Day 3: 6th International Rural Water Supply Network Forum

The forum ended with endorsement and approval of the Kampala Rural Water Commitments by the delegates

The Kampala Rural Water Commitments
Background
The 6th Global Forum of the Rural Water Supply Network was held in Kampala, 29th November – 2nd December 2011.
The Forum was officially opened by Hon. Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water and Environment, Republic of Uganda, and opening addresses were also delivered by His Excellency the State Minister for Water Resources, Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Under Secretary, Ministry of Water, Government of South Sudan.
The participants in the forum numbered around 500 from nearly 50 countries, and were drawn from national and local Governments, academia, NGOs and CBOs, the private sector and development partners.

The Commitments
The following statements summarise our mutual commitment to widening and accelerating progress in inclusive and sustainable rural water supplies wherever those services are absent or under-performing:

Focusing on water users and water resources:
1. We recognise the rights and the natural justice of all citizens to enjoy secure water services, regardless of location, lifestyle, gender, age, disability, ethnicity or poverty.
2. We will do everything possible to ensure that the services we deliver are equitable and sustainable, providing lasting service with no time limits.
3. We will take full account of all water users’ needs for close and unrestricted access, adequate quantity and acceptable quality of water, high levels of reliability, affordability, and a realistic burden of management responsibility.
4. We recognise the multiple uses of water, and the multiple sources from which users take their water for domestic and livelihood purposes.
Focusing on ourselves as rural water professionals:
5. We are committed to high quality of design, implementation (of both software activities and construction) and post-construction activities.
6. We will continue to develop, promote, and adhere to specific standards and codes of good practice in rural water supply, and build close links to other development sectors which affect, or are affected by, this sub-sector.
7. We will continue to enhance our own individual and organisational learning and professional development.

We will advocate for:
8. Increased and better-targeted finance for capital investments and for post-construction financing through local Governments to address the sustainability of rural water services.
9. Greater transparency and accountability in regard to progress in rural water provision and service performance.
10. Special efforts to raise the profile of rural water, including development of post-2015 targets and the possibility of an international year of rural water supply.
Endorsed and approved by the delegates to the 6th Global Forum of the Rural Water Supply Network, 1st December 2011.

Other sessions during the day
The day started with a video recap of key issues and learning from presentations of the day before. Thereafter the chairman of RWSN Richard Carter made a presentation on the vision for rural water supplies. The World Bank came in with a presentation examining the status of rural water supply in Sub Sahara Africa. After tea break, parallel sessions started categorised under the following themes: Water for All: solutions at scale, scaling up innovation in community- based management for rural water and how to accelerate self supply. Other sessions included; ground water resources and catchment management, multiple use and drinking water supply in arid environments.

Rural water supplies for Uganda: everybody playing their roles
During the plenary, Uganda shared her experience in rural water supply focusing on the roles of different stakeholders. It came out clear that despite the many actors in rural water supply, the central government must take the leadership role, putting in place conducive policies and lead harmonisation of efforts from all other actors. In Uganda coordination is through the Ministry of Water and Environment while NGO efforts are coordinated by Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET).

In regard to innovative technologies the Appropriate Technology Centre (ATC) in place to conduct research as well as breaking the notion that rural water is only hand pumps. By doing so people in rural areas will be able to have water 24 hours of the day while at the same time incorporating water resources in the all development programmes.

In a situation where everyone is playing his/her roles, it is paramount for development partner to always work with government and within the stipulated government guidelines because rural water supply is a development issue.

Water for all: Solutions at scale
The session discussed what remains to be done in order to reach the MDG targets for water. Focus was on moving forward from discussing issues and targets to identifying solutions that can be replicated. It was noted that although the challenges hindering rural people in accessing safe water supply are many, workable solutions do exist. In light of the above, the session therefore focused on sharing example of successful solutions providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and reliable water in rural areas, which can be taken to scale in other regions. Some of the cross cutting susses factors identified include; focusing on sustainability of services in order to attain the MDGS, availability of appropriate technologies that correspond to reality, having in place conducive policy environment, capacity building at different levels and institutional strengthening.

Despite the above, a number of challenges faced while delivering rural water supplies were highlighted and these include; low political and financial priority to rural water supply, rapid urbanisation due to rural urban migration a process that in some instance leads to under utilisation of big rural water supply investments.

To ensure water for all, one of the key recommendations from the session was that governments should have in place supportive rural water supply policy and guidelines to ensure sustainability.

Public –Private partnership
The session further discusses the role of Public – Private Partnership in Madagascar as a promising approach to increase sustainability of piped water supply systems in rural towns. It was noted that the private sector can greatly contribute in ensuring rural water supplies if they are organised into an association (private water operators) for easy coordination.
The success factors for the private water operators identified in Madagascar include; political will, availability of various technological options and support in up scaling them. All other stakeholders should work with the private sector to ensure rural water for all.

Another interesting case study shared in the session was the integration of sanitation model in Peru highlighting the successful experience of coordination between public and private actors for the sustainable management of rural water and sanitation services. The key success factor was that of political will and good leadership. It was also observed that community participation in implementation and management of project is another core success factor.

Day 2: 6th International Rural Water Supply Network Forum

The day started with wrap up – summary of the previous day of the forum. Thereafter participants went into parallel sessions categorised under the following themes: innovative technologies, decentralised service provision, equity and inclusion, multiple dimensions of costing and financing rural water supply, innovative implementation and management of rural water supplies and sector performance measurements and mapping among others.

Every morning feed back from given through short videos- some thing which was very impressive speareded by IRC. Below picutres show how the Video booth was working, conducting interviews seeking views from participants and immediatly the videos were edited.

Innovative technologies: The session examined the fact that improving access to safe drinking water requires innovative technologies. Which however should be scaled up and fitting in the context of the users. The session also examined the different types of low cost appropriate technologies such as the low cost Drilling with Baptist method.
The Rope Pump is one of such low cost technologies that need scale up

Decentralised service provision: this approach endeavours to develop the responsibility of rural water service provision closer to the user, and sustainably by making use of local institutions to provide the services through infrastructure life cycle. The session explored the institutional sustainability and scalability of approaches for decentralised service delivery with lessons from Kenya, Uganda, Ukraine, South Africa, Malawi, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Equity and inclusion: This session chaired by WaterAid gave a good over view of equity and inclusion issue in rural water supply in the context of the right to water. The session further fused on how to remove barriers to water supply faced by marginalised categories or groups of people. Participants identified key issues that need to be taken forward.
Action research: WaterAid staff demonstrating to forum participants how difficult it is for the physically challenged people to collect water from high sources.

Multiple dimension of costing and financing rural water supply: In the session three case studies from Kenya, Ethiopia, India and Ghana were shared; looking at financing rural water infrastructure, their operation and maintenance as well as other challenges that curtail progress in meeting national rural water MDG targets. In addition, the session examined factors that affect ground water development a major resource in rural water delivery. For example; there was a case study from South Africa that focused on drivers of capital expenditure in rural piped systems, another case shared was from Kenya looking at innovative schemes for financing the development and determination of life cycle costs of rural water delivery. This provided an opportunity for participants to share their financing experiences inplenary discussion.

Innovative implementation and management of rural water supplies: The session discussed the need for innovative approaches to leading to sustainability of rural water supply and management. A number of approaches from different countries were shared and participants analysed their strength and weaknesses as well as exploring opportunities for scaling up innovative approaches.

Sector performance measurements and mapping: The session shared out comes and learning from recent sector performance measurement and mapping projects from different countries. The cases ranged from national and local level initiatives that show current progress and challenges encountered. These highlighted the appropriateness of the different methods and technologies in addressing the equitable extension of rural water supplies.

Village and small town piped water supplies: The session reviewed and shared experience from countries that is; Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda and Kenya. Discussion of the cases mainly focused on management options, roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, financing of investments, capacity, regulation and monitoring.

Exhibition, poster session: The day ended with participants visiting exhibition stalls, poster presentation and Drop in WaterAid water point mapping side event.

WaterAid stall was very visible- it offered a number of publications to forum participants
Poster presentations

Poster presentations

Strengthening learning in rural water supply use cinema

Day one afternoon was dominated by parallel sessions all in one way or the other focusing on access and sustainability of rural water supply. I attended a session on Rural Water Cinema where participants watched short films submitted by different organisations focusing on different topics pertaining to rural water supply.

A film by WaterAid in Tanzania really impressed me. It showed practical challenges faced by community owned water supply organisations in managing day to day operations. It also highlighted financial, technical and institutional challenges in rural Tanzania. It concludes with analysing the advantages and disadvantages of different management models showing the strength and weakness of each model in ensuring sustained functionality of rural water supplies.

Key learning
After watching the films, it was obvious that in communities where the reading culture is poor, audio-visual documentaries is the best way to explain a concept, approach of work or showcasing the impact of a particular intervention on community.

It was however noted that while films are good campaign awareness creation tools, if translated in local languages they are also powerful tools in knowledge management and dissemination to a bigger audience.

Production of good films and airing them on national televisions is very costly in most countries. Organisations were advised to always make short and precise because long development films tend to bore.

As a solution to having free air time on national televisions organisation making films were advised to always work with media houses or journalists while filming. This way they can have an opportunity to have key issues identified while filming feature on national television free of charge.

To reach wider audiences at community level, films should be translated into local languages, distribute to local NGOs and support them in screening them at community level.