Drop in the Bucket is a California-based charity that builds wells and sanitation systems at large rural schools in sub-Saharan Africa. Below is an excerpt taken from Drop in the Bucket Director Stacey Travis’ blog –Water in Africa: the view from the ground:

By: Stacey Travis, Drop in the Bucket Director

We will never make any headway in the battle against Neglected Tropical Diseases if we don’t address the issue of sustainability.  The word is becoming so overused these days that it seems to be losing some of its impact and importance. The truth is if you are providing clean water sources without considering the long-term success of the facility, you run the risk of doing more harm than good.

Take boreholes for example. This mechanism used to extract clean water is provided to community through outside funding and resources. Boreholes are great tools to provide access to clean water, however, they need maintenance over time. Over the past few years, I have seen a staggering number of broken and abandoned boreholes. This is the dirty secret that nobody wants to talk about.  It’s almost as if organizations see it as some sort of failure on their part if their hand pumps don’t work forever, but that’s not where the failure lies.

Hand pumps are going to break.  Nothing that we use every day can last forever without problems.  Our cars break down, our sinks & toilets clog up, our computers crash.

That said, it is unrealistic to go into a village where there are no skilled workers and expect them to know how to maintain these tools.

Providing aid without adequate capacity building is a recipe for failure.  It is crucial to engage the stakeholders in these projects from the onset. If you don’t, you are likely to be wasting your donor’s money. We’re experimenting with a number different tactics to address the issue and so far, have found two key strategies that seem to be working.

One approach is to train Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) in conjunction with the water points. VSLAs are a more evolved variation of the standard Water User Committee. It’s a fact that sustaining Water User Committees is challenging.  We have found that a more successful strategy is to monetize the approach and provide a rewarding incentive to stay involved.

VSLAs utilize a very-structured system of saving, borrowing and lending village contributions that is simple enough to verbally explain that even illiterate members can easily understand. Any money borrowed must to be used for income-generating activities and all decisions must be made by the group. Once a year the interest earned is divided among the association, based on the amount each person has contributed.

This works well for borehole sustainability because a discussion of the water point and collection of water user fees are a mandatory part of every meeting.  This ensures that funds are available, in a public account, for maintenance and repairs of borehole. The fact that community members are also being empowered to start small businesses with the funds from the VSLA is just an added benefit.

Another effective strategy we’ve found for sustainability is insisting on a significant upfront investment from the stakeholders.  This investment can be monetary but more often it is broken down into materials or services. Although the ability to contribute to these projects varies from community to community, there has to be some system in place to involve the beneficiary.

For our part, we provide stakeholders with a list of options for meeting their commitment. We place a value on certain materials and labor so the community can decide how they want to invest in the project.  We only ask for an amount we know they are capable of providing.

We’ve found that the overall key to success is fostering a sense of ownership, which comes from engaging the stakeholders. They have to actively work with you on the project. Everyone involved needs to see the project for what it is – a collaboration between the community and the aid facilitator. It takes more time, money and follow-up to do things this way, but in the end the beneficiaries feel a greater commitment to the project.  This translates into effective maintenance, long-term sustainability and an increased likelihood of success.

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