Water Quality

By CARE Posted on Wed 19 Dec 2007, over 16 years ago

Nicely detailed program. The letter of commitment is a nice touch. Has the quality of the water source been tested? Are there plans for ongoing water quality tests?

Water Quality

By A Single Drop Posted on Thu 20 Dec 2007, over 16 years ago

Thanks Susan for your comments. The commitment letter was their idea and we hope to integrate that idea into our future projects. After our 5 week organizational trainings, we have the newly formed or existing organization that we work with sign an MOU to be submitted to us and their community.

I don't believe that we have records of any water testing just yet. We do intend to test the water ideally through the Municipal Health office who can conduct the testing. During our 5 week training, we wil cover the importance of water quality and offer affordable and appropriate options for them to consider. We will also have a workshop on WASH Advocacy where local heath workers will be invited to be part of the Core Team that will launch a local WASH campaign.

Luang Pangako Proposal

By East Meets West Foundation Posted on Thu 20 Dec 2007, over 16 years ago

Questions:
• In 2004 an elevated storage tank was built with distribution pipe work for a level-II system, next to a hand pump. This system has never been used as there is no method for pumping water from the well to the elevated tank. Since someone went to all the trouble to build an overhead storage tank, so why didn’t somebody just buy and install an electric pump at that time? Was there nobody willing to pay for it?
• What is a “Level-II” water system? Does that just mean “piped water to community tap stands to an existing tank”?
• Is the elevated storage tank of sufficient volume and height to provide the amount of water at the required pressure to the boundaries of the proposed service area? Typically, the design criteria for a rural water supply system specify that the tank should have sufficient capacity to store one day of water demand. Is the volume of the existing tank proposed to be used for the rehabilitated system 50 m³ or more?
• It sounds like the Aeta are relatively poor folks, so will they be able to pay for the operation and maintenance repair costs of the system? If not, who will pay? (see below)
• Where it says: “Complete construction of Level II water system, piped water to community tap stands to an existing tank for 173 households”, I assume that you mean “piped water to an existing tank, then distribute it to community tap stands for 173 households”, right?
• Currently there are 173 HHs and 749 residents, so about 4.3 people per HH. The system design should be based on a ten year planning horizon (useful lifetime), which means that after ten years the population would be 749*1.30 = about 977 people. The typical design standard for RWS is 60 liters per capita per day times 977 (58,620 liters per day), or about 58 m3. Has anyone checked the sustainable capacity of the proposed water source to confirm that it has at least that production capacity?
• There is no mention of water quality or testing thereof. Has anyone tested the raw water quality of the proposed source, and is it able to be treated to meet GOP WQ standards? If so, has the treatment process (if any) been determined, and has the cost of the water treatment facilities been estimated?
• You mentioned that this is a community of subsistence farmers and hunters living on household incomes less than 3000 P (US$ 71) per month. Are they also going to want to use the water for agricultural purposes? If so, that could well mean a substantial increase in water consumption that must be accounted for in the system design.
• Why are you proposing tap stands, instead of proper metered house connections? This could be very problematic, especially if people start using substantial amounts of water for their own agricultural purposes, as this may tax the proposed system to the point where there might not be adequate drinking water for some families. How will this potential problem be addressed?
• Who will supervise the procurement of goods and materials, and oversee construction? The proposal states that: “The organization and local community members will install the water system while being supervised and trained so that they can maintain and operate the system in the future. Also the organization will receive capacity building training (from whom?) so that they are strong enough and have the skills and community support to keep the system operating. Does ASD have any experience in doing these tasks? How do you propose to finance operation and maintenance? I see later on that there is a very experienced water engineer (Kevin Lee) who is going to supervise this, which is quite promising.
• The proposal says that “Multipurpose Cooperative agrees to: a) Maintain and operate pump and water distribution system; and b) Receive and manage fees from community so that they can pay electricity bills and maintain water system in sustainable manner.
• They are going to use a flat fee of per week per family (5 Pesos, or about US$0.12, or US$0.51 per month) for unlimited access to water from a tap stand. Trying to collect fees from tap stand users can sometimes be difficult, as some people may complain that other people collect more water than they do, so why should they have to pay the same amount of money? In comparison, for piped water house connections in rural Vietnam, one family of five consumes about 5 m3 per month, with a tariff of about US$ 0.12 (twelve and half cents) per m3, for a monthly water bill of about US$ 0.62 (sixty two cents). So the water tariffs are about the same, even though the level of service (public tap stands versus house connections) are not.
• Does ASD have any experience in designing, implementing, operating and maintaining a piped community water system? If not, then, who will be responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance and repair of the system? The proposal mentions that there is a local multipurpose cooperative to do this. Are they capable and willing to do this? Who will pay them to carry out these tasks? If they aren’t paid, will they still perform the required tasks? (again, I saw later that there is a very experienced person available to help with this.)
• The proposal repeatedly refers to “the Organization”. Is that tribal/community leadership? Do they have the organizational and management skills to carry out this project?
• Where it says that: “representatives acknowledged that they had many of the assets required and the project should rehabilitate these assets and increase the capability of those involved.” What are these “assets”? Money, construction, financial and management skills, or what?
• What person or group of persons will be responsible for financial management of the system?

The reason that I am asking these questions is that I have seen so many failed “community-based” water systems, mainly because the beneficiaries don’t regularly pay their water bill, and local leaders often have little power to force them to do so, and the system fails due to lack of adequate financing. Are you sure that this won’t happen here?

Good luck. Rick McGowan, East Meets West in Hanoi / Da Nang

Luang Pangako Proposal

By A Single Drop Posted on Fri 21 Dec 2007, over 16 years ago

QUESTION Since someone went to all the trouble to build an overhead storage tank, so why didn’t somebody just buy and install an electric pump at that time? Was there nobody willing to pay for it?
ANSWER: Original project was politically motivate, 2004 election year. Electric Pump was purchased but never arrived on site and installed!!! Once election over nobody ws willing to follow up on the pump and the local expertise did not extend to electric pumps so a hand pump was installed. To ensure that this does not re-occur the pump will be installed by the residents, in doing so they will be able to maintain the pump and will have ownership of that pump.

QUESTION What is a “Level-II” water system? Does that just mean “piped water to community tap stands to an existing tank”?
ANSWER Water is pumped to an elevated tank. This then is distributed to communal tapstands where the residents can then fill storage containers of water.

QUESTION Is the elevated storage tank of sufficient volume and height to provide the amount of water at the required pressure to the boundaries of the proposed service area? Typically, the design criteria for a rural water supply system specify that the tank should have sufficient capacity to store one day of water demand. Is the volume of the existing tank proposed to be used for the rehabilitated system 50 m³ or more?
ANSWER Elevation of tank is sufficient to supply water to all tap stands. Tank capacity is much less than 50 cubic meters. Tank Capacity is dependent on both the volume of water available and demand. The tank is existing and operational so the pump was sized so that most of the peak flow demands can be met by the small storage tank. Actual well capacity will not be determined until installation of the pump

QUESTION It sounds like the Aeta are relatively poor folks, so will they be able to pay for the operation and maintenance repair costs of the system? If not, who will pay? (see below)
ANSWER Preliminary estimates have been made of operation and maintenance costs on an annual basis. Fees are being collected from the households by the Tribal Co-op for these purposes. They have started raising the money in advance of project installation so that they have initial capital.

QUESTION Where it says: “Complete construction of Level II water system, piped water to community tap stands to an existing tank for 173 households”, I assume that you mean “piped water to an existing tank, then distribute it to community tap stands for 173 households”, right?
ANSWER Correct

QUESTION Currently there are 173 HHs and 749 residents, so about 4.3 people per HH. The system design should be based on a ten year planning horizon (useful lifetime), which means that after ten years the population would be 749*1.30 = about 977 people. The typical design standard for RWS is 60 liters per capita per day times 977 (58,620 liters per day), or about 58 m3. Has anyone checked the sustainable capacity of the proposed water source to confirm that it has at least that production capacity?
ANSWER Your calculations look pretty close to what we would do in a normal situation. However we are rehabilitating an existing non working system and are constrained by those limits. Water supply is sufficient for current conditions. This population will probably not grow as predicted by typical population models due to carrying capacity of the farming community and social changes as the younger population is moving to the citys looking for employment opportunities. By developing the working knowledge of the local community on water systems they will be able to expand the system if required.

QUESTION There is no mention of water quality or testing thereof. Has anyone tested the raw water quality of the proposed source, and is it able to be treated to meet GOP WQ standards? If so, has the treatment process (if any) been determined, and has the cost of the water treatment facilities been estimated?
ANSWER Current problem is water quantity. Water is currently being used by the residents from the source that is being developed. It has not been officially tested but will be tested as part of the project. If deemed necessary Houshold Water treatment systems can be used such as a Bio-Sand Filter. This would be a next stage project done locally and would also be an income generation project.

QUESTION You mentioned that this is a community of subsistence farmers and hunters living on household incomes less than 3000 P (US$ 71) per month. Are they also going to want to use the water for agricultural purposes? If so, that could well mean a substantial increase in water consumption that must be accounted for in the system design.
ANSWER This has been discussed within the community. Alternative systems are being examined such as rainwater runoff harvesting during the rainy season. All of the community are aware that this is for houshold use only.

QUESTIONS Why are you proposing tap stands, instead of proper metered house connections? This could be very problematic, especially if people start using substantial amounts of water for their own agricultural purposes, as this may tax the proposed system to the point where there might not be adequate drinking water for some families. How will this potential problem be addressed?
ANSWER Tapstands are already installed and the costs for level III installation (houshold connections) with meters would significantly increase installation costs. This is a community project being built and installed by the community. Part of the process is advocacy on the use of water. There is intense training of the operation organization on technical and administration. Much of the training concentrates on the use of the water in a sustainable way. The agricultural issue was addressed above. Note also that this project has been developed with the participation of the local communitys where many of these issues were addressed, and will be reinforced during the implementaton.

QUESTION Who will supervise the procurement of goods and materials, and oversee construction? The proposal states that: “The organization and local community members will install the water system while being supervised and trained so that they can maintain and operate the system in the future. Also the organization will receive capacity building training (from whom?) so that they are strong enough and have the skills and community support to keep the system operating. Does ASD have any experience in doing these tasks? How do you propose to finance operation and maintenance? I see later on that there is a very experienced water engineer (Kevin Lee) who is going to supervise this, which is quite promising.
ANSWER ASD are the project and fund managers. They will train and supervisor local residents as per the training program outlined in the proposal. Part of the training includes determination on fees etc for the operation and maintenance of the system and how to collect and administer those fees. Project includes several months of mentoring of the organization by ASD to assist in continuing the sustainability issues. Linkages are also being set up with local NGO to continue providing mentoring and monitoring assistance to the organization. Also since the proposal was submitted the provincial governor has funded part of the project and linkages are being set up with their line agencies that can assist.

ASD has experience in all aspects of this project with linkages to many other local experts such as pump suppliers, community organizers etc.

QUESTION
• The proposal says that “Multipurpose Cooperative agrees to: a) Maintain and operate pump and water distribution system; and b) Receive and manage fees from community so that they can pay electricity bills and maintain water system in sustainable manner.
• They are going to use a flat fee of per week per family (5 Pesos, or about US$0.12, or US$0.51 per month) for unlimited access to water from a tap stand. Trying to collect fees from tap stand users can sometimes be difficult, as some people may complain that other people collect more water than they do, so why should they have to pay the same amount of money? In comparison, for piped water house connections in rural Vietnam, one family of five consumes about 5 m3 per month, with a tariff of about US$ 0.12 (twelve and half cents) per m3, for a monthly water bill of about US$ 0.62 (sixty two cents). So the water tariffs are about the same, even though the level of service (public tap stands versus house connections) are not.
ANSWER
Preliminary agreements have been made on the payment of Fees. As the trainings and organization strengthening proceed the parameter to esure affordability and coverage of costs will be determined by the organization with the community. Remember that this is a tribal community with very strong community spirit which has held them together through the last several years. They have stated that this is the first time that they have been challenged and included in a major project that will benefit their community. Previously projects have been implemented and abandoned with no community input.

QUESTION
Does ASD have any experience in designing, implementing, operating and maintaining a piped community water system? If not, then, who will be responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance and repair of the system? The proposal mentions that there is a local multipurpose cooperative to do this. Are they capable and willing to do this? Who will pay them to carry out these tasks? If they aren’t paid, will they still perform the required tasks? (again, I saw later that there is a very experienced person available to help with this.)

ANSWER
ASD has experience in all facets of project implementation. The local co-op/organization will have their capacity built so that they can then operate, maintain and administer the system. Most of the effort of the project is put into the organizational development to ensure the sustainability of the project once the infra structure is completed. The community counterpart is labor for the installation and attending the training etc. Once the training is completed they will have a plan on how to keep the project sustainable using their local resources.

QUESTION The proposal repeatedly refers to “the Organization”. Is that tribal/community leadership? Do they have the organizational and management skills to carry out this project?
ANSWER
The PODS training will strengthen the organizations capability to make system sustainable. The organization is lead by tribal leaders

QUESTIONS
• Where it says that: “representatives acknowledged that they had many of the assets required and the project should rehabilitate these assets and increase the capability of those involved.” What are these “assets”? Money, construction, financial and management skills, or what?

ANSWER
Labor, money, contacts, sand, gravel, tools, leadership skills etc.

QUESTION
What person or group of persons will be responsible for financial management of the system?

ANSWER
Once system is installed the organization will be financially responsible for the system and too the community for provision of service.

The reason that I am asking these questions is that I have seen so many failed “community-based” water systems, mainly because the beneficiaries don’t regularly pay their water bill, and local leaders often have little power to force them to do so, and the system fails due to lack of adequate financing. Are you sure that this won’t happen here?
COMMENT
We completely understand your concerns. If you review the project in its entirety you will see that most of the money is being spent on the capacity of the organization to ensure sustainability. Infrastructure projects are easy to install but not easy to sustain. By using already available assets and concentrating on organization development the project will not only supply water in a sustainable way but create an organization that can look for other development opportunities that they can do from within their own community, reducing reliance on outside agencies.