Communities Take Full Ownership of WASH Project by Providing Security to Water Supply System.
By Trinity Kubalasa
Communications and External Engagement Manager, World Vision Malawi.
Once beaten twice shy. Communities under Group Village Headman (GVH) Nsanja learnt their lesson the hard way. Thieves vandalized the water supply system after just three months of installation. This incident changed the mind-set of the community from an aloof attitude to embracing the water supply project as their own.
Night patrols by hefty youth members of community policing are very common now in GVH Nsanja which covers five villages namely Matenje, Nantunga and Nsanja, Mkwita and Kamete.
GVH Nsanja said at first the responsibility of protecting the water Supply System sorely rested in the hands of the Water Users Association Committee who employed one security officer to look after the control centre.
"But when thieves vandalized the water pump which is located meters away from the control centre where the solar panels are, the community decided to take full responsibility of the security affairs so that it should not happen again. We didn't have water for three months while waiting for funds to replace stolen equipment.
"This period was very painful because we went back to queuing for hours without water. Children’s education was heavily impacted as children spent hours hunting for water. This incident made us realize that it was not an excellent decision to place security of the water systems in the hands of one person. We realized it was everybody's responsibility to protect the water supply because we are all benefitting from it. It gave us the mind-set of owning the project," he said.
Soon a meeting was convened during which the five villagers under GVH Nsanja agreed to take turns in providing security around the equipment of the water supply system.
Watson Manyatika is the chairperson of Community Policing in GVH Nsanja. He said when the matter was reported to the police, the police decided to come and train the community on how to conduct patrols to reduce theft cases.
"After we received civic education from the police we decided to implement the ideas. Now we have five teams of community policing from the five villages providing maximum security to the water supply system. Every chief makes sure that their subjects are available to contribute to night patrols," he said.
The water supply system control centre is a delicate place with very expensive equipment that requires good care and security. There are solar panels, control room which converts solar power to electricity energy. That energy is then used to pump water from the soil. The pump is located close to the source of water.
Nsanja Water Users Association Committee Chairperson Marvin Mphepo said there is now a lot of unity in the village with the coming of the water supply system.
"Since the Vandalism happened, it has brought the community together. At first people were reluctant to contribute a minimum fee but now they realized that without these funds the water supply system cannot function. We could not raise enough funds to buy spare parts but World Vision came to our rescue by topping up the remaining funds," he said.