Performance Report for FY 2009/10 - UWASNET

Case Study 6.1
Performance Report for FY 2009/10
Cost tracking of rural water projects. Source Fontes Foundation Uganda
Background
Fontes Foundation (www.fontes.no) is a small, Norwegian NGO that together with
its counterpart in Uganda, Fontes Foundation Uganda, has been supporting water,
sanitation, education and environment projects in Western Uganda since 2004.
Working with the districts and local communities, Fontes Foundation has installed
piped water supply systems in Katunguru, Kazinga and Kisenyi fishing villages Rubirizi
District. The water systems are small piped water systems that extract surface water
which is treated using simple treatment plants. The systems are operated through
a modality of the community management approach, where water committees are
paid sitting allowance. The local technicians and caretakers/tap-attendants are given
a small remuneration at the end of the month. A jerrycan costs between UGX50
and UGX100. Fontes Foundation has a local employee that gives technical support,
and follows up the projects regularly with capacity building of water committees.
Based on the categories set out by WASHCost (see www.washcost.info, Fonseca
et al 2010 7 ), the organisation recently carried out a cost-tracking exercise to gain
a better understanding of the Life-Cycle Costs (LCC) of rural water projects. The
data was collected from the organisation’s accountability, budgets, local transfer
documents, monthly reports filled out by the water committees, travel reports and
some estimates. Four basic expenditures were monitored
i. Operational Expenditure (OpEx).
ii. Capital expenses (CapEx) covers expenditures on new investments such as new
taps, expansions.
iii. Capital Maintenance Expenditure (CapManEx) covers costs such as replacements
and renovation that are necessary after a few years of operation, and that are
often beyond the capacity of the community.
iv. Expenditure on Direct Support (ExpDS) covers administration and salaries in
Norway and Uganda, as well as follow up visits, community mobilisation, capacity
building of committees and water seminars.
Findings
The graph shows the costs broken down in the categories set out by WASHCost.
Only operational expenditures
(OpEx) are entirely covered by the
community; the other categories
are mostly paid by the NGO, local
government and other partners
such as Uganda Wildlife Authority.
The Expenditure on Direct Support
(ExpDS) is relatively high; however
the organisation has found this
to be crucial for functionality.
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
Expenditure in UGX
(Million)
0
7 Fonseca, C., Franceys, R., Batchelor, C., McIntyre, P., Klutse, A., Komives, K., Moriarty, P., Naafs, A., Nyaro, K., Pezon, C., Potter,
A., Reddy, R. And Snehalatha, M. (2010) Life-cycle costs approach Katunguru – glossary and components, Kazinga WASHCost KisenyiBriefing
note 1, IRC
International Water and Sanitation Centre
CapEx
CapManEx
OpEx
ExpDS
77 | NGOs in the Ugandan Water and Sanitation Sector