partners have been supporting the District Local Government to make the District Water and Sanitation Coordination Committee operational, which is now meeting on a quarterly basis to improve harmonization of strategies and planning.

Different experiments with the implementation of composting toilets are ongoing. These EcoSan latrines were for example constructed at the Mahyoro landing site. On this location it was observed that they are not being used properly, due to difficulties in training a transient population.
The landing site, where fishermen unload their catch of fish, clean their nets and wait during the day to fish illegally at night, is a challenging location because it involves educating all users on proper usage – and many users do not belong to the community. However it's a huge improvement for the landing site to have any latrines (because prior to the EcoSan people were defecating openly or in the lake, which is their water source for all uses).

The introduction of household EcoSan latrines has been welcomed by the local population. JESE and FORUD have been able to reduce costs significantly on these latrines by experimenting with cheaper, locally available materials. As a result a number of people have already started to copy the concept. Together with local government and other actors new strategies will be researched to make EcoSan latrines available to a more important number of households, there where traditional pit latrines are no option.

Changes

Related to the drinking water infrastructure a lot of effort is being done in order to support the structures for operation and maintenance and to provide them with the right tools. One of the most relevant matters on this is to define the costs to be charged to the households in order to be able to maintain the infrastructure and to further develop independent, sustainable Water User Associations.

More communication between the NGO’s in the water sector is being implemented by setting up sector organizations. Nevertheless the presence of this sector coordination organisms, the need for adaptation of programs -when necessary- remains relevant. For example as UNICEF funded the construction of storage tanks in schools, JESE in consultation with the local government authorities re-allocated funds to instead construct latrines.

As mentioned above PROTOS has been setting up trials to implement techniques such as composting toilets. As the experience with this technology was not fully satisfying, new trials will be implemented. For example FORUD will set up trials of “arborloo” and “fossa alterna” toilets in schools and households. These techniques were selected in accordance with the learning platform that has been developed (called LEAPPS – collaboration between IRC, NETWAS, SNV). This platform unites the knowledge and experience of different NGO’s and authority officials. Depending on the result of these trials the focus of the program and the proposed infrastructure may be adapted.

August 2008