A mandate to manage - 's large- scale gravity-flow water-supply scheme by Keith Wright scheme is self-sufficient; Ethiopian villagers enthusiastically grasped the o the scheme's employees. concept of community management; regional- From the start, this scheme was government officials were less impressed. designed to be managed by the user community; an approach supported by Representative decision-making structures must both the national and regional govern- perform effectively if bureaucrats are to be ment authorities, as well as the local persuaded to hand over the reins of power. leaders. A similar scheme in neigh- bouring had already demon- HITOSA WOREDA IS a fertile area of Community management strated how successful community . Fields of wheat and barley management on this scale could be. The term 'community management' is stretch up from the plains of the rift The Dodota scheme, operating under used to convey that the local leaders of valley floor to the high slopes of Mount the management of local women, has the scheme were selected by the users Bada. This mountain range of over supplied an estimated 87 million insira themselves. It also refers to the fact 4000m forms a huge water catchment. (20-litre water pots) since 1984. The that the water-supply hardware, spare Hitosa Woreda is composed of three parts, office and office equipment, strategy adopted in building the com- zones which are delineated by their vehicles and motorcycles are owned by munity-management system was to: altitude and rainfall. The area as a the user community. The leadership o involve representatives from the user whole has very few reliable water group decides on all matters relating community right from the start; sources, the lower zones becoming to: o include representatives from every progressively worse off. The lowlands o water connections, both public and village in the management system; below 1900m are hot and very dry, individual; o train local people to carry out practi- with no permanent surface water. The o the water-supply system, for exam- cal administration and maintenance; main WaleI' ouree' tier are large earth ple, business use, ensuring supply to all o provide leaders with both general

Project background ing with the communities to develop their confidence and management • Why? capacity. The Hitosa Water-Supply, Sanitation The water for the scheme - on and Health Education Project was which construction was completed in launched in April 1993 to assist the people living in the District's villages June 1996 - comes from two and small towns by bringing clean springs, Bukito and Boru, producing piped water from springs above the 34 I/s (litres per second) and 8 lIs I escarpment to the lower lands where, respectively. The amount captured is previously, water was in such short 66 per cent of the dry season output supply that, on a typical day, women of the springs. The system, which and girls were spending three hours currently serves 62 236 people, takes collecting water for domestic use. the water through 140km of pipe to 122 public waterpoints and 143 pri- • How? The project aimed to provide clean vate connections. The scheme was water close to home, to both ease the designed to supply 67 000 people with 25 litres per day. burden of collection, and to improve These Hitosa men end the day by people's health, through a reduction • Cost? carrying pipe 2km to Yabo. in the incidence of W&S-related dis- Total cost, including regional gov- eases. The gravity-flow system was ernment and community contribu- designed to be operated and main- tions = £1 million. WaterAid's total tained within the resources available; contribution will be approximately management training and specific another primary objective was work- £850 ODD. water-scheme management training; and to valley dams. The middle-level plains the public waterpoints, and watering o enable the line ministries to see are extensively farmed for wheat, bar- animals; that their role is to support, rather than ley, and oil-producing crops and this is o the repair and maintenance of the control. where 70 per cent of the Hitosa water system: it carries out repairs and main- scheme users live. Previously they col- tenance, decides when to get help for Attitudes lected their water from a few shallow bigger repairs, as well as the type of The experience in Hitosa has shown rivers and one spring. Water supplies assistance required; that building local management capac- reached Iteya, the largest town in o finance: it agrees on and maintains ity is relatively easy. Creating the atti- Hitosa Woreda, with a population of all financial procedures, determines tudes within the user community to just over 12 000, by cart or donkey when to obtain assistance on financial enable the local management group to from a spring llkm away. The higher matters, and contacts relevant partners manage was more difficult, but the area, above 2300m, forms the lower for advice; most difficult and unpredictable part of slopes of Mount Bada. Cereal crops are o water charges, and it ensures that the the process has been to convince the also grown.

WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996 19 Real job satisfaction - Abebech Girma works on the pipeline in Boru Ankato (above); Mererat Gudire, Genet Getah, and Mashasha Makwria dig the pipeline trench for Burketu (below).

six staff - Manager, Finance Officer, Meter Reader, Storekeeper, Cashier, and Technical Officer. The role of this office is to manage the tap attendants, ensure the water service at every waterpoint, collect and account for the money from the water sales, and to organize the maintenance of the whole system. All these officers are members of the user community, and have been c: c: trained by the project. Q) [L Each waterpoint has a Tap Attendant Q) e.5 managed by the Water Administration 11l Office and supervised by the Village ~ Water Committee. ~ Q) The Village Water Committees were ~ formed at the very beginning of the project. At that time their main func- regional and district line-ministry staff and six representatives of the user tion was to organize village labour. to relinquish management powers to community - mainly local leaders or When the construction was complete, the users, and to give the community- well-known people. the Project Steering Committee dis- management structures the official A number of other groups were also banded and handed over responsibility powers and mandate to carry out their set up: the Project Steering and the to the Woreda Water Committee, management functions. Woreda Water Committees; the Water whose name and composition have Administration Office; and the Village both changed. The new grouping, the Organization and Water Committee. The Woreda Water Woreda Water Management Board, structures Committee is composed of two repre- includes representatives of the local sentatives from each Village Water council, and the local agriculture and The user community's role has been Committee and has a small executive health officers, in addition to two rep- central from the outset. The project has Committee. During the construction resentatives from each Village Water been designed in two phases, each with phase, the Woreda Committee has been Committee. The Board makes all the a different management structure. In responsible for collecting cash contri- management decisions and supervises the first (construction) phase, the butions from households, and banking the working of all the staff in the pro- scheme was managed by the Project the money in the project account. This ject. The Water Administration staff Steering Committee, which was money was used to supplement con- are full-time and salaried while the responsible for overseeing the con- struction costs. The Committee was Board and Committee receive struction of the system, and the build- also responsible for co-ordinating com- expenses. All management costs are ing of the community-management munity labour, nominating trainees, financed through the water charges. structures. The Committee was ensuring the security of the staff and composed of zonal-level government project property at the project site, and officers from the bureaux responsible encouraging attendance at health- Leadership and operations for water, health, and agriculture, a rep- education sessions. There are two types of management: resentative of the donor organization, The Water Administration Office has leadership and operational: Leadership

20 WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996 management functions include: as managers of their o monitoring the demand for, and own water-supply But what does the community supply of, water; systems, many de- think? o deciding on a policy for water uses tailed local decisions The attitudes of the users make or break any community- other than household use; depend on the per- management system, In Hitosa, the people were extremely sonal attitudes of indi- o deciding on the limit for private positive - a perception confirmed by the findings of a connections; vidual government recent evaluation of the project. o setting the charges for water; staff. In fact, decen- o regularly checking income and tralization allows Main reasons expenditure; and individual attitudes to .It solves a very big problem - shared by everybody; o supervising staff. be influential. In a • maintenance of the whole system isseen as a personal Operational management responsibili- centralized system, benefit; ties include: the decisions of the • people feel strongly committed to take responsibility for the maintenance and protection of the whole system; o daily management of the system; central office are car- • there are willing volunteers - for example, for the Village maintenance and repairs; ried out by all staff. In o Water Committee - for the common good of the water the decentralised sys- o supply of spare-parts; and supply; and tem, many levels can o accounting for the income. • the money from water sales isnot misused, In Hitosa, operational management choose to retain has received the most attention. Now power in some form. Secondary reasons that the user community has taken over In the case of Hitosa, • The project istrusted: people accept its decisions and full management responsibility, the the staff of the requests; need for training and support in leader- National Ministry of • the people respond to the requests of the project; ship management has been highlighted. Water are very sup- • the price of 5c for 60 litres isconsidered reasonable; portive; at the • the local people have shown that they have the potential regional level, there is to manage and maintain the water system; Establishing community much less enthusiasm. • there issufficient income to pay staff a reasonable salary; • a steady income enables salaries to be paid regularly; They would prefer the management • there isenough money to pay for maintenance; community to fulfil a The most significant elements of the • employees provide a reliable service; process were that: mainly operational • good records are kept of all the scheme's activities; role, leaving the lead- o it was clearly stated from the very • the scheme's leaders are responsible to the users; beginning that the scheme would be ership management • the leadership iscommitted and trusted; managed by the users; and policy decisions • the Water Bureau provides support, enabling the to the Water Bureau. community management to operate effectively on its o from the outset, the user commu- The Water Bureau own; and nity was represented on the main man- • the supply system iswell designed and constructed, agement committees; does not consider the official agreements 1..- ---1 o the steering committee was offi- cially autonomous and able to make binding. independent decisions: it was not con- the mandate to enforce decisions with regard to water charges or water use, trolled by the Water Bureau. This Support arrangement was set out in an official and to refuse to supply people who agreement signed by Water Bureau and At the moment, Hitosa's community do not comply. Without this type of local government officials, the user management is operating the scheme support and official recognition, the community, and the donor. This docu- ment gave the Steering Committee a legitimate role and it officially recog- nized the role of the user community in management; o a similar agreement is to be signed legitimizing the role of the new Woreda Water Management Board; o all the people who carry out all the main functions, both leadership and operational, are members of the user community, trained by the project; o the project co-ordinator, who is a government officer from the Water Bureau, has always been very support- ive of community management; and o the representative of the project's Without the right technical back-up, no scheme can be sustainable. donor had worked on the neighbouring scheme in Dodota and was well- and is able to keep it working. But capacity of the community manage- respected and trusted by the Hitosa without the full support of the govern- ment will be limited. community. ment - and of the regional Water Bureau in particular- it will not be Keith Wright acted as team leader of a Hitosa- able to function effectively over the scheme evall/atioll carrh'd out in <'arll' 1996. Government context long term. It will lack the technical At the time of lI'riting this article 'he \\'1I,\' back-up that, eventully, will become an independent cO/ISl/lWllt ,\]1l'cialdng ill Although the Ethiopian Government's camnll/nity manag<'IlIl'nt and primary health policy of decentralization officially essential, including a source of supply care. Keith is pres'elltly lI'orking lI'ith Unicef sanctions the role of user communities of spare-parts and, most importantly, ill Uganda.

WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996 21