Simon J. Mone
Despite all the water initiatives coming to the table, the world still finds it hard to access enough water. So, people continue to face the challenge of inadequate clean and safe water. And we continue looking for ways for communities to get clean and safe water. Water demand around the world is increasing because of the increasing population.
This, together with challenges caused by the changing climate, subjects many people to severe water scarcity, especially during the dry seasons of the year. Among the solutions, we should look for reliable alternative water sources to do a world of good to the global community. In our part of the world, water supply infrastructures break down more often.
We have broken boreholes, dried-up protected wells, a shortage of piped water supply, rainwater harvesting systems that do not serve for the duration of dry spells, and seasonal protected springs. Despite the respectable amounts of money committed to providing and repairing these facilities and making sure that these facilities are serviceable, we are still coming short on sustainable water supply.
Communities do not have reliable alternative water sources. We still see communities walking long distances to find these alternative water sources. We see communities queuing up at water sources, taking long hours. There are also occasional water point conflicts.These are also evident in many urban communities.
All these indicate that alternative water sources are not efficiently providing adequate water for communities. During inspections of such water supply systems, communities say they do not have sufficient budget to maintain the facilities. That there is a constant breakdown of their primary water sources. The water user communities also say they do not get adequate training to enable the users to maintain and repair their water systems.Others say that the available sources cannot serve large numbers of people. This is evident in the long queues at water points every early morning and evening to fetch water. Queues start as early as dawn till as late as mid-morning.
The impact of these failing facilities is felt most by the local communities living in the remotest parts of the country, where they do not have alternative water sources. The inefficient alternative water sources are the key reason for the resultant scarcity of water for communities. The communities in remote areas depend mainly on boreholes, hand-dug wells, and rainwater harvesting. And when these are not available, water scarcity becomes a big problem.
We need to make sure that communities can go to alternative water sources that must be serviceable and that provide constant water supply. There is also a need to provide good maintenance strategies for communities. It will stop communities from resorting to unclean streams and sources (that can create diseases), or from walking long distances to find potable water sources (wasting time in the process).
There is a need to have appropriate community-based interventions keeping the long-term supply of water for communities in mind. Responsibility for water infrastructure management must be given priority to reduce the effect of water shortage among communities. Leaving the responsibility of solving water problems to local authorities and non-governmental organisations which have limited capacity and resources to manage these facilities sustainably will continue to become inefficient.
It has been a yearly burden for communities. Communities must consider implementing good maintenance strategies during water project initiation. They need to include reliable available options during water disruptions. New water installations need to consider the old installations, especially during periods of water scarcity.
Simon J. Mone Wodobalim is a civil
engineer. [email protected]
