My Perspective On Community Participation In Water Projects

The national water policy of 2002, page 29 emphasizes the importance of involving citizens in designing and constructing water projects as they are the main users of this important service, so their participation will generate ownership and it will be easier to maintain, protect and ultimately such projects to be sustainable.

In May, 2021 I got to work closely with the Water Integrity Network organization which provided me with funding to implement a project that highlighted the gaps in understanding of integrity in the water sector in Tanzania.

The funding also brought me together with two organizations from Kenya, Kenya Water for Health Organization (KWAHO) and Centre for Social Planning and Administrative Development (CESPAD) which during the implementation of the project, helped to provide awareness and importance of integrity measures which are Transparency, Accountability and community Participation in the sustainability of water projects especially in rural areas.

Yes! It’s community participation where the foundation of my writing fell, next time I will focus on issues of Transparency and Accountability in the water sector.

In my travels in the rural areas to record and amplify the voices of the people who are facing water challenge, I have once or twice encountered a dead water project. If you ask the people, they will answer that “This project was funded by a certain organization, they brought their experts here, when it was completed, it was launched, it lasted only six months, the pump died, we lacked a professional to repair it, that’s why the project completely dead and we have no water anymore. ”

Let me just say that there are great benefits if the community is involved in water projects as the policy states.

First the community will accept the project, leaving out the cause of the equipment damage, there is a situation where you are taking the project to a place and people may not accept it. But when you involve the community, they will accept the project and take care of it, they will know that this project is ours, because even if it collapse it will be easy to donate to fix it.

But if the community is not properly involved, they will often find that the project is either government-owned or donor-owned, as a result they will isolate themselves from that project especially when there are responsibilities to be undertaken like operation and maintenance.

Also when the community get involved in water project, for example the construction of the water project becomes easier and cheaper, which means if you need gravel there, instead of buying it, the community will probably say that they will provide gravel and any other locally available materials. Or maybe the project will need unskilled labor, and the community members will volunteer themselves, thus lowering the cost of the project as well as increasing project ownership. Citizen participation is therefore fundamental to making the water project sustainable.

In every village I go to I must speak to the citizen about this issue. I always tell them their involvement is important because they will know how to lead themselves without relying on outsiders.

Because many water projects are collapsing because the citizen do not have the knowledge to develop them. When the contractors finish to build the project, the donor comes to launch, and then they return to the town, leaving citizens without the knowledge to manage the project.