Participatory techniques and didactic methods

WaterAid is a charity created to help people in Africa and Asia improve their water supply and sanitation. Here in Uganda WaterAid, has been providing a variety of water systems to rural communities for over 8 years. More recently there has been a greater emphasis on integrating sanitation activities with water projects. WaterAid has always been committed to community participation but has learnt that for true sustainability, participation means more than just contributing local materials and labour for constructing a water supply. There has been a lot of talk about how “empowerment” of communities is needed to achieve any real sustainability. In practical terms this means that communities must feel that they own the water system and are therefore responsible for the operation and maintenance (O&M). Furthermore, they need to be involved in selecting and promoting improvements in sanitation and hygiene practices, not just be told (read “educated”) what to do. This is easier said than done. Communities need external assistance but donors have to be careful in their approach to communities to make sure their participation in the project leads to sustainable systems. This paper provides the experiences of Programme Support Unit (PSU) which was set up to help develop an approach which enhances the way communities participate in water supply and sanitation initiatives

An assessment of baseline hand washing practice in Malawi and the relevance of proxy indicators

The Government of Malawi has launched a National Hand Washing Campaign in order to coordinate and intensify efforts on hand washing promotion. However, much of the reported data on actual hand washing practice is unreliable and scanty as it often relies on responses to questionnaires which may not reflect actual practice. This study collected qualitative information on hand washing practice in a few selected villages in rural Malawi to help qualify estimates of hand washing practice from quantitative information collected in national surveys. The findings of the study revealed that hand washing occurs regularly in 50% of households with hand washing facilities. The presence of a hand washing facility alone did not predict hand washing practice unless it is filled with water. Hence a better proxy indicator for assessing hand washing practice in Malawi is observing for households with water in their hand washing facility

Examining the methodology of participatory design to create innovative sanitation technologies in rural Malawi

Top-down sanitation programs that promote a specific sanitation technology based on the presumptions of ‘outside experts’ have been criticised for endorsing unsustainable, expensive and inappropriate technologies. In response to these failings, a new era of demand-led sanitation programs (including community-led total sanitation and sanitation marketing) encourage greater participation of users to create appropriate sanitation technologies. This paper examines the use of participatory design sessions with local builders and householders in three rural districts in Malawi. The paper provides an account of the participatory design methodology and critically reflects on the processes and challenges in relation to power, creativity and ownership. The designs created during the sessions are presented with recommendations for further testing and structural refinement

Sanitation marketing in rural Zambia: a replicable business model

This paper describes a successful sanitation marketing project implemented by Government of Zambia and UNICEF that is part of a larger sanitation programme in rural Zambia. The aim of the sanitation marketing component is to build the capacity of the private sector, such as individual artisans, to provide sanitation services that fulfil a need for stronger, longer lasting toilets at affordable prices, particularly in areas with sandy/waterlogged soils. Innovation has centered on developing substructure designs that use locally available materials keeping the costs as low as possible in order to reach a larger market segment. Introduction of large heavy mass produced products is often limited due to high transport costs for sparsely populated rural areas. At time of writing 291 “entrepreneurs” have been trained and around half have been confirmed active achieving over 1,300 sales to households and institution

Water and community participation in the Punjab

Water and community participation in the Punja