Enabling community-based water management systems: governance and sustainability of rural point-water facilities in Uganda

This study examines the key governance dynamics in Uganda’s rural safe water supply service systems. It aims to unravel policy and contextual issues that undermine effectiveness of the currently dominant community-based management (CBM) model of water supply and sustainability. Broadly, CBM is founded within the neoliberal and post-welfare policy regimes that promote the philosophy of a ‘reduced state’. More specifically, CBM forms part of the new public management (NPM) and governance frameworks that promote decentralised and multi-actor approaches to ‘efficient’ and more ‘responsive’ public service delivery that include networks or partnerships between public and private (for profit and not-for-profit) actors, and service beneficiaries. Whereas evidence has shown that effective CBM translates into high levels of equity, efficiency and overall sustainability of services, policy proposals and institutional frameworks promoting it continue to show varying results across and within countries. Uganda provides a case study of contexts where CBM has not produced good results despite its promotion and inclusion within the policy and institutional framework for rural safe water supply. Using a single case and mixed methods research design, this study undertook an extensive review of Uganda’s national water sector policy and programme documents, in addition to interviews with key water sector actors from the public, private and civil society sectors, and the water user community. The results of the study indicate that whereas CBM is well-known in Uganda’s rural water sector and policy framework to be a desirable approach for achieving the much needed sustainability of rural point-water supply, service authorities especially from government are not consciously taking the necessary actions to leverage its effectiveness. This failure is at the very heart of the weaknesses within the post welfare policy agenda which embraces policies such as decentralisation, ‘marketisation’, participatory and demand responsive approaches as well as networks or partnerships in the provision of public goods and services. The study suggests an enabling framework for CBM systems for rural point water facilities, which does not completely reject the idea of government withdrawal from public service delivery as proposed in the neoliberal framework. The framework rather argues for the need for public authorities in democratic states to pay deliberate attention to context specific circumstances and conditions that tend to disable good policy and programme proposals such as those embedded within the CBM model of rural water supply and sustainability in developing contexts similar to Uganda. The study therefore advocates an effective central and local government authority that consciously and creatively fulfills its ‘new roles’ conceived within the frameworks of NPM and good governance, and reflected in popular views of government as an ‘enabler’, thereby extending the debates on the role of government in the post-welfare, neoliberal and good governance agenda

Beyond Distance and Time: Gender and the Burden of Water Collection in Rural Uganda

This paper explores the gender differences in water collection in Makondo Parish in Uganda as a case study. Our analysis is based on data col­lected from a cross-sectional survey, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation in the study area. This data confirms that children and women are most burdened by water collection. Unless it is for commercial or work-related reasons or when there is a long drought, men rarely fetch water. Our study further reveals that children and women walk distances of less than half a kilometre to more than two kilometres on rugged and hilly roads and paths, carrying water on their heads or by hand. They spend a lot of time queu­ing at improved water sources, and suffer from health complications such as prolonged fatigue, chest pain and headache as a result of carrying water. Chil­dren and women are also distressed by the dangers of verbal and physical assault and rape at both improved and unimproved water points. We con­tend that whereas time and distance remain important determinants of the burden of water collection, socio-cultural, environmental and health-related conditions are equally critical in understanding the troubles that children and women face while collecting water in rural developing communities

A Socio-Spatial Survey of Water Issues in Makondo Parish, Uganda

This report details some of the key findings of a sociological survey that was undertaken in rural Makondo Parish, Lwengo District in Uganda. The cross-sectional survey was carried out between September and November 2011 and covered all the 15 villages in the Parish. The broad aim of the survey was to assess the livelihoods, health, gender and water governance issues in Makondo Parish. Prior to the survey, several preliminary visits were made to the study area, which were then followed by a rigorous literature review on rural water governance, health and livelihoods in Uganda and globally so as to identify the major themes and variables. These themes were then used to develop a quantitative or structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was structured under the following headings: household and interviewer identification; respondents’ characteristics; household livelihoods and well-being, particularly poverty indicators like main source of income, money earned, dwelling type, and number of meals eaten; knowledge of the importance of safe water; access to safe water, such as type of water sources used, access to improved water sources, transportation of water; health issues like water-related diseases suffered, cost to the household of these diseases, steps taken to mitigate against the diseases; knowledge of hand-pump functionality; household water use and management, such as satisfaction with use, conflicts if any and decision-making on use; perceptions of safe water services and systems such as rating of safe water service delivery and why; knowledge of community-based water management systems and capacity building for sustainable utilisation of safe water. The final version was translated into Luganda, the local vernacular so as not to distort the meaning of the questions. This exercise was carried out by the Makerere University Institute of Languages, and the Luganda version was then used to train the Community Health Workers on how to administer and record standardised interviews, such as mastering the intended meaning of each and every question in the questionnaire, the expected data, recording and editing among others. The CHWs were also trained on how to use a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit so as to capture the necessary data for mapping the household locations. After training the CHWs, the questionnaire was piloted in one of the villages in a neighbouring Parish (called Nanywa) and again revised. The actual field work or data collection started with Misaana village in the North-Eastern part of Makondo Parish, then moved on to Luyiiyi-Kate, Luyiiyi-Protazio and ended with Kiguluka, the last village in the Parish on 14th November 2011. It took between three to four days on average to complete the survey in each village, and the first day of work in each village involved meeting the Village Chairpersons, explaining to then about the WIL Project, objectives of the survey and seeking their support in locating selected households for interviews. After every two-three days of data collection, meetings were held with the interviewers/CHWs to share fieldwork experiences as well as edit field questionnaires. A total of six hundred and six (606) households selected proportionately across the 15 villages in Makondo Parish were covered in the survey. Despite several challenges that were met during the survey, such as failure by interviewers/CHWs to complete their assigned households in time; heavy rains that made driving on the village roads quite difficult especially in Kiteredde, Kiyumbakimu and Kiguluka villages, the survey was a success and data collection ended quite successfully, as the originally targeted sample was attained

Intra-household differences in health seeking behaviour for orphans and non-orphans in an NGO-supported and non-supported sub-county of Luwero, Uganda

Objective: Comparing healthcare dynamics among orphans and non-orphans in an NGO supported and a non-supported subcountyso as to identify the level of equity.Design and Methods: This was a cross-sectional unmatched case-control research. A sample of 98 orphans and 98 non-orphans in an NGO supported sub-county and a similar number in a control sub-county participated. For each child, a corresponding caregiver participated. Each respondent was interviewed. Analysis was comparative. Relationships between variables were ascertained using a X2.Results: Fevers were the most common health problem. However, 14.3% of children reported an experience of diarrhoea in an NGO-supported sub-county as opposed to 85.7% in the control sub-county (p = 0.014). Twenty percent of children in the NGO supported sub-county reported skin infections compared to 80% in the control sub-county [p= 0.008]. When orphans fell sick, more caregivers in the supported sub-county consulted village clinics compared to self herbal-medication (p = 0.009). Majority of orphan caregivers compared to those for non-orphans in the control sub-county took their children to village clinics as opposed to healthcentres (p = 0.002). In the control sub-county, fewer caregivers responded to children’s illness by buying medicines from drug-shops as opposed to taking them to village clinics [(p = 0.040).Conclusion: There were some differences between orphans and non-orphans within each sub-county and between orphans in thetwo sub-counties. NGO support is critical in cultivating equity, compassion and non-discrimination. The extended family system in Africa was managing orphan care although it displayed cracks in support systems

Beyond Distance and Time: Gender and the Burden of Water Collection in Rural Uganda

This paper explores the gender differences in water collection in Makondo Parish in Uganda as a case study. Our analysis is based on data collected from a cross-sectional survey, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation in the study area. This data confirms that children and women are most burdened by water collection. Unless it is for commercial or work-related reasons or when there is a long drought, men rarely fetch water. Our study further reveals that children and women walk distances of less than half a kilometre to more than two kilometres on rugged and hilly roads and paths, carrying water on their heads or by hand. They spend a lot of time queuing at “improved” water sources, and suffer from health complications such as prolonged fatigue, chest pain and headache as a result of carrying water. Children and women are also distressed by the dangers of verbal and physical assault and rape at both “improved” and “unimproved” water points. We contend that whereas time and distance remain important determinants of the burden of water collection, socio-cultural, environmental and health-related conditions are equally critical in understanding the troubles that children and women face while collecting water in rural developing communities

Women and Access to Water in Rural Uganda: A Review

In Uganda, water (or the water sector) is recognized as key in achieving economic growth and development, and maintaining a healthy and economically productive population. Access to water is a prerequisite to improved health, livelihoods and overall well - being of men, women and children, particularly among the poor and agrarianrural populations. Rural commu- nities, comprising an estimated 26 million people or about 85 percent of the entire population of Uganda (UBOS 2010), are faced with higher levels of poverty, dependency, illiteracy and poor health, among other issues. According to the recent Na- tional Household Survey, rural communities account for 94.4 percent of the nation’s poor households (about 7.1 million per- sons) and close to a half (48%) of households in the two lowest income classes (UBOS 2010)

Women and Access to Water in Rural Uganda: A Review

In Uganda, water (or the water sector) is recognized as key in achieving economic growth and development, and maintaining a healthy and economically productive population. Access to water is a prerequisite to improved health, livelihoods and overall well - being of men, women and children, particularly among the poor and agrarianrural populations. Rural commu- nities, comprising an estimated 26 million people or about 85 percent of the entire population of Uganda (UBOS 2010), are faced with higher levels of poverty, dependency, illiteracy and poor health, among other issues. According to the recent Na- tional Household Survey, rural communities account for 94.4 percent of the nation’s poor households (about 7.1 million per- sons) and close to a half (48%) of households in the two lowest income classes (UBOS 2010)