ASSESSING PROGRESS OF COMMUNITY MANAGED GRAVITY FLOW WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS USING RAPID RURAL APPRASIAL IN THE IKONGO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR By JONATHAN E. ANNIS A RESEARCH REPORT Submitted in Partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2006 Copyright © Jonathan E. Annis 2006 This report “Assessing Progress of Community Managed Gravity Flow Water Supply Systems in the Ikongo District, Madagascar” is hereby approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING. Civil and Environmental Engineering Master’s International Program Signatures: Report Advisor ______________________________ James R. Mihelcic Department Chair ______________________________ Neil J. Hutzler Date ______________________________ ii Preface Inspiration for this report came from the author’s experiences while serving as an Environment Peace Corps volunteer from 2003-2005 in rural Madagascar. After three months of training, I was placed in the rural village of Ikongo, spiritual home of the Antanala, a small ethnic group who lives in the southeastern part of the country. With support from the regional USAID projects, I was quickly integrated into ongoing development activities aimed at intensifying agriculture and improving public health in the region. Because of my background in environmental engineering, I developed a niche as a water and sanitation specialist providing support to multiple NGO’s working in the region. During my three years of service, I was involved in many projects including latrine building, handwashing promotion and the construction of six gravity flow water systems; providing potable water to a population of over 5,000. During this time, I was part a working environment with no regulatory oversight in which a group of men with little more than a hammer and a stamp could bid on (and sometimes win) projects in which they would be then responsible for the construction of gravity fed water supply systems in rural areas. These contractors had little regard for long term system sustainability. Due to budget constraints and shortsightedness when planning projects, little time was spent building community management capacity in villages that received water supply systems. It is in this framework that I write this report. This is my attempt to give a voice to all those who now live in villages with broken water systems partly because their system was built by a inept contractor or whose community was were never properly empowered to manage their system. Also, to plead with the thousands who wait indefinitely for the chance to taste clean water, that when their time comes we will be there to empower and support them. This report is submitted to complete my master’s degree in environmental engineering from the Master’s International Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan Technological University. iii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................................................... VI ABSTRACT VII LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................ VIII LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 – INTRODUCTION INTO COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT OF RURAL WATER SUPPLIES...........................................................................................................................4 2.1 EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT IN THE RURAL WATER DEVELOPMENT SECTOR ......4 2.2 COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS STUDY .....................................................5 2.2.1 Community Dynamics.......................................................................................................vi 2.2.2 Ownership: Rules, Regulations and Enforcement...........................................................7 2.2.3 Operations and maintenance.............................................................................................8 2.2.4 Cost Recovery and Managing Finances within the community .....................................9 CHAPTER 3 - MADAGASCAR................................................................................................................11 3.1 DEMOGRAPHICS AND RURAL WATER STATISTICS.......................................................................11 3.2 GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND OTHER PROMINENT ACTORS INVOLVED IN IMPLEMENTING RURAL WATER SUPPLY..............................................................................................................13 3.3 LEGAL FRAMEWORK REGULATING RURAL WATER SUPPLY .......................................................14 3.4 COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT IN MADAGASCAR TODAY ..............................................................15 CHAPTER 4 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING PROGRESS OF COMMUNITY MANAGED GRAVITY FLOW WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS IN THE IKONGO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR ..............................................................17 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................17 4.2 INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK OF PARTICIPATORY SOCIAL RESEARCH ........................................18 4.3 RAPID RURAL APPRAISAL (RRA) ...............................................................................................19 4.4 THE USE OF RRA TO STUDY PROGRESS OF GRAVITY FLOW WATER SYSTEMS IN THE IKONGO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR ...........................................................................................................19 4.5 RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS .......................................................................................................21 4.6 THEMES INVESTIGATED DURING RRA WORKSHOPS ...................................................................21 4.7 DESCRIPTION OF RRA TOOLS USED DURING WORKSHOPS .........................................................22 4.8 CONSTRAINTS OF THE STUDY......................................................................................................25 4.9 SITE SELECTION ..........................................................................................................................26 CHAPTER 5 RESULTS FROM THE 28 RAPID RURAL APPRAISAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS ORGANIZED PER THEME................................................................29 5.1 GEOGRAPHIC AND CULTURAL CONTEXT.....................................................................................29 5.2 COMMUNITY PROFILES ...............................................................................................................31 5.3 PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING OF GRAVITY FED WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS ........................................35 5.4 TYPICAL MAINTENANCE AND CLEANING AGREEMENTS...............................................................39 5.5 TECHNICAL CAPACITY; INCLUDING THE COMPETENCE OF LOCAL TECHNICIANS AND EXISTENCE OF A LOCAL SUPPLY OF SPARE PARTS...............................................................................................41 5.6 UNDERSTANDING EXISTING COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT AGREEMENTS....................................42 5.6.1 Pre-construction ...............................................................................................................42 5.6.2 Post-construction ..............................................................................................................43 5.7 UNDERSTAND EXISTING SYSTEMS OF FUNDS COLLECTION AND IDENTIFY CONSTRAINTS TO THE ADOPTION OF A RELIABLE METHOD OF FUNDS COLLECTION........................................................47 iv CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................50 6.1 CONCLUSIONS.............................................................................................................................50 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................................53 REFERENCES 57 APPENDIX I - PROGRAM SCHEDULE AND CHECKLIST FOR RRA COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS ASSESSING PROGRESS OF COMMUNITY MANAGED GRAVITY FLOW WATER SYSTEMS IN THE IKONGO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR...............................................................................................................59 APPENDIX II – EXAMPLES OF FLIP CHARTS FROM COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS SHOWING RRA TOOLS THAT WERE COMPLETED WITH COMMUNITIES:63 PARTICIPATORY MAPPING .................................................................................................................63 SEASONAL CALENDARS........................................................................................................................64 APPENDIX III – MAP CREATED USING ARC VIEW SOFTWARE SHOWING THE LOCATIONS OF ALL GRAVITY FLOW WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS IN THE IKONGO DISTRICT, MADAGASCAR AS OF FEBRUARY 2006. ..........................65 APPENDIX IV - OVERVIEW OF GRAVITY FLOW WATER SYSTEMS ........................................66 v Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank Jim Mihelcic and Tom Van Dam for their vision to start the Masters Internationalist program at Michigan Technological University that allows young engineers who question the many puzzling realities of our