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the people had access to safe hygienic water, their management of the water was unsatisfactory, which led to the
water becoming contaminated before they used it. This was most evident with the method in which they constructed
the brick tanks around the tap, leading contaminated water to back flow into the system. In addition to this factor,
the people were also not aware of the importance of keeping their water containers cleaned to avoid further
contamination. Though these factors hindered some of the people’s utilization of the safe hygienic water, another
factor was that since the water was only being pumped for a certain amount of hours a day, some people were forced
to use the pond water when they could not finish their water related activities within the time the water was pumped.
From this experience we can see that there is a strong need for hygiene related education programmes among the
people, especially concerning sanitation and the safe management of water. It is evident that the introduction of new
options alone is not sufficient to change the behavior of the people. The introduction of new options must be coupled
with adequate education programmes in order to inform the people the important health related benefits these
options will provide them. The education programmes must also do more than just inform the people, they should
aim to educate the people how to best utilize the options in the most appropriate way and also cultivate a sense of
responsibility among them when it comes to hygiene. Furthermore, it is very necessary to re-conduct these education
programmes regularly in order to remind the existing residents and to especially inform possible new residents. It is
vital to carry out such programmes to effectively achieve the major objectives of WS projects, namely providing both
hygienic safe water and sanitation. Installation of improved WS options alone, without effective awareness raising/
education programmes, cannot be expected to achieve improved WS conditions.
Recommendations
- Community WS projects should be coupled with appropriate awareness raising and education programmes to
more effectively achieve the objectives of the projects.
- Awareness raising and education programmes should be conducted regularly in order to inform existing residents,
and especially new residents, about the importance of hygiene and safe water in relation to a healthy life style.
8.5 Need for Adequate Documentation
Lessons learned
Various attempts have been made to improve water and sanitation conditions in Bauniabad in the past ten years,
which gives us important lessons to be learned through success and failure stories. However, through this study, it
was found that much information had been lost. Due to the unplanned interruptions and financial crisis, the R&D
stopped before its completion. The data collected during the R&D phase was not properly preserved. For instance,
we investigated the detailed information of the tests, including performance, test methodologies and results during
the R&D in order to provide us insight on the comparison of the biogas based sewerage system and the septic tank
system. However, data obtained by limited tests over a few months were lost except the main reported values. The
data could possibly provide us with an insight as to why the systems did not show expected performance during the
scaled up stage.
Since the same system would not be able to be replicated at sites with different social, cultural and economic
conditions, not only adoption and implementation of the WS projects, but also the documentation of the adoption
processes with detailed technological/engineering as well as social, cultural and economic information are vital for the
next step towards replication.
Recommendations
- Not only adoption and implementation, but also process of adoption should be considered crucial for community
based WS projects.
- All community based WS projects should undertake documentation of adoption processes with detailed
information including technological/engineering as well as social, cultural and economic aspects.
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