A mandate to manage - Hitosa's large-scale gravity-flow water-supply schemeby Keith WrightEthiopian villagers enthusiastically grasped theconcept of community management; regional-government officials were less impressed.Representative decision-making structures mustperform effectively if bureaucrats are to bepersuaded to hand over the reins of power.HITOSA WOREDA IS a fertile area ofEthiopia. Fields of wheat and barleystretch up from the plains of the riftvalley floor to the high slopes of MountBada. This mountain range of over4000m forms a huge water catchment.Hitosa Woreda is composed of three

zones which are delineated by theiraltitude and rainfall. The area as awhole has very few reliable watersources, the lower zones becomingprogressively worse off. The lowlandsbelow 1900m are hot and very dry,with no permanent surface water. The

main WaleI' ouree' tier are large earth

Community managementThe term 'community management' isused to convey that the local leaders ofthe scheme were selected by the usersthemselves. It also refers to the factthat the water-supply hardware, spareparts, office and office equipment,vehicles and motorcycles are owned bythe user community. The leadershipgroup decides on all matters relatingto:o water connections, both public andindividual;o the water-supply system, for exam-ple, business use, ensuring supply to all

scheme is self-sufficient;o the scheme's employees.From the start, this scheme was

designed to be managed by the usercommunity; an approach supported byboth the national and regional govern-ment authorities, as well as the localleaders. A similar scheme in neigh-bouring Dodota had already demon-strated how successful communitymanagement on this scale could be.The Dodota scheme, operating underthe management of local women, hassupplied an estimated 87 million insira(20-litre water pots) since 1984. Thestrategy adopted in building the com-munity-management system was to:o involve representatives from the usercommunity right from the start;o include representatives from everyvillage in the management system;o train local people to carry out practi-cal administration and maintenance;o provide leaders with both general

valley dams. The middle-level plainsare extensively farmed for wheat, bar-ley, and oil-producing crops and this iswhere 70 per cent of the Hitosa waterscheme users live. Previously they col-lected their water from a few shallowrivers and one spring. Water suppliesreached Iteya, the largest town inHitosa Woreda, with a population ofjust over 12 000, by cart or donkeyfrom a spring llkm away. The higherarea, above 2300m, forms the lowerslopes of Mount Bada. Cereal crops arealso grown.

Project background• Why?The Hitosa Water-Supply, Sanitationand Health Education Project waslaunched in April 1993 to assist thepeople living in the District's villagesand small towns by bringing cleanpiped water from springs above theescarpment to the lower lands where,previously, water was in such shortsupply that, on a typical day, womenand girls were spending three hourscollecting water for domestic use.• How?The project aimed to provide cleanwater close to home, to both ease theburden of collection, and to improvepeople's health, through a reductionin the incidence of W&S-related dis-eases. The gravity-flow system wasdesigned to be operated and main-tained within the resources available;another primary objective was work-

ing with the communities to developtheir confidence and managementcapacity.The water for the scheme - on

which construction was completed inJune 1996 - comes from twosprings, Bukito and Boru, producing34 I/s (litres per second) and 8 lIs I

respectively. The amount captured is66 per cent of the dry season outputof the springs. The system, whichcurrently serves 62 236 people, takesthe water through 140km of pipe to122 public waterpoints and 143 pri-vate connections. The scheme wasdesigned to supply 67 000 peoplewith 25 litres per day.

• Cost?Total cost, including regional gov-ernment and community contribu-tions = £1 million. WaterAid's totalcontribution will be approximately£850 ODD.

the public waterpoints, and wateringanimals;o the repair and maintenance of thesystem: it carries out repairs and main-tenance, decides when to get help forbigger repairs, as well as the type ofassistance required;o finance: it agrees on and maintainsall financial procedures, determineswhen to obtain assistance on financialmatters, and contacts relevant partnersfor advice;o water charges, and it ensures that the

These Hitosa men end the day bycarrying pipe 2km to Yabo.

management training and specificwater-scheme management training;and too enable the line ministries to seethat their role is to support, rather thancontrol.

AttitudesThe experience in Hitosa has shownthat building local management capac-ity is relatively easy. Creating the atti-tudes within the user community toenable the local management group tomanage was more difficult, but themost difficult and unpredictable part ofthe process has been to convince the

WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996 19

Real job satisfaction - Abebech Girma works on the pipeline in Boru Ankato (above); Mererat Gudire, Genet Getah, andMashasha Makwria dig the pipeline trench for Burketu (below).

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[LQ).5e11l

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~regional and district line-ministry staffto relinquish management powers tothe users, and to give the community-management structures the officialpowers and mandate to carry out theirmanagement functions.

Organization andstructuresThe user community's role has beencentral from the outset. The project hasbeen designed in two phases, each witha different management structure. Inthe first (construction) phase, thescheme was managed by the ProjectSteering Committee, which wasresponsible for overseeing the con-struction of the system, and the build-ing of the community-managementstructures. The Committee wascomposed of zonal-level governmentofficers from the bureaux responsiblefor water, health, and agriculture, a rep-resentative of the donor organization,

and six representatives of the usercommunity - mainly local leaders orwell-known people.A number of other groups were also

set up: the Project Steering and theWoreda Water Committees; the WaterAdministration Office; and the VillageWater Committee. The Woreda WaterCommittee is composed of two repre-sentatives from each Village WaterCommittee and has a small executiveCommittee. During the constructionphase, the Woreda Committee has beenresponsible for collecting cash contri-butions from households, and bankingthe money in the project account. Thismoney was used to supplement con-struction costs. The Committee wasalso responsible for co-ordinating com-munity labour, nominating trainees,ensuring the security of the staff andproject property at the project site, andencouraging attendance at health-education sessions.The Water Administration Office has

six staff - Manager, Finance Officer,Meter Reader, Storekeeper, Cashier,and Technical Officer. The role of thisoffice is to manage the tap attendants,ensure the water service at everywaterpoint, collect and account for themoney from the water sales, and toorganize the maintenance of the wholesystem. All these officers are membersof the user community, and have beentrained by the project.Each waterpoint has a Tap Attendant

managed by the Water AdministrationOffice and supervised by the VillageWater Committee.The Village Water Committees were

formed at the very beginning of theproject. At that time their main func-tion was to organize village labour.When the construction was complete,

the Project Steering Committee dis-banded and handed over responsibilityto the Woreda Water Committee,whose name and composition haveboth changed. The new grouping, theWoreda Water Management Board,includes representatives of the localcouncil, and the local agriculture andhealth officers, in addition to two rep-resentatives from each Village WaterCommittee. The Board makes all themanagement decisions and supervisesthe working of all the staff in the pro-ject. The Water Administration staffare full-time and salaried while theBoard and Committee receiveexpenses. All management costs arefinanced through the water charges.

Leadership and operationsThere are two types of management:leadership and operational: Leadership

20 WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996

Without the right technical back-up, no scheme can be sustainable.

But what does the communitythink?The attitudes of the users make or break any community-management system, In Hitosa, the people were extremelypositive - a perception confirmed by the findings of arecent evaluation of the project.

Main reasons.It solves a very big problem - shared by everybody;• maintenance of the whole system isseen as a personal

benefit;• people feel strongly committed to take responsibility for

the maintenance and protection of the whole system;• there are willing volunteers - for example, for the Village

Water Committee - for the common good of the watersupply; and

• the money from water sales is not misused,

Secondary reasons• The project istrusted: people accept its decisions and

requests;• the people respond to the requests of the project;• the price of 5c for 60 litres is considered reasonable;• the local people have shown that they have the potential

to manage and maintain the water system;• there is sufficient income to pay staff a reasonable salary;• a steady income enables salaries to be paid regularly;• there is enough money to pay for maintenance;• employees provide a reliable service;• good records are kept of all the scheme's activities;• the scheme's leaders are responsible to the users;• the leadership is committed and trusted;• the Water Bureau provides support, enabling the

community management to operate effectively on itsown; and

• the supply system iswell designed and constructed,

the mandate to enforce decisions withregard to water charges or water use,and to refuse to supply people whodo not comply. Without this type ofsupport and official recognition, the

Keith Wright acted as team leader of a Hitosa-scheme evall/atioll carrh'd out in <'arll' 1996.At the time of lI'riting this article 'he \\'1I,\'

an independent cO/ISl/lWllt ,\]1l'cialdng ill

camnll/nity manag<'IlIl'nt and primary healthcare. Keith is pres'elltly lI'orking lI'ith Unicefill Uganda.

capacity of the community manage-ment will be limited.

SupportAt the moment, Hitosa's communitymanagement is operating the scheme

as managers of theirown water-supplysystems, many de-tailed local decisionsdepend on the per-sonal attitudes of indi-vidual governmentstaff. In fact, decen-tralization allowsindividual attitudes tobe influential. In acentralized system,the decisions of thecentral office are car-ried out by all staff. Inthe decentralised sys-tem, many levels canchoose to retainpower in some form.In the case of Hitosa,the staff of theNational Ministry ofWater are very sup-portive; at the Oromiaregional level, there ismuch less enthusiasm.They would prefer thecommunity to fulfil amainly operationalrole, leaving the lead-ership managementand policy decisionsto the Water Bureau.The Water Bureaudoes not consider theofficial agreements 1..- ---1

binding.

and is able to keep it working. Butwithout the full support of the govern-ment - and of the regional WaterBureau in particular- it will not beable to function effectively over thelong term. It will lack the technicalback-up that, eventully, will becomeessential, including a source of supplyof spare-parts and, most importantly,

management functions include:o monitoring the demand for, andsupply of, water;o deciding on a policy for water usesother than household use;

o deciding on the limit for privateconnections;o setting the charges for water;o regularly checking income andexpenditure; and

o supervising staff.Operational management responsibili-ties include:o daily management of the system;o maintenance and repairs;o supply of spare-parts; ando accounting for the income.In Hitosa, operational management

has received the most attention. Nowthat the user community has taken overfull management responsibility, theneed for training and support in leader-ship management has been highlighted.

Government contextAlthough the Ethiopian Government'spolicy of decentralization officiallysanctions the role of user communities

Establishing communitymanagementThe most significant elements of theprocess were that:o it was clearly stated from the very

beginning that the scheme would bemanaged by the users;o from the outset, the user commu-

nity was represented on the main man-agement committees;o the steering committee was offi-

cially autonomous and able to makeindependent decisions: it was not con-trolled by the Water Bureau. Thisarrangement was set out in an officialagreement signed by Water Bureau andlocal government officials, the usercommunity, and the donor. This docu-ment gave the Steering Committee alegitimate role and it officially recog-nized the role of the user community inmanagement;o a similar agreement is to be signed

legitimizing the role of the newWoreda Water Management Board;o all the people who carry out all

the main functions, both leadership andoperational, are members of the usercommunity, trained by the project;o the project co-ordinator, who is a

government officer from the WaterBureau, has always been very support-ive of community management; ando the representative of the project's

donor had worked on the neighbouringscheme in Dodota and was well-respected and trusted by the Hitosacommunity.

WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.2 OCTOBER 1996 21