WATER : Swazi Village Gets a Self-Sustaining Water Supply

By Mantoe Phakathi Reprint | | Print |

SIPHOFANENI, Swaziland, Apr 6 2010 (IPS) - No one loves the bill collector, and Sifiso Shongwe gets a chilly welcome as he goes from household to household collecting money for Maphilingo’s community water scheme.

The sale of produce like these chillies from a collective garden will pay maintenance costs for a water supply scheme. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

It’s a thankless task in the scorching heat of the drought-prone Lubombo Region in the eastern part of Swaziland. Shongwe not only has to dodge vicious dogs at many homesteads each month, he finds many people just won’t pay.

“As the chairperson of the water scheme I have to ensure that we raise enough money to pay for the electricity bill,” said Shongwe. “But that never happens.”

Most of the 250 households in this poverty-stricken community regularly fail to pay the five elangeni (approximately 70 cents U.S.) due per household every month for pumping and maintenance costs for the water scheme installed by the Rural Water Department sixteen years ago.

Aging infrastructure

Currently the over 17,000 residents from Siphofaneni draw water from a borehole which was designed in 1994 to last for only 10 years. With the increase in population, said Shongwe, pumping and maintenance costs have increased dramatically over the years.

“In 1994 we used to pump water once a week, but now we pump daily because the population has increased,” said Shongwe. “Besides soaring electricity costs, the pump breaks down quite often because its capacity is inadequate to the needs of the population.”

Shongwe collects barely 100 dollars every month, hardly enough to cover the average monthly pumping costs. It gets worse if the pump has broken down because they have to pay for fixing it.

It’s no surprise that this community is among the Swaziland Electricity Company’s (SEC) bad debtors. From time to time, the service provider cuts off the electricity supply to the pump. Four months ago the community had no potable water because they owed SEC about 500 dollars while the pump had broken down and they had to pay 700 dollars to fix it.

“When SEC cuts off the electricity supply we go back to the river where we drink with livestock,” said Shongwe. “In that way the community is exposed to waterborne diseases.”

A solar-powered pump would be one solution, but the system installed in a neighbouring community was stolen and Maphilingo has no intention of making the same mistake. Besides, another alternative has presented itself.

Solving the problem at its source

The Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE) is building dams serving poor communities by supporting commercial farming of sugarcane and vegetables. But the state-owned company also wants to make sure that the communities in which it operates have safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities.

According to SWADE water and sanitation specialist Makhosi Dlamini, 42 percent of rural water schemes across the country are non-operational because people do not pay.

SWADE’s plan is to help the communities establish commercial gardens. Proceeds from these commercial vegetable gardens, said Dlamini, would first pay the electricity bill and then suppliers of farm inputs.

“This will work the same way the sugarcane associations operate. For instance, sugarcane farmers only receive their money after the bank had already deducted all the expenses,” explained Dlamini. “That’s the reason why sugarcane farming is a success.”

The SWADE scheme is designed in such a way that raw water will be pumped from the canals supplying the cane plantations and treated using slow sand filtration. Gravity-based distribution networks will allow the flow of water from the reservoirs to standpipes, eliminating the need for further pumping.

In the plan for the first phase of the project, which should be completed by 2012, clusters of between five and eight homesteads will share a standpipe – no resident will be more than 200 metres from a water point.

In a second phase, SWADE will connect water to individual homesteads who can afford to pay and do not want to be part of the communal scheme.

This programme is not just about access to safe drinking water, said Dlamini, but also helping poor communities fight poverty and realise food security. Water from the new scheme will go to both backyard gardens for food security and to commercial gardens that raise money for bills. Any surplus from the sale of produce will remain in community pockets.

SWADE is operating a demonstration plot at Siphofaneni to ascertain the kind of vegetables and crops are favourable in the area.As the grass is cleared for cultivation, the residents already have an idea of what they will grow in their gardens.

“All what you see here is profitable to grow for residents,” said Themba Matsenjwa, the plot supervisor.

Already the plot is red with tabasco chillies and tomatoes, green with spinach, cotton, and unripe maize. Every community member will benefit from some training on how to grow the selected crops to give them every chance of success.

While labourers in the plot are picking the ripe chillies, plumes of water are spraying over the vegetables. The water is drawn from the long straight ditches running through to the dam on the other side of the plot.

Covering all bases

But first things first, said Dlamini. Before the standpipes are installed, and villagers’ gardens can be planted, SWADE has provided the community with material to build toilets.

“At Maphilingo alone over 200 homesteads do not have toilets,” said Dlamini. “People are so used to using the bush that they’ve never seen the need to build toilets.”

“We’re lucky here that nobody has been raped while relieving themselves in the bush unlike in other communities,” said Dlamini.

Shongwe is waiting impatiently for the community to finish building their toilets so that the main business may start. And his solitary monthly tours of the village can end.