A Comparative Study on the Performance of Rural Water Supply Schemes: the Case of Debatie Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Safe, adequate and consistence water supply is the basic lIeeds, and esselltial for the
socioeconomic development of a given society. However, majority of the people ill the
Woreda rural settings still didn't access potable, sufficient alld sustainable water supply.
The major causes are poor petformance of developed water supply schemes and limitation
in the development of new and appropriate water supply schemes. Objectives of this study is
to assess the relative petformance of rural water supply schemes by assessing the main
factors related to community, financial, technical, institutional amI envirollmental in the
water supply systems and comparillg the main factors and indicators of the performallce of
rural water supply hand pump scheme. A three-stage procedure with both probability and
. nOli-probability sampling techniques was used to identify sampled water supply schemes
and household respondents in Debatie Woreda. Six water points and 96 HHs were selected
purposively alld randomly respectively. Cross-sectional design with descriptive allalysis was
applied using different data collectioll methods in 111arcll 20i O. Data were collected
through house/lOld survey, 6-jocus group discussioll, key illformallt illterview and persollal
observation. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and used to analyze.
The study found that per capita water consumption in a day on the average is 9.6 litters less
than 20 litters (millimum stalldard set by WHO) of potable water. Poor commullity
participation in the stage of plallllillg, low level of women participatioll, weak performallce
of water committee and weak sense of ownership from the commullity. inadequate
fillancial cOlltribution for O&M, poor baseline survey for scheme type selectioll,
unavailability of spare parts, poor construction quality, lack of trained techniciall amI weak
institutiollal support are the maill factors for the poor petformance of water supply
hamlpump schemes. The major water supply schemes Itsed by the community are
HDW&MDSW fitted with halldpumps. it was observed that50%0! HD W& 66%of MDSW
had failed and the fUllctional schemes are providing with interruptioll. HD W failed due to
depth, water quality and users operatioll and management problems while the failure of SW
was mainly due to pump failure and difficulty to operate and mall age at commullity level.
The study revealed that HD Ware easy to mailltain and use, low cost, more participatory
and ollly possible ill soft ground formatioll but poor water quality, inadequacy · and
seasonality of water supply while MDSW provide the service adequately & quality water
supply but difficult to operate and mailltaill at community level.
The study recommend that the illvolvement of the community in all level of water supply
development and managemellt, adequate external support for O&A<f, putting in place
trained technician, available spare parts, conduct baseline study to select appropriate water
supply schemes and construct properly the schemes. Develop MDSW at populated villages,
ill all ground formation provided that trained techniciall alld spare part availability are
ensured alld develop HD W-at small villages with soft groll/ld formatioll alUl excavate/drill
properly at depth to avoid seasonal fluctuation of water from the wells to ellsure the better
performance of water ·supjJly /zandjJllmp schemes in the rural settings of Debatie Woreda .
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