A TrainerÕs Manual for Community Managed Water Supplies in Kenya

IntroductionINTRODUCTION1. BackgroundCommunity managed water supply systems play a significant role in providing water services to theKenyan public. However many community managed water supplies continue to under-perform andrequire support in terms of infrastructure improvement, strengthening of management and financialsystems, operation and maintenance, and better inclusion into the regulatory framework. It isrecognized that many organizations, including the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, have and continueto respond to the need to improve the water services offered by the community managed supplies.This Trainer’s Manual aims to support the process of building sustainable community managed watersupplies.2. Development of the ManualA variety of water supply training manuals already exist, dealing with different topics and providingdifferent levels of detail relevant to community managed water supplies. So why another manual?This Trainer’s Manual was commissioned by FAO and UNICEF, on behalf of the Water/NRMTechnical Working Group, to respond to a stated need for a comprehensive manual coveringfinancial, organisational, legal and technical aspects of community based water supply managementwhich could be used by any state or non-state organisation to support capacity building activities. Inaddition, the Manual was intended to incorporate specific issues (e.g. performance monitoring,compliance to regulations and sector guidelines, rights based approaches, etc) that have beenemphasised under the water sector reforms in Kenya.3. Scope of the ManualThere is enormous diversity within the community managed water supplies in Kenya in terms ofwater source, infrastructure, scale and cultural context. As a result, the content of the Manual covers adiverse range of topics. Consequently there is a responsibility on the trainer to make sure that thecontent and level of detail is adapted and made appropriate to each particular community trainingoccasion.The Manual is focused on community managed water supplies. In the past there has been tremendouseffort to incorporate sanitation and hygiene elements within community water projects. Afterconsultations with stakeholders it was felt that there is adequate documentation on hygiene andsanitation training and therefore facilitators are referred to recognised materials onCHAST/PHAST/CLTS training to cover these topics.The Manual is not intended to be used as a reference for the design of water supplies. The Manualfocuses on building understanding, knowledge and skills within the community members and theirmanagement structures on a range of organisational, legal, financial, and technical issues relevant tooperating the water supply infrastructure efficiently and effectively in order to provide an improvedand sustainable water supply.4. Purpose of this Trainer’s ManualThis Manual is intended as a resource for trainers or facilitators as they prepare the training materialsfor individual training activities.The Manual is not intended as a document that is left with the community, nor does it contain manyhandouts for the community. The approach adopted has been to provide the facilitator with relevantand appropriate materials. It is expected that during the training and capacity building process thecommunity will establish their own procedures, operation and maintenance schedules, forms and1