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As soon as construction of a water supply or sanitation project has been completed, operation and maintenance of the project begins. Operation means the making of a project to deliver the intended benefits in terms of water services to the beneficiaries. In order to make the water project to continue to deliver the optimum service over a considerable time, components of the project must be properly operated and properly maintained.
Operation and Maintenance is crucial to the successful management and sustainability of water supply and sanitation systems, whatever the level of technology, infrastructure and institutional framework.
In our country, for the past many years most of the water supply schemes have been initiated and constructed by donors, be it the government or non governmental organizations. Operation and Maintenance of the schemes had taken separate scenarios in rural areas and in urban areas. In rural areas, Operation and maintenance used to be taken up by the government, from the supplying of fuel, spare parts, pipes, tools and paying of salaries of skilled and unskilled personnel attending the schemes. The beneficiaries practically paid nothing. Water supply used to be free service to the people who managed to get it.
In urban areas, on the other hand, at least people acquiring water service were registered and asked to pay some cost that could cover part of the operation and maintenance cost.
In both the cases, the operation and maintenance procedures of the schemes were inadequate. Many of the schemes failed to deliver the service to the expected level and ultimately total collapse of the schemes. Among the many factors that have been found to contribute to inadequate operation and maintenance procedures are:-
· Low profile of operation and maintenance and the lack of priority given by the policy makers;· Lack of clear policies, appropriate legal framework and a well defined division of responsibilities to support operation and maintenance;
· Too much political interference, i.e. provision of free water service, which makes sustainability of the schemes too difficult to achieve;
· Government and external support agencies neglect the maintenance of the existing water supply and sanitation schemes in favour of construction and expansion;
· Poor management and overlapping responsibilities within projects and agencies, diverting funds away from Operation and Maintenance
· Inappropriate design and technology choice, often caused by a lack of community involvement in project development;
· Inadequate access to data and field experiences about operation and maintenance for use in planning operation and maintenance strategies;
· Insufficient funds and misuse of funds earmarked for operation and maintenance, restricting availability of spare parts, tools, recruitment and training of competent staff.
· Inappropriate management at community level.
These days Government and external support agencies, as well as communities are increasingly concerned about the importance of integrating operation and maintenance components in the planning, implementation, management and monitoring of project activities.
It has been realised that operation and maintenance is not just a technical issue. Operation and maintenance encompasses social, gender, economic, institutional, political, managerial and environmental aspects. Water must be looked at as an economic good and therefore the communities or the water users must pay for the water they use.
For the increasing demand of potable water and sanitary services; the increasing population, town and municipalities, it is not possible for the Government alone to meet all costs of operation and maintenance. Many water service systems which had entirely depend on government to operate and maintain have stopped to give the service and the structures have remained as white elephants. The Government and other donors have gradually changed their role as provider of services to that of a facilitator of the process. Communities who are the water users must be involved in selecting the type of service they want and can afford and must take the responsibilities, not only in Operation and maintenance of their water supply systems, but also in the financial management of there systems.
Private entrepreneurs from both formal and informal sectors must be welcomed to participate in the operation and maintenance. The move to privatize DAWASA in Dar es Salaam Water Supply system, the formation of water users boards in municipalities and towns and the rural areas are some of the strategies for operation and maintenance being undertaken in our country. At all levels more integrated operation and maintenance strategies must be initiated and developed, in which the concerns of safe water environmental sanitation and hygiene education are simultaneously tackled.
In rural areas involvement of women in Operation and Maintenance of water supply is very crucial. This is because Women are the principal users of water supplies and must be given prominent role in management and maintenance activities. Women are major motivators for repair in case the system breakdown. Another important strategy in Operation and Maintenance is management. Community management emphasizes the communities own decision making power over those water supplies and sanitation components for which they hold or share responsibility.
Payment of recurrent cost is often the greatest problem a community water board faces. The basis for successful community financing of Operation and Maintenance, recurrent cost is already formed during planning; the choice of technology and the service level must be within the technical, financial and managerial resources of the community. The community water board must choose a financing system which matches its situation, be it a communal fund, flat rates, graded rates, mixed system, water metering, coin operated or vending.
The finances must be well managed. This requires a wisely chosen community water organization, practical training of member of the committee in budgeting and financial administration, and strong measures for financial control e.g. auditing and regular accounting to water users.
Financing of sanitary facilities is probably even more difficult than of water supply facilities. The financing mainly refers to capital cost. The recurring costs are generally considered to be a household responsibility.
4.1. Quality of Water
· Turbidity
· Bacterial contamination
· Odour
· Conductivity
· Hardness
· Algae, etc.
Turbidity of Water May come from
· Pumping station
· Pipe material (especially Cast Iron)
· Network fouling
Quality measurement Methods
· Single samples
· Continuously monitoring
Prevention of Contamination
· Always/pressure on the system (DAWASA!)
· Water pipe not close to servers or pit latrines (KIBINDU incidence)
· Avoid penetration of ground water during pipe laying/repair.
· Cover pipe ends during storage, transport to prevent infection by rain, dust, soil, animals.
· Brush pipe ends and joints
· After pipe laying/repair:For Æ<100mm - clean pipe by flusting before putting into use
For Æ>100mm - clean pipeline by flusting, swabbing (use of pigs)
- If possible disinfect by filling with 20 mg/L active C/2 for 12-24 hours, followed by bacteriological sampling before putting pipe into use.
4.2 Quantity of Water
· Source not sufficient
· Population growth/migration
· Rapid industrial development
· Excessive leakages
· High peak factor
4.3 Administrative problems
· Quality control
· Leakage control
· Tariffs and revenue
· Crossing roads in new connection
· None Revenue Water etc.
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