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UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE RURAL WATER AND SANITATION SERVICE PROVISION
IN MALAWI: HAS DECENTRALISATION HELPED?
A CASE OF THYOLO DISTRICT
BY
GODWIN E.L. KAMTUKULE
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degree in
Integrated Water Resources Management
Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
June 2007
UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE RURAL WATER AND SANITATION SERVICE PROVISION
IN MALAWI: HAS DECENTRALISATION HELPED?
A CASE OF THYOLO DISTRICT
Supervised By
MR. J. SIWADI and DR W.O. MULWAFU
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degree in
Integrated Water Resources Management
Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
June 2007
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 i
DECLARATION
“I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which
to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the
university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgements has been
made in the text”
……………………..………..……………… ………………………..………
Signature Date
..………………….………………………………………………..……………
Name
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 ii
ABSTRACT
Regardless of many developing countries having vigorously decentralised their rural water supply
and sanitation (RWSS) services, the outcomes are contrary to their expectations. There are two
opposing schools of thoughts about decentralisation. Its proponents argue that it enhances the
efficiency and effectiveness of public service provision while critics argue that there is no clear
effectiveness of decentralisation and that developing countries pursued decentralisation reforms by
default. As part of its public sector reform, the Malawi Government adopted the decentralisation
policy which empowers the district assemblies to oversee the provision of RWSS services. This
was after government had noticed lack of sector coordination and delayed service provision in its
previous centralised system. The type of decentralisation pursued is a mixture of deconcentration,
delegation and devolution. A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the decentralised
RWSS service provision in Malawi using the case of Thyolo district. Focus was given to sector
institutional framework, district level planning & implementation, financing mechanisms and
Community Based Management (CBM). Study methods included key informants, interviews,
focus group discussions, field observations and literature study. Data collection tools included
questionnaires, phone and email. The study ascertained that the institutional framework of the
water and sanitation sector provides room for effective district level multisectoral collaboration
and integration. The district level planning and implementation system is very effective, it is linked
to the national development framework, but its effectiveness is compromised by inadequate
capacity of the districts. District assemblies demonstrate unsatisfactory financial resources
mobilisation; they still rely on external support rather than locally generated revenues and cost
recovery from rural water supply systems. The CBM approach is well adopted by the communities
except that its effectiveness is dodged by the unsatisfactory supporting mechanisms. In conclusion
the study acknowledges that decentralisation is effective in sustaining RWSS services. However,
in Malawi decentralisation is challenged in many ways including inadequate technical and
functional capacity in the district assemblies. The study recommends that government should
create conducive environment for the district assemblies to enhance their financing mechanisms
and to retain sufficient and competent human capacity. It is further suggested that the district
assemblies should provide due support to District Coordination Teams (DCT) operations to
facilitate effective technical backstopping to CBM and extension services.
Keywords: Community, Decentralisation, District Assembly, Implementation, Sanitation,
Sustainability, Water supply, Malawi.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank God for His unmerited favour which was well demonstrated right from the start up to the
finishing line of my studies.
The following are acknowledged with thanks for their immeasurable support during my studies
and indeed the time I was undertaking my research.
WaterNet for being the sponsors of my studies and all its members of staff.
My supervisors, Mr J. Siwadi and Dr. W.O. Mulwafu. The same goes to IWRM lecturers and
the Chairman of UZ Civil Engineering Department Eng. Z. Hoko.
My resource person, Engineer N.Mundege, Institute of Water and Sanitation Development,
Harare, Zimbabwe
Mr. R.M.A. Champiti, Project Liaison Manager, Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
Project. Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development. Lilongwe, Malawi.
Mr H. Botha, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Ministry of Local Government and
Community Development.
Administration staff, IWRM Programme, Civil Engineering Department, University of
Zimbabwe. In particular, Mai Sadazi, Moria Malope, Martha Hondo, Mrs Musiniwa and Mr
Stan Bere.
The District Commissioner and Staff of Thyolo District Assembly. DPD - Mr. Ernest Kaphuka;
M&E Officer – Mr Bimeyani; Acting DOF – Mr Chitete.
All community leaders and indeed all the communities in Thyolo District.
District Water Officer; District Social and Community Services; Thyolo Police Officer In-
Charge; District Health Officer and District Environmental Health Officer – Thyolo Hospital;
District Education Manager and District Health Officer.
Mr George. Namizinga and Ms Khanyiwe Shawa - COMWASH Project. Management and
staff of Concern Universal, Oxfam and World Vision Malawi, all from Thyolo project offices.
Malawi Institute of Engineers.
All my classmates.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 iv
DEDICATION
God! I am in your hands! What you say will happen! Nothing baffles you!
To my mother, Mai Doffa Kamtukule
and
My lovely lady, Elizabeth
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i
ABSTRACT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii
DEDICATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v
LIST OF FIGURES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii
LIST OF TABLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ix
LIST OF APPENDICES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- xi
CHAPTER ONE --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
1.1 Background------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1
1.2 Malawi’s Development Framework ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 1.2.1 Vision 2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 1.2.2 Decentralisation and Good Governance --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 1.2.3 Water and Sanitation Sector Policies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1.2.4 Malawi Growth and Development Strategy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5
1.5 Problem Statement--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
1.6 Objectives of the Study --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
1.7 Justification------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6
1.8 Layout of the Report ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6
CHAPTER TWO--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7
2.1 Understanding the Concept of Decentralisation --------------------------------------------------- 7
2.2 Lessons From Other Countries --------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
2.3 Account of Water and Sanitation Sector Reform in Malawi --------------------------------- 14
CHAPTER THREE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
3.0 STUDY AREA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18
3.1 Location -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
3.2 Population Distribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
3.3 Topography---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
3.4 Water Resources --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
3.5 Economic Profile --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
3.6 Livelihood Activities ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
3.7 Political Profile ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 vi
3.8 Soils ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
3.9 Land Tenure System ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
3.10 Education and Literacy Level ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
3.11 Climate --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
3.12 Communication ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
CHAPTER FOUR ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 25
4.0 DATA COLLECTION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25
4.1 Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25
4.2 Research Design ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25
4.3 Data Collection Methods and Tools ---------------------------------------------------------------- 25 4.3.1 Primary Data Collection Methods ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 4.3.2 Secondary Data Collection Methods ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27
4.5 Data Analysis and Interpretation ------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
4.6 Challenges ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29
CHAPTER FIVE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
5.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
5.1 Institutional Framework ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 5.1.1 Sector Institutions and Key Stakeholders -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 5.1.2 The District Assembly ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 5.1.3 Assembly District Secretariat---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 5.1.4 District Executive Committee (DEC)------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 5.1.5 Management Structures for Water and Sanitation Activities -------------------------------------------------- 33 5.1.6 Management Structure of Gravity Fed Schemes (GFS) --------------------------------------------------------- 37
5.2 District Development Planning ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 5.2.1 Planning Process ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 40 5.2.2 Water and Sanitation Sector Plans --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 5.2.3 Sector collaboration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 5.2.4 Community Demand for Water Supply and Sanitation Services ---------------------------------------------- 42
5.3 Implementation of the District Development Plan ---------------------------------------------- 43 5.3.1 Human Resources in the Sector Ministries ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 44 5.3.2 Schools Sanitation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46 5.3.3 Catchment Protection ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.3.4 Support Given to District Assembly -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.3.5 Private Sector Participation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 5.3.6 Sector Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 49
5.4 District Development Fund (DDF) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 51 5.4.1 Development of Sector Budgets ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 51 5.4.2 Sources of Funding for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) ----------------------------------------- 51 5.4.3 Management of District Finances ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 53
5.5 Community Based Management (CBM) ---------------------------------------------------------- 54 5.5.1 Management Structures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54 5.5.2 Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM)------------------------------------------------------------- 56 5.5.3 Coverage of Rural Water Supply ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59 5.5.4 Sanitation Coverage and its Impact -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 60 5.5.5 Capacity Building ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62 5.5.6 Coverage of Government Extension Services --------------------------------------------------------------------- 62 5.5.7 Challenges Faced by Extension Workers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63 5.5.8 Challenges of Community Based Management (CBM) --------------------------------------------------------- 63
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 vii
CHAPTER SIX ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ------------------------------------------------ 67
6.1 Conclusions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
6.2 Recommendations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
REFERENCES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 69
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3:1 Population Distribution by Age ---------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Figure 3:2 Registered Voters in the Seven Constituencies of Thyolo District ------------------------ 20
Figure 5:1 Reasons for not attending committee meetings ----------------------------------------------- 55
Figure 5:2 Reasons for Non-functioning of Water Points ----------------------------------------------- 57
Figure 5:3 Downtimes of water supply facilities---------------------------------------------------------- 58
Figure 5:4 Water supply coverage and accessibility ----------------------------------------------------- 60
Figure 5:5 Cases of Diarrhoeal Diseases between 2002 and 2006 ------------------------------------- 61
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3:1 Road Coverage in Thyolo district --------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Table 3:2 Access to Print and Electronic Media ----------------------------------------------------------- 23
Table 3:3 Coverage of telephone landlines in the Thyolo district --------------------------------------- 23
Table 4:1 Sampling details ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 28
Table 5:1 Members of Thyolo District Coordination Team (DCT) ------------------------------------- 33
Table 5:2 Project Requests submitted to the District Water Office in 1999 --------------------------- 43
Table 5:3 Staffing details for Thyolo district waster office ---------------------------------------------- 44
Table 5:4 Status of water points in Thyolo District in April, 2007 ------------------------------------- 57
Table 5:5 Performances of GFS schemes in Thyolo district --------------------------------------------- 59
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 x
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1.0: Research Design ----------------------------------------------------------------- 73
APPENDIX 2.0: Questionnaire for Government Extension Workers ------------------------- 77
APPENDIX 3.0: Focus Group Discussions with Water Users --------------------------------- 79
APPENDIX 4.0: Focus Group Discussions: with VHWC and WPC -------------------------- 80
APPENDIX 5.0: Institutional Setup for Rural Water and Sanitation Management --------- 81
APPENDIX 6.0: Management Structure for Piped Water Supply Schemes ----------------- 82
APPENDIX 7.0a: District Development Cycle (Malawi Government, 2006) -------------- 83
APPENDEX 7.0 b: Stages of the Local Development Planning Cycle (LDPC) ------------- 84
APPENDIX 8.0: Recorded cases of cholera and water & sanitation related diseases ------ 86
APPENDEX 9.0: Photo Gallery -------------------------------------------------------------------- 87
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ADC Area Development Committee
AEC Area Executive Committee
CBM Community Based Management
CBNRM Community Based Natural Resources Management
COMWASH Community Water, Sanitation and Health
DCT District Coordination Team
DDF District Development Fund
DDP District Development Planning
DEC District Executive Committee
DFID Department for International Development
DPD Director of Planning and Development
DRA Demand responsive Approach
MASAF Malawi Social Action Fund
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MGDS Malawi Growth and Development Strategy
MIRTDC Malawi Industrial Research Technology Development Centre
MIWD Ministry of Water Development
MOHP Ministry of Health and Population
MPRS Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy
MSCS Ministry of Social and Community Services
NLGFC National Local Government Finance Committee
PHAST Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation
RWSS Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
UNDP United Nations Development Program
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
VDC Village Development Committee
VHWC Village Health and Water Committee
VLOM Village Level Operation and Maintenance
WPC Water Point Committee
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 1
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Many countries have been decentralising their water supply and sanitation services since the
1980’s as part of the reform process of public services provision. The assumption is that the
sustainability of rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) hinges on the ability of users to
manage their own facilities, while they actively participate in the decision making process. The
concept of decentralisation plays a major role in empowering communities to acquire
institutional and legal rights to manage their own development initiatives. It acknowledges that
the local authorities1 are well positioned to provide essential services including water supply and
sanitation to rural communities.
There are diverse driving factors for decentralising water supply and sanitation services, all of
which point to technical, social, economic and political considerations. Technically, water and
sanitation facilities need to be well operated and maintained to fulfil their intended purpose.
Social considerations hinges on the fact that empowered community gains more control over
their resources while striving for improved livelihood. One of the resources in this context is
natural resources which can locally be managed through the concept of community based natural
resources management. This tenet supports the concept of catchment protection whose main goal
is to ensure sufficient and good quality water resources in order to sustain water supplies.
Economically, community based projects in the water and sanitation sector need to have
sustainable cost recovery mechanisms. For this to work, users need to realise the economic value
of water by contributing towards capital and operation and maintenance costs of the facilities.
Hence the ability of communities to make lead decisions can only support this concept. In
summary, the idea of decentralisation is in line with the principle of subsidiarity that calls for
decisions and management responsibilities pertaining to water and sanitation to take place at the
lowest appropriate level as pointed out by Dijk (2003).
Political reasons for community participation basically lie behind good governance even though
most of the political decisions seem to circumvent the norms of decentralisation process. Hence
the term political interference comes in. Jütting et al (2004) connotes that political or democratic
decentralisation is expected to offer citizens the possibility of increased participation in local
decision-making processes, from which they have generally been excluded through lack of
sufficient representation or organisation. According to the authors this assumption is based on
situations of evident political tolerance. In reality sometimes, the provision of water supply and
sanitation services according to the politicians is more of a favour than a mere national
development objective. In many cases water supply holds as an election campaign tool. More
water supply development is done where there is political support which leads to uneven
distribution of the water facilities. In that way, decentralisation process seems to fail its intended
role.
1 Local Authorities are the constituents of Local Government system. In the Malawi, they are called Assemblies and
can be City, Town or District Assemblies.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 2
The scope of this study lies within the effectiveness of decentralised RWSS service delivery in
Malawi. Effectiveness means adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or
expected result (www.dictionary.reference.com, 2007). In this study, it applies to services that
would require minimal costs, with adaptable technologies, uncomplicated operation and simple
management. Decentralisation is the transfer of powers from central to lower levels of
government authority (World Bank, 2001). The levels considered are the district assemblies and
communities at village and water point level. Service delivery, as given in the decentralisation
policy, includes technologies for providing safe water and improved sanitation services. Safe
water supply service is the provision of water through boreholes (or communal standpipes),
protected wells, and tap water located either on the premises or less than one-half kilometre
away. Improved sanitation is defined as the use of household toilet facilities that are flush to
sewer, ventilated improved pit latrine or covered pit latrine (National Statistics Office, 2005).
Sustainability in this study is defined as the continued benefits of water supply and sanitation
services without external support. As cited by Lockwood et al (2003), the study acknowledges
the determinants of sustainability as: Technical factors, including design, performance and
maintenance issues; Community and social factors, including willingness to support projects;
Institutional factors, including policy and external follow-up support; Environmental factors,
including the sustainability of the water source ; Financial factors, including the ability to cover
recurrent costs and finally health factors, including the need to continue the provision of hygiene
education to affect long-term behaviour changes.
1.4 Rationale for Sector Reforms Generally expectations are high by many developing countries that their sector reforms will yield
positive results. Their primary motivation has been to improve the quality of services, cut costs,
boost earnings, introduce innovative technologies, increase coverage, and promote well-informed
and responsible user participation, consistent with the premises of sustainable human
development. This study focuses on these desirable results as indicators for decentralised service
delivery in the Malawi scenario. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2001)
identifies three different functions that the sector reforms are purpose to serve including: 1) a
steering role, which includes the establishment of sectoral policies; 2) regulation and quality
control of services; and 3) delivery of these services. The steering role is the responsibility of the
State; regulation and control is the responsibility of an autonomous government agency with
participation from society; and service delivery is the responsibility of public, private, or mixed
autonomous entities. These reforms involve significant sectoral changes, whose formulation and
implementation require training at all levels (PAHO, 2001).
1.2 Malawi’s Development Framework
Malawi’s Local Government development framework prioritises poverty reduction. This is well
reflected in the district development planning framework which guide Public Investment and
provide consistency and coordination of the development activities in the district. Its formulation
takes full recognition of the national development framework. It takes into account Vision 2020,
Decentralisation and Good Governance and Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS)
to satisfy the national development strategies and policies. At district level, sector investment
plans and strategies are consolidated to form the District Development Plan (DDP).
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 3
1.2.1 Vision 2020
Vision 2020 reflects the long-term aspirations of Malawians and forms the basis for short and
medium-term policies and strategies. It provides a framework in which a country formulates
implements and evaluates short and medium-term plans. It further provides detailed background
information and justification for the aspirations of the people of the country and the
recommended strategies for achieving the aspirations. With this framework, Government
departments and private organisations are able to prepare detailed projects and activities. The
Vision also captures the multisectoral nature of development, as it comprises social, cultural as
well as political changes.
Vision 2020 states that: "By the year 2020, Malawi as a God-fearing nation will be secure,
democratically mature, environmentally sustainable, self reliant with equal opportunities for and
active participation by all, having social services, vibrant cultural and religious values and
being a technologically driven middle-income country. " (Malawi Government, 1998)
1.2.2 Decentralisation and Good Governance
Since the advent of the multi party government in 1994 the Government of Malawi went through
major changes, one of which was the adoption of the Decentralisation Policy in line with the
Local Government Act of 1998. The primary objective of the Local Government is to further the
constitutional order based on democratic principles, accountability, transparency and
participation of the people in decision making and development process (Local Government Act,
1998). The decentralisation policy centres on empowering the local authorities including district
assemblies to manage the devolved functions. The decentralisation policy further acknowledges
the importance of putting in place necessary supporting structures at both district and community
levels. The policy forms the basis and framework for the devolution of functions,
responsibilities, powers and resources to local authorities.
In summary the policy:
(a) devolves administration and political authority to the district level
(b) integrates government agencies at the district and local levels into one administrative unit,
through the process of institutional integration, manpower absorption, composite budgeting
and provision of funds for the decentralised services
(c) diverts the centre of implementation responsibilities and transfers these to the districts
(d) assigns functions and responsibilities to the various levels of government
(e) promotes popular participation in the governance and development of districts
The objectives of the policy are to:
(a) create a democratic environment and institution in Malawi for local governance and
development
(b) reduce poverty, which has become the central development policy for the country.
(c) abolish a dual system of local administration.
(d) promote accountability, good governance, and popular participation in local development
process.
(e) improve coordination among the ministries/departments operating at the district level.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 4
The Local Government Act of 1998 further outlines the functions of the district assemblies as
follows:
(a) To make policy and decisions on local governance and development for the district.
(b) To consolidate and promote local democratic institutions and democratic participation.
(c) To promote infrastructural and economic development through district development plans.
(d) To mobilise resources within and outside the district.
(e) To maintain peace and security in the district in collaboration with the National Police Force.
Implementation of the policy involved the devolution of functions of various sectors including
that of water supply and sanitation. Under the water and sanitation sector the decentralisation
policy outlines the functions for the district assemblies which include: provision and
maintenance of water supply technologies (boreholes, Gravity Fed Piped Water Systems,
Protected wells); Catchment protection; Refuse disposal and Environmental Sanitation.
1.2.3 Water and Sanitation Sector Policies
The MIWD as the lead institution in the water and sanitation has since been vigorously making
headways by laying the foundation for achieving sustainable water supply and sanitation
services. In August 2005, MIWD produced a national water policy in consultation with its
relevant stakeholders including the Local Authorities. The vision of the water and sanitation
sector is well captured in the National Water Policy as ‘Water and Sanitation for all, Always’. In
continuation with this venture, the national sanitation policy whose vision is ‘Sanitation for all,
always’ was produced in 2006. Both policies recognise the need for stakeholders’ involvement,
Local Authorities inclusive by outlining their roles.
Roles of the Local Authorities specified in the national water policy and national sanitation
policy include:
(a) Plan and coordinate the implementation of water and sanitation programmes at local
assembly level.
(b) Solicit funding for implementation of water, sanitation and environment programmes.
(c) Collect, process, analyse and disseminate relevant data and information to all stakeholders
within the water sector.
(d) Promote private sector and NGOs participation in the delivery of water supply and sanitation
services.
(e) Establish management information system and supporting databases on improved sanitation,
hygiene practices and coverage of potable water supply.
(f) Promote and ensure strong coordination of hygiene and sanitation activities between all
stakeholders.
The two policies further recognise the need of achieving sustainable water supply and sanitation
in the rural areas. According to the national water policy, the overall goal of MIWD under the
component of rural water services (RWSS) is to achieve sustainable provision of water supply
and sanitation services that are equitably accessible to and used by individuals and entrepreneurs
in urban, peri-urban and market centres at affordable cost. Some of the specific objectives
originating from this goal are to:
(a) promote demand driven and demand responsive approaches in Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation services
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 5
(b) promote Community Based Management in RWSS in consultation with Local Authorities
(c) encourage user participation in catchment protection, water conservation and sanitation
related activities
(d) ensure smooth transfer of all devolved functions of the RWSS services.
1.2.4 Malawi Growth and Development Strategy
The Malawi Government adopted the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) in the
year 2006 to replace the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP). The MGDS is an
overarching strategy for the country for five years (2006/2007 to 2010/2011 fiscal years). It
provides a policy framework that addresses both economic growth and social policies and how
these are balanced to achieve the medium term objectives for Malawi. The strategies outlined in
the MGDS were developed based on lessons and experiences of the MPRSP implementation
while taking into consideration the current political, economic and social development in the
country (Malawi Government, 2006).
The MGDS framework has five themes. Theme Four is about Infrastructure Development under
which water and sanitation falls as Sub Theme Three. Theme Five of the MGDS is Improving
Governance with decentralisation as one of its sub themes. Decentralisation according to the
strategy is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector in service
delivery to the communities.
The MGDS proposes action points that are aimed at improving rural water supply and sanitation
services including:
(a) Adopting demand driven and responsive approaches in provision of water and sanitation
(b) Integrating rural water supply and participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation
(c) Advocating cost recovery in operation and maintenance
(d) Promoting community based management (develop guidelines)
(e) Ensuring smooth transfer of devolved functions of rural water supply and sanitation services
(f) Encouraging further user participation in catchment protection, water conservation and
sanitation activities
1.5 Problem Statement
Malawi just like many developing countries is striving to achieve sustainable RWSS services
through the water and sanitation sector reform by decentralising water and sanitation service
delivery. Prior to the adoption of the decentralisation policy, the central government was
responsible for the provision and maintenance of rural water supply and sanitation services. As
the number of rural water and sanitation facilities increased and due to lack of enough manpower
and skilled personnel, coupled with insufficient funding and transport problems, government
lacked sufficient capacity to timely act on reported breakdowns. Water supply and sanitation
services were provided in isolation by two different government institutions. There was generally
no coordinated and efficient service delivery. After decentralisation has taken root, district
assemblies are now responsible for the provision of RWSS services while communities are
empowered and expected to maintain the facilities on their own. However, to date no major
studies have been undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the decentralisation strategy and
guide policy formulation in order to address sustainability concerns over RWSS services
delivery. Hence this study was carried out to fill this information gap.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 6
1.6 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the decentralised rural water
supply and sanitation services delivery in Malawi.
The following are the specific objectives:
(a) To determine the effectiveness of the institutional set up for RWSS service provision.
(b) To measure the effectiveness of the district planning of RWSS services.
(c) To assess the effectiveness of implementation of RWSS activities.
(d) To assess the effectiveness of the district level financing towards RWSS development.
(e) To analyse the effectiveness of the implementation of community based management (CBM)
for RWSS.
1.7 Justification
The concept of decentralisation is aimed at empowering the communities in their decision
making for their improved livelihood. In addition, that should lead to the generation of attention
within the administrative ranks and institutional setup. The process is supposed to entail the
communities at the grass root level, acquiring institutional and legal rights to manage own
development initiatives. With more administrative and fiscal power at the district level, it is
expected that some of the major challenges faced by the Malawi’s water and sanitation sector
could be solved. Since the Malawi Government adopted the decentralisation policy, a lot of
RWSS projects have been undertaken by the government as well as NGOs through the district
assemblies. However, no major studies have been carried out to draw lessons from the district
level implementation of such projects. Hence this study was suggested to form the basis for
proper arguments over the decentralised RWSS service provision. It is hoped that findings of the
study will stimulate the provision of an insight of what decentralisation has managed to achieve
in the water and sanitation sector. Thyolo district was chosen as the case study.
1.8 Layout of the Report
Chapter 1 gives background of general concept decentralisation and account of sector devolution
in Malawi. It outlines the problem statement, research objectives and justification of the study.
Chapter 2 covers literature review on the general concept of decentralisation. It outlines the
experiences learnt from other countries.
Chapter 3 provides the information of the study area including demographic data, topography,
soils, water resources, economic profile, livelihood activities and climate.
Chapter 4 presents research design covering data collection methods and analysis. It presents the
results of the study, analysis and discussion.
Chapter 5 concludes the study basing on findings and lessons learnt. It makes relevant
recommendations.
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 7
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Understanding the Concept of Decentralisation
Decentralisation is a complex multifaceted concept. It can be defined in various ways. It also
holds different types and forms that can be applied in different situations. Decentralisation in its
basic definition according to FAO (2002) is the transfer of part of the powers of the central
government to regional or local authorities. The World Bank (2001) defines decentralisation as
the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the central government to
intermediate and local governments or quasi-independent government organisations and/or the
private sector. There are a number of types of decentralisation according to the World Bank
(2001) which include political, administrative, fiscal and market decentralisation. Political,
administrative, fiscal and market decentralisation can also appear in different forms and
combinations across countries, within countries and even within sectors.
Political decentralisation according to the World Bank (2001) aims to give citizens or their
elected representatives more power in public decision-making. Advocates of political
decentralisation assume that decisions made with greater participation will be better informed
and more relevant to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political
authorities.
Administrative decentralisation is the transfer of responsibility for the planning, financing and
management of certain public functions from the central government and its agencies to field
units of government agencies, subordinate units or levels of government, semi-autonomous
public authorities or corporations, or area-wide, regional or functional authorities (World Bank,
2001). There are three major forms of administrative decentralisation namely: deconcentration,
delegation, and devolution.
Rosensweig (2001) who defines decentralisation as the transfer of responsibility to lower levels
of government identifies three forms of administrative decentralisation that exist in the water
supply and sanitation sector: Deconcentration - placing resources and staff at lower levels
within the same administrative structure (autonomous, regional offices of the national water
company). A responsibility is transferred from central ministries to field officers at the local or
regional level, thereby becoming closer to the citizens while remaining part of the central
government. Delegation - assigning responsibility to a third party, such as an autonomous
regional water entity or a private sector company. Devolution - transferring responsibility and
authority to local governments.
Fiscal decentralisation is the assignment of expenditure and revenue mobilisation functions to
sub national levels of government. De Mello and Barenstein (2001) conducted a cross-country
literature study on fiscal decentralisation for 78 countries. Findings from the study suggested that
fiscal decentralisation is associated with various indicators of governance such as corruption,
rule of law, and government effectiveness. The World Bank (2001) concurs with the authors,
firstly by simply defining fiscal decentralisation as the empowering of local authorities to attain
the financial autonomy. Secondly the World Bank observes that financial responsibility is a core
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component of decentralisation. According to World Bank if local governments and private
organisations are to carry out decentralised functions effectively, they must have an adequate
level of revenues –either raised locally or transferred from the central government– as well as the
authority to make decisions about expenditures.
Economic or Market Decentralisation is characterised by driving forces behind privatisation and
deregulation because they shift responsibility or functions from the public to the private sector
(World Bank, 2001). Privatisation and deregulation allow functions that had been primarily or
exclusively the responsibility of government to be carried out by businesses, community groups,
cooperatives, private voluntary associations, and other non-governmental organisations. In recent
years privatisation and deregulation have become more attractive alternatives to governments in
developing countries. Local governments also privatise by contracting out service provision or
administration.
While many countries in the world are pursuing the decentralisation, it is worth noting that the
process may not always be efficient, especially for standardised, routine, network-based services.
The World Bank (1997) points out that decentralisation can result in the loss of economies of
scale and control over scarce financial resources by the central government. The World Bank
(1997) suggests that weak administrative or technical capacity at local levels may result in
services being delivered less efficiently and effectively in some areas of the country.
Administrative responsibilities may be transferred to local levels without adequate financial
resources and make equitable distribution or provision of services more difficult. According to
the World Bank, decentralisation can sometimes make coordination of national policies more
complex and may allow functions to be captured by local elites. Also, distrust between public
and private sectors may undermine cooperation at the local level.
In its report on Meeting The Water and Sanitation Millennium Development Goals, DFID
(2005) observes that implementation through a process of decentralisation does not necessarily
imply positive changes in the water sector, but rather can bring important benefits when
implemented properly. The report notes that decentralisation can bring many benefits by
devolving decision making (for operation and maintenance, institutional and financial
arrangements) to the local level where municipalities are often more connected to the needs of
beneficiaries of water services. However, the process of decentralisation can create as many
challenges as it does opportunities. In the report DFID (2005) takes note of some of the problems
that surrounds financial and administrative capacity of local management such as elite capture,
poor regulation and a lack of clarity over rules and responsibilities. The report indicates that such
problems can commonly arise and sometimes outweigh the positive intent of the decentralisation
process. For this reason the report suggests that the element of decentralisation as put forward in
this study should not be viewed as a de facto policy panacea. The report further suggest that the
decentralisation element should be viewed as an indicator for the degree to which any efforts to
move in the direction of decentralisation have been contributing to positive outcomes in the
water sector.
While the concept of decentralisation may appear positive in many ways, there is danger in just
adopting the concept without any practical on-the-ground situational analysis. Caution is given
by the World Bank (2001) that different types of decentralisation should be distinguished
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because they have different characteristics, policy implications, and conditions for success. The
World Bank hints that drawing distinctions between these concepts is useful for highlighting the
many dimensions to successful decentralisation and the need for coordination among them. The
World Bank (2001) however, observes that under appropriate conditions, all forms of
decentralisation can play important roles in broadening participation in political, economic and
social activities in developing countries. In some countries, decentralisation may create a
geographical focus at the local level. According to the World Bank, this could be done for
coordinating national, provincial, district and local programs more effectively. The World Bank
suggests that this approach can provide better opportunities for participation by local residents in
decision making.
Whether centralisation or decentralisation it does not necessarily mean the one is better than the
other. Of more significance is the justification and the expected resultant or impact for adopting a
particular system. Both forms of administration coexist in different political systems. According
to FAO (2002), centralisation is in response to the need for national unity, whereas
decentralisation is in response to demands for diversity.
Decentralisation policies are part of vigorous initiatives to support rural development hence its
concept has attracted a lot of debate on the global scene. There are two opposing thoughts that
fight over the concept of decentralisation as a tool for poverty reduction. Proponents of
decentralisation argue that by increasing the participation and decision making of those in lower
government levels and the communities, the provision of essential services can be accelerated.
This argument is in line with many donors and development agencies such as the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Their conviction is that decentralisation is instrumental
for poverty reduction in developing countries. They argument is that by decentralising service
delivery such as water and other natural resources, governments can cut down on expenditure.
However, the assumption with such drive is that the decentralisation process is facilitated within
the democratic environment leading to democratic decentralisation. Johnson (2001) defines
democratic decentralisation as meaningful authority devolved to local units of governance that
are accessible and accountable to the local citizenry, who enjoy full political rights and liberty. It
thus differs from the vast majority of earlier efforts at decentralization in developing areas,
which go back to the 1950s, and which were largely initiatives in public administration without
any serious democratic component (Johnson, 2001).
Critics of decentralisation on the other hand see no clear link between decentralisation and
poverty reduction. Their argument is that developing countries pursued decentralisation reforms
by default. A study report by Jütting et al (2004) notes that most of the developing countries are
characterised by post-conflict economies hence they share similar reform objectives. The authors
assert that countries registered no demonstrable pro-poor outcomes from specific projects that
were linked to decentralisation. Such countries according to the authors are all low income and
Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). The countries are characterised by low literacy levels
(under 50 per cent), poor infrastructure and high corruption levels (Jütting et al, 2004). The
argument is that an empowered community is the one that is socially, economically and
politically well informed.
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Decentralisation of water supply and sanitation services is well supported within the Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework. The second and third Dublin Principles
reflects this. The second principle acknowledges the need for water resources development and
management to be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy
markers at al levels. In its 2000 water supply and sanitation sector report the World Health
Organisation (WHO) acknowledges that the principles implies that decisions should be taken at
the lowest appropriate level with full public consultation and involvement of users in the
planning, implementation and management of water and sanitation projects. This is achieved
through functional decentralisation also called subsidiarity. Principle of subsidiarity calls for
informed decision making at lowest appropriate management levels through the enhanced
stakeholder participation It is worth noting that community management does not only mean
community participation as traditionally interpreted. According to WHO (2000), it is much more
than the provision of labour and the contribution of materials; rather, it is based upon the
concepts of ownership, control and responsibility for the development process. It is recognition
that the people in the community have not only the capability of managing their development
services, but also the basic responsibility for their success or failure (WHO, 2000).
The third principle on the other hand advocates for women’s central role in the provision,
management and safeguarding of water (Jaspers, 2003). One way of fulfilling this principle, is
the employment of gender mainstreaming strategies in water supply and sanitation projects just
like the rest of the development projects. The justification here is that traditionally women are
direct users of water resources. They are the first to feel the impact of whatever problems
associated with water and other natural resources. Through the decentralisation process, women
are therefore empowered to take leading role in all areas that concerns the management of water
resources. For this reason most of the social indicators regarding water supply and sanitation are
gender disaggregated. The only shortcoming however, is that focus is given to the presence of
women in the management structures rather than their level and quality of decision making.
2.2 Lessons From Other Countries
There are many triggers that justify water sector reforms in developing countries. The Zambia’s
National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (2004) affirm that the country’s reforms of the
water sector were a response to the poor performance of the institutions charged with the
responsibility of service provision. According to the council, poor performance is a result of a
number of factors including unclear roles and responsibilities of institutions, low investment in
the sector, low cost recovery and overstaffing with personnel not adequately qualified. The
council mentions some of the key problems that affected Zambia’s water sector prior to reform
but might as well be applicable to the rest of the developing countries as:
(a) Lack of a comprehensive sector policy or strategy to guide sector organisations in the
performance of their tasks.
(b) Unclear roles and responsibilities for the water sector leading either to duplication of efforts
or gaps in some areas.
(c) Continued deteriorating water supply and sanitation infrastructure due to poor maintenance
and lack of new investments, with most of the investment being provided by external support
agencies.
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(d) Erratic and insufficient funding through Government with little impact of government
institutions on the ground
(e) Inadequate or lack of stakeholder involvement and ownership by consumers and users.
(f) Inefficiencies by central governments and service providers in maintaining the water supply
and sanitation systems.
(g) Non-existence of comprehensive legislative framework for managing water (No sector policy
on water resources management and water supply and sanitation. The 1948 policy was
outdated and did not cover water supply and sanitation.
It is worth noting that the decentralisation process has its own challenges which justify the need
to learn from experiences. Rosensweig (2001) observes that given the number of countries that
are using decentralisation as the approach to reform their water supply and sanitation sectors,
there will continuously to be examples from which to draw lessons. He sees the need to continue
tracking the experimentation in decentralisation to see what lessons emerge. He suggests that this
can be achieved by asking the following questions: Which models work best in which situations?
What can we learn about scaling up successful approaches? The author concludes that
experiences can answer these and other questions that may be asked.
Many countries in Africa and beyond have gone ahead with the water and sanitation sector
reform process which is mainly characterised by decentralisation. Some of such countries
include El Salvador, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
A study report by Linares and Rosensweig (1999) reveals that in El Salvador, government
decentralised water and sanitation services in order to ensure efficient service delivery of rural
water supply and fulfilling the restructuring process of previously state-controlled services. Thus
mechanisms were put in place for this arrangement to be effected. Communities were to receive
technical support in the administration, operation and maintenance of water supply services. In
addition, participation of local communities was seen fundamental to good management and a
basic condition for sustainability and efficient management of water supply and sanitation
systems. However, according to Linares and Rosensweig (1999) the system faced a lot of
challenges. Each time the water supply system developed a fault, the communities looked up to
the municipalities. Unfortunately, the municipalities could not help due to lack of resources and
technical capacity. Most of the municipalities were under-funded and understaffed; hence
decentralisation was failing to produce the expected results.
In a bid to improve the rural water supply and sanitation services, the Mozambican Government
adopted the Framework of Delegated Management in order to give effect to the principle of
decentralisation. In the arrangement, municipalities were empowered to take over the
responsibility of providing rural water supply and sanitation services. According to Ibraimo
(1999), the process of decentralisation started during the time when the country had less human
and financial resources at the local level. The intersectoral coordination, where it existed, seemed
to work at the central level and not at the local level. The result was that the decentralisation of
service delivery was not effective. Ibraimo (1999) foresaw that this would cause problems at the
local level more especially with the tariff policy, where the social aspect should always prevail.
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In Nicaragua, service provision for RWSS service provision was marred by lack of coordination
and poor community participation and sense of ownership. This led the government to
decentralise its operation and maintenance services for RWSS to the municipal level. The
process started well but the municipalities took long time to give the communities their due
power and responsibilities in time. The communities started approaching the municipal
government (or Alcaldía as locally known) whenever they experienced problems with their water
supply system. According to Lockwood (2001), in the Nicaraguan law, ownership of the physical
infrastructure of the water supply system can be transferred from the state to the community only
when the particular community has acquired recognised legal status. Lockwood (2001) asserts
that attaining this status is possible only through formation of an Association or Cooperative
dedicated to the administration of the water supply system. In practice according to the author,
the process involves a symbolic transfer of the system to the community witnessed by the
municipal authorities and police, making the community de facto owner of its system. This
process is not easily undertaken hence prolongs the effective service delivery. However the
system has the positive attributes especially through proactive management and minimum
political interference. (Lockwood, 2001).
Inefficient service delivery and inadequate rural water supply and sanitation coverage drove the
Government of Tanzania into its sector reform bid. One of the guiding principles in the water
resources management in Tanzania is subsidiarity through decentralisation. Through this
principle the government decentralised the provision of rural water supply and sanitation services
to the district councils. However, Kabudi (2005) argues that governance of rural water supply in
Mainland Tanzania is not effective and does not ensure sustainability. The author observes that
the decentralisation policy provides for devolution of functions to the district level and ignores
the communities at the grass root level. On the contrary, the Government of Tanzania (2006)
through its water department asserts that communities are empowered through participatory
approaches which are facilitated by the decentralisation of water supply and sanitation service
delivery. At the community level the government cites the establishment of water users’
associations, NGOs and others that support and facilitate project initiation and implementation.
Nevertheless, the decentralised service provision is not fully effective due to a number of
shortcomings including weak financial and human capacity at district level; lack of a balanced
approach between rural water supply and rural sanitation and weak implementation and
mainstreaming of cross cutting issues (Government of Tanzania, 2006).
In Uganda, the responsibility for the delivery of basic services now lies at the District and Town
Council levels. This change was effected after the Government of Uganda noticed weak
institutional and legal arrangement for effective service provision. After adopting the
decentralisation policy, Negussie (2001) recounts that the government increased its amount of
funding to Districts via conditional and unconditional grants. According to the author, during the
1999/2000 financial year the government increased its conditional grants to districts for water
supply and sanitation through the Poverty Action Fund. Most of the money came through donor
funding and HIPC debt-relief. Negussie (2001) however, observes that in spite of a commitment
by the government to community managed water supply projects, there were still insufficient
institutional arrangements and human resources at district level to support community systems.
Three years down the line, a different experience emerged from Uganda’s RWSS service
provision. Effective service provision was challenged especially through inefficient financing
mechanisms as noted by Kimanzi (2004). The author mentions five major areas that impeded the
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country’s RWSS sector namely: budget cuts; erratic releases of funds; small budget ceilings;
insufficient investment in piped water systems for rural growth and inequalities in support to
marginalised districts.
The water sector reform for Zimbabwe brings in new lessons. The Government replaced the
Water Act of 1976 with a new Water Act of 1998 which led to the birth of Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (ZINWA) Act of 1998. The intention was to provide for the planning of the
optimum development and utilisation of the water resources of Zimbabwe (Derman et al., 2000).
The Zimbabwe sector reform process was designed to function through identifying the powers
that might or might not be granted to lower units. This process is in line with what Agrawal and
Ribot (1999) recommend. They propose that decentralisation must be characterised by the
powers that are granted to lower units. The assumption here is that favourable environment
would be created for local level participation and exercising of power.
One of the priority areas for the Government of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 has been
to uplift the standards of living of the rural population. Emphasis has been given to improvement
of the health status and living conditions of the rural communities through the promotion of
hygienic practices and the provision of adequate and safe water and sanitary facilities (National
Action Committee - NAC, 2005). However, according NAC (2005), the massive financial
injection into the development of water and sanitation facilities has not been matched with a
corresponding operation and maintenance package, community empowerment initiatives and
clear health and hygiene promotion strategies.
Decentralising the management of water and sanitation projects to Rural District Council (RDC)
level formed a central part of the implementation of the Integrated Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation Programme approach which was adopted in Zimbabwe. Community based
management (CBM) is the guiding philosophy where the management and ownership of the
installations is left in the hands of the end users. CBM also promotes ownership which plays a
role in the success of decentralised management, as elected councillors and local government
staff develops a pride and capacity in their work. (www2.irc.nl, viewed 2006).
According to the website (www2.irc.nl, viewed 2006), the problems of the past in Zimbabwe of
running district level projects with multiple budgets passed through the provincial offices of
separate government ministries to their district offices for implementation, lead to many
inefficiencies, and a lack of transparency. The move to decentralise project management was as
much to do away with these administrative difficulties. The advantage of decentralising
management of integrated projects to RDCs has become evident in practice as the result of their
increasing capacity, generated in turn by experience in project implementation (www2.irc.nl,
viewed 2006).
NAC (2005) notes that while the maintenance of latrines has been the responsibility of the users,
the maintenance of most rural water points was under a centralised maintenance system, called
the Three -Tier Maintenance System that has since been abandoned. The budget for operation
and maintenance (O&M) per water point has continued to fall from for example, an average of
Z$120 in 1988/89 to Z$47 in 1994/95 (NAC, 2005).
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First tier - The District Maintenance Team (DMT) are responsible for the overall O&M planning,
provision of tools and spare parts, supervision and monitoring of the second tier. The tier is also
responsible for the repair of major breakdowns assumed to be beyond the capacity of the second
tier. Members of this tier are DDF employees. Second tier - Pump minder is a local mechanic
selected by the community at Ward level. He/she is responsible for all mechanical operations of
the water supplies. It is assumed that the response by the Pump minder to breakdowns would be
much faster than the DMT as he/she is community based and has all the necessary tools and
spares to undertake all repairs. Third tier - Caretaker is one of the water point users, selected by
the community as a member of the water point committee (WPC). He/she is responsible for all
routine maintenance works with the assistance of the community itself. He/she acts as a link
between the community and the pump minder.
In his assessment of the Zimbabwe water and sanitation service delivery, Mathew (2002)
observes that decentralisation gave chance to capacity building, the means, ownership and the
motivation needed for sustainable development. He notes that the capacity that has been built in
the Zimbabwe’s water and sanitation sector is readily transferable to all other development
activities. Such capacity promotes broader development with whatever opportunities arise.
According to the author this is a very useful added value of decentralised water and sanitation
projects in the country which may not have been realised.
A research study by Ndembere (2006) noted that the beneficiary participation varied across the
project cycle of a World Vision funded Mukumbura water supply and sanitation project. The
study showed that there is generally high breakdown rate of boreholes but with low downtimes
compared to a three-tier operation and maintenance system. The provision of rural water supply
and sanitation according to Ndembere (2006) is generally marred by low human capacity
development coupled with unsatisfactory financing mechanisms. These observations if applied
across the country, questions the sustainability of the rural water supply and sanitation in
Zimbabwe.
2.3 Account of Water and Sanitation Sector Reform in Malawi
The drive towards water and sanitation sector reforms is not new in the history of Malawi.
Emphasis on this fact is given by Ferguson and Mulwafu (2004) in their recount that the Ministry
of Water Development has a long-standing engagement with community-based management, as
it has trained rural people in shallow well, borehole and piped water maintenance and sanitation
since the1980s. According to the authors however, these early programs focused much on
community involvement in maintenance and repair of water sources unlike those being promoted
today. The current trends are that communities are empowered to take leading role in natural
resources management through the concept of Community Based Natural Resources
Management (CBNRM). This includes the promotion of integrated water resources management
which calls for active participation and decision of stakeholders at all levels from policy makers
down to users (Jaspers, 2003).
These reforms form part of the paradigm shift on the scene of governance that Malawi has so far
gone through over the years. Cross and Kutengule (2001) observes that the move towards
decentralisation in Malawi is part of an unfolding process in that country that goes to the heart of
its political economy. Decentralisation in Malawi dates as far back as 1954 during the colonial
era when the first six District Councils in the then Nyasaland were established. In their historical
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account for the country, Geist and Ng'ethe (1997) recount that more districts were subsequently
established until a fairly comprehensive system of local government was in place.
As part of the gradual introduction of the participatory elective principle, more powers were
transferred from the chiefs to the local authorities. In addition, the non-elected District
Commissioner was replaced by an elected chairman. Gest and Ng’ethe (1997) record that this
essentially democratic institutional arrangement worked well until the mid 1960's when the
introduction of the single party state began to have negative consequences on participation.
The new political arrangement led to the line ministries running the affairs of the districts since
the District Development Committee (DDC) did not have any corporate status and therefore was
not a local government body. The local authorities lost control over district resources; they had
no staff of their own, no revenue raising power and there was no accountability to local
populations. On their part the lower level committees, i.e. the Area Action Committees and the
Village Action Committees were simply lower level extensions of the party machinery (Gest and
Ng’ethe, 1997). Later the Malawi Government in the year 1993 adopted the District Focus
concept for Rural Development.
With the advent of multi-partyism in 1994 a number of changes were made to the district focus
institutions. Gest and Ng’ethe (1997) observed that, at the national level the responsibility for co-
ordinating the decentralised institutions was removed from the Office of the President and
Cabinet to the Ministry of Local Government. Since then the ministry has been responsible for
policy making and programming of decentralisation against centralised system of government.
During that time the services of water supply and sanitation were centrally coordinated in
isolation. The Ministry of Works and Supplies was responsible for water supply while sanitation
services provision were coordinated by the Ministry of Health.
The system of rendering central management to rural water supply was justifiable since most of
the water supply facilities were deemed government property and the technologies used were
very complex for local users. With increased number of water points in rural areas and lack of
manpower and skilled personnel, coupled with insufficient funding and transport problems
government lacked sufficient capacity to timely act on the reported breakdowns. According to
Malawi Government (2000), this led to long downtime of water facilities. In fact there was
generally poor service delivery. It was therefore seen important for the government to facilitate
water and sanitation sector reform as one way of improving its quality of service delivery.
Through donor support the reform process was indeed undertaken mainly through the
decentralisation process. Thus in its bid for sector reform, the government employed a hybrid of
administrative, fiscal and market decentralisation. Administrative decentralisation is noted when
the central government transferred the planning, financing and management of water supply and
sanitation service to district assemblies and communities.
The Administrative decentralisation appears in its three forms of deconcentration, delegation and
devolution. The sector ministries still maintain their district personnel within their administrative
framework for some of the functions that were not assigned to district assemblies. This is a
manifestation of deconcentration at work. District assemblies have not yet fully absorbed the
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sector human resources. The establishment of three regional water boards implies that delegation
was effected. Regional water boards2 were assigned the responsibility of providing water supply
and sanitation services in urban and market centres in the three regions of Malawi. Through this
development, the number of water boards increased from the original two (Blantyre and
Lilongwe Water Boards) to five water boards (including Northern, Central and Southern
Regional Water Boards). Rural water supply and sanitation service provision is primarily
characterised by devolution whereby government assigned the local authorities with
responsibility of natural resources management including the provision of water supply and
sanitation services in rural communities.
Fiscal decentralisation was effected when government entrusted the local authorities to manage
the expenditure and revenue collection (Malawi Government, 1998). In the same vein,
government has from time to time been engaging NGOs and private sector institutions in
providing some water supply functions including construction works and capacity building. The
same applies to the local authorities who in all cases engage private contractors in borehole
drilling and construction and occasionally in gravity fed schemes. In most cases the local
authorities capably handle the capacity building component. In general, in their bid to achieve
efficient service provision the local authorities have some of their services assigned to the private
sector. These include catering and lodging, an arrangement that forms part of the economic or
market decentralisation which also characterise the Malawi’s decentralisation process.
The decentralisation process in Malawi involved institutional adjustments at district and
community level. The district level structures include the Full Assemblies (Water Councillors,
Traditional Authorities and Members of Parliament). It is the main organ for overseeing all legal,
socio and economic concerns in the district. The district executive committee (DEC) on the hand
provides technical, policy and sectoral guidelines in district level services and development
initiatives. Apart from these structures the Local Government Act of 1998 provides for the
establishment of other structures deemed necessary by the full assembly. Reporting to the DEC
is the area executive committee (AEC) which comprises government extensions workers from all
government institutions. It provides technical and operational backstopping to community based
decentralisation structures. Among the community structures are the area development
committees (ADC) at Traditional Authority level and village development committees (VDC) at
Group Village Level. Other functional committees are established to undertake required
functions of various sectors in the country which include that of water and sanitation.
In 2002, Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development (MIWD) developed a three year Action
Plan (2003/2006) which prioritised the implementation of effective decentralisation as one of its
nine strategic areas (Malawi Government, 2002). The plan acknowledged that the global,
regional and national and indeed the sector initiatives would have impact on its operations.
Initiatives included: the Millennium Development Goals agreed at the United Nations; the
Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan and Protocol on Shared Water Courses agreed
by Southern Africa Development Community (SADC); the Vision 2020, a National Long Term
Development Perspective for Malawi and the Malawi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (MPRS).
2 Water boards public utilities responsible for providing water supply services in urban areas & market centres
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Basing on the strategies and targets contained in the above protocols and plans, Malawi
Government through its decentralisation policy outlined some of the functions that the Ministry
of Water Development could likely devolve. The ministry was requested as a cabinet directive to
review and identify functions and responsibilities that could be devolved to the various district
assemblies3. Under the water sector the Decentralisation Policy clearly outlined functions that
could be devolved to the district assemblies. Those functions include the provision and
maintenance of water supplies, which embrace boreholes; gravity fed piped water systems and
protected wells (Malawi Government, 2003).
The need for the district and CBM approach to rural water supply and sanitation services was
well facilitated within integrated water resources management (IWRM) drive as highlighted in
the National Water Policy. It was deemed essential to undertake the provision of water supply
and sanitation services through a coordinated manner while also ensuring the sustainability of
water resources through environmental protection. Thus the water and sanitation sector was
established through an integration of water supply, sanitation and catchment protection.
The leading sector institution is the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development (MIWD). The
ministry is responsible for policy issues and setting up of sector guidelines. This is done through
sector wide consultations i.e. with other government ministries, donors, NGOs, private sector,
community, political leaders among others. That process led to the formulation of the National
Water Policy (NWP) and the National Sanitation Policy (NSP). The ministry therefore make sure
that the district level implementation of projects is done in full consultation of the two policies in
addition to other relevant sector guidelines. Other sector institutions are Ministry of Health and
Population (MOHP) and Ministry of Social and Community Services (MSCS). Surprisingly the
arrangement does not incorporate the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Natural Resources (MENR)
to uphold the functions of catchment protection.
3 District Assemblies are the constituents of the local government system also called Local Authorities
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 18
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 STUDY AREA
3.1 Location
The study was conducted in Thyolo District which is in the southern part of Malawi; a
landlocked country situated in the southern part of Africa. Malawi falls within geographic
coordinates of 13 30 South and 34 00 East. The country has a total boarder length of 2,881 km,
1,569 km with Mozambique (south and east), 837 km with Zambia (west) and 475 km with
Tanzania (north-east). Malawi is 118,480 square kilometres in area comprising land area of
94,080 square kilometres and water area of 24,400 square kilometres. Administratively the
country is divided into three regions: north, central and southern; with 28 districts.
Thyolo district is situated within the Shire Highlands, 47 kilometres to the east from Blantyre
City, Malawi’s commercial capital. It is located on latitude 16 04 South and longitude 35 07
East. The district shares boundaries with districts of Blantyre, Mulanje, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu,
Nsanje. It also shares an international boundary with Milanje district of the Republic of
Mozambique. Refer to Figure 3.4 (page 23). The district has a total land area of 1,715 square
kilometres.
3.2 Population Distribution
Thyolo has a population of about 575,000 which yields 335 people per sq. km. The population is
distributed across the 11 Traditional Authorities as tabulated below. The majority in the district
are young people representing 62% of the population is young (under 24 years of age). The
population below 14 years comprises 42 % of the district population, followed by the 25 – 44 age
brackets (22%) then the 15 - 24 age groups (21%). (Refer to Figure 3.1).
Population By Age Proportion (%)
1-14
42%
15-24
21%
25-44
22%
45-64
10%
65 above
5%
1-14 15-24 25-44 45-64 65 above
Figure 3:1 Population Distribution by Age (sources: National Statistics Office, 2005)
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 19
3.3 Topography
There are three major natural regions in the District. The regions are the rift valley scarp, the hill
zone and the plain. The rift valley scarp is a zone of steeply sloping land, typical of the Thyolo
Escarpment. The Shire Highlands and Thyolo escarpment form the edge to the Shire valley,
which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The altitude varies between 300m and 3500m above the
sea level. The hill zone is the predominant relief feature in most of the Thyolo south. Thyolo
Mountain is 1500m above sea level. The plains dominate the central and northern parts of the
District. They lie at about 600 m above the sea level and they constitute the largest area of
agricultural land.
3.4 Water Resources
Water resources in Thyolo district are characterised by rivers, streams, swamps, springs and
groundwater aquifers. The district has most of its rivers flowing from Mulanje and Thyolo
Mountains. Ruo River flows from Mulanje Mountain. The river forms the boundary of Thyolo
with Milanje district in Mozambique. Thyolo Mountain is the source to Nsuwadzi, Nkhate and
Maperera Rivers. All the rivers flow down the escarpment to Eastern Bank of Shire River
situated within the Shire valley. Other rivers are Thuchila and Lichenza.
Water resources development is mainly done for domestic and agricultural use through the
exploitation of both surface and groundwater sources. Domestic water supply is accessed
through gravity fed systems and borehole hand pumps. The district has unutilised springs. Some
of them have the potential of better serving the communities with domestic water supply.
Agricultural use of water is characterised by irrigation whose technologies include treadle
pumps, motorised pump-based surface irrigation and sprinkler. But majority of the people (about
97% of the smallholder farmers) use watering canes. The present irrigated area is 74.5 Hectares
compared to total potential area of 131.7 Hectares. The potential water sources for irrigation are
the rivers and some wells and dams (Thyolo Socioeconomic profile, 2005).
Water resources are also used for fishing. There are two types of fishing that take place in the
district namely; cupturery fishing and Aquaculture or fish farming. Cupturery fishing takes place
in naturally occurring water bodies such as rivers. Fish farming is done through raising fish in
the constructed fish ponds. The district socioeconomic profile identifies the major sources of
cupturery fishing grounds in the district as the natural water bodies in form of rivers. There are
15 main rivers used for fishing. The rivers are Nsuwadzi, Lifuluni, Namadzi, Luchenza,
Thuchila, Mulolo, Chiponde, Umbadzi, Michuzu, Maperera, Mvumoni, Chimvu, Nansadi,
Nsikidzi and Ruo. According to the environmental survey conducted in the year 2000, most of
these natural water bodies are less productive as regards to fishing activities except Ruo River.
The district adheres to the fishing policy which aims at monitoring and controlling fishing
activities to enhance the quality of life for fishing communities. This is achieved by increasing
harvest within safe and sustainable yields and promoting aquaculture as a source of income while
supplementing fish supply from natural waters. The Fisheries Conservation and Management Act
of 1997 empowers the local communities to actively participate in conservation and management
of aquatic resources and incorporation of other options like aquaculture (Fish Farming) in upland
areas.
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 20
3.5 Economic Profile
Malawi’s economy is predominantly agricultural, with about 90% of the 12.3 million people
living in rural areas. Agriculture accounts for nearly 36% of GDP and 80% of export revenues
championed by tobacco with over 60% of the total country’s exports. The economy depends on
substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor
nations. The country is challenged in many ways including developing a market economy,
improving education, addressing environmental problems, dealing with the rapidly growing
problem of HIV/AIDS and improving the social and health services like sustainable water supply
and good sanitation.
3.6 Livelihood Activities
Thyolo district has about 20% of its area covered with forest reserves and tea estates while 45%
is available for both urban and rural settlement and smallholder farming. However, its climatic
condition and rainfall favours the growing of fruits and vegetables which find ready market in
Blantyre and Lilongwe Cities including many other trading centres in the southern and central
regions. About 93% of the rural communities in the district are engaged in smallholder farming
while the remaining 7% is engaged in providing skilled and non-skilled labour in tea estates and
trading. The following crops are grown by smallholder farmers: maize, groundnuts, sorghum,
pigeon peas, beans, bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava, soybeans, cowpeas, tobacco, chilies,
vegetables, millet and field Peas. These crops are grown for both cash and food. Main crops
grown in estates are tea, coffee, macadamia nuts tobacco and are mainly for commercial
purposes.
3.7 Political Profile
The district has three active political parties; these are Democratic Progressive Party (DDP),
United Democratic Front (UDF) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP). The district has seven
constituencies as shown in Table 3.1 below.
Registered Voters in 2004 Presedential and Parliamentary
Elections
Thyolo North
20%
Thyolo West
8%
Thyolo East
15%Thyolo Central
22%
Thyolo South
West
10%
Thyolo South
12%
Thyolo Thava
13%
Figure 3:2 Registered Voters in the Seven Constituencies of Thyolo District
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 21
3.8 Soils
The geological formation for Thyolo is characterised by red clay soils and granular metamorphic
rocks. There are two major soil types in the District. Ferruginous soils occur from the central to
the northern part of the District. These are red soils with a sandy clay loam top soil, weak to
moderately acidic. The soils are suitable for agriculture. Most of the Southern part of the District
is characterised by ferruginous soils and lithosols. The lithosols are shallow and stony mainly
occurring on steep slopes.
3.9 Land Tenure System
Land tenure in the District land falls under three categories:- Public, Private and customary as
provided for under the Land Act of 1995. The majority of land in the district falls under
customary land covering a total of 148013 hectares representing 86%. Public land comprises of
8444 hectares representing 4.9% while private land covers 15444 hectares representing 9.1 %.
Land is categorised as customary, public and private. Customary land is under the control of
traditional leaders namely, Chiefs, Group Village Headmen and Village Headmen. Customary
land is passed on in succession from one generation to another, in order of importance of male
relatives by birthright and marriage. Traditional leaders settle Land disputes except in some
cases where these are refereed to the District Commissioner. Customary land is mainly used for
subsistence farming. The average land holding for the smallholder is 0.6 hectares. Government
holds this type of land on behalf of the population. It covers such areas as where there are
government buildings, roads, the railway line, district council facilities and national monuments.
Up to 4.6% of total land in the district falls in under this category. Land under private ownership
is either freehold or leasehold. Religious institutions and the tea estates mostly own freehold
land. Leasehold land is the land leased to individuals, institutions and corporations for a period
of 21-99 years.
3.10 Education and Literacy Level
Thyolo district is one of the districts that record low literacy levels. The socioeconomic profile
for the district indicates that only 58.5% of the people are able to read and write. This proportion
includes 66.3% literacy rate for males and 51.6% for females. This is consistent with national
literacy rate of 58.0 %, with males and females at 64.0 and 51.0 % respectively (Malawi
Government, 2005). The profile further indicates that about 32.6% of the population aged 5 and
above has never attended school in the district. Only 0.2% has university education while 6.1%
has secondary education and 61.1% went through primary school education.
The district has 187 public primary schools with an average of 165,000 pupils as in 2006. The
primary school enrolment for girls is generally low at 49%. Primary education is marred by poor
and inadequate learning facilities coupled with low teacher/pupil ratio of 1 teacher against 93
pupils. The district socioeconomic profile shows the average classroom coverage is 117 pupils
against one class room while that of desks is 13 pupils against each desk.
3.11 Climate
Thyolo has a tropical savannah climate. The district experiences three annual seasons, namely
the hot – dry season, the hot – wet season and the cool – dry season. The hot - dry weather is
experienced from September to November, the hot – wet season is experienced from December
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 22
to May, whereas the cool - dry season falls between June and August. Temperature and rain
distribution in the district is influenced by altitude.
The hilly zone receives annual rainfall of between 1200 – 1600mm while the plains receive
between 800 – 1200mm. According to meteorological data at Bvumbwe Research Station, the
wettest months are December and January when the average of more than 250mm rainfall is
recorded in various parts of the district. August and September are the driest months. The highest
mean maximum temperatures of 27.5 degrees Celsius are experienced along the lower Ruo
Valley in October. The rift valley scarp experiences a mean maximum temperature of 20
degrees Celsius. The lowest average annual temperatures occur during the months of June and
July.
3.12 Communication
Communication in Malawi is characterised by road network, navigation, postal,
telecommunication and internet services in addition to publication, radio and television. Thyolo
district being completely land rocked does not have navigation services. However, the rest of the
communication services apply in the district.
The district has a total of 624.3 km of road network which comprises of one Main road linking
Blantyre and Mozambique boarder through Thyolo; five Secondary roads, 14 District roads, five
Tertiary roads and 34 Feeder roads. All road categories are maintained by National Roads
Authorities (NRA) except feeder roads which are maintained by the District Assembly.
Table 3:1 Road Coverage in Thyolo district
Road Classification Type Number Coverage
(km) % coverage Bridges Culverts
Main Road Bitumen 1 47.0 8 2 44
Secondary Earth 5 113 18 4 73
District Earth 14 30 5 6 81
Tertiary Earth 5 53 8 15 360
Feeder Earth 34 381.3 61 38
Total 624.3 100 65 598
Source: Thyolo Public Works Office, Thyolo District Assembly, 2007
Thyolo District is accessible through Internet and email provided by Malawi Telecommunication
Limited. Internet services in within offices points at Thyolo District headquarters, Luchenza
Town Assembly and Tea Estates.
There are two main daily publications of newspapers available in the District. These are The
Daily Times and The Nation. There are also four Weeklies namely The Weekend Nation, Sunday
Nation, Sunday Times and Malawi News.
Thyolo district is covered by 10 radio stations and the only local television station, Malawi
Television. However, others (figures not known) have access to digital satellite television
(DSTV). The main radio stations are MBC Radio 1, MBC Radio II FM, Radio 101 FM, Capital
FM, Radio Maria, Radio Islam, Joy Radio, MIJ and Zodiac.
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 23
The demographic and household survey of 2004 revealed the general accessibility of both print
and electronic media in form of newspaper and radio. Results of the survey revealed a clear
disparity for men and women. Details are shown in Table 3.3.
Table 3:2 Access to Print and Electronic Media
Reads newspaper
once a week
Watches TV
once a week
Listens to
Radio once a
week
All three
media
No media
Men 20.9 8.4 93.3 6.4 6.3
Women 11.4 5.6 60.0 2.4 38.6
Source: Demographic and Household Survey 2004
The District has postal services that include courier mail transfer, ordinary mail, registered mail
money transfer and telegram. In total there are 8 Post Offices and 6 Postal Agencies. Telephone
services are provided through ground and cell phone technologies. The former is provided by the
Malawi Telecommunication Services (MTL) while the latter are provided by the only two
mobile service providers, Celtel Limited and Telekom Netoworks Limited.
Table 3:3 Coverage of telephone landlines in the Thyolo district
T/A Exchange Pay phones Business phones Residential phones
Nchilamwera Thyolo B 5 200 73
Nsabwe Thekerani D 1 8 8
Bvumbwe Bvumbwe C 8 112 212
Chimaliro Luchenza C 5 81 48
Changata Makwasa C 5 28 43
Kapichi Khonjeni D 1 6 1
Total 25 435 385
Source: Thyolo District Assembly
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 24
Thyolo District
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TA CHIMALIRO
TA NCHILAMWERA
TA MPHUKA
TA THOMASI
TA THUKUTA
THYOLO
NCHIMA
MAKUNGWA
THEKERANI
MIKOLONGWE
TA BVUMBWE
TA MBAWELA
TA CHANGATA
TA NSABWE
TA KHWETHEMULE
THUKUTA
MPHEMBERE
KHONJENI
BVUMBW E
TA KAPICHI
710000
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8200000
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8210000
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8230000
8230000
8240000
8240000
8250000
8250000
Thyolo District- Traditional Authorities
Roads
Main Roa d
Se co nd ary Roa d
Tertiary Roa d
Dist rict R oad
Villag es×
Tra ditiona l Au tho rities
Main centres
Dist rict%U
Tra ding Cen tre#
Rive rs
Con tou rs
Legend
5 0 5 10 Kilo me te rs
Figure 3:3 Location of Thyolo District
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 25
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA COLLECTION
4.1 Introduction
Any research is about finding out what is not already known or to gather evidence (Taflinger,
1996). It is a systematic and well purposed approach of discovering the unknown detailed
information of a specific concern. Research can as well be conducted merely to prove a fact that
is already known or accepted without any detailed analytical information. The information
obtained from research is vital for establishing the basis of accepting facts that guide in decision
making. Many decisions in the modern world are largely dependent upon the information
collected through research which could either be directed or non-directed. Taflinger (1996)
defines directed research as the one done with a specific purpose in mind. It deals with a specific
purpose and one decides what to try next. The current research falls under this category. On the
other hand, Taflinger (1996) describe on-directed research to be about finding out things for the
sheer fun of finding them out without a specific outcome in mind.
4.2 Research Design
Research design can be defined as a plan for a study that guides in the collection and analysis of
data. It is used as a blueprint that should be adhered to throughout a study period. There are two
types of categories of research methods, approaches or data. They are qualitative and quantitative
ones. Although they may differ in their orientation and application, both categories complement
one another. The current study adopted both categories. It was acknowledged that qualitative
approach is more concerned with richness, texture and feeling of raw data. Data collected under
this category cut across all research objectives. It evolved around the functionality of various
institutional structures in the water and sanitation sector. Quantitative data on the other hand
focussed on quantifiable data in terms of numbers and measures that can be statistically
analysed. In the study this included number of water and sanitation facilities in addition to the
fact that the entire research process went through statistical analysis. Detailed research design is
presented in Annex 1.0.
4.3 Data Collection Methods and Tools
The study used two sources of data. The primary source involved field data collection while
secondary sources included literature study from published work. Annex 1.0 shows detailed data
collection methods and their respective tools.
4.3.1 Primary Data Collection Methods
Data was collected through structured and semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions
and observations. The study took a period of 15 weeks (from January to April 2007) out of which
12 weeks were committed to field data collection.
(a) Closed Interviews
The tool that was used for interviews was a questionnaire with both closed and open-ended
questions. A total of 30 self administered questionnaires were distributed to government
extension workers. The respondents were first briefed about the purpose and objectives of the
study. All questionnaires were completed through simple tabulations. (Refer to Appendix 2.0).
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 26
The extension workers included 22 HSAs, three CDAs, two WMAs, two Water Assistants and
one Forestry Assistant. The questionnaire was aimed at capturing information on water and
sanitation details of their catchment areas; support that they receive from the district and their
experiences when supporting CBM. Information that was collected cut across all research
objectives i.e. institutional framework, planning, implementation, financing and support to
community based management.
(b) Open-ended Interviews
Interviews were carried out with key informants. The information collected was vital for
supporting literature, documented and collected information through other methods. At national
level, respondents included senior government officials from ministry headquarters and MIWD
regional offices. The information that was collected centred on institutional arrangement for the
water and sanitation sector in addition to policy and general sector guideline. The ministries
include Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development (MIWD); Ministry of Health and
Population (MOHP); Ministry of Social and Community Services (MSCS) and Ministry of Local
Government and Community Development (MLGCD). At district level most of the key
informants were from the District Assembly secretariat apart from others from Police, Judiciary
and two private service providers. People interviewed at the secretariat included the Director of
Planning and Development (DPD), M&E Officer, Director of Public Works, District
Environmental Officer, Director of Finance and Human Resources Manager. It was planned that
the District Commissioner be interviewed but he was reported to be outside the country.
Eight DCT members were interviewed using a checklist. Three main categories of information
were sought from them. Firstly, it was about their perception of decentralisation. Secondly, it
was about the role of DCT in the district planning, implementation, monitoring, financing and
evaluation process. Thirdly the interviews touched on how the DCT supports CBM activities and
extension services. This part included their views and perceptions on CBM structures. It was also
planned that one of the DCT meetings could be attended by the researcher. Unfortunately during
the field study between February and April, no meeting was conducted.
Project managers from five NGOs were interviewed. All NGOs that were selected are
implementing water supply and sanitation projects in the district. Interviews covered three
sections which sought to capture data on their respective projects, their collaboration with DCT
and their perceptions on community based management.
Telephone and emails were also used for collecting data from key informants on various issues.
The usefulness of this method was its convenience since any information could easily be
requested immediately when it was needed. The limiting factor was however, costs in the case of
phones and sometimes delayed response to emails.
(c) Focus Group Discussions
Focus group discussions were conducted in 20 villages from within 15 group villages randomly
sampled from the 11 Traditional Authorities. Group sizes ranged between 10 to 15 people
including men, women and the youth. A question guide was used during the process. (Refer to
Appendix 3.0). During the discussions in each village four groups were identified. The first
group included all users including men, women who are not in any water supply and sanitation
related committee and the youth. The second group was consisted of men while the third was
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 27
consisted of women. Finally the fourth group consisted of the youth. Discussions were primarily
based on their involvement and participation when developing water supply and sanitation plans;
when undertaking water supply and sanitation activities and operation and maintenance of water
supply sanitation.
Focus group discussions were also held with community structures including 5 ADCs, 16 VDCs,
20 VHWCs and 20 WPCs. (Refer to Appendix 4.0)
(d) Observations
Observations were made both in the field and in the offices. In the field, observations were
basically on sanitation and technical status of water supply and sanitation facilities. This was
done during visits to villages while applying the Three-L survey principles of Look, Listen and
Learn. Notes were being taken in the process. At the district offices observations were made on
the number of people coming to follow up their project requests at the DPD’s office, time taken
for them to be assisted and type of assistance they got. At the registry and the rest of the offices
critical observations were made on record keeping in computers, filing system, and the time it
took to retrieve the solicited information. During the course of observations, questions were
generated and were taken up with the responsible officers during the interviews.
4.3.2 Secondary Data Collection Methods
Secondary data supported data for assessing the effectiveness of institutional framework, district
development planning, development, financing and CBM. Thus it supported the fulfilment of all
the research objectives. Data was collected through the study of various documents including
progress and evaluation reports, minutes of meetings, financial records and manuals. At the
District Assemblies minutes of the Interim Full Assembly, DEC and DCT meetings were
accessed. The district development plan, social economic profile and sector reports were
accessed in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) office. At the finance office, vouchers, sector
budgets and expenditure reports were accessed in addition to details of funding from various
institutions especially Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), Oxfam and European Union.
At the district water office, copies of progress and evaluation reports for the Community Water,
Sanitation and Health (COMWASH) Project were studied. Studies were also made at Thyolo
police station where records of theft cases of water supply facilities were obtained. The records
included specific items that were stolen, recovered and those that were not recovered in addition
to details of suspects, where theft cases occurred. Prosecution details were also available and
were verified at the Magistrate Court.
Information was also collected on sanitation and waterborne diseases. This was collected from
the district environmental health. Information included details of recorded cases between 2002
and 2006. Details of water and sanitation related diseases were also collected and this includes
malaria. Additional information was randomly colleted from various satellite health centres in
the district.
4.4 Sampling Methods
The sizes of the samples were influenced by a number of factors that included costs, time and
ease of application for best results. Both probability and non probability methods were applied in
Towards Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision. Has Decentralisation Helped?
Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 28
the process. Probability methods included multistage, simple random and cluster sampling. The
non probability method included purposive sampling.
The multistage sampling involved clustering the district into existing Traditional Authorities
which were further clustered into group villages. Two group villages were randomly selected
under each Traditional Authority. Two villages were then randomly selected within each of the
selected group villages. Studies were therefore done in 11 TAs, 22 group villages and 44
villages. Water points were stratified into four zones already demarcated by the district water
office. Within each zone, 15 water points were visited. In total, 35 boreholes, 20 standpipes and
5 shallow wells were studied.
Purposive sampling was applied to identify key informants at the ministry headquarters, regional
offices and the district. At the district level key informants were identified as heads of
government institutions, parastatals, NGOs implementing water supply and sanitation activities,
private institutions and section heads at the District Assembly secretariat. At community level
this included the identification of Traditional Authorities, Group Village Headmen, Village
Headmen, Area Development Committees (ADC), Village health and Water Committees
(VHWC), Water Point Committees (WPC) and users. Other key informants were extension
workers including Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA), Water Monitoring Assistants (WMA)
and Community Development Assistants (CDA). Members of parliament were targeted but none
was interviewed because the national assembly was in session during the time of study.
Table 4.2 below shows sampling details of the study.
Table 4:1 Sampling details
Targeted category Total # Sample size % of total Remark
Ministry headquarters 4 4 100 Done
District Executive Committee 56 12 23 Done
District Coordination Team 10 10 100 Done
Extension Workers 262 30 11 Done
Community Leaders 489 20 4 Done
Area Development Committees 11 5 45 Done
Village Development Committees 65 16 25 Done
Village Health & Water Committees 413 20 5 Done
Water points (borehole, taps and s/wells) 2286 60 3 Done
Water Point Committees 1147 20 2 Done
User Group (Villages) 413 44 11 Done
Members of Parliament 7 Nil N/A Not done
NGOs and Government Projects 5 5 100 Done
Private Service Providers (b/hole drillers) 3 3 100 Done
4.5 Data Analysis and Interpretation
Qualitative data was analysed through thematic approach. Themes were generated for the
research objectives. Data collected was then categorised in line with relevant themes. These
included institutional framework; helpfulness of the structures in addressing some of the existing
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water supply and sanitation challenges; level of both upward and downward accountability
within the institutional framework; level of stakeholder involvement in planning and
implementation of water supply and sanitation projects; measure of district level coordination in
the planning, implementing and monitoring; district level management of finances; identification
of funds by the district; financial management and accountability; level of support to
communities; level and capacity of extension service; extent of decision making at community
level; community demand for water supply and sanitation services; Operation, Maintenance and
safeguarding of water supply and sanitation facilities and demand for accountability from the
district.
Quantitative data was analysed by using excel spreadsheet, manual tarrying and calculations.
This largely required the use of calculator, computer and stationery. Microsoft Excel was
identified as the readily available software package for data compilation and analysis. For each
response or data entry, a score was created. Summation for scores was made for each and
frequency based inference was made.
In order to derive the output of the decentralised service delivery of RWSS, SWOT analysis and
comparative tables were used. SWOT is an ellipsis for Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and
Opportunities. In the analysis, strengths were identified as helpful attributes that should be
upheld if the objectives are to be achieved. Weaknesses are harmful attributes to the achievement
of the objectives. Opportunities are external accessible conditions that are helpful if taken into
account. Threats are possible external conditions that are harmful to the achievement of the
objectives. Interpretation of results was mainly based on conclusions from the temporal
comparative process. Comparative tables were used by drawing a summary of the initial
condition of generated issues prior to the decentralisation of RWSS. They were then drawn
against current situation. For each compared condition, a remark of success, no change or failure
was made.
4.6 Challenges
The study was challenged in a number of ways. Firstly, the field study was done during the rainy
season when most roads become impassable due to heavy rains. This in some cases led to
postponement of scheduled community meetings hence delaying the data collection process. The
final data that was collected by the 30th of April 2007 had gaps and another data collection trip to
Malawi was inevitable. Secondly, some NGOs were not ready to disclose the amount of money
used for water supply and sanitation development in the district. As a result it was difficult to
determine the actual investment in the RWSS sector.
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CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Institutional Framework
An institutional framework was reviewed right from national level down to community level
with a focus on RWSS development.
5.1.1 Sector Institutions and Key Stakeholders
The Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development (MIWD) is the leading institution in the
Malawi’s water and sanitation sector. Other sector institutions are Ministry of Health and
Population (MOHP) and Ministry of Social and Community Services (MSCS). The three
institutions formulate and foster sector policy guidelines. They take lead in formulating policies
and sector norms that guide the District Assemblies in their operations including the planning
and implementation of their development activities. Thus at times, national level consultative
forums are convened to seek sector wide input on sector development. The forums attract the
participation of relevant stakeholders including Local Authorities, Community representatives,
service providers (water utilities, NGOs, academic institutions, private sector and donors).
Through this consultative process, the National Water Policy was developed in the year 2005
followed by the revised final draft of the National Sanitation Policy in 2006. The study however
noted that the forums are not regular, hence they are organised as deemed necessary.
The last meeting was conducted between 13th and15th November 2006 where various players in
the water and sanitation sector in Malawi made presentations on lessons learnt while
implementing their water supply and sanitation projects. According to draft notes from UNICEF
(2007), major lessons learnt included community response to demand driven approach, cost
recovery, inadequate sector coordination, weak technical capacity of district structures,
inadequate personnel in the district water offices, environmental degradation a challenge to
sustainability of water resources, theft and vandalism of water facilities and unsatisfactory and
duplication of activities in the districts. The study did not manage to get the collective
recommendations on the issues since the final workshop report was note yet produced.
The study noted that currently there is no permanent thematic group or secretariat at national
level that is responsible for regular monitoring to oversee the meeting of national targets. This
responsibility is undertaken by the key sector ministries. The justification for this scenario is that
there is no implementation at the national level and this is based on three assumptions. The first
assumption is that District Assemblies through the District Coordination Teams (DCT) are well
positioned to fully enforce the compliance of policy guidelines and technical standards. The
second assumption is that the districts have sufficient capacity to effectively undertake the
responsibility. The third assumption is that district assemblies have consolidated databanks that
are regularly updated as part of the district monitoring and evaluation system. In short, the idea is
not to betray the intended purpose of the decentralisation process.
What is worth noting is that MIWD still maintains its regional offices unlike the other two sector
ministries. Regional offices are responsible for other functions that were not devolved to the
districts such as water resources management, hydrology, and regulatory functions. The study
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observed that the regional offices have well trained technical staff. Hence they provide technical
backstopping to the districts when required. This has been the case during the implementation of
COMWASH Project. Engineers from Regional Offices (south) were involved in the supervision
of major construction works which could not be effectively handled at the district level
5.1.2 The District Assembly
At district level there is the Assembly4 which is composed of elected members called Councillors
who represent each ward of the Assembly. It is headed by the Chairman of Assembly elected
from among the Councillors. The Assembly is also attended by Members of Parliament and
Traditional Authorities within the area of district assembly’s jurisdiction but they have no voting
powers.
Since 2004 to date, Malawi has had no councillors. In the absence of Councillors, Thyolo district
assembly established Interim Full Assembly chaired by the District Commissioner. Its
membership covers all heads of departments from the Assembly secretariat, government
ministries, Members of Parliament and Traditional Authorities. The Interim Full Assembly does
not have legal status but it is very instrumental for approving budgets and facilitating
development activities in the district. Some of its recent outputs are the compilation of the
district socioeconomic profiles; village action plans (VAP) and the production of a 3 year district
development plan (DDP) for 2007/2009 period.
The study established that in the absence of Ward Councillors, the development of VAPs was
facilitated by government extension workers who normally do it within a specified limited
period. According to the village communities, this did not provide them with ample time to
discuss their problems as they would with the Ward Councillors. During the interviews, the DEC
members and extension workers indicated the same. The study takes note that community
planning need not to be a one time activity; therefore without the Ward Councillors it may not be
completely ruled out that the quality of planning is compromised to certain extent.
5.1.3 Assembly District Secretariat
The secretariat of the district assembly is headed by a District Commissioner. It is the main
organ for implementing policies at the district assembly level under which all sector policies and
functions are executed. The secretariat of the district assembly has four departments namely:
Administration, Finance, Planning and Works. The departments are managed by directors and
officers who are expected to be university graduates with degrees.
During the time of study, the assembly had the position of Director of Finance (DOF) held by
acting officers. The position has been vacant for over a year now. The DOF is supposed to be a
degree holder and is supposed to have two assistants reporting to him, one for Development and
the other for Revenue. Both positions are also supposed to be filled by degree holders but they
are vacant. Below the two Assistants there is supposed be two Assistant Accountants, one for
Revenue and the other for Development. Both positions are occupied and the one for Revenue is
the acting DOF. Finally there are six Accounts Clerks.
4 The Assembly is the forum of elected members from district wards who are called ‘Ward Councilors’ or Members
of the Assembly.
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Capacity gaps like these reduce the efficiency and productivity of the district assemblies.
According to the study, the inadequacy of human resources leads to unbearable workload on the
available personnel but also it leads to delayed and inconsistent decision making. Basing on the
fact that the position of DOF is being handled by a second level junior officer, the study
questions the quality of financial management decisions that the assembly may make during day
to day operations.
The study noted also that most of the development activities at the district are handled by the
Director of Planning and Development (DPD). Water supply and sanitation development is no
exception. The district commissioner, who is supposed to chair the DCT, is not usually available
reportedly due to busy schedules. Instead, the DPD chairs the DCT which as in the case of
Thyolo, its operations largely depends upon his availability. Even though the Director of Public
Works (DPW) happens to be a member of the team, his availability too is not guaranteed basing
on the minutes of previous meetings. This dilemma therefore leads to many activities of water
and sanitation not fully covered during meetings. In most cases, minutes of meetings do not
indicate agreed action points and does not further assign who to make follow ups on them. In this
way most the outstanding issues that concerns extension workers or communities remain
unsolved for long time.
5.1.4 District Executive Committee (DEC)
This is an administrative structure comprising heads of various governmental departments,
officials from parastatals and representatives of NGOs. It is chaired by the District
Commissioner and it provides technical advice to the district assembly. The Director of Planning
and Development (DPD) is the secretary. In June 2002 Thyolo DEC members were oriented to
the decentralisation process during a five days training workshop under the auspices of Oxfam.
Through checking the records the study discovered that over 80% of the DEC members who
attended the workshop are no longer in the district. Some of them had been posted to other
districts while others had resigned from their jobs. The challenge is that some of the officers who
took over lacked basic decentralisation concepts and they had to learn while on the job.
However, the district benefited quite a lot since the training resulted in the formation and training
of community structures such as ADCs, AECs and VDCs.
Thyolo DEC has 56 members and they convene on a monthly basis to review progress reports
from development programmes and projects. The DPD prepares a quarterly calendar of meetings
and is passed on to all DEC members. Towards each scheduled date of meeting, notices are sent
to members indicating the Agenda. Meetings are supposed to last for less than three hours only
but usually they last for as long as five hours. The implication of this is that the district Assembly
is forced to pay out lunch allowances to members and in most cases they cannot afford.
Discussions are therefore hastened up, leading to most of the issues being left out. DEC is also
open to hold extraordinary meetings especially by request from NGOs who are usually
financially positioned to meet all the attached costs. Attendance of DEC meetings is mandatory
to all members but challenges occur when members choose to delegate junior members of staff.
Sometimes the delegated officers are not competent enough to make effective contributions and
they are not better positioned to commit themselves in their official capacity over some
decisions.
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5.1.5 Management Structures for Water and Sanitation Activities
The main players of rural water supply and sanitation services are the Assembly, sector
ministries and community members. At district level the District Executive Committee (DEC)
through District Coordination Team (DCT) manages all water supply and sanitation activities.
During the study it was noted that boreholes and GFS have different structures. Appendix 5.0
shows a generic structure that is responsible for planning and managing RWSS.
(a) District Coordination Teams (DCT)
DCT is responsible for coordinating water supply and sanitation activities in the district. Its
membership includes heads of departments from MIWD, MOHP, MSCS, Education and Mines,
Energy and Natural Resources (MENR). From the Assembly secretariat membership extends to
the District Commissioner and Director of Planning and Development, Director of Public Works
and District Environmental Officer. Other members are the representatives from all water supply
and sanitation service providers in the district. Refer to Table 5.1 below for full list of DCT
members. The team is chaired by the District Commissioner and usually his functions are
delegated to the Director of Planning and Development (DPD). The team reports to the District
Executive Committee (DEC) and it is supposed to be autonomous in its operations.
Table 5:1 Members of Thyolo District Coordination Team (DCT)
No Member (Official Position) Institution
1 District Commissioner (DC) - Chairperson Assembly Secretariat
2 Director of Planning and Development (DPD) –
Secretary Assembly Secretariat
4 Director of Planning and Development (DPW) Assembly Secretariat
5 District Water Officer (DWO) Ministry of irrigation and Water
Development
6 District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) Ministry of Population and Health
7 District Community Development Officer
(DCDO)
Ministry of Social and Community
Services
8 District Environmental Officer (DEO) Assembly Secretariat
9 District Forestry Officer (DFO) Ministry of Mines, Energy and
Natural Resources
10 District Education Manager (DEM) Ministry of Education
(Source: Thyolo District Assembly, 2007)
Just like DEC, DCT is supposed to meet regularly to track progress of water supply and
sanitation activities in a district. This is not the case in Thyolo where DCT meetings are
conducted haphazardly instead of conducting them on a quarterly basis. They too have no
calendar of events. Their last meeting was in January 2007 under the auspices of COMWASH
Project. According to minutes of DCT meetings, all its previous meetings and field activities
were organised by NGOs and Projects. Hence major issues discussed surround the activities
being undertaken by those funding the meeting other than district wide water supply and
sanitation issues. In the year 2005, the team organised familiarisation visits to various projects.
In one occasion DCT members under the auspices of Concern Universal visited water supply and
sanitation projects in other districts. In addition, minutes of DEC meetings do not indicate any
acknowledgement of DCT activities. This might imply that DCT does not formally report to
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DEC or other DEC members do not take interest in DCT activities. In fact there is no evidence of
its accountability to DEC. These findings therefore question the autonomy of the team if it is to
successfully serve its intended purpose.
Apart from DCT the DPD sits in various subcommittees of the DEC as the chairperson in
addition to being responsible for various special development functions such as project launches.
Furthermore, it is the DPD who takes charge of the Assembly secretariat in the absence of the
District Commissioner. At one point during the study, the DPD was required to attend to seven
workshops two of which were at national level. Such busy schedules affect DCT operations and
three lessons can be learned from this situation. First, the DPD may not be aware that the
correspondence addressed to planning and development office may need the attention of sector
officers and not necessarily an individual. Second, sector ministries do not seem to be fully
regarded as part of the Assembly. This was evident on the DPD’s noncommittal on most of the
sector concerns. Some projects are still regarded as ‘Water Department Projects’. Third, the DPD
can attend forums which would capably be attended by the appropriate officers. This applies to
capacity building workshops, meetings and even training courses.
(b) Area Executive Committee (AEC)
All extension workers within the jurisdiction area of the Traditional Authority form the Area
Executive Committee (AEC) which works hand in hand with the ADC. The AEC does not have
its own funding. Thyolo district has 11 AECs which are all active except that they do not
regularly meet according to minutes of meetings that were accessed for three committees. It was
noted that AECs only meet when there are special activities which are either funded by NGOs or
rarely by the Assembly. It should be noted that there were no interviews that were conducted
with AECs since it proved to be logistically difficult. Interviews could only be possible if the
study coincided with the already scheduled meeting. According to few individual AEC members,
calling for a special interview meeting would require meeting some expenses such as allowances
and fuel costs for those who use motorcycle. Instead, the study based its facts on minutes of
meetings and responses obtained from the individual extension workers.
According to findings AECs do little or very minimal monitoring of activities during project
implementation. The study however, took note of their role of providing technical support to the
ADCs especially during the prioritisation of projects. Once the project proposals are passed
through to DEC, the study noted that AEC’s show little input. With their limited input to
monitoring, AECs do not provide any meaningful contribution towards regular technical
backstopping to the communities. In this way, maintenance of water supply facilities suffers
greatly. Another contribution to this unpleasant scenario is that just like at district level, there is
little or no multisectoral collaboration at extension workers level. Water supply and sanitation
activities are solely supervised by extension workers from the three sector institutions of MIWD,
MOHP and MSCS. The extension workers are Community Development Assistants (CDA),
Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA) from MOHP and Water Monitoring Assistants (WMA)
from MIWD. The study noted that although these extension workers as a team, they do not report
to AECs and in fact the team is not permanent; it is only active during CBM trainings and
thereafter it dies.
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(c) Area Development Committee (ADC)
Area Development Committees have areas of jurisdiction similar to those of Traditional
Authorities. Thus Thyolo district with 11 Traditional Authorities has 11 ADCs. They are
composed of elected community members identified from within each VDC. They collate
community projects and submit them to the District Assembly for funding consideration. ADCs
have no funding of their own. They work hand in hand with the, Traditional Authorities,
Members of Parliament and Ward Councillors who are all members of the Assembly. They
collaborate with the AEC for technical guidance.
All ADCs in Thyolo district were trained in decentralisation in addition to their roles and
responsibilities in community development. They usually meet on a monthly basis on their own.
The only gap is in their role of project monitoring. None of the five committees that were
interviewed could demonstrate evidence of sufficient progress tracking of the ongoing
development activities. However, they were able to mention major projects that were being
implemented in their area. This information must have been available perhaps because the
committee members are directly in need of improved water supply.
The committees did not have inventory of water and sanitation data i.e. number of water
facilities and sanitary facilities for their areas. This could be a result of inadequate monitoring
system manifested by insufficient reporting from VDCs and inadequate downward reporting
ADCs and indeed the rest of the communities. Furthermore findings of the study suggest that
ADCs just like the other development committees are not equipped with skills in monitoring.
There is limited information flow among the committees or between committees and
communities. Communities do not sufficiently demand information from committees while
committees themselves demonstrate little or lack of accountability to communities.
ADCs are told during trainings that they are responsible for monitoring development activities
taking place in their areas. In fact some projects involve them during progress evaluation
sessions but the system does not outline how they can do it on their own. It was discovered that
ADCs do not have sufficient resources to support them such as bicycles and stationery. The
Assembly does not demand regular reports from the committee. On the other hand, ADCs do not
regularly summon status reports from their VDCs. The system is not well coordinated although
the structures are in place and functioning.
(d) Village Development Committee (VDC
Decentralisation policy recognises VDC as the lowest tier of development committees. VDCs
operate within the group village headman’s area of jurisdiction. They report to ADCs as their
immediate upper committees. Thyolo district has 65 group village headmen hence 65 VDCs. On
average the committees have an equal number of women and men. They facilitate development
activities in the villages. According to the MIWD devolution documents, VDCs are supposed to
regularly facilitate the elections of members for Village Health and Water Committees (VHWC)
and Water Point Committees (WPC). The study however, noted that this responsibility is done
by government extension workers or NGO field workers who do not often consult the VDCs.
The study observed that such practices tend to limit the functionality of the VDCs; hence they
become ineffective to monitor community based management activities. An exception was noted
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in the project area of one NGO where the VHWCs and WPCs are well linked with VDCs as part
of enhancing community level monitoring.
According to the study, VDC roles are well known among the communities in the district. All the
communities that were interviewed said they were aware of VDC existence and they were able to
mention their roles. Examples of projects could be mentioned which were facilitated by the
VDCs such as boreholes, bridges and school blocks. Results of the study showed that 18% of the
VDCs meet fortnightly while 63% meet monthly and 29% never meet. Minutes of meetings
indicated that the issues that were discussed generally surrounded community development
planning. The only water and sanitation related issues that were discussed centred on theft of
water point facilities.
Although these issues were well elaborated in the minutes, it was observed that the committees
are not consistent in their following up of the issues. Minutes of meetings from 82% of the
interviewed committees did not reflect agreed action points. Rather the minutes just indicated
what they discussed and perhaps what was agreed. There was no correlation of issues that were
discussed in successive meetings. This may infer that either the committees did not follow up on
issues or their meetings just ended without assigning people to act on outstanding issues. Such
weaknesses are there among many VDCs but it was also noted that the government extension
workers and district officials are not aware of them. This could be due to insufficient follow ups
on the committees which DEC and AEC members are supposed to do from time to time.
(e) Village Health and Water Committees (VHWC)
VHWCs are elected at village level and they report to the VDC on water, sanitation and health
issues in their villages. In Thyolo, VHWCs have an average of 55% women representation
compared to 60% women representation as specified by the government. The study established
that the shortfall of 5% is due to low interest of women to take responsibilities, unwillingness of
men to give responsibilities to women and because of more women dropouts. The study further
revealed that women dropped out of committees due to pressure from their spouses who felt they
were being cheated; busy schedules of their socioeconomic and livelihood activities and lack of
interest. The study found out that VHWCs were originally established within the Ministry of
Health monitoring system and were known as Village Health Committees (VHCs). They were
responsible for monitoring and coordinating health issues in their respective villages under the
supervision of HSAs.
Eventually, through sector collaboration, the committees were entrusted with the monitoring of
water supply, sanitation promotion and health education activities at village level. This was to
avoid the duplication of efforts if all ministries formed separate community structures. Where the
committees were inactive, they were rejuvenated and were called Village Health and Water
Committee (VHWC). Ideally the committees are supposed to be coordinating water supply and
sanitation activities in their villages. They are supposed to receive relevant backstopping support
from WMAs, HSAs and CDAs. Conversely, the study revealed that the committees are much
recognised by HSAs than WMAs who seem to recognise water point committees (WPC) only.
These study findings suggest that the monitoring role of VHWCs is not adequately undertaken.
In that way, major technical faults of water supply facilities remain unsolved for long time than
those related to sanitation and health.
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(f) Water Point Committee (WPC)
The WPC is the lowest tier of Malawi’s RWSS management structure and is responsible for
boreholes, shallow wells or taps. According to the study the committees are made up of elected
user members of a water point. Just like VHWCs, water point committees for boreholes and
shallow wells have an average women representation of 55%. According to the study, WPCs are
responsible for managing water points through ensuring cleanliness, security and monthly
household contributions.
The MIWD devolution document indicates that WPCs are supposed to be reporting to the
VHWCs. However, 70% of the interviewed WPCs indicated that they reported to the village
heads and 25% indicated that they report to the VHWCs. The remaining 5% said they report to
government extension workers whom they could not specify. With 70% of the WPCs reporting
to village heads, the study suggests two things. First, the committees are not aware of their
general reporting structure. They respect their community leaders hence they feel they should be
reporting to them. Second, some community leaders are just so powerful that they would not
want any reporting structure apart from themselves.
The main source of information regarding management of taps was based on COMWASH
Project. According to the project, taps are estimated to supply water for an average of 20
households. In practice this number varies from 10 to 30 households depending on the terrain
and size of villages served by a water scheme. With recommendations from the COMWASH
Project, tap committees in Thyolo district have a membership of six people with equal
representation of men and women. However unlike WPCs for boreholes and shallow wells, the
reporting structure for gravity fed schemes is clear. Thus WPCs for taps report to branch
committees while working hand in hand with the village leadership. The major strength is the
ability to collect monthly financial contributions.
(g) Community Members (User group)
Of the total members of 20 user group meetings which were randomly conducted in the district.
Communities were able to mention their expected roles in water supply and sanitation
development. They also mentioned that they are consulted when developing project proposals.
They attend village meetings which are to a large extent mandatory and are usually convened by
VDCs, community leaders or extension workers. However, the Communities pointed out that
there are factors that limit them in playing an active role in development activities. The popular
one was lack or insufficient feedback and accountability from committees, community leaders,
extension workers and even projects. According to communities, this problem makes them
ineffective to make informed decisions concerning water and sanitation situation in their
localities. The study established that this was the major cause for what is popularly interpreted as
community slackness, low community participation, lack of ownership among other expressions
that attempt to describe how communities contributed towards failure of many projects. The
study observed that in the absence of feedback and downward accountability, decentralisation is
not effective.
5.1.6 Management Structure of Gravity Fed Schemes (GFS)
Gravity fed schemes (GFS) have quite a different management structure from that of boreholes
as shown in Appendix 6.0. The study based its findings on COMWASH project which has been
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implementing the only four GFS in the district. The difference is apparent at the community
level. Scheme management structures work with traditional leaders who provide socio-cultural
support on one hand and the government structure where extension workers report to their
respective district officers on the other hand. Management of GFS in Thyolo includes full time
and part time employees who work closely with the government extension network. The
complex nature of the gravity fed schemes demands a lot of monitoring from the intake down to
the stand pipes and vice versa. Each water point has a water point committee (WPC) that reports
to the Branch Committee. Branch Committees report to a Section Committee which reports to
the Main Committee. The main committee reports to the Board of Trustees. In actual sense all
schemes have legal status which as well implies that they cane be called ‘Water Boards’. The
study noted that the monitoring framework of gravity fed systems in the district does not
accommodate village health and water committees (VHWC). It was further noted that VDCs are
not fully involved in the GFS instead more emphasis is given to the scheme structures. Another
observation is that water point committees for standpipes only have six members unlike ten
members like those for boreholes.
(a) Board of Trustees
The primary responsibility of the board is to monitor the operations of the scheme while
safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders of the scheme. For this reason, the composition of
the Board of Trustees covers a wide cross-section of interested groups as follows: two active
members of any scheme committee, two Village Heads, two members from the District
Assembly (District Water Officer and District Commissioner), two religious leaders and two
members from the business community served by the scheme. Identification of the
representatives is done independently by the concerned groups.
The study noted that two board members from the District Assembly have not been active as
anticipated. They rarely attend meetings which according to records have been held once in
every two months. The reasons for their unsatisfactory participation could be many, but most
likely is because they do not take them as a priority and lack of commitment. However when
interviewed they indicated that they are usually caught with tight official engagements. It was
however established the absence of the two officers from the district assembly reduces the
quality of discussions when they concern technical or policy issues. The study observed that this
has negative impact on the operations of the board. It was noted that the board of trustees, being
in their early stages of their existence, still need regular technical and policy guidance from the
district. Now without the district officials, most of issues remain unresolved and it leads to
lowering of confidence of other board members; hence the effectiveness of the board is reduced.
Currently three schemes of Didi, Mvumoni and Limphangwi have Board of Trustees and they
are all trained. Didi and Mvumoni schemes are already registered as legal entities hence they
gained the legal responsibility for managing their schemes. This development changed the status
of the schemes to ’Water Boards’. They have offices which were furnished by COMWASH
project. They maintain bank accounts through monthly financial contributions from user
households. In addition the schemes have permanent staff including scheme manager and intake
caretakers including voluntary repair teams for each branch line of the schemes.
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(b) Main Committee
Main Committees report to the Board of Trustees; where the board is not in place, they report to
the DCT. The committees are responsible for the overall leadership in the management of the
scheme. They are comprised of 10 to 12 members nominated from the Branch Committees. Main
Committees are responsible for preparing annual plans and budgets for the scheme. The
committees further coordinate maintenance activities including hiring and supervision of
technical staff i.e. Scheme Manager, Repair Teams and Caretaker. The committee collects
monthly financial contributions from branch committees. They take lead in the catchment
protection. This is done by ensuring that there is no farming or other encroachment activities
within 200 metres of the intake.
(c) Branch Committee
Branch committees are responsible for monitoring the performance of their respective branch
line and they report to the main committee. Their responsibility includes all technical and
financial concerns affecting WPCs along the branch line. They collect monthly financial
contributions from WPCs and give them to main committees. Branch committees have a
membership of between 10 and 15. The number of branch committees for a scheme is largely
dependent on the number of water points served by that branch line. Individual members of the
Branch Committee are nominated from any of the WPCs with a village served by a particular
branch line.
The study revealed that branch committees are effectives for collecting financial contributions
from WPCs and monitoring the performance of branch lines. The only shortfall was that their
role of collecting monthly contributions is dodged by the majority of members. Hence the work
is left with the branch committee treasurers who are sometimes are unwilling. In view of this, the
main committees for the schemes resorted to give the treasurers, the unspecified token of thanks
in monetary form whenever they collect financial contributions from the water point committees.
This arrangement however, according to the study, betrays the whole purpose of having
committees in the first place. In addition, the study noted that the arrangement may not be
sustainable since there are no takeover mechanisms in the absence of the treasurers.
(d) Water Point Committee (WPC)
Water Point Committees (WPC) comprise six members with an equal number of men and
women. Tap committees are responsible for maintaining taps and feeder lines while reporting
breakdowns and faults to the Repair Team and members of the branch Committee. They also
ensure cleanliness of the water point. The committees hold monthly feed back and monitoring
meetings with the community members. They collect monthly water user fees from each
household and they maintain financial records for the water point.
Monthly household contributions are US$0.07 (MK10.00) which translates to US$1.45 (MK200)
for an average of 20 households. Thus according to the branch committees are concerned, each
WPC is expected to source a minimum of US$1.45 (MK200) per month regardless of the number
of households. According to the study, this works well where the number of households is more
than 20 unlike where they are less. However, the WPC risks water disconnection if it fails to
raise the minimum amount. This pressure is passed down to user group which makes sure that
the required sum is raised before an agreed deadline. The study discovered that users have no
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 40
problems with this arrangement; otherwise they feel they really deserve a disconnection if they
don’t comply. The only problem comes when their branch or feeder line develop a fault.
5.2 District Development Planning
5.2.1 Planning Process
Planning is done in accordance with the Local Development Planning System (LDPS) which
acknowledges the prevailing national development strategies and guidelines. There are two main
sources of information that feed into the district development planning. They are the
socioeconomic profile (SEP) of the district and village action plans (VAP). The production of
SEP attracts input from all sectors in the district. Once completed it is able to provide relevant
detailed information on existing social and economic status of the district. The latest SEP for
Thyolo district was produced in 2005.
Development of VAPs is facilitated by a well balanced multisectoral team of government
extension workers and district officials (from all ministries and departments in the district).
Production of the current VAPs in Thyolo involved the application of participatory
methodologies. They are Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and the Regenerated Freirean
Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques (REFLECT). These methodologies are
usually applied to facilitate the identification of the problems and relevant proposed action
points. Through this process, communities are able to identify viable course of action for each
problem statement. A list of identified problems and suggested action points are then
consolidated by the VDC.
All project proposals from the VDCs are submitted to the ADC for prioritisation with the
technical guidance from AEC. The prioritised list of activities is then taken to the district
assembly for approval by the full assembly. Approval considerations are based on district
development needs that are consistent with the national development priorities. Since the year
2004, Malawi has had no ward councillors; hence this process is undertaken by the interim full
assembly. According to this study, the arrangement is only effective for accelerating decision
making but it compromises the quality of project identification at community level. This is the
case because ward councillors are well positioned to facilitate project identification at
community level; a thing which members of the interim assemblies do not do.
After the approval stage, proposals are referred to the district executive committee (DEC) for
appraisal (desk and field appraisals). The appraisal process put into consideration the sector
norms and guidelines. Thus after appraisal, DEC provides feedback to ADCs through formal
meetings. During the meetings ADC members are briefed about the proposals that were
approved and the ones that were not approved. Idyllically, such feedback should go down to the
VDCs and the villages. The study established through minutes, records and interviews that
during the development of the current DDP (2007/2009 plan), feedback was given to the ADCs
only. According to the district assembly, ADCs are responsible for taking down the feedback to
VDCs who should in turn go down to village level. The study established that although some
communities could be aware of the standing of their proposals, the process was not formally
conducted.
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Sixteen (16) VDCs were asked what they knew about their proposal, 81% of them indicated they
knew nothing. The remaining 19% said they heard rumours of the status of their proposals while
the remaining but had no formal communication from the ADCs or extension workers. User
groups were also interviewed in 44 villages and they all indicated that they had not received any
feedback on their proposals. They as well pointed out that they ask their leaders (village heads)
to go to the district assembly to keep on following up on their previous proposals. This was
evident during the study when it was discovered each day community leaders queued up at the
DPD’s office. Seven of them were interviewed and they all indicated having come to the district
offices for more than three times but had either not managed to meet the DPD or had received no
definite response worth reporting to their communities.
Once the appraisal and feedback process is over, the projects containing budgetary and technical
specifications are consolidated and incorporated into the District Development Plan (DDP). The
DDP is presented in three annual phases: Financial Years 1, 2 and 3. The programme activities of
Financial Year 1 constitute the first Annual Investment Plan (AIP). Annual development budgets
of the assembly are then developed from the approved AIP. These budgets are activity based. To
make this process comprehensible, the Malawi Government, in the year 2006 produced the
‘Budgeting Manual for Local Governments in Malawi’. The manual outlines the Local
Development Planning Cycle (LDPC) which the Local Authorities are supposed to follow in
order to produce the District Development Plan (DDP). (Refer to Appendix 7.0 a/b).
5.2.2 Water and Sanitation Sector Plans
Water and sanitation sector plans in Thyolo district like all development plans are implemented
in line with the Local Development Planning System (LDPS). Thyolo district developed its first
three year District Development Plan (DDP) in 2001. The plan which was for the period
2002/2005 was built around the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategies (MPRS). Under this plan
the water supply was the seventh priority while sanitation was sixth. According to the 2002-2005
district development plans, the water and sanitation sector objectives were to increase
accessibility of potable water from 33% to 50% and sanitation coverage from 56% to 70% by
2005 (Thyolo District Assembly, 2002).
The 2005 socioeconomic profile (SEP) indicates that the district has about 23% coverage of safe
drinking water and 60% sanitation coverage. According to data from the district water office in
March 2007, water supply coverage in the district has increased to 41%. Records from District
Health and Environmental office showed that sanitation coverage is now 66%. According to
district database, these increases are attributed to ongoing water supply and sanitation activities
by COMWASH Project, Concern Universal and Rural Livelihood Support Programme.
The immediate observation in the 2007/2009 DDP is that the plan has been delayed bearing in
mind that its implementation should have started in 2007. No specific reasons for the delay were
established even though it was clear that some sectors were late to submit their budgets. In fact
some of the sectors had not yet compiled their plans by April 2007. The current DDP is built
upon the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). The plan prioritises the provision
of safe water as reflected by the community needs and priorities. The summary of VAPs which
was compiled by the District Assembly shows that more than 90% of the villages prioritised safe
water supply. Sanitation is ranked seventh priority at 66% coverage. The district targets are to
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increase water supply coverage from 41% to 85% and sanitation from 66% to 90% by the year
2009.
The study noted that water and sanitation plans were prepared in isolation. In fact there was no
sector planning. Thus there were separate planning for was supply, sanitation and catchment
protection. The district water office produced water supply plan. The district environmental
health office produced the one for sanitation. The same applies to catchment protection plan
which was separately prepared by district forestry office. However, the draft plan prioritises
catchment protection for all gravity fed schemes. The study established that all the three plans
were submitted to the monitoring and evaluation office without being discussed at the DCT
meeting. According to the M&E office, the plans are to be reviewed by DEC together with the
rest of the sector plans. It can however be deduced that the sector planning is not effective since
the evidence of sector planning is not there at all. The study suggests that with the planning done
in isolation, it would still be effective if there was input from other sector institutions and
players.
5.2.3 Sector collaboration
It was observed during the study that the water supply and sanitation sector which comprises
three ministries did not come up with a single plan. Instead, each office developed its own plan
and budget. An example is cited where the district water office and district environmental health
office produced separate plans for water and sanitation respectively. On the hand, the study noted
that catchment protection was not incorporated in the district water development plan. Thus the
activities seem not to complement on each other and in actual sense, there is no evidence of
coordinated planning. This fact alone bears witness that the effective sector planning and
monitoring may not be assured in the short term and this could result into serious oversights in
the DDP.
5.2.4 Community Demand for Water Supply and Sanitation Services
Expression of community demand for water supply and sanitation in Thyolo district is manifest
basing on the findings of the study. Communities request for new projects by using the proposal
forms whose required information differs for each service provider. The M&E Officer at the
District Assembly oversees the distribution of forms for District Development Fund (DDF),
European Union (EU) and Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF). Table 5.2 shows details of
water supply project requests that were submitted to the District Water Office in the years
between 1994 and1995. Requests were made after the communities had already opened a bank
account for their water point maintenance fund.
Forms are distributed only when the particular service provider is ready to fund the requested
activities. Thus communities have to come to the district office to collect forms and later submit
them through the VDC. Findings from the study indicate that the approach has its own shortfalls.
The first one is that it prolongs the development process of proposals. A message has to pass
from ADCs down to the VDCs and then to the villages that send their representatives to collect
the forms from the district. Once completed, the forms are endorsed by the VDCs and then
submitted to the ADCs for prioritisation before they are taken back to the district assembly. This
process takes an average of two weeks but the duration can be longer than that. The second
shortfall is that communities are not fully mobilised for the intended projects. Communities fail
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to provide all the necessary information on the proposal forms due to limited consultation period.
As a result many forms end up being rejected by the DEC during the desk appraisal process.
Table 5:2 Project Requests submitted to the District Water Office in 1999
Note: Details of Mphuka and Kapichi not available (details lost) (Source: District Water Office, 2007)
Apart from using proposal forms, communities have been demanding for the services during
political meetings and other gatherings deemed appropriate for them. One clear fact is that the
communities are so empowered that they use every available opportunity and freedom of
expression to demand for accountability from government officials. The January 27-February 2,
2007 issue of the ‘Malawi News’ newspaper carried an article by Deogratias Mmana titled
‘Thyolo chiefs attack health officers for poor sanitation’. In the article the chiefs blamed the
District Assembly for failing to construct sanitary facilities in the market centres. They wondered
why communities would be expected to practice sanitation while businesspeople were forced to
cycle to gardens to relieve themselves. This was during the ADC meeting which was conducted
to inform the communities about the US$200,000 equivalent funding which the Assembly had
received for health projects in the district.
Rural communities in the district are supplied with water through GFS, boreholes, protected
wells and springs. Other sources are streams and rivers which are mostly unsafe. Refuse pits and
latrines forms part of the main components of sanitation promotion in schools and villages.
Under COMWASH Project, ecological sanitation was especially promoted in both villages and
schools. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) usually provide their services through an
integrated service package of water supply, hygiene education, sanitation promotion and relevant
crosscutting issues (Gender, HIV/AIDS and Environment).
5.3 Implementation of the District Development Plan
Implementation of the DDP is facilitated by several players from the public, private and NGO
sectors. This is done through financing of activities, material resources and provision of technical
or facilitation services. Management of the activities is supposed to be the responsibility of the
DCT but in Thyolo another team was established. The study established that there is the District
Project Management Team (DPMT) which was formed specifically for supervising the
implementation of Concern Universal projects in the district. According to Concern Universal,
the team was formed specifically to manage the implementation of its two projects. However, the
Traditional
Authority
Water Project
proposals
Projects Implemented
to Date
% processed
proposals
Bvumbwe 11 3 27
Changata 11 5 45
Chimaliro 10 6 60
Khwethemule 8 7 88
Mbawela 6 6 100
Nchilamwela 10 7 70
Nsabwe 10 9 90
Thukuta 10 5 50
Tomasi 10 6 60
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Director of Planning and Development (DPD) hinted that the team will soon be dissolved after
noting that its responsibilities conflict with those of the DCT. The study takes note of this
situation and questions the functionality and effectiveness of the DCT if it can be easily twisted
by individual projects.
5.3.1 Human Resources in the Sector Ministries
Implementation of the district development plan requires not only motivated but also sufficient
and competent human resources. Thyolo District Assembly has both qualified and unqualified
human resources. Some of the key positions at the district assembly are not filled. The study
noted that some of the positions are handled by unqualified personnel. Recruitment of senior
positions is centrally done by the Ministry of Local Government through civil service
commission. The district assembly is only responsible for recruiting ground staff. Recruitment
process generally takes too long as clearly noticed that some positions were not filled for close to
two years. Due to the absence of appropriate personnel it would appear the assembly is
encountered with unnecessary conflicts over power and decision making.
(a) Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development (MIWD)
The study noted that water supply and sanitation operations are dragged due to shortage of staff
at the district water office. The devolution document of the MIWD outlines staffing details for
district water operations. Table 5.3 shows details of staffing status of Thyolo district. Since July
2006, the district had no District Water Coordinator. The concern is that the previous officer
received sufficient capacity in the areas of data management, Management Information Systems
(MIS), monitoring & evaluation among others. The replacement was identified and has since
reported for duty as from March 2007.
Table 5:3 Staffing details for Thyolo district waster office
Position Status Available Remark District Water Coordinator Available 1 Position filled
Water Supervisor – Engineer None N/A Need for one
Water Monitoring Assistant – Boreholes Available 2 Need for 9 new staff
Borehole Maintenance Assist None N/A Need for more
Water Assistant – Gravity Piped Schemes Available 1 Need for more staff
Driver Available 1 Position filled
Messenger Available 1 Position filled
Guards Available 7 Position filled
Office assistant - Unclassified Available 1 Position filled Note: District Water Coordinator also referred to as District Water Officer (DWO) (Source: District Water Office)
CBM can be well supported with the availability of WMA, Water Assistants and Borehole
Maintenance Assistants; but the district has only two WMAs instead of 11 WMA to suffice the
sector norm of at least one for each TA. The number of Water Assistants is basically based on
the number and size of GFS schemes. However there is only one who also assumes the role of
WMA. Borehole Maintenance Assistants are the vital community based government tier which
should be providing immediate technical backstopping in times of major and emergency
borehole breakdowns. Unfortunately the district has none of them.
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The problem of understaffing is also apparent in other sector offices such as MSCS and MOHP,
but it is serious in the MIWD, the lead ministry. Reasons for understaffing include normal
transfers, resignation as staff look for other jobs and death. Most of the positions have been
vacant for as long as two or more years and no replacements have been made. However, the
efforts by the line ministries to fill in the vacancies are sometimes frustrated due to delays within
the civil service recruitment system.
With very few or no officers in some positions within the MIWD framework, the study
established that many outstanding challenges in the villages remain unattended for very period of
time. The study established that 65% of the broken down boreholes that were visited were had
major faults which could not be sorted out by the communities themselves. These mainly
included broken rising mains. The situation was however different in the communities where
they were trained in major borehole maintenance and repairs. Such communities however,
wished they refreshed their skills bearing in mind that it has taken long since they were trained.
Some of them were trained as far back as 1997 with an average of 80% of the members being
new, thus without sufficient or completely no technical borehole repairing skills. The study
therefore establish that inadequate number of human resources from the MIWD contribute to low
sustainability of RWSS services. The situation is exacerbated with the fact that the MIWD is the
leading sector institution which should drive and facilitate the sector monitoring.
(b) Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP)
MOHP has the District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) in place with four Assistant
Environmental Health Officers. There are 250 HSAs and the coverage is about an HSA for 2300
people compared to desired coverage of 1 to 2000. This means that the department has
inadequate coverage of health extension service. There is no uniform distribution of extension
workers in the district especially for communities living within tea estates. Some villages are
isolated from the rest of the communities which may be forced to walk long distances to seek
health services. To solve that problem such communities are allocated their own HSAs who end
only serving less number of people than the rest of the HSAs.
The study however, established that the district as effective and impressive health surveillance
services. Every individual in the district gets in touch with an HSA. It was clear from all the 18
health centres that were visited that there is regular update of information of health and sanitation
by the HSAs. The only gap that was noted is that some communities are slow to adopt hygienic
practices. According to the study, reasons for this scenario could be lack of full fledged
sanitation promotion activities that can infuse the behaviour change among many individual
households. While it was noted that such initiatives are normally done by the HSAs, the study
observed that areas that are under funded projects are well covered than those that are without
projects. The study noted an average of 80% of sanitation coverage in areas with such projects
while some communities with no projects registered as low as 40% coverage.
(c) Ministry of Social and Community Services (MSCS)
Thyolo district has nine CDAs - Community Development Assistants. According to the District
Development Officer, there is no specific coverage norm for CDAs. However, it would be proper
if each Traditional Authority in the district was covered by a CDA. This would mean attaching
each ADC and AEC to a CDA. In Thyolo there are 11 Traditional Authorities which translates to
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a shortfall of two CDAs. Bearing in mind that the TAs are not of equal sizes and that their
population coverage are also different, a special arrangement was made that two of the CDAs
have a combination of two small sized TAs each.
Basing on the study findings it was established that the number of CDAs is still very short of
more than two. Interviews were conducted with the CDAs. It was established that unlike their
fellow sector extension workers, CDAs coordinate almost all development activities in their
respective catchments. Thus they overwork and the situation is worsens with their large
catchment areas which cane be expressed in terms of number of VDCs and Villages. The study
further established that at one point, a CDA coordinates an average of five activities from
different sectors. During the study it was discovered that CDAs were conducting community
trainings, establishing committees and monitoring on going activities. In addition to water and
sanitation CDAs were involved in projects from the sectors of education, environment, business
development, communication, agriculture, social services, environment and health.
When asked what challenges they face during their day to day operations, all CDAs indicated:
too much work, lack of reliable means of transport, erratic operational financial support, large
catchment areas. Because of their busy schedules, CDAs are noncommittal to undertake active
monitoring role of water and sanitation activities. They are however fully involved during CBM
trainings where they equip the WPCs and VHWCs with leadership, fundraising and financial
management skills. This study however, discovered that due to inadequate follow ups the trained
structures lose considerable practical knowledge with the passing of time. Since the same gaps
were well captured among the structures, the study links the shortage of CDAs with inadequate
sustainability of water and sanitation facilities.
5.3.2 Schools Sanitation
The March 2007 records from the district education office indicate that the district has 187
primary schools and 28 secondary schools with a total population of 150,581 pupils and 264
teachers. The main sources of water supply for schools are boreholes, shallow wells, taps and
springs. Schools with boreholes and taps are better served unlike those with other sources.
According to the study, over 90% of the shallow wells and springs are seasonal and they remain
dry for a better part of the year. This forces teachers and pupils to fetch water from distant
sources of which most of them are also unprotected.
According to the quarterly report for March 2007 from Thyolo district education office, the
district has 1,593 latrines against 150581 pupils which leave a ratio of 1 latrine for 95 pupils. The
digression of this proportion is too high from the norm of 1 latrine for 20 pupils. The study
shows that 61% of the latrines are temporary structures while the rest are permanent. The
condition of temporary structures is not conducive especially during the rainy season. Schools
with permanent structures are the ones that have new school blocks constructed with the funding
from Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF); European Union (EU); Department for
International Development (DFID) or District Development Fund (DDF).
Poor water supply and sanitation statistics in schools confirm that pupils and teachers in the
district are in serious problems. The study noted that water supply and sanitation gaps in schools
are not generally discussed during DEC or DCT meetings. Minutes of the DCT meetings show
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that little or nothing is discussed about the situation of water supply and sanitation in schools.
This is also apparent at the extension level where HSAs and WMAs seem not to conduct routine
water supply and sanitation checks in schools. Their collaboration with teachers may not be
significant if at all it is there. Much progress is only seen in schools which are supported by
DFID, MASAF, EU, Concern Universal, Oxfam or COMWASH. The gaps are further observed
at the community level where VDCs seem not to emphasise on school water supply and
sanitation compared to that of villages. Although schools fall within the community development
plans, school management committees are hardly recognised by other community development
structures such as VDCs. All the VDCs indicated they never involve school committees in their
discussions and plans and this could be one of the reasons why some schools do not have good
water supply and sanitation facilities.
5.3.3 Catchment Protection
Catchment protection is one of the major activities that the project is undertaking as part of the
Assembly’s efforts towards environmental redress. This is promoted to ensure good quality and
sufficient quantity of the water resources in order to have sustainable water supplies. All the four
schemes under COMWASH project have been challenged by blockage of intake pipes due to
siltation. It was noted that there was attempted encroachment around the catchment areas through
farming activities. In order to safeguard the catchment areas of the schemes, the project through
department of forestry, ventured into Community Based Natural Resources Management
(CBNRM). The main activities included reforestation and conservation, but they were not well
accepted by the communities.
Minutes of the DEC meeting held on 28 July 2003, show that COMWASH Project reported the
uprooting of seedlings at Didi scheme. The main challenge is that communities do not have
sufficient arable land. The 2005 socioeconomic profile indicates that the average land holding for
smallholder farmers in the district is 0.6 hectares (Thyolo District Assembly, 2005). The meeting
proposed to investigate the matter in order to establish the root cause of the problem before
devising the way forward. Since then no records were seen to indicate the findings of the inquiry
and action that was taken thereafter. The problem of deforestation in the district has been
extensive that it has attracted the attention of many sectors. As a short term measure the police
are occasionally deployed in the catchment areas to scare the encroachers. No concrete long term
solution has been devised to date.
The study established that some of the activities related to catchment protection are well
undertaken as a sector wide initiative. This was the case in gravity fed schemes under
COMWASH project where afforestation activities were undertaken. Under the district
development planning process however, the study established no evidence of linkage between
the plans prepared by the sector ministries and those by the Ministry of Mines, Energy and
Natural Resources. In some cases however, the plans were seen to be complementary but it
would be more effective if there was a joint planning by the concerned sector institutions.
5.3.4 Support Given to District Assembly
Thyolo District Assembly has benefited quite a lot through support from various donors and
NGOs for it to implement its planned activities. This is in addition to regular government
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support. For the past five years, water sector in the district has enjoyed support in the form of
financial and material resources in addition to human resource development.
The study focussed on material support that was given to the district. It was noted that
COMWASH Project supported the district with a motor vehicle, four motorcycles, a computer,
printers, water testing kit, and office furniture. The project further trained DCT members in
management information system (MIS). It also donated a set of geographical information
systems (GIS) equipment for water point mapping. District wide database was established with
input from various institutions such as Concern Universal, Oxfam, European Union, DFID and
CIDA. Oxfam further supported the district financially and training of DEC members in
decentralisation. MASAF supported the district with a vehicle which was still running during the
study period.
While the district assembly appreciates this magnitude of support, the district officials pointed
out some gaps which implied that the support is still not sufficient. In other words, for the district
assembly to function perfectly there is still need for more additional support. With this situation,
it is clear that decentralisation of RWSS is still a long way to achieve its intended objectives
basing on the current situation. District assemblies are still looking forward to external support
which is not only erratic but rather lacks certainty. This challenged could be better dealt with by
enhancing the district development funding system in an enhanced accountability environment
while vigorously expanding the income generating base for the district assemblies.
5.3.5 Private Sector Participation
Private sector participation is expressed in two ways. First, is the private sector is directly funds
water and sanitation projects through their social service facility. The study established that
about 30% of the boreholes in the district were constructed through direct funding from tea
estates that form the main service sector base in the district. The estates also funded the
construction of latrines and hand washing facilities in schools to promote schools sanitation and
hygiene education. The private sector has been active in providing water supply and sanitation
services in the villages, schools and health centres through funding the construction of boreholes
and shallow wells.
Second, the private sector is hired to supply goods and services. Goods mainly include
construction materials for general construction projects in the sectors of education,
communication and water supply and sanitation. Services that are outsourced include borehole
drilling, construction of gravity fed schemes and other relevant services. In both cases, the
required goods and services are usually advertised in the press with all the qualifying
specifications well outlined.
The selection of successful borehole drillers is done through open tendering process where
submissions are opened in public and successful firms or individuals are awarded contracts. The
process is facilitated by the tendering committee which comprises the procurement committee
under the leadership of the Director of Planning and Development (DPD). The district assembly
takes full control of the entire procurement process followed by supervision which is done by the
district water office through Water Monitoring Assistants (WMA). The only challenge, however,
is that the office does not have adequate human and technical capacity. Two things were noted.
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First, the department has few WMAs who may sometimes be too busy with other activities hence
the contractors may work unsupervised. Second, the district does not have the water supervisor
who is supposed to be an engineer. Supervision is instead done by WMAs who do not have full
technical competencies. Three contractors who at one point carried out their work in the district
also highlighted the issue of capacity. The contractors noted that the district does not have highly
trained and experienced supervisors for drilling work which requires hydrogeological knowledge
in addition to general drilling operations. They hinted that with such capacity gaps, chances are
high that some of the boreholes were constructed with compromised quality.
The study noted that in some cases contractors would take advantage of the capacity gaps in the
districts. Ferguson and Mulwafu (2004) assert that the southern region of Malawi has more
boreholes with compromised quality. They observe that private drilling companies who lacked
necessary technical expertise were awarded contracts by the World Bank-supported Malawi
Social Action Fund (MASAF). According to the authors MASAF reverted to using Ministry of
Water Development technical staff rather than unscrupulous local private contractors.
The study managed to draw lessons from the district level procurement process of private
services in COMWASH Project. The project hires facilitation and technical service providers.
Facilitation services include awareness campaigns, form and train scheme committees while
technical services include construction and supervision. Thus apart from hiring contractors the
project also hires consulting firms for designing the systems and supervision of contractors.
Procurement of these works is done by the project staff with help from MIWD headquarters, a
representative from CIDA, and officials from the district assembly and the district water office.
The presence of officials from the ministry headquarters and perhaps from regional office would
imply that the District Water Officer’s decision making is suppressed. However, it was noted that
the ministry is aware of the district level capacity gaps hence their providing technical
backstopping. According to the project the sourced works involve complex engineering aspects
which may not be understood by the water officers from the district who at certain times may be
WMAs. It is at this stage that the district gets unsolicited technical backstopping from the
regional or central government office.
5.3.6 Sector Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Monitoring and Evaluation may involve a systematic examination of completed or ongoing
development activities with the aim of determining their effectiveness, impact, sustainability and
value to national development. District Assemblies are linked to the national monitoring system.
The responsible officer is the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer who reports to the
DPD. The quality and results of the monitoring process determines the quality of the annual
investment plans (AIP) and resultantly, the development budget.
In Thyolo, the M&E committee was established within DEC to be responsible for sector data
collection, processing and compilation of district reports. The committee is headed by the
Assembly M&E Officer. Other members include sector M&E Officers from District Education
Office, Health and Agriculture. Water Department does not have an officer responsible for
M&E, instead the function is carried out by the District Water Officer. Sector reports are
submitted to the Assembly on a monthly basis for consolidation by the M&E Officer with those
from other sectors to develop a district report.
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It was however established that M&E activities in the district face many challenges such as
inadequate reporting from projects, lack of resources and poor mail distribution from the
registry. It was also noted that some projects especially those implemented by NGOs do not
submit both progress and financial reports to the Assembly M&E Officer. However, this study
draws two conclusions on this. Firstly, it could be that the NGOs completely sideline the district
assembly in their reporting. Secondly, it could be that the DCT is not rightly doing its job. The
second conclusion is based on the fact that DCT is supposed to coordinate and supervise all
water supply and sanitation activities in the district. It would therefore be expected for the team
to be kept abreast with the progress of activities implemented by the NGOs.
On their part the NGOs indicated that they receive inadequate commitment from the DCT
members and indeed the rest of government staff. All the five interviewed NGOs indicated that
they share their reports with the district assembly only there is little or no feedback and possibly
no action taken on them. Inadequate commitment from the government staff according to NGOs
was manifested in many ways. Firstly, through the persistent demand for allowances whenever
they were involved in any activity under an NGO project. Secondly, the NGOs indicated that the
DCT only meet when initiated by the project concerned. Thirdly, government officers do not
demand for reports from NGOs or show any zeal in NGO’s activities in the district. The study
established that the district assembly through DEC does not include NGO activities in their
annual or quarterly plans. This would imply that the district assembly does not own projects that
are implemented by NGOs except for those directly implemented by them. The study therefore
finds the district level monitoring and evaluation system ineffective which should take a lot of
effort and time to reach desirable levels.
It was noted that the Assembly does not have sufficient resources to effectively carry its
monitoring activities. Apart from insufficient human resources, the district assembly has few
supporting facilities and equipment. There are four vehicles and only two are functioning. The
vehicles are supposed to support both field and administrative functions; in practice, it is the
latter that gains priority. Water Department has one vehicle and four motorcycles all running but
they are usually parked at the office due to lack of funds for fuel and maintenance costs. Because
of this, government staff remains idle and glued around the office doing nothing instead of
attending to field monitoring activities. The study established that government staff largely
depends on NGOs for supporting their field activities, hence their operations are limited within
project areas. Thus areas that do not have projects are not satisfactorily supported.
One major hitch challenging effective M&E is the inefficient registry functions. This is
manifested through misfiling and late delivery and dispatch of correspondence to relevant
offices. An event is cited where mail from NLGFC carrying details of sector funding was
delayed by over a month. The Director of Finance made queries to NLGFC asking for the details
only to be told that the information had been sent long back. When checked in the files the letter
was found to have been misallocated. At various occasions, DEC meetings failed to take place
because the DEC members happened to have not received any invitation letters which were not
dispatched from the registry.
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5.4 District Development Fund (DDF)
Implementation of the DDP involves financing of the planned activities from various sources be
it the government, international organisations, local institutions and individuals or community
groups. Development finances to the district are channelled through the District Development
Fund (DDF) which acts as a ‘basket fund’ for the district. Another form of funding is done
through direct funding to development activities and projects.
5.4.1 Development of Sector Budgets
The budgeting method that the Assemblies follow is Activity Based Budgeting (ABB) which is
an output based budgeting by activities. ABB is budgeting by activities rather than by cost
elements and is one form of the output based budgeting methodology. This means presenting a
budget in terms of the cost of a district assembly’s function and services and relationships are
defined between activities. This information is then used to decide how much resources should
be allocated to each activity, rather than the traditional budget that describes cost factors expense
codes) such as salary, travel, and training without relating to activities.
There are four steps that are followed in order to derive the ABB. The first step is to review the
Assembly’s Development Objectives and assess what should be implemented in the year. The
objectives need to be the ones in the local development plan which in turn would have been
guided by the strategies in the MGDS. The second step is to identify programmes and activities
that are to be undertaken to achieve the Assembly’s objectives. The third step involves the
prioritisation of programmes and ranking them according to local needs. The fourth step is to
cost activities. This involves identifying and quantifying all the inputs and finally determining
the unit cost, taking into consideration prevailing regulations and market value.
Once sector budgets are produced, the DPD consolidates them to develop the district budget
which is then submitted to the NLGFC for scrutiny before it is passed on to the Treasury. The
Treasury instructs the Accountant General for final disbursement of funds to the district
assembly. The Assembly operates a development account called ‘Other Recurrent Transactions’
or usually referred to as ORT. This account uses budget ceilings for each sector. It was noted in
Thyolo that the annual budget ceiling for the water supply is US$5,300; therefore the district
water office is supposed to be budgeting within the figure. Sanitation on the other hand is well
taken care of; being managed from the district environmental health office; it receives part of the
MOHP funding from the sector wide approach (SWAP) initiative.
5.4.2 Sources of Funding for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS)
The study established that the district has four sources of revenue. The revenues are Locally
Generated Revenues, Ceded Revenues, Government Grants and NGOs or donors.
(a) Locally Generated Revenues (traditional)
Thyolo District Assembly sources its funds locally through rentals, market fees and service fees
which on average come up to between US$6,000 and US$7,000 per month. While part of these
funds is expected to go towards DDF, records show otherwise. All the funds are used to meet the
operation costs i.e. vehicle maintenance, paying electricity and water bills, salaries for ground
staff, meetings and other administrative costs.
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(b) Government Grants
Government grants are transfers from the central government to meet recurrent and development
cost of providing services in local governments. The grants are either general purpose
(unconditional) or specific purpose (conditional). The main general purpose (unconditional)
grant to the District Assemblies is the General Resource Fund (GRF). The decentralisation policy
requires Government to make available to Local Government Authorities (LGA) at least 5% of
the national revenues (excluding grants) for the development of the district. The LGAs are
advised to use 25% of the GRF for development activities.
Examples of the specific purpose (conditional) grants include sector funds, salary, subsidies,
chief honoraria and development grants. Sector funds are transferred to LGAs from Water,
Health, Education, Agriculture, Gender, Housing (Lands), Trade and other sectors that have
devolved tasks and funds to local government authorities. With regards to development grants,
District Assemblies have been recipient of the district development fund (DDF). Currently, the
Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), the European Union (EU) funded micro projects and
public works programme have development budgets of the Local Government Authority.
Sector funding from the LGFC is based on the fixed budget ceilings. The water sector has a
budget ceiling of US$5,300 per annum. This amount, basing on the findings proves insufficient
to suffice all the planned field and operational costs. Since the establishment of the system in the
2005/06 financial year, Thyolo district water office has received a sum of US$1,200 in three
equal tranches of US$400. Water sector received a sum of US$400 for its activities in July 2006
and was allocated another US$400 in November 2006. Both funding was used to pay for
electricity, water and phone bills including maintenance costs of the office door. Very little
amount went towards field operations and motorcycle/vehicle running costs. By 31 December
2006, the budget line for department had a balance of US$32.
While it is clear that the ceilings are very low, sectors receive their funding very late. Financial
records at the district assembly showed that the July 2006 funding for the water was received in
October 2006. The August 2006 funding was received in November 2006. By 31st December
2006, the district water office had a balance of US$32. In January 2007, the office received
US$400 which was not yet received by April 2007 because the NLGFC had not yet sent the
allocation details. According to the Director of Finance, the district assembly does not receive
timely notification of financial details from the NLGFC. Sometimes it takes the district assembly
to place the balance inquiries from the bank in order to be aware of the new deposits. Such an
arrangement does not provide clear information of the exact amount for each sector.
The study makes clear of three things in this case. First, there is poor communication between
the NLGFC and the district assemblies. Second, the overlapping of two financial years (2005/06
and 2006/07) raises a question whether the sectors are yet to receive the arrears of the last
financial year or not. Third, planning and implementation of the water sector activities is delayed
and rather compromised.
In the month of December 2006, NLGFC announced the Central Government Transfers to Local
Government in Malawi for 2006/2007 fiscal year for the period from July to December 2006.
The likely observation is that the release was done very late. According to a press release in the
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24 December, 2006 issue of the ‘Weekend Nation’ newspaper, Thyolo District was allocated a
total of US$2,139,537.00 of which US$4,313.24 was for the water sector. The release indicates
that the transfers were in respect of unconditional and conditional grants. Unconditional grants
are in respect to General Resources Fund. Conditional grants are in respect of Sectoral Funds for
Development functions and the Constituency Development Fund.
(c) NGO and Donor Funds
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and some donors support specific activities or
development projects. On the other hand, Thyolo DDF has benefited through funding from
Oxfam and other organisations. Financial records at the Assembly show that between 2003 and
2005, Oxfam contributed an equivalent of about US$55,000 towards the DDF. These funds were
used for water supply development, environmental redress, general office operations and other
sectors. In 2006 the district received about US$36,000 from the European Union (EU). About
US$8000 of the funding from EU was allocated to water supply and sanitation development
through shallow well protection and construction of school latrines. Other construction projects
used a total of US$17,000. A sum of US$7,000 was used for unspecified capacity building
through training workshops for district and extension staff. The remaining US$3,600 went
towards the Assembly’s office operation costs.
Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) has made a significant contribution towards water supply
and sanitation development in the district. No statistics could be established to tell the exact
number of water points that were constructed with MASAF funds. However, recorded
estimations in the district assembly reports show that since its inception in 1995, MASAF has
constructed over 50% of the boreholes in the district. This is in addition to school latrines.
Funding details from the district assembly show that the MASAF III programme has so far spent
an equivalent of US$17,000 for water supply and sanitation activities which represents 12% of
its total funding.
5.4.3 Management of District Finances
The Assembly is supposed to have Accounts personnel in the sector offices so that they can be
working hand in hand with the DOF. The study discovered that the only sectors with Accounts
personnel are Agriculture, Health, Energy & Natural Resources and Education. Water
Department does not have accounts staff. According to the acting DOF, lack of accounts staff in
the sectors has negative impact on the quality of financial reporting. This is evident in the
records which indicated that sectors took too long to provide the DOF with financial returns. In
most cases the reports are to be pushed for, but when they come, they are marked with poor
receipting. Lack of proper accounting procedures delays field operations. If financial returns are
not submitted, the DOF cannot disburse subsequent funding to the sectors unless the previous
ones are properly accounted for.
Records showed that the Assembly receives monthly operational funding of US$2,492 from the
Treasury. Out of this amount, 25% is expected to be allocated towards the DDF. Thus the district
receives a monthly grant of US$623 for development activities. According to DOF, in order for
its operations to run effectively the Assembly need a monthly sum of US$3,600. These financial
requirements show that the monthly allocations to Assemblies are not sufficient. Due to this
shortfall, financial records showed that the 25% allocation to DDF is sometimes used up in the
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operation expenditures. Although the money is later refunded to its right budget line, the fact is
that the amount is also too small to sufficiently address major development needs for the district.
All this proves that district assemblies are way below financially to sustain themselves including
supporting their RWSS service delivery.
5.5 Community Based Management (CBM)
The CBM concept shares ideological roots with the comunidad de base of the 1970s Liberation
Theology Movement in Latin America; the key words are a bottom up approach whereby theory
is evolved by the praxis of the base (the community) (DeGabriele, 2002). It also has emerged out
of the shift to participatory development since the late 1970s. According to DeGabriele (2002)
the strength of this ideology is that it goes to the base.
CBM was introduced because of the shortcomings of the centralised maintenance. Its objective is
to enhance the importance of the community ownership of the water supply and sanitation
facilities and community responsibility for the hand pump maintenance. The concept of CBM
encompasses a number of aspects. These are community institutional setups for the management
of water supply and sanitation activities, Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM),
decision making and availability of water point maintenance fund. For these aspects to be well
facilitated, government extension service plays a major role through the backstopping process.
5.5.1 Management Structures
Management of RWSS is dependent on many factors including competency of community
structures, extension service and project implementation strategies. Community structures that
are involved in RWSS management include water point committees (WPC), village health and
water committees (VHWC) and village development committees (VDC). Although the
devolution document for MIWD does not outline functions for VHWCs, the committees are
available in Thyolo. Where they are full active, the committees provide an effective link between
WPCs and VDCs. It was also noted that the committees provide vital data for water, sanitation
and health monitoring in their villages. Hence they effectively relate with the WMAs and HSAs.
Findings of the study suggest that some projects emphasise on the training of VHWCs only
without establishing WPCs while others only establish WPCs. In both cases the established
committees are trained in Community Based Management (CBM) and Village Level Operation
and Maintenance (VLOM). This was evident when 35% of the interviewed user groups and
VHWCs indicated that their water points have no committees while 42% of the VHWCs
indicated that the water points have committees but not yet trained. These gaps according to the
study negatively affect the community based monitoring and management for water supply and
sanitation activities.
About 76% of the VHWCs indicated that they are usually unable to regularly visit their water
points which could easily be done by water points committees. The main challenge in this case is
that although VHWCs are trained, their input to water point management is very minimal, unlike
in places where WPCs are available. All WPCs interviewed, clearly demonstrated their regular
monitoring of their respective water points. This clearly shows that the institutional arrangement
that was outlined by the MIWD is effective except that sometimes it is violated by some service
providers.
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Another issue is diverge compliance by projects in meeting gender specific requirements for
water and sanitation related community structures. Government specifies that a water point
committee should have 10 members with 60% women representation. The reason given is that
women being traditional primary water users should be encouraged to take a leading role in
managing water facilities. WPCs in Thyolo district have an average women representation of
55%. It was noted that 45% of the committees had less committee members due to dropout,
death and migration and some of the communities took too long to make replacements.
Findings of the study suggest that community members dropped out due to lack of interest,
family problems, busy schedules, others without reason and others were removed. Twenty three
(23) community members who dropped out were asked why they stopped attending committee
meetings. (See Figure 5.1)
Reasons for not attending committee meetings Proportion
13%
9%
48%
17%
13%
Removed No reason Busy Schedule No Interest Family
Figure 5:1 Reasons for not attending committee meetings
It was also noted that projects established committees differently. Some established either WPCs
or VHWCs while others established both of them. This could be so due to different project
designs and implementation strategies but major differences were noticed in NGO managed
projects. In Thyolo district, NGOs are the major water and sanitation service providers. It was
noted that government projects emphasises on the establishment of and training of WPCs rather
than VHWCs. Comparing the two committees, communities and indeed the rest of the
interviewees at both community and district level felt WPC is more effective for water point
management than VHWC. This is so because WPC are solely responsible for a single water point
which they also use, hence they undertake their responsibilities with zeal and a high sense of
ownership. Respondents however pointed out that the VHWC are effective for village level
monitoring of hygiene and sanitation activities.
The study further noted that communities that have little technical skills for maintaining their
boreholes consult the trained individuals within their locality. In certain cases, this works for free
but sometimes it is for a fee. In general it was established that WPCs are more effective than
VHWCs when it comes to maintenance of water points. The study noted further that 88% of the
well maintained boreholes that were visited have WPC while 62% of the poorly maintained
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boreholes have either no WPCs or they are in place but they lack commitment. The study defined
a well maintained borehole as the one with a water point maintenance fund, spare parts, minimal
breakdown record, small downtime and clean surrounding. Short of these, it was defined as a
poorly maintained borehole.
Community level monitoring is vital for effective CBM but the study ascertained some
information flow gaps among different community structures. Causes to this gap could be many
but the most likely one could be that projects do not set up effective monitoring systems at the
community level. It was noted that all the committees that were interviewed know their roles and
responsibilities unless when a particular committee is not trained. Regardless of this however,
the committees such as VHWCs and WPCs were not able to tell which structure they report to.
At village level there was very minimal and some cases no information flow between WPCs and
VHWCs. Eighty two percent (82%) of the VHWCs indicated that they are answerable to the
village chief, 12% mentioned VDCs, 9% said they report to the HSAs and yet 7 % said they did
not know who to report to. This implies that at community level there is insufficient monitoring.
It as well implies that VDCs are somehow silent on water supply and sanitation monitoring even
though they relate well with ADCs. The study established that communities (user group) inform
WPCs or VHWCs in times of breakdown of water facilities.
The study also asked the village headmen, which structures were responsible for water supply
and sanitation in their villages. All of them mentioned VHWCs but literally mentioning them as
health committees i.e. “komiti ya za umoyo”. When asked who looks after water points, the
leaders had different responses; 40% said VHWCs - komitiya ya za umoyo, 54% WPCs - komiti
ya mpope and/or mjigo and yet 6% just said a committee without specifying. The leaders were
also asked to mention who repairs their facilities when broken down. Responses were as follows:
56% mentioned WPCs, 36% said extension workers and 8% just said the mechanics. These
responses may mean that there is no clear and uniform monitoring system at community level.
5.5.2 Village Level Operation and Maintenance (VLOM)
VLOM is achieved when communities are able to effectively manage, operate and maintain their
water facilities. The study established three major areas under VLOM that include technical
capacity at village level, availability of spares, maintenance of water facility and willingness to
pay towards operation and maintenance. The major determinant of the effectiveness of VLOM is
the number of functioning water points versus their total number within a specific locality at a
particular time.
The study established that 85% of the 60 water points that were visited had committees, 65% of
which were trained in CBM and VLOM. During the study, 72% of the visited water points were
functioning. The remaining 28% of the facilities were not functioning due to a number of causes.
About 26% of the non-functioning facilities had their parts stolen while 70% was due to
breakdown and the remaining 4% was due to drying up of boreholes. On average, about 65% of
the water facilities are kept functioning at a time. Table 5.4 shows the details.
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Table 5:4 Status of water points in Thyolo District in April, 2007
Source Number Working B/down Stolen Dry up Water Point Committee
Available trained
Boreholes 908 685 143 76 4 901 653
Taps 663 523 114 26 0 569 473
Shallow well 305 274 18 0 13 305 250
Total 1,876 1,482 275 102 17 1,775 1,376 (Source: Thyolo District Water Office, 2007)
During the time of study, Thyolo had a total of 2,286 water points including 1152 boreholes, 829
standpipes and 305 shallow wells. About 62% of water point facilities were functioning while
the remaining 38% were not functioning. Major causes for non-functioning of water point
facilities are theft, breakdown and drying up of boreholes and shallow wells. (Refer Figure 5.2)
Reasons for Nonfunctioing of Water Points Propotion (%)
63%
33%
4%
Breakdown Theft Drying up
Figure 5:2 Reasons for Non-functioning of Water Points
Financial contributions for O&M are usually made in cash. The survey established that the
downtime of water points range from 1 day to over a period of 12 months. About 48% of the
water points have downtime of 1 to 7 days; 33% have 8 to 30 days; 13% has 1 to 12 months
downtime and yet the remaining 4% is either maintained after 1 year or never maintained at all.
(Refer to Figure 5.3).
The study discovered that 67% of the water points that were visited have an average of US$60
(MK8500) as maintenance funds sourced through monthly contributions. Monthly contributions
are collected by the water point committees (WPC). Households contribute an average of
US$0.14 per month for boreholes and US$0.04 for standpipes. Once realised, funds are kept
either in cash by the WPC treasurer or at the bank. But for some communities financial decisions
are made by the VHWCs, WPC and community leaders. About 34% of VHWCs and 24% of the
WPCs have well maintained bank accounts. The indication is that effective O&M at village level
is a possibility but it still needs close monitoring and technical support from the extension
workers.
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Downtimes of Water Facilities Proportion
49%
34%
13%
4%
1-7 days 8-30 days 1-12 months 12 months above
Figure 5:3 Downtimes of water supply facilities
Community contributions towards O&M are a function of water users’ willingness and ability to
pay. The study defined willing to pay as mere community expression of the amount they would
love to contribute. Results showed that 83% of the village communities agreed that they are
willing to contribute towards O&M. Out of them, 58% indicated that they are willing to
contribute US$0.21 per month while 42% said they are comfortable with US$0.14 for boreholes.
In gravity fed schemes, users contribute US$0.04 per household as set by COMWASH Project
and the amount is subject to change with the passing of time. Some of the reasons for
community’s failure to contribute towards M&E include lack of income, embezzlement of funds
by dishonest committees and unsteady water flow at sources.
The study acknowledges the fact that communities are trying their best in making financial
contributions towards operation and maintenance. However, their efforts are downplayed by the
fact their contributions does not match the prices of spares. The report observes that although the
communities in the district might be willing to pay, their ability to pay is hindered by their high
poverty levels. Thyolo district is one of the districts which are rates poor. Average landholding
size for smallholder farming is as low as 0.6 hectares. The 2005 Integrated Household Survey
Report, 33% of the people in the district are ultra-poor (above the national average 22% and that
of southern region 31%). The report further shows that 64.9% of the people are poor (above
national average 52% and southern region 64%). Poverty lines in Malawi are distinct the poor
and the ultra-poor as those living on less than MK16, 165 and MK10, 029 per year respectively
i.e. less than US$365 per year.
Findings in COMWASH project indicated that poor performance of the schemes has an impact
on the level of community contributions. Communities are not willing to make cash
contributions where services are poor. People’s failure to make their monthly contributions is
leading to the schemes’ poor performance. On the other hand, the schemes have some problems
such as reduced attendance during meetings, untimely repair works and theft of taps. One of the
Main Committees disbanded in December 2006.
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Members of the Board of Trustees took over the management and have since been accused of
misusing funds meant for M&E. Only 5 members of the board are active but not able to
effectively collect O&M funds. It was reported that in certain cases, the funds were collected by
repair team members. These problems are well known by the project and the Assembly. The
study picked no clear direction of the matter. Table 5.5 below shows performance details of the
schemes for the Month of April, 2007.
Table 5:5 Performances of GFS schemes in Thyolo district
Scheme Branches Number of Water Points Bank balance of
O&M Funds (US$) total working % working
Didi 5 107 59 55 200.00
Mvumoni 3 78 50 64 190.00
Limphangwi 3 82 75 91 204.00
Sankhulani 6 90 42 47 Not established (Source: COMWASH Project, April 2007)
The study ascertained that these contributions are better reinforced among communities served
through standpipes than boreholes. This difference comes in due to different perceptions that the
communities have had over the two technologies. The first one is that the majority of the
boreholes in the district came in through politicians who followed no proper community
mobilisation mechanisms. Communities who benefit from such projects believe that boreholes
are constructed out of mere favour and are for free. If they break down, another one can always
be drilled. Overall, 76% of the communities with boreholes indicated that they make their cash
contributions after experiencing a breakdown of their facilities not necessarily for routine
maintenance. In GFS, monthly contributions are mandatory; non-payment leads to water
disconnections.
High sense of ownership and readiness to pay was noticed in places where communities were
properly mobilised such as projects funded by NGOs, MASAF, COMWASH and government
projects. In such projects communities were asked to contribute an initial payment in the form of
cash and construction materials. In one of its borehole projects, Concern Universal demanded an
initial cash contribution of US$14 in addition to crushed stones, river sand and bricks. However,
while the objective was to inculcate the sense of ownership among the communities, the
approach was not well perceived by politicians. They felt communities were too poor to mobilise
the resources and therefore needed water development for free. Initial contributions were
therefore made on behalf of the communities. This included financial contribution towards
operation and maintenance (O&M), sand and crushed rock aggregate. Minutes of DEC meeting
held on 29 April 2003 shows that the project management tabled the matter for discussion.
Unfortunately, no substantial or conclusive action was suggested and nothing was discussed
during the subsequent meetings.
5.5.3 Coverage of Rural Water Supply
Results of the survey show that coverage of safe water supply is over 60% but this proportion is
reduced by non functional water facilities and geographical distribution. Safe water in this
context is defined as water piped into the dwelling, a public tap, borehole, protected well or
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spring located either on the premises or less than one-half kilometre away (National Statistics
Office, 2005). Coverage in this study was defined in terms of two parameters. These are number
of people per each water point and distance covered to access sources of safe water supply.
Government specifies 250 people per borehole and 120 people per tap while also specifying the
maximum walking distance of 500 metres to a water point. The 2005 district socioeconomic
profile shows that about 40% of the water facilities are beyond 500 metres distance while the
remaining 60% are accessed within the walking distance of less than 500 metres. In extreme
cases people walk up to two kilometres in search for safe water supply while others access water
within 50 metres (Thyolo District Assembly, 2005). Figure 5.4 shows water coverage and
proportion of accessible water points within 500 metres distance (accessibility) in the district.
Water Supply Coverage and Accessibility
0
20
40
60
80
100
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Traditional Authority
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)
Coverage Distance
Figure 5:4 Water supply coverage and accessibility (Source: Thyolo Socioeconomic Profile, 2005)
5.5.4 Sanitation Coverage and its Impact
According to this study rural sanitation coverage can be defined by the presence of basic sanitary
facilities including latrines, refuse pits, bathing shelters, dish racks, drying lines, cooking shelters
and animal shelters within a specific locality. Improved latrines are ventilated improved pit
latrine or covered pit latrine. The 2005 SEP indicates that 66% of the households in the district
have private pit latrines; 24.5% share latrines and 8.1% have no toilet facilities. Solid waste
disposal is mainly done through the use of refuse pits by 63.6% of the households; burning by
26.7% while 9.7% dispose their wastes indiscriminately.
The study acknowledges the fact that a real measure sustainable rural sanitation service delivery
would mean positive impact on community health through reduced risk and vulnerability to
infections and diseases. Poor sanitation coupled with poor hygiene practices leads to outbreak of
various diseases among the communities. The district environmental health office categorises the
diseases as waterborne, water/sanitation related and water based. Cholera and diarrhoeal diseases
fall under water borne diseases while malaria falls under water and sanitation related and finally
diarrhoeal diseases include diarrhoea and blood diarrhoea. Poor sanitation through poor drainage
and bushy household surrounding create favourable environment for mosquito breeding which
results into increased malaria cases. As a short term measure the district environmental health
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 61
office promotes use of treated mosquito nets whose household coverage is 68% but the per capita
coverage is about 62%.
During the study, information was collected on recorded cases of the diseases related to water
and sanitation for the period between 2002 and 2006. According to the study, while sanitation
coverage is increasing, the district has been registering increased cases of diarrhoeal diseases
annually. The worst trend however, is noted under water and sanitation related diseases which
records the increasing rate of 30% per annum (Refer to Appendix 8.0a). According to the
district environmental health office, increase in cases is primarily due to slow adoption of good
sanitation practices by the communities. On the other hand, the district is performing well in
terms of reducing the outbreak of cholera from 1813 cases in 2002 to 45 cases in 2006 as shown
in Appendix 8.0b. This could be attributed to intensify precautionary measured that the district
health office undertakes through awareness campaigns and that the communities respond
positively.
Recorded Cases of Diarrhoea and Blood Diarrhoea
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Year
Num
ber
of C
ases
Diarrhoea Blood Diarrhoea
Figure 5:5 Cases of Diarrhoeal Diseases between 2002 and 2006 (Source: Thyolo District Health Office, 2007)
The study however, established that the awareness campaigns which are conducted in the district
are more of reactive other than proactive with minimal community participation. They form part
of the district annual plan. Campaigns are more of externally driven through the government and
NGO community extension machinery. There is very minimal or no community initiative
through their local structures. Community structures and user groups are aware of increased
cases of waterborne diseases and they acknowledged their lack of initiative to curb the situation.
They also acknowledged that they look up to support from the district since for improved water
supply and sanitation.
According to the district health office, the real issue is change of attitude, practice and adoption
of new technologies which is generally slow in the district. VDCs indicated having no plans of
sanitation awareness campaigns. The case with VHWCs however was different; they indicated
they are involved only that they rely on the presence of HSAs. This indicates that the structures
are well positioned for improved sanitation practices only that they lack confidence. It can be
concluded that decentralisation has been effective in facilitating the establishment of community
institutional structures whose functionality and effectiveness still depends on external support.
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 62
5.5.5 Capacity Building
The main form of capacity building in the Malawi’s rural water supply is CBM training which is
facilitated by a team of extension workers namely WMAs, CDAs and HSAs. For each training
session, a cluster of one to three committees are trained for a period of 5 days. During the
trainings, communities are equipped with technical skills by the WMA. The CDA covers
leadership skills, group dynamics and fund raising procedures. The communities are trained in
good hygiene and sanitation practices by the HSA.
An assessment was made on how the communities value external help to manage their water
facilities after being trained in CBM. A question was poised whether they felt they needed
external help or not. Findings indicated that 17% of the communities felt they do not need
external help. They qualified their response by citing their technical and financial capacity skills.
They noted that their communities had well trained artisans and their WPC had sufficient funds.
They observed that some of the communities had sufficient water supply and sanitation facilities
which needed just to be well maintained, of which they felt that was achievable.
The communities however, did not count out the need for training support from the district
assembly to facilitate their fund raising activities which would have an impact on sustaining their
water supply and sanitation facilities. The remaining 83% of the communities felt that still need
external help. The communities gave reasons such as: expensive spares, lack of trainings, lack of
sufficient funds to buy spares, unavailability of spares and lack of coordination among
communities to address their problems. These responses however do not imply lack of
confidence of the communities. The fact is that their problems were long outstanding. Several
attempts were made to seek logistical and technical assistance from the district assembly and
they got little or nothing at all. It can be concluded that the fact that decentralisation has brought
technical backstopping close to the communities does not necessarily entail the sustainable
service delivery. It is clear that sustainability of water facilities is dependent on the intervention
of the government to support the communities in all aspects of CBM especially on the
availability and pricing of borehole spares.
5.5.6 Coverage of Government Extension Services
Water and sanitation sector in the district has a total of 262 extension workers: 9 CDAs, 250
HSAs and 3 WMA. Basing on these figures and sector norms, the district is well covered with
the health surveillance extension services compared to community development and water
development. Findings from the study show that extension services are of significant importance
among the communities. The communities acknowledged that their extension workers provide
the required support in hygiene education and sanitation promotion.
All the communities indicated that they know their HSAs; 83% indicated they know their CDA
while only 45% mentioned knowledge of the WMA. In communities that are served by GFS,
Water Assistants are well known that the rest of the extension workers. These statistics validate
different probabilities that are there for the communities to find the appropriate extension
services in the district. In times of the communities’ need for extension services, communities
find it easy to find the HSA compared to the CDA and WMA or Water Assistant.
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5.5.7 Challenges Faced by Extension Workers
The survey registered a number of challenges that affect extension service such as inadequate
resources; lack of appropriate training; large catchment areas and lack of proper housing. The
resources mentioned were bicycles, motorcycles and protective clothing. The problem with
bicycles and motorcycles is either due to their unavailability or they are there but they are broken
down. When the motorcycles are in good condition, running costs proves to be a problem due to
lack of finances for buying fuel. These challenges largely affect the input and sometime
commitment of the extension workers in their day to day operations. Thus their role technical of
technical backstopping to the communities is compromised to greater extent.
5.5.8 Challenges of Community Based Management (CBM)
(a) Theft and Vandalism of Water Point Structures
The study established various theft cases in the district which were manifested through
vandalism of sector-wide amenities. During its meeting held on 28 July 2003, Thyolo DEC
tabled a similar issue following a complaint by Concern Universal. The organisation reported
theft cases in its Chimaliro Project. The conclusion that DEC drew was that the matter would be
referred to police for investigations. The minutes however, do not show anyone who was
sanctioned to take up the matter with the police. Appendix 9.0 shows two water points; one is
vandalised and non-functioning while the other if newly constructed and functioning.
Information that was collected from the communities indicated that some of the theft cases were
reported to police. Others were either referred to the local leadership or nothing was done at all.
Cases that were taken up with the community leadership were followed up and about 62% of the
leaders said they ask the offenders to give back the stolen items and indeed they did; 31% said
they report the suspects to police and yet 7% admitted they did nothing. In most cases, people
suspected WPCs and local artisans as the likely people who could steal the hand pumps since
they knew their operation mechanisms.
It was speculated that the stolen hand pumps were sold to rich members of society in the trading
centres who opted to own private boreholes. In general, the study established that communities
have not been able to take stern measures to curb theft cases. Sometimes suspects are known but
they are never reported for lack of concrete evidence. Instead people suffer in silence; with their
facilities vandalised, they stay without safe water supply. In the end they are forced to use
unprotected water sources.
Records at Thyolo Police Station showed that six theft cases were reported between 2004 and
2006. Only two recoveries were made in two of the six cases. Verification was made at the
police station where 12 pump rods were being kept as exhibit. Four suspects were arrested in one
case. According to records at Thyolo Magistrate Court, four suspects were prosecuted and two
key suspects were convicted. They were sentenced to 48 months imprisonment with hard labour
while their two counterparts were acquitted.
The Station Officer hinted that the police are aware that theft of water point facilities is rampant
in the district but wondered why very few were reported. According to the officer, similar cases
were reported in the sectors of energy and communication where electricity transformers and
telephone cables were stolen. In view of this, the police in the district have intensified their
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security measures by launching what they called ‘anti-vandalism’ campaign. This is being done
in close collaboration with Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (ESCOM), Malawi
Telecoms Limited (MTL) and the District Assembly.
Theft of water supply facilities has been a national matter and has attracted attention of various
stakeholders. The March 20, 2007 issue of the ‘The Nation’ newspaper carried an article by
Anthony Kasunda titled “Centre develops lock to stop borehole theft”. The article reports on a
recent invention by the Malawi Industrial Research Technology Development Centre
(MIRTDC). According to the report, MIRTDC designed a lock called ‘pumpguard’ that makes it
impossible for thieves to unscrew the borehole. The discovery was made after the MIWD
complained that theft of water facilities was frustrating government efforts to provide clean
water in rural areas.
According to the news article, MIWD through RIEP project constructed 350 boreholes across the
country and more than 50% of them were vandalised. The article alleges that the pumps are
stolen by villagers who were trained to locally maintain the hand pumps. The pump was
launched in Thyolo district, one of the districts which are adversely hit by hand pump theft cases.
The newspaper article quotes one of the villagers as saying villagers are forced to guard their
boreholes in turns, hence limiting them from attending to their livelihood activities. Finally the
article quotes the minister of Irrigation and Water Development as saying he is still waiting for a
report on the effectiveness of the pumpguard.
The police in the district have also ventured into intensive participatory security service as one
way of fostering their decentralised constabulary services. This is being done through the
formation of community policing structures i.e.: formation and training of Community Policing
Forum at Traditional Authority level; Crime Prevention Committee at group village level and
Crime Prevention Panel at Village level. These structures are popularly known as ‘Inkatha’.
They are responsible for patrols and neighbourhood watch. Patrols are done in two ways. First,
they are ‘joint patrols’ where committees work jointly with the police officers. Second, patrols
are done through the ‘committee to committee’ collaboration or neighbourhood watch is locally
arranged between two or more households.
The study observed that not all communities have these structures and not all of them were
trained. The structures do keep inventory of the community assets within their areas of
jurisdiction. Their operations are better linked with the ADCs and very little could be seen at
VDC level. Members of the community suspect that men and women in these structures could be
involved in the stealing of water supply facilities; an allegation the police could not dispute.
However, the study sees the importance of these structures in the safeguarding of community
assets and people’s lives. Obviously their operations could be more effective if they linked well
with the rest of community structures in addition to being incorporated in community level
monitoring of water supply and sanitation activities.
(b) Scarcity and High Costs of Borehole Spare Parts
The study established that over 97% of the boreholes in the Thyolo district are equipped with
Afridev pump which is regarded as the Malawi’s VLOM pump. The study noted that
government arrangement of procuring, importing and distributing Afridev spares collapsed way
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 65
back in the late 1990’s. Chipiku Stores a chain store with some of their stores in the rural areas
had agreed to take on the distribution on a cost recovery basis. The MIWD with assistance from
UNICEF availed the first consignment of spares to Chipiku Stores. The system was to operate as
a revolving fund. After the first consignment, no further supplies were made to Chipiku Stores
until they had run out. The study noted that some NGOs in the district went even further to
facilitate the stocking of spares by local grocery owners in their respective project areas as one
way of ensuring steady availability of spares in the district.
There are many driving factors to scarcity of spare parts in the district according to study
findings. First, there is unsteady replenishment of stock at national level which should ideally be
coordinated by government. Second, most of the spares remained in the shops for too long
because the communities could not afford to buy them. Examples could be established where a
three-metre pumping rod was costing about US$30 (MK4000). Taking an average borehole of 45
metres deep which would normally have 12 rods, this would translate to US$360 (MK48000) per
borehole.
Water point committees in Thyolo have an average of US$40 (MK6000) which is enough for
only one rod. This draws major reasons for prolonged downtimes of boreholes in the district. The
spares are not readily available, but even if they are available communities cannot afford to buy
them. With increasing number of non-functioning boreholes, communities are willing to buy
whatever cheap spare parts come on their way. According to the police, it is suspected that
because of this, spares are stolen from one part of the district are sold on the other buy some
unscrupulous dealers. Theft of spares also affects gravity fed schemes which when stolen
according to the police, are sold in the surrounding trading centres.
(c) Decision Making at Community Level
Decision making at community level can be characterised by the community’s ability to develop
own action points to solve their problems. It can as well be measured by their ability to set up
and adhere to locally made governing rules of managing their water and sanitation facilities. The
study established that the communities in the district are able to identify their strengths,
weaknesses and opportunities. They prioritised projects in accordance to their needs and
developed all the necessary action points.
The communities developed governing rules for their water points including the following:
(a) Users should take part in cleaning the surroundings of their water points.
(b) No financial contributions drawing water from the water point, except for the old and sick.
(c) Every user of the water point to observe opening and closing times of water points.
(d) No washing of clothes and kitchen utensils at the water point.
(e) Children are not allowed to draw water or else should be accompanied by older people.
(f) Those found stealing hand pumps should be taken to the police.
(g) One person one bucket at a time.
In some communities these rules are well documented and are kept by community leaders and
the committees. Findings however showed that most of these rules are not fully adhered to since
they are mostly set by the committees and community leaders without consulting the rest of the
community members (user group).
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 66
In order to qualify community decision making, communities (user group) were asked whether
they were satisfied with their decision making level or not. Results showed that 23% of them are
satisfied. They cited their ability to meet and make own rules. The remaining 69% said they are
not satisfied and further cited a number of reasons. Firstly, they are not given a chance to
contribute during village meetings. Secondly, more power still remains with political and
community leaders. Thirdly, user groups do not receive reports from committees. Fourthly,
committees and projects impose financial contributions on the households. The last 8% were
neutral.
5.5.7 Community Meetings
Community meetings are conducted at different frequencies with 42% of the communities
indicating they meet every fortnight, 33% (every month), 8% (quarterly) and 17% (annually).
Evidence of community meetings was established in 28% of the communities through their
minutes of meetings. Issues discussed included financial contributions, theft of water facilities,
electing new committee members and solving squabbles among committee members. Meetings
are especially chaired by the VHWC chairpersons, Village Heads and sometimes facilitated by
health workers.
The study established that such meetings are very effective for addressing community needs.
Minutes of meetings demonstrates some evidence of decision local level making in addition to
challenges and conflicts that emerge in the villages. The minutes however did not show any
evidence of follow ups on issues. Most of the meetings just ended without drawing proper follow
up plans for agreed action points. This is one of the factors that lead to the ineffectiveness of
community based monitoring, hence betraying the purpose of decentralisation. The study
therefore sees the need for follow up support to communities in form of systems audit on
community based management by the DCT and extension workers. This would build the
confidence of the communities and would also ensure action monitoring for effectiveness.
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CHAPTER SIX
6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Conclusions
Basing on the study findings the following conclusions can be drawn:
The overall conclusion of the study is that the decentralisation process is very effective in
sustaining RWSS services except that in Malawi it is challenged in many ways. The same
challenges that were there during centralised system of government still resurface after
decentralisation has been effected. Still there is no evidence of sustainable RWSS service
provision.
There is an efficient institutional setup which outlines functioning of structures from district
down to the water point level. If well supported it could be instrumental for sustainable
service delivery through effective planning, implementing and monitoring RWSS activities.
Room is provided for district level multisectoral collaboration and networking through their
involvement in the DCT activities.
The district level planning is ineffective due lack of sector collaboration and low technical
and functional capacity of the district assemblies. The situation is exacerbated by the three-
year non-existence of Ward Councillors. However, the district development planning system
which is in place is efficient except that it is not well followed.
Implementation of district development plan is generally ineffective due to inadequate
technical and functional capacity. There is no evidence of coordination among sector players.
Operation of DCT is project oriented and the team lacks evidence of autonomy, hence does
not effectively guide service provision.
The district development funding towards water supply and sanitation sector is very poor and
consequently ineffective for meeting the sector financial requirements. With the already very
low budget ceiling, the water and sanitation sector receives its funding from the National
Local Government Financing Committee (NLGFC) very late which makes its operations
almost impossible. Moreover, continuous dependency on external funding shows that
districts are generally failing to effectively manage the provision of RWSS services.
The district level support to community based management (CBM) of RWSS activities is
ineffective. The district through DCT demonstrates inadequate commitment and capacity.
Communities still look up to external support for sustaining their facilities.
6.2 Recommendations
The study makes the following recommendations:
The government should support the decentralisation process by creating conducive
environment for the district assemblies to enhance their financing mechanism and to retain
sufficient and competent human capacity. District assemblies should enforce a coordinated
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 68
establishment of community structures to avoid disintegrating the existing structures and
duplicating development efforts among the communities.
The sector institutional framework should be strengthened by the district assemblies by
recognising and strengthening relevant structures. These include district coordination teams,
village health and water committees and water point committees.
District Assemblies should adopt integrative water and sanitation sector planning by
facilitating joint planning by government institutions that are form the DCT membership.
District level implementation should be backed by a strong national level monitoring and
evaluation system to oversee the district functionality. Apart from DCT, the district level
monitoring should include the multisectoral technical teams comprising extension workers to
enhance the monitoring of water and sanitation activities at ADC and VDC levels. Such
teams should be reporting to AEC while working hand in hand with the ADCs, VDCs and
community leaders. Monitoring by the technical teams should involve regular update of
inventory for both village and institutional water and sanitation facilities.
In order to achieve sustainable CBM government should identify and advocate for water
supply technologies which are cheap and easy to operate. As a short term measure, the
MIWD should call for immediate multisectoral consultations to facilitate easy and affordable
accessibility of borehole spares by the communities. The water sector should strongly
collaborate with the police service to curb theft and vandalism of water supply facilities.
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 69
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APPENDIX 1.0: Research Design
Effectiveness of Decentralised Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Services Provision in Malawi
Monday, February 27, 2017
KEY ISSUE METHOD INDICATORS TOOLS
1.0 To determine the effectiveness of the institutional set up for RWSS service provision
Sector institutional setup Literature study
Interviews
# interviews
# literature
Checklist,
Water policy Literature, key informant
Literature, records, minutes Policy document
Checklist,
Literature
Sanitation policy Literature, key informant
Literature study
Policy document
Records, minutes
Checklist
literature
Sector devolution process Literature study Devolution document Literature
2.0 To measure the effectiveness of the district planning of RWSS services
Linkage with national
development objectives
Literature study, key
informants DDP document
Questionnaire
Question guide
Phone
Sector plans Literature study, Interviews DDP document, requests Question guide
Appraisal process Literature study
Interviews
VAPs, requests, notes,
reports, minutes Questionnaire
Approval Interviews
Literature study
notes, minutes
Sector plans, DDP
Questionnaire
Question guide
Service demand Literature study, interviews # proposals received
# proposal approved Question guide
Sector collaboration Literature study, Interview # meetings
Minutes
Questionnaire
Question guide
3.0 To assess the effectiveness of implementation of RWSS activities
Human Resources in the
water sector
Key Informant
Check records
# personnel in positions
# Qualified personnel in
place
# Positions filled
Evidence of officers
available for assignments
Questionnaire
Phone
Inventory
Transport and office
equipment Key informant, observation
# of vehicles
# of motorcycles
# of office rooms
# of computers
Questionnaire
Inventory
School Sanitation
Key informant
Observation
Reports
# schools with safe water
supply
average latrine/ pupil ratio
# latrines in schools
# condition of latrines
Reports
Checklist
Questionnaire
Catchment protection Observation
Interview
# schemes with catchment
protection initiatives
Evidence of initiated
catchment protection
Questionnaire
Transect walk
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Godwin Kamtukule Masters in IWRM, 2007 74
KEY ISSUE METHOD INDICATORS TOOLS
District Support Literature study
Interviews
Extent of support to
district
Reports
Type of support
Checklist
Questionnaire
Inventory
Private Sector Involvement
Key Informant, Interviews
Reports
# contract documents
Terms of reference
Questionnaire
Interview
Inventory
District level collaboration Interviews
Literature study
Minutes of meetings
Evidence of coordination
meetings
Evidence of sector wide
plans
Questionnaire
Checklist
Stakeholder participation Literature study
Interviews
Level of participation
Evidence of s/holder
meetings
Minutes
Questionnaire
Checklist
Monitoring & Evaluation Literature study
Interviews
# completed projects
Field notes
# progress reports
Questionnaire
Checklist
4.0 To assess the effectiveness of the district level financing towards RWSS development.
Budgeting Literature study
Key informants Sector budgets
Questionnaire
Financial
records
Financial management Review financial records
Interviews , key informants
Vouchers, activity plans
Audit reports, Financial
reports, receipts
Questionnaire
Sources of funding
Literature review
Review financial records
Key informants
financial records
Proposal documents
Bank statements, records
Questionnaire
Checklist
5.0 To analyse the effectiveness of the implementation of CBM for RWSS. (A): Extension Worker’s Level
Technical backstopping Interviews Field notes
# of villages
Questionnaire
Checklist
Field supervision Check records
Interviews
Reports
Memos, letters, minutes
Log books, financial
records
Questionnaire
Checklist
Community mobilisation Interviews, check records
Minutes, notes
Letters
# of self help projects
Questionnaire
Checklist
Facilitation Interviews
Check records, interviews
Field notes
Letters
Records, reports
Questionnaire
Checklist
(B) Community Level
Management Structures
Literature study
Interviews
Focus group discussions
Structures in place
Communities aware of the
structures’ existence
Checklist
Questionnaire
Ownership Interview,
Key Informant
Safeguarding measures
Willingness to pay
Observations
Checklist
APPENDIX 1.0: Research Design (cont’d/..)
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KEY ISSUE METHOD INDICATORS TOOLS
Observations,
Focus Group Discussions
List of rules & regulations
# functioning water points
Amount of maint. funds
# spares in stock
Interviews
Operation and Maintenance
Interviews
Key informants
Focus Group discussions
Literature study
Downtime of facilities
# area mechanics
Amount of funds
# of spares available
Average prices of spares
# of distributors
Contributions per HH
Willingness to pay
Causes of facilities
breakdown
Questionnaire
Checklist
Community participation
Interviews
Focus group discussions
Check records
Minutes of meetings
Evidence of labour
contribution
Evidence of financial
contributions
Evidence of implemented
decisions
Evidence of monitoring
system
Evidence of local decision
making
Evidence of demand for
accountability
Questionnaire
Checklist
Financial management Check records, Interviews
# of IGAs
Evidence of raised funds
Up-to-date financial
records
Evidence of financial
reporting
- Upwards reporting
- Downward reporting
Questionnaire
Reporting Interviews, check records
Evidence of reports
Evidence of reports
Evidence of reports
Questionnaire
Decision making Interviews, Check records
Record of problems
identified
Record of action points
developed
Evidence of
accountability from
community structures
Evidence of service
requests
Questionnaire
Village level planning Interviews, Check records
Record of problems
identified
Record of action points
developed
Questionnaire
APPENDIX 1.0: Research Design (cont’d/..)
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KEY ISSUE METHOD INDICATORS TOOLS
Evidence of developed
plans
Evidence of priority
action list
General information on sector monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring
Check records, interviews
Literature study
Key informant
Evidence of up-to-date
reports
Evidence of action taken
on issues
Evidence of adjustments
and corrective measures
taken
Evidence of collective
decisions undertaken
Evidence of monitoring
system in place
Questionnaire
Checklist
Management Information
System (MIS)
Literature study
Key Informant
Evidence of up-to-date
records
Evidence of data bank
Evidence of updated
database
Evidence of accessible
data
Evidence of sector wide
data management
Presence of data bank
manager
Questionnaire
Checklist
Note:
AIP Annual Investment Plan
CBM Community Based Management
FGD Focus Group Discussions
IGA Income Generating Activities
VAP Village Action Planning
APPENDIX 1.0: Research Design (cont’d/..)
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APPENDIX 2.0: Questionnaire for Government Extension Workers
Name of respondent: Position: Years on Position:
Ministry of Health: Date:
Number of Villages: ------------------------- Number of GVHs----------------------------------- No of TAs:--------------------
Number of Water Points: ----------------Number of Households: ---------------Number of Latrines: ----------------
1. Please briefly list your roles and responsibilities?
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2. Which committees deal with water and sanitation issues in your catchment area?
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3. How often do you visit the villages?
[a] weekly [b] Every two weeks [c] Monthly [d] Quarterly [e] other
4. How often do communities consult you for support on their water and sanitation issues
[a] weekly [b] Every two weeks [c] Monthly [d] Quarterly [e] other
5. How often do you conduct village meetings?
[a] weekly [b] Every two weeks [c] Monthly [d] Quarterly [e] other
6. Water supply coverage within the catchment
Facility Total Details of water points
Functioning Non functioning With Committees Number Trained
Stand pipe
Borehole
Shallow well
Other
7. How long does it normally take for a broken down tap/borehole to be repaired?
[a] < day [b] one week [c] two weeks [d] one month [e] > one month
8. Who repairs broken down boreholes?
[a] WPC [b] Area mechanics [c] Extension worker [d] Users [e] other
9. Where do communities get spare parts for their water facilities?
[a] Groceries [b] Hardware shops [c] Area Mechanics [d] Extension Workers [e] Other
10. What are the common challenges with the water facilities in your catchment are?
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11. What are the common challenges with the sanitation in your catchment are?
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12. To whom do the user groups report in times of water and sanitation problems?
[a] WPC [b] VHWC [c] Village Head [d] Extension Worker [e] other
10. Do you think communities are now self reliant? Yes □ No □
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APPENDIX 2.0: Questionnaire for Government Extension Workers (cont’d/…)
If YES, what do you think are the major attributes to that?
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If NO in 15, what are the major problems that hinder self reliance among the communities?
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13. According to your knowledge, how many water and sanitation projects have been initiated by the communities?
----------------------------------- Who supported them? ----------------------------------------------------------
14. How do you rate the following in your area?
Very Low Low Average High Very High
Theft of facilities
Vandalism
Breakdowns
15. Have you heard about the District Coordination? Yes □ No □
If [Yes], how do you rate the DCT’s impact on water and sanitation development in the district?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
16. In what ways do you think the VDCs have influenced water and sanitation development?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
17. What ways do you think the ADC has influenced water and sanitation development?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
18. How do you rate the effectiveness of VHWCs in water and sanitation development?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
19. How do you rate the effectiveness of WPCs in water and sanitation development?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
20. How do you rate community participation in water and sanitation activities?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
21. How do you rate the sense of ownership of water and sanitation facilities among the communities?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
22. How often do your prepare your reports?
[a] weekly [b] Every two weeks [c] Monthly [d] Quarterly [e] other
20. How much support do you receive from the district?
[a] Very poor [b] Poor [c] Average [d] Good [e] Very Good
21. What challenges do you face when carrying out your duties?
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APPENDIX 3.0: Focus Group Discussions with Water Users
TA: VDC: Village: Date:
WATER POINT DETAILS
1. Type of water source: Borehole □ Tap □ Shallow well □ Spring □ 2. When was your water point constructed?
3. Who funded the construction of the water point?
4. How many water points do you have in the village?
5. Who funded the other water points?
6. How often do repair your water points?
7. Do you have water point maintenance funds?
8. Who decide on household contributions? In what form do you contribute?
COMMITTEE DETAILS
9. How many committees do you have in this village? What are role do they play?
10. Do you have Village Health and Water Committee? When was your committee elected?
11. Who facilitated the elections of your committee?
12. How many are you in the committee?---------------------- Men ------------------------ Women ----------------------------
13. For how long will your committee be in office?
14. How often do you receive reports from your committee?
15. How often does your committee conduct meetings?
16. Which other committees do you have in this village?
17. Do your water points have committees?
PARTICIPATION
18. Did you take part in the planning for the project? Yes □ No □
19. Did you request for the water point? Yes □ No □
If Yes, When? Who supported you?
What contribution did you make towards the construction of you water point?
If No, Who supported you? What role did you play during implementation?
20. Who decided on the technology?
21. Are you satisfied with the technology being used? Yes □ No □
22. Who decided on the site of your water point?
23. How often do conduct village meetings concerning water and sanitation?
24. Who calls for the meetings
25. When did you last meet?
26. What water and sanitation issues did you discuss?
MONITORING
23. How often do you conduct village meetings?
24. Do you have any rules for running your water points? Who makes them? Which are they?
25. Do you need any support from the district? In what areas do you need to be supported?
26. In what areas have you recently been assisted from the district?
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APPENDIX 4.0: Focus Group Discussions: with VHWC and WPC
TA: VDC: Village: Date:
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE
1. How many water points are there in your village?
2. When were they constructed?
3. How often does your water point break down?
4. Who repairs it?
5. When was its last breakdown?
6. How long does it take for your water point to be repaired?
7. Do you have spare parts? Yes □ No □
8. Where did you buy them?
9. Do have water point maintenance fund? Yes □ No □
10. How much do you have? In cash □ At the bank □
11. Who collects the money?
12. How much does each household pay?
13. Who decides on the money?
SANITATION
14. Do clean the surrounding of your water point?
15. Who cleans the water point surrounding?
16. What sanitation activities do you do in this village?
17. Who is supporting you?
18. What contribution you make towards sanitation activities?
EXTENSION WORKERS
19. Which extension workers do you know?
20. How often do extension workers visit your village?
21. What support do you receive from the extension workers?
MONITORING
22. How many are you in your committee? Men? Women?
23. When were you committee formed? Was it trained? When?
24. How often do you meet as a committee?
25. Who calls for committee meetings
26. How often do you conduct village meetings?
27. How often do you prepare reports?
28. Who do you report to?
29. Which other committees do you work with?
30. Who do you consult in times of problems concerning
Water supply? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanitation? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leadership? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31. How many cases of waterborne diseases did you have last year?
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APPENDIX 5.0: Institutional Setup for Rural Water and Sanitation Management
Source: Malawi Government, 2003
Action line/function Relationship line (referral) Reporting link
Area Development Committee (ADC)
Village Development Committee
(VDC)
Village Action Committee (VAC)
Community members at village level
(User Group)
District Assembly (DA)
(Deliberate on proposals, approves plans)
Group Village
Head (GVH)
Traditional
Authority (TA)
Village Head
Ward
(Ward Councillor)
Consolidates all VAPs
within a ward
Identify problems and set
priority action points
Consolidation of VAPS
DEC
(Desk & field appraisal)
AEC
(Preliminary appraisal)
DCT
(Supervision)
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APPENDIX 6.0: Management Structure for Piped Water Supply Schemes
Source: COMWASH Project, 2006
District
Coordination
Team
Repair Team(s)
and Intake
Caretaker
Section
Committee
Traditional
Authority
Scheme
Manager
Scheme or
Main
Committee
Branch
Committee
Group Village
Head (GVH)
Water Point
Committee
Extension
Worker /VDC
Village Head
(VH)
Extension
Worker /ADC
Board of
Trustees
District
Assembly
Community (User Group)
Reporting link Working link
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APPENDIX 7.0a: District Development Cycle (Malawi Government, 2006)
Source: Malawi Government, 2006
Situation Analysis and
formulation of DDP Framework
Production of Social
Economic Profile
Formulation of Local
Development Plan (LDP)
Monitoring and
Evaluation
Preparation of Annual
Investment plans
Approval of DDPF
Negotiations and
approval of LDP
Project Proposal
Preparation and Appraisal
Plan and Projects
Implementation
Annual Review and
Reappraisals
Feedback and Project
Identification
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APPENDEX 7.0 b: Stages of the Local Development Planning Cycle (LDPC)
Planning Stage Remark
Production of the socio-economic
profile (SEP)
This is the first step in the LDPC. The SEP provides the necessary
information for carrying out a situational analysis and subsequent
formulation of the DDPF. The SEP is prepared by the DEC using
information provided by the VAP and administrative data.
Formulation of the District
Development Plan Framework (DDPF)
This is a policy document that provides a comprehensive policy
direction and guidance for the development of the LGA. Formulation
of the DDPF is a result of the situation analysis process derived from
the SEP. Preparation of the DDPF is done by the DEC through a Task
Force guided by the DPD. Process of situation analysis involves
evaluation of opportunities and problems highlighted in the SEP. This
includes the aligning of the key issues to the National Policy
Frameworks and objectives so that district policy direction conforms to
national policies and priorities.
Approval of the DDPF
The DPD prepares an executive summary containing the highlights of
the SEP and the DDPF. The draft is presented to the Planning and
Development Service Committee of the Assembly for review. Each
item in the DDPF is exhaustively discussed to ensure that it is
reflective of district conditions and priorities. The DDPF is then tabled
at a Full Assembly meeting for approval. In case the Full Assembly
rejects the DDPF, the DEC reconvenes for further analysis and re-
submission.
Feedback and Project and Programme
Identification
When the Assembly approves the DDPF, the Assembly Secretariat
through the DPD, issues a circular to all sectors, AECs and NGOs in
the district. The Circular is aimed at informing them of the approval. It
advises such players to begin the identification and consolidation of the
programmes.
Project Proposal preparation and
appraisal
The process starts with the identification of local need through the
VDCs from the Village Action Planning Process. The VAP process
employs participatory planning approaches in enabling the
communities to plan and decide for themselves the manner in which
they intend to develop their area.
Sector ministries and NGOs participate in developing strategic plans
that accommodate proposals from the lower structures of local
authorities. District based programmes have to be developed by
sectors. Communities cannot develop strategic projects. The NGO and
sector heads are part of the DEC where they fully participate in the
development of plans at the local. They form the task forces that are
responsible for the production of the DDPs and provide technical
inputs to the Task force. Sector plans are prepared by the sector heads
with the guide of DDPF by using the VAP A project proposals and
liaise with line ministries on National Programmes (National Sector
Investment Plans) that have been formulated to be implemented in the
district.
Formulation of the District
Development Plan (DDP)
A DDP is a three year rolling roadmap of desired projects and
programmes aimed at improving the social, economic and political
development of people in the District Assembly. The projects and
programmes are based on the DDPF. As a rolling plan, therefore the
DDP is annualised into a set of Annual Investment Plans (AIP).
Negotiations and Approval of DDP
After preparing the draft DDP, the task force presents it to the DEC for
comments and further inputting and building consensus. The DPD
should subsequently present the draft DDP to the Development Service
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Planning Stage Remark
Committee. The District Assembly approve the plan through a
resolution by the Assembly members.
Preparation of the Annual Investment
Plan
This is a yearly activity that coincides with the preparation of the
Annual Budget. The process includes reviewing the previous AIP and
takes into account reviews of the VAPs and new programmes that may
have been designed at the district as well as at the National Levels. The
AIP includes only those programmes that are ongoing and those that
are new and secure funding from government. The preparation of the
AIP is the responsibility of the DPD and is done through DEC Task
Force as is the case with the DDP. The AIP determines the
development budget and each Local Government AIP is included in
the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).
Plan and Projects Implementation
This is the stage when the major investments are undertaken and
or/services being provided are increasingly taken up by the targeted
beneficiaries. It involves preparation of detailed annual, quarterly,
monthly or even weekly plans that feed into budgets.
Annual Review and Reappraisal
This is an activity that takes place in the months of January and
February of every fiscal year. The activity succeeds routine monitoring
of the implementation of AIPs. The DPD calls for DEC meetings and
outlines the objectives of the review and reappraisals. Terms of
Reference (TOR) are developed including the time framework. A Task
Force is subsequently established. The review undertaken by the Task
Force, using the TORs, seeks to assess the AIP on how many projects
have been implemented in a particular fiscal year based on the AIP,
and how many have not been implemented or completed by the end of
the fiscal year.
In the event that all the projects that were included in the in the AIPs
have been implemented, two actions are undertaken at the time of
review. First, is to implement projects defined from DDP for 2nd year if
the Assembly still has resources available. Second, is to prepare the
AIP for the subsequent fiscal year in case where the Assembly does not
have extra resources. Where the Assembly has not implemented all the
planned projects and activities of the phased projects in the AIP under
review, the remaining projects and phases are rescheduled for the next
AIP and budgeting process.
Sources: Malawi Government, 2006
APPENDEX 7.0 b: Stages of the Local Development Planning Cycle (LDPC) (cont’d/…)
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APPENDIX 8.0: Recorded cases of cholera and water & sanitation related diseases
a. Recorded cases of Cholera between 2002 and 2006
Recorded Cholera Cases Number of Cases
1813
1540 7 45
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Year
Num
ber
of C
ases
Source: Thyolo District Environmental Health Office, 2007
b. Cases of Water and Sanitation Related Cases
Recorded Cases of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases Number of Cases
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
160000
180000
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Year
Nu
mb
er o
f C
ase
s
Source: Thyolo District Environmental Health Office, 2007
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APPENDEX 9.0: Photo Gallery
Stolen tap and deserted water point (Field survey, 2007) Functioning standpipe (COMWASH, 2007)
Sky Loo latrine for Ecological Sanitation (COMWASH, 2007) Catchment Protection (Field Survey, 2007)