I would like to share with you one of my project’s key findings in some camps of Northern Uganda. Northern Uganda has been affected by civil conflict for almost 19 years with the humanitarian crisis reaching its peak in 2002 when the government of Uganda led operation Iron Fist spark new wave of attacks from the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. This resulted in the displacement of people into unplanned and highly congested camps scattered in Kitgum, Pader, Lira and Gulu districts. The internally displaced persons rely on humanitarian assistance offered by the UN, NGOs, the local authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross.
The humanitarian agencies in Northern Uganda have recently shifted their approach in the water supply sector. There is more emphasis on motorising boreholes primarily to increase the water availability in the camp. Motorised pumps are considered to provide more water than the hand pumped boreholes for example a properly motorised pump can provide about 40 000litres per day when an ordinary borehole can only provide 800litres. The principal behind motorised pumps is that they can allow for a wide water distribution system through tap stands which can reduce the walking distance and the waiting times for the users. The aspects of amount of water available per person, the distance to the nearest water location and the queuing times form some of the integral indictors for quality and accountability in water supply programmes according to the Sphere Handbook.
To begin with some agencies introduced the motorised solely for the purposes of increasing the water availability i.e. to achieve the Sphere quantitative indictor of 15litres per person per day. The emphasis on this quantitative indictor overshadowed other qualitative aspects that guarantee quality water programmes. One such factor is the consistency of water supply to the users. A visit to one solar motorised pump proved how the internally displaced persons had to wait for hours before they could collect water from the system. Further investigations established that the borehole that was motorised in this case has a low yield borehole that did not warrant motorisation. This meant population had to wait for long hours for the reservoir to be filled up before collecting water. During the visit there were about 70 jerry cans in a queue and unattended.
The findings from the focus group discussions from the camp where the pump was located showed low satisfaction on motorised pumps. Participatory Rural Appraisal methods were used to solicit participants’ ideas on the three technologies {shallow well, Boreholes and Motorised pumps} for water supply available in their camp and the hand pump was the most popular with the population from all the three options. The participants especially women stated that the boreholes were convenient for them as they were are open in the early hours of the day when water is needed for preparing breakfast (porridge) for the children before the women go into the gardens. The women mentioned that when they return from the gardens the find long queues on the motorised pumps hence they prefer to get water from the hand pumps as compared to the motorised ones.
I witnessed a handful of women and children passing through a motorised pump to a borehole located further down the slope. The population could not understand how that the motorised system could provide water when it was cloudy or raining. They preferred a system that was reliable. Some of the participants mentioned the need to replicate a distribution system that was applied in one of the system nearby. They also suggested that agencies should consider adding batteries and invertors to the solar pumps so that they can pump water from underground into the reservoir even at night for water to ready for collection early in the following morning.
A visit to a second solar motorised water system was useful for comparison purposes. The system was fitted with 8 large solar panels and two 24 000litres reservoirs each. There was wide distribution network with 12 tap stands located on strategic positions within the camp. According to the pump attendant at this system, it takes two full days to fill up the two reservoirs and four days to empty them. This means that the population can collect water for four days from 6am to 6pm for four days. The children in this camp were clean and there several clothes hanging on the washing line to after being washed. These can be proxy indictors for water availability in the camp. There were no queues visible at the tap stands
What is striking about these two examples in relation to Sphere Minimum Standards is that selective application of a single quantitative indictor of aiming to provide 15litres per person per day in by itself sufficient for good quality programmes. In the first case, it is evident that the amount of water available in the camp was increased although the water consumption rate per household would have not have altered. Hand pumps continue to be used as there are consistent and provide water when it is need by the population. In this case although the boreholes might not provide high degree of satisfaction especially on the quantity that they provide, they are popular than motorised pumps because of their consistency. Perhaps the implementing agency in this case could have engaged with the population to find out more about their perceptions on solar motorised pumps in relation to their realities in the camp.. This would have been a gesture of accountability and subsequently and increasing the local people’s satisfaction from the water supply point of view.
Conformity to Sphere Standards can be best described by the second solar system where a more holistic application of standards and both quantitative and qualitative indictors was demonstrated. The amount of water was increased, and the distance was reduced through a comprehensive distribution system and finally the powerful solar system provided guaranteed consistency water supply
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