Evaluation of water supply system Case study in Naka ... - ENGEES

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Evaluation of water supply system – Case study in Naka, Nigeria6 Discussion6.1 Results findingsThe results, even affected by the fact that the system was not working during theduration of the study, allow some important remarks: the current water supply systemin Naka, due to the low level of services provided, did not have the expected positiveimpact. Therefore the community still relied on other resources, mainly un-improvedones. As a consequence, expansion cannot be considered until the system providessatisfactory services in a sustainable way.The results concerning both infrastructure and management are not surprising incomparison to the other case studies feedbacks of water project in developingcountries: problems of operation and maintenance, lack of government investment,low community mobilization, financial difficulties are characteristic causes of watersystems breakdown (WHO/UNICEF, 2000). To that extent, the case study of Naka inNigeria does not escape the common rules.Nevertheless, the Naka case study highlights a specific issue Nigeria will have toaddress: the involvement of the tribe minorities in the management and decisionmaking.In fact, it is often advised in the literature to run the community meetings inthe local language but the presence in Nigeria of about 400 different languages begsthe problem of communication. People who are educated speak English, the nationallanguage, whereas the non-educated keep their tribal one. It may vary geographically,but in Naka, the minorities were often able to hear and even speak English.Considering the state of the infrastructure and the difficulties to operate and maintainthe assets, the system was not ready to be handed over to the WCA. Measures to betaken include repairing or replacing damaged assets such as broken pipes, thesedimentation tank and the clear-water tank. Adequate water treatment is also reallyimportant to manage, both for the adequacy for consumption and for the infrastructure(acidic water). Moreover, surface water of the dam can easily be subject of pollution,especially regarding the fast population growth and the development of the town.Cranfield University at Silsoe 31 Florianne Bourrigault (2006)
Evaluation of water supply system – Case study in Naka, NigeriaThe WCA has a great challenge ahead to mobilise the community and manage thesystem in a sustainable way; it will require support (in training, financially and for theenabling environment) from the government or/and other agencies in order to achieveit. Feedback from the WCA once managing the system will be useful to assess thestrengths and weaknesses of water users’ association management option in the smalltown environment, compared to other type of management.6.2 Validity of methodologyThe fact that there has never been water flowing during the study, have had someconsequences to the application of it: relying on only people interviews to assess thefunctioning of the tap as well as the difficulty sometimes to evaluate the impact of thetap system only and not the impact of all the water resources in general.6.2.1 Possible improvements of the methodThe WHO approach for evaluation proves to be really flexible to adapt the context;the added indicators allowed drawing a complete picture of the situation.When doing the surveys of the taps and mapping it, the use of a GPS would havehelped to directly get a map on scale concerning position and altitude of the waterpoints, the water system assets, as well as delimiting the different density areas. Infact, even if the map was designed with the translator who is living in Naka and whoparticipated in drawing the community map, perception of geography are sosubjective that it may be difficult to use for any further design plan carried by anotherperson.Concerning the evaluation of the WCA needs and gaps, personal interviews of each ofthe executive committee members would have been a useful source of information asduring meeting it is difficult to get equal participation of each member.In order to have a more complete view of the water issue in Naka, there should be asimilar evaluation carried out during the dry season as people’s habits to fetch waterare really different and water shortages are more acute.Cranfield University at Silsoe 32 Florianne Bourrigault (2006)
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