WISA

WISA Award for Excellence in Rural Water Supply for 2002 goes to Nhlungwane Water Supply

The Water Committee of the Nhlungwane Water Supply received the inaugural award for Excellence in Rural Water Supply and a cash prize of R1000 from the Community Water Supply & Sanitation Division of WISA on 19 January 2002.

The main criteria set for the award is that the scheme must have been in operation for more than three years, it must be running well, and it must be demonstrably sustainable; that is the scheme must be paying its own way. The purpose of the award is to honour and publicize genuine good practice in the operation and maintenance of rural water supplies.

The Nhlungwane Water Supply is located in the Msinga District of KZN, near the confluence of the Tugela and Mooi rivers. This project was implemented in 1997 by the Mvula Trust. The Project Agent was Rudi Schroeder of Hydroquest in Greytown, and the Training Agent was Patrick Mbanjwa of Vukuzakhe Development Services.

Sadly, Rudi Schroeder died of heart problems on 12 July 2001. His widow Edith and Patrick Mbanjwa, together with representatives from Mvula Trust, the Umzinyathi District Municipality and the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry attended the simple award ceremony held in the community hall.

Water for the scheme is pumped from a borehole, equipped with a Super-D submersible pump driven by a Hatz diesel generator. There are two separate rising mains, each filling two 30 kl reservoirs. The reticulation system supplies 40 standpipes serving 204 homes. The scheme was built with R300 000 from Mvula Trust and R24 000 from the community.

The pump house is beautifully clean. The engine has been serviced religiously according to the maintenance specifications. The committee pays in cash for equipment services, diesel fuel and the operator’s salary of R300 per month. Services by Rudi Schroeder were charged at rather charitable rate of R200 plus parts. This included ongoing training and travel costs for approximately 120 km round trip.

There have been no major breakdowns since commissioning, although the operator does stop pumping if she is worried about anything she does not understand - this has caused some interruptions to supply.

The original battery is still in use, despite no major security at the pump station. In good weather, the pump house can be left unattended with the door open. The pump records, which are complete and hanging neatly on a hook in the pump house, show their water losses have not exceeded 20%.

The taps are opened twice a day for about half and hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon, from 07h00 and 16h00 respectively. Families are rationed to three 25-litre containers per day. The tariff of R7 per family per month was increased from R5 eighteen months ago. Africa is littered with failed, or badly working, projects where diesel engines are involved, or where only public standpipes were provided. There are a lot of failed or badly working projects, period. However, at Nhlungwane one really has to look hard to find a fault (the pump house door was overdue for a coat of paint).

Now here's the really good part. Everybody is paying the R7 monthly contribution. The water committee has paid off a debt to Hydroquest for O&M training, which the Mvula budget could not cover, and the scheme has a reserve of about R8 000 in the bank.

Nhlungwane Monthly Financials
Income
From Households	R 1 428
Expenditure
Pump operator	R 300
Fuel	R 718
Servicing	R 100
Spares, repairs	R 120
Total expenditure	R 1 238
Operating Surplus	R 190

In considering the nomination of this project for the inaugural "Excellence in Rural Water Supply" award, the question asked was “How does this project get right what so few others do?” After all Msinga is surely as poor and troubled an area as any in South Africa. Some of the possible answers were:

� The committee and community members have a water meeting on the 27th of every month, come rain or shine.

� Strong bond of trust between Project Agent and community.

� High ratio of churches to families in the village might be significant (5 churches to 204 homes!).

� Low level of political interference.

� Technically competent and committed project support agent.

� Conservatively sized diesel generator, which is costly in diesel, but will pay back in improved reliability.

� Financial, operations & maintenance training was done well.

� The community is cohesive and has a well-disciplined tap management system.

� The borehole is well constructed and meets the demand well within its safe yield capacity.

� The water supply system has worked consistently, encouraging the community to protect the pump house and the battery (vandalism tends to occur after breakdowns).

� The scheme has been evaluated three times in the three and a half years since commissioning, but has not yet received the O&M incentive payment from Mvula Trust, although neither the committee nor the Project Agent raised the matter.WISA CWSS Division

WISA CWSS Division

R 120