#7: Participatory Development...A short-term 'solution'?

Upon reflection to participatory development sanitation schemes (PDSS) in my previous blogs, I'm slightly concerned I've given a 'rose-tinted' outlook on PDSS... Success is not always the case, specifically in the long-term (Carter et al. 1999), especially because there is no universally adopted definition of water point functionality or what constitutes a functioning water point, even within the SDGs (Bonsor et al. 2018).

Therefore, this week I will be critically analysing PDSS to examine its long-term in this penultimate blog.

What is PDSS?
As mentioned in blog #4, PDSS combines citizen input into water resource governance and management (Cleaver 2016). The objectives of improving WASH facilities through such initiatives include eliminating time poverty (that affects women most due to gendered roles as learned in blog #2), water-borne disease, and becoming more environmentally sustainable. These subsequently increase socio-economic development, quality of life, gender and resource equality, and give more dignity in creating sustainable and adequate WASH facilities.

These schemes include subsidising the *upfront costs* of systems, most commonly the India Mark II handpump, and helping construct and teach communities on system maintenance. I am emphasising the 'upfront costs' in the previous sentence because communities are expected to carry out repairs and pay for the remainder of the (beyond) lifetime maintenance.

Diagram of the India Mark II handpump, the most common across Africa (MacArthur 2015).

The issue?

The Rural Water Supply Network (2010) found there was a far greater focus on building more water systems than keeping them working, affecting long-term sustainability. This caused the following problems:

• 36% of handpumps are not working at any give duration (RWSA 2010)
• 20-25% failure within 2 years of construction (Upton and Danert 2019).
• Long-term ecology is not investigated enough due to its high cost and longer research duration, meaning systems are more likely to fail in the long-term or if appropriate systems are not built for specific locations (Harvey 2003; Upton and Danert 2019).
• Pressure providing more subsidised WASH facilities means short-cuts are taken in material costs, often causing parts to break easily and, thus, are more prone to major repairs maintenance-taught community members do not learn/cannot conduct (Danert 2019).
• In Burkina Faso, underground corrosion of handpumps is a big issue, affecting a third of handpumps within years of construction and causes pumped water to develop a different taste and turn a red/brown colour leading to rejection by its users (Danert 2019) - see below. This well-known issue would be classed as 'major' and requires an external professional (paid for by the community) to fix, if the community cannot afford this, the pump cannot be used.
• Due to gender roles and voluntarism, men of communities are usually the one's taught how system maintenance, and also lead community discussions and decisions. This also widens the skill-gap (and development gap) between men and women through excluding women in decision-making, makes women even more reliant on men, and reaffirms gender stereotypes (Ananga 2015).
• The 20l of clean water per rural citizen daily does not account for other water requirements such as for livestock and crops (RWSA 2010), limiting development and long-term ability to afford system maintainence. This becomes more problematic when a community's system breaks and they need to use a neighbouring village's system.

Red/brown water due to handpump erosion in Uganda, this issue has been known for over 30 years and is easily avoidable...yet isn't commonly avoided due material choice (UPGro 2016a; 2016b).

What does this mean for women?

Women are the first (after those who are taught on system maintenance) to reap the benefits of such systems as they decrease time poverty, risk of water-borne disease and enable women to clean themselves and their sanitary products properly when menstruating - as Tvunyaz's story (blog #3) highlights. However, the limited long-term efficiency of these systems, namely the India Mark II, cause women to be the first to bear the consequence too (Kehler 2001)...

As these systems commonly become unusable within the first 2 years of construction and women are responsible for the reproductive domain, women are expected to return to traveling far distances to collect (unsafe) water or travel to neighbouring villages and queueing for water, which sometimes just as long. Furthermore, water use from unsafe open sites can affect projected aquifer replenishment serving PDSS systems, and using a neighbouring village's PDSS system strains the 20l a day figure - both lead to system unsustainability.

As explained in blog #2 women have benefitted from reduced time poverty in selling their own produce and making an income for themselves to uplift their socio-economic background. If these PDSS systems failed, women would be expected to stop this activity to return to dedicating their time to water collection, of which globally women collectively spend 200 million hours a day fetching (UNICEF 2016).

What's the answer?

Myth 7, "the ultimate myth" (RWSA 2010), RWSA emphasises there is no quick-fix to rural water supplies, and the "simple idea [of] a new pump or clever way to organise a village committee" (2010) is not the answer. Instead, we need a localised user-focussed and institutionally integrated approach (including governments as well as NGOs) to effectively understand the long-term limitations to improve maintenance, broader environmental effects, and gendered stereotypes to aid SDG 6 and SDG 5!

Kala shows us another alternative of how information and technology services under our increasingly digitalised society can help sustainable rural water provision:

To conclude, PDSS may be effective in the short-term, but to maintain vital long-term efficiency and water security, a more integrated approach must be taken where there is as much as a focus on the capacity to maintain PDSS systems as there is to construct them and to increase women's voices!