Monday, 13 November 2017

46 Nine Months Later

I had expected the chickens, (and that they would cross the road). Beans, also, and bricks, had been on my short-list. I even expected some pigs, and some home-made school uniforms. As the three regular blog-readers will know, we set no rules for the projects that would be born from empowering the women’s groups in tiny hamlets in the Tanzanian bush. Their mission, as you remember, was to reduce the appalling rates of maternal and child mortality, by boosting nutrition, reducing abject poverty, and enhancing any aspect of community health and development which might possibly serve the purpose.

So, yes, I had expected that some families might find themselves with an extra bit of protein, or an extra few shillings with which to part-pay the costs of illness, or of childbirth, or of sending girls to school. Maybe some would even begin on the vital but daunting project of improving water and sanitation.

What I had not expected, not at all, not one bit, was that they would simply just stop the awfulness of female genital mutilation. Or that those communities, who, for generations had steadfastly resisted new-fangled health interventions, despite a ten percent child mortality, would suddenly start getting their children immunised. Or that women in labour – sometimes even accompanied by their traditional birth attendants – would start seeking help in difficulty, before it was too late. Or that some of these TBAs would themselves be asking for training. Or that this year, in these remote and under-developed hamlets, the Grim Reaper has yet to claim its most gruesome and tragic toll – a maternal death.

What has happened? What is this amazing firework lighting up the Tanzanian sky? Not exactly what we thought anyway, when we lit the fuse. I have been giving this much thought, and a number of allegorical explanations have occurred to me. Given that as I write this, it is the quincentenary of his 95 theses being nailed to a door in Wittenberg, I think I am going to muse on the protest of Martin Luther – someone who also was part of a world in which an ancient set of rules and traditions were being turned upside down.

(Whatever your religious persuasion, by the way, and however seismic the consequences of his protest, one has to question the sensitivity of nailing stuff to a door as a means of communication.

What if neighbours started doing it?:

“Bang Bang Bang. Thanks for the sugar. Here’s your cup back. Bang. It’s a bit cracked.”

Or Parcel Force?: “Bang Bang Bang. Sorry we missed you. Bang. Here’s your parcel.”

Or even technophobes who eschew electronic messaging in favour of real paper?:

“Bang Bang Bang. Thanks for the text. Yes, 7 o’clock would be fine.”)

Anyway, 453 years before the invention of Blu Tack, that is how the Rev Dr. Luther chose deliver his challenge to the might of Rome. My point, however, is this: Why did this man’s one bold and uncompromising challenge re-write European History, and foment the most profound societal reform in a thousand or more years? Surely many others had been also harbouring similar thoughts? Indeed, they must have been, for Protestantism to have developed so swiftly. So why had there not just been a gradual trickle of influence, building slowly to a river and then a flood of rebelliousness against buying your way into heaven? All done slowly enough to let people come to terms with the new, and gradually to let go of any bad in the old?

Instead, one moment it seems that every priest in Europe is a Papist; and the next, Papists are hiding from hideous recriminations, in a hidden chamber between the drawing room hearth and the scullery, planning a moonlight flit via secret passage under the quince tree to the kitchen garden.

The origins and explanations of this, one of History’s more important conflagrations, are complex and many-faceted. However, I would like to pick up just a few smouldering thoughts, with which to shine a light on Tushikamane’s new and wonderful African mini-reformation. For in Tanzania there must also have been generations of would-be dissidents, who would have quite liked to have nailed a Women-and-Children’s-Charter to a tree. But didn’t. Women who would quite like not to have had FGM; who would have quite liked for their children to have been immunised; who would have quite liked to have got to hospital in childbirth before it was too late. But didn’t.

The first point that occurs to me is this self-evident one: the more rigid the straightjacket within which a culture is nurtured, the less able are the individuals to rebel, even in a trickle of dissidence, far less a flood. But here is an irony: when a traditional hierarchy aspires to be benevolent, perhaps it becomes even harder for the lowly to pick up the leaders on their follies. It would seem churlish to have a go at a leadership trying to do its best for you, albeit when they are doing so with an unwavering commitment to tradition and status.

Leadership follies thus blossom into peccadilloes, and peccadilloes become armadillos. (Not my best metaphor, but it sort-of wrote itself, and anyway, you get the point.) Meanwhile, the people continue to do what they have always done, not because it is always a good idea, but because it is always what they have done. From the hierarchy’s point of view, you cannot pick and choose which tradition you like, which decision you like, and which you do not. You inherit the entire lot – the culture, the traditions and the paternalism – and you pass it on.

A passivity thereby grows up, particularly among the vulnerable – which, in almost every culture on earth, have traditionally been the young women, and their babies. FGM. Childhood death. Have six children. No female education. Fetch the water, fetch the firewood, cook, clean, die. Best not think too much about it all. Count your blessings.

No-one in a benevolent autocracy – not the leaders, not the men of the village, and least of all the women themselves – intend that bad things should come with the good. But there is no space in the cultural evolution for careful discernment and planned change. No platform for the voices of disagreement. When poorly-educated, rural traditional societies in resource-poor cultures are trying to be benevolent, there is therefore a built-in latency which implicitly and steadfastly opposes change. As with Luther and presumably millions of his contemporaries, perhaps people in such cultures tend just to put up with things that they do not agree with … perhaps doing so for far too long, until a valve blows in the society’s engine, and the steam rushes out.

Before I go on, I think I ought to challenge what seems to be the assumption behind these thoughts, that, by and large, it is men who are the dominators, and women the dominated. Is the desire to dominate archetypally a male trait? Kobudai fish say “Yes”; and Hilary Clinton, Maggie Thatcher and Boudicca say “No”. (And of course Queen Khaleesi of Game of Thrones, who maybe even invented ‘No’.)

Let’s take the ‘ayes’ first: Up to middle age, Kobudai fish, amazingly, are all female, (as exquisitely illustrated in Blue Planet 2). Life is all fish chat, sardine mornings, and making krill jam in autumn. (If my wife is reading this: only joking, darling!) Genuinely, however, these extra-ordinary marine enigmas manifest as shoals of younger females, prowled on the periphery by big fat ugly old males … who dominate – each other, and the females. (Any resemblance to the Houses of Parliament is strictly coincidental.) When one or two dominant males move on, something happens to the biggest females. They sullenly shuffle off to a cave. They eat lots, and swill down more sea-water than is good for them. They lose their social skills. They brood on life. These activities seem to switch off the female hormones, and switch on the male ones. A month or two later, they emerge … as males.

The first thing they do is to seek out any smaller male, and give him a bit of a finning. Then they eat a bit more, and then get on with the business of procreating the next generation of daughters.

The inescapable conclusion, (for Kobudai, anyway), is that male hormone and the desire to dominate seem to go hand-in-hand. Bulls, lions, rutting stags, and a host of Father Nature’s other mammals and birds seem to agree.

Hilary, Maggie and Boudicca would point out, however, that it does not have to be thus. Traditionally male-dominated societies and cultures seem to have the capacity for encompassing the voice of women – under certain circumstances. In the UK, universal suffrage for women came in 1928. It our case, the final push had been provided by the First World War, where women successfully took on male roles.

(By the way, it is a little-appreciated fact that it was in the same Act of Parliament that all men acquired the right to vote. Prior to World War 1, only 40% of men were eligible, with the most vulnerable men excluded, in a society where status was one of the most important operators:

“Alright Guv’ner! Me and the missus want ter say ‘appy Christmas to you an’ all at the Manor, and ‘er indoors sends this bot’l o’ potted turnip fer yer Christmas vittles!”

“Thanks awfully, my man. Take it round to the servants’ entrance, and the second footman will deal with it. Then come back and clean up those boot-prints on the step.”)

So, finally, in the UK in 1928, a big fat nail was driven into what one day will be the coffin of all-pervasive upper-class male dominance. What women received that year was legitimacy. A platform. A voice. From there, it has been possible steadily to unpick the uglier parts of our culture’s tapestry, and to weave in some bright new threads. We now, for the most part, provide for and protect the disadvantaged and the needy. No priest-holes were necessary. No inquisition. Nothing nailed to a door. The natural respect for women that was already represented in the enlightened, found legitimate expression, and led to Progress.

In Tanzania, many rural villagers for generations have been performing FGM, avoiding immunisation, and eschewing modern health interventions. Suddenly now, in Tunguli and Msamvu, it is different. I wonder, then, whether an undercurrent of rebellion – by both men and women – against the inadequacies of tradition has suddenly found a channel in Tushikamane. Not just an outlet, but a legitimate outlet, and so we now find the unsavoury beginning to be steam-cleaned away.

Is it too much to hope that this will be an irrevocable advance? An advance that, generation after generation, will close the one-hundred-fold gap between their mortality rates and ours?

Well, I will be dead before we know the answer.

But if you are reading this in 2060, and wonderful things have happened, no need to shout it from the rooftops.

Just nail it to a nearby door.

Post Script

For progress reports and uplifting stories on the future of Tushikamane, please go to:

http://www.missionmorogoro.org.uk/

Here is a sample – where Tushikamane’s community engagement has led to the restoring of good water supplies to Mjuwimi, one of the hamlets:

http://yellowchuckchucks.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/sanitation-water-2017-mjuwimi.html

Maybe every year or so, I will treat the three blog readers to an update.

Wednesday, 18 October 2017

Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Assessment in Tunguli and Msamvu villages

Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Assessment in Tunguli and Msamvu villages – Kilindi District, Tanga Region

Assessment for Possible WASH interventions and partnership between Mission Morogoro and SAWA

IIT/Opportunity building, Kawawa Road, 2^nd Floor 2B

P.O. Box 42407, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Tel: +255222863537/+255754621265

Email:sawatz2009@gmail.com

info@sawatanzania.org

Website: www.sawatanzania.org

SAWA

July 2017

Overview

Sanitation and Water Action (SAW)is an indigenous NGO established in 2009. Supports communities, government and the private sector to identify cost-effective, innovative solutions for WASH projects and sustainable resource management. SAWA actively and technically supports promotion of Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (iWASH) and livelihoods, in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Dodoma and Njombe regions.

Since its inception in 2009, SAWA has facilitated many different programs in close collaboration with beneficiary communities, local authorities and different funding agencies including Winrock International, UNICEF, Water For All, WaterAid, Amref, Flora Family Foundation, Better live to mention a few.

SAWA has been providing WASH support to communities and schools to improve water supply services, school latrines rehabilitation and construction of new ones , capacity building through provision of training for teachers, school leaders who involves school committee, local government leaders on managing budgets and plans for sustainability of WASH services through effective operation and maintenance plans. These have benefitted over 54,000 students and 260,000 community members.

Mission Morogoro

(MM) is a charity based in the UK. MM has been working in partnership with the people of Tunguli and the Anglican Diocese of Morogoro since 2012. Over the past 5 years MM has worked on a number of projects in health, education, agriculture and water/sanitation. The list below summarises the MM interventions in Tunguli and Msamvu villages. The MM longer term vision includes helping the communities around Tunguli to have better and more reliable access to water and also establish better sanitation systems.

· A tractor and trailer plus a storage building for agriculture and other work

· New and repaired rainwater harvesting water tanks at the HC (Health Centre)

· New staff and patient VIP latrines and washing facilities at the HC.

· Refurbished laboratory at the HC

· Improved bedding at HC

· Solar lighting at the HC

· Motorcycle ambulance

· Sewing machines and training for villagers.

· Perimeter security fence and lighting for the HC - this is nearing completion.

· Water tanks for primary and secondary schools.

To achieve the longer-term goal/vision needs strong community buy-in, involvement and commitments. It also needs joint efforts, knowledge and skills to execute involved appropriate interventions.

Since MM has no permanent representatives in Tanzania there is therefore a potential for MM and SAWA to work together on WASH projects.

SAWA Assessment

The assessment was conducted to better understand what can be achieved, guide/advise the informed decision making a base for partnership between MM and SAWA. It was carried out by SAWA technical team in collaboration with community and Dr Alex Gongwe. This report presents the assessment’s results.

Acknowledgements

SAWA staff are grateful to Dr Alex Gongwe, who is in-Charge at Tunguli HC, for organising our visit, his support during community and institutional meetings and for his hospitality!!

We are also grateful to the Tunguli and Msamvu villages leadership, water committee community members, school head teachers and head masters who contributed their time, information and ideas during the assessment.

Grateful for MM that has made the visit possible through costs sharing in this assessment

Executive Summary

Tunguli and Msamvu community are committed to improve their situation in terms WASH services. Some facilitations are needed in awareness creation and empowerment to village leaders and the community at large on various issues including - hygiene promotion, environment conservation and sustainability. There are evidences of the community contributing towards improving their WASH situation and on operation and maintenance for example, there are wells that have been put in place and maintained through community initiatives. A short triggering session during the meetings indicates the communities’ excitements and commitments. However, it is sometimes easily said than done, so the team agreed to continue liaising with the community to follow on implementation of the agreed actions

In Tunguli and Msamvu people have access to basic drinking water services which according to the water points status and surrounding do not necessarily provide safe water. These water points are located far from the community/users – hence still a burden to water collectors especially children and women. It is possible to improve the situation by improving the sanitation and hygiene, replacing existing old hand pumps, and capacitating the community for operation and maintenance. The issue of distance can be in the long term plans by exploring the possibility of undertaking survey to establish points that are close to the community

Poor sanitation and hygiene environments around the water points are most likely contaminating the water used by the community and children at Tunguli and Manyinga primary schools. This puts them at risks of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, and typhoid. The top ten diseases in out-patient diagnoses in Tunguli, Msamvu and surrounding communities include the water WASH related diseases.

The situation can be improved through three phases of immediate plan which can be implemented by the community without external support; a short term plan, this need less resources and can be implemented under the support of MM and SAWA; and long term plan which need huge investment which can be done by collaborating with other development partners.

Table of Contents

Study Approach

Summary on Tunguli and Msamvu Villages

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Water Supply

Sanitation Situation

Hygiene

General recommendation to improve WASH situation

Immediate Plan (Community commitments

Study Approach

The assessment was carried out by SAWA. In a participatory way, the community leaders from both Tunguli and Msanvu villages were involved in identifying key issues. In the process, the community realised their potentials in fulfilling their roles as owners and users of water schemes and on the other hand as parents responsible for improving hygiene and sanitation situations in their two primary schools[1] and their homes.

The team relied upon a combination of interviews and physical visits to conduct the assessment. Meetings (introduction and debriefing) were held with village leaders and water committees from Tunguli and Msamvu villages, as detailed in the list - Annex B.

The team visited all water points (functional and non-functional), two secondary schools, two primary schools and few households to ascertain WASH status

Summary on Tunguli and Msamvu Villages

Tunguli ward is in Kilindi District in Tanga Region as per the 2012 National census, the Ward has a total population of 7,774 people distributed in 4 villages namely Msamvu (2,204 people), Lusane (1,296 people), Mtolo (2,281 people) and Tunguli (1,793 people)[2]. One of the villages has pastoral community who also depend on the valley for their water supply. The ward councillor reported a ward figure of 8900 people as a current population based on 2012 census figure at a growth rate of 2.5%. the ward work force is estimated to be 4,000 people.

MSAMVU village has 6 sub-villages: Msamvu, Mkuyuni, Mjuini, Mkwajuni, Bibabala, Kipera withabout 503 households – 320 households are reported to have latrines while 183 HH (36%) are reported not having latrines

TUNGULI village has 5 sub-villages: Kichangani, Centre, Njiapanda, Misanini and Kwiboma with about 50% of 423 households having not latrines

Institutions:

· Tunguli health centre under Anglican church managed by Berega hospital. The HC has a number of RWH fero-cement tanks and quality toilets blocks, however, there is a need for provision of hand washing facilities.

· There is also one private dispensary (the team did not explore more information).

· Tunguli secondary school, - 150 students (83 girls, 67 boys), 9 teachers (3 female, 6 male). It has three toilet blocks with 9 stances (2 for teachers, 4 for boys and 3 for girls. Girls’ toilet stances have no doors). Latrines were clean. In terms of water supply they use community water sources, and have Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) systems with two plastic tanks 5000 litres each which provide water for three months during dry spell. The school still has a potential for rain water harvesting as there are still big roof catchment not utilised.

· Vibaoni secondary school - 102 students (56 girls, 46 boys), 7 teachers all male). It has a latrine block with 6 stances (3 for boys and 3 for girls), one separate latrine block for teacher with two stances. Latrines were clean. They have acute problem of water as collect water from community wells located about 2km – round trip. The school has a potential for rain water harvesting as there are big roof catchment not utilised.

· Manyinga Primary school - 536 pupils (267 girls, 269 boys), 9 teachers (6 female, 3 male). The school has one pour flush toilet block with 6 stances shared by boys and girls (3 for boys and 3 for girls), teachers’ latrine block is under construction. Hygienically the toilets were very dirty, full of faeces and children practicing open defecation (OD). Luckily, the visit coincided with the school management meeting( teachers and school committee) whereby the team used that opportunity to trigger them by jointly visiting the toilet from which they were disgusted and ashamed of the situation and eventually pledged to rectify the situation immediately by undertaking small repairs and cleaning the toilet surrounding. School management thanked the team as it was an eye opener for them as they never monitored school children toilet

Eng. Charles showing the school management faeces around toilet

· Tunguli primary school – 425 pupils (223 girls, 202 boys), 8 teachers (7 female, 1 male). The school has one latrine block with 10 drop holes shared by boys and girls (5 for boys and 5 for girls) but hygienically and safety wise the school has no latrines. Immediate actions are needed to rescue the life of the children. For water supply there are two plastic tanks with 5000litres each for RWH – used during the dry season – currently pupils carry water in small containers for school cleanliness. The school has a provision for hand washing for pupils after visiting latrines (bucket with a single tap), however at the time of the visit there was no soap for safe hand washing

Tunguli primary school toilet

Tunguli pupil washing hand after visiting toilet

Main community Sources of income in Tunguli and Msamvu villages.

Mainly involved in agriculture – Maize, beans, Cassava, Sunflowers, pigeon pea (Mbaazi) – there are for both food and selling.

Water. Sanitation and Hygeine

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home is very important and should be a role of everyone at household level.

The World Health Organization, compiling information from various studies, estimates that diarrheal deaths can be significantly reduced through these relatively simple interventions:

• Improved water source 21%

• Additional treatment of drinking-water 45%

• Improved sanitation 37%

• Hand washing with soap 35%

In Tunguli and Msamvu people have access to basic drinking water services which according to the water points status and surrounding do not necessarily provide safe water. Many homes, schools and even Tunguli health centre (at the time of assessment) still lack s facilities for hand-washing. This may be contributing to incidence of diarrhoea diseases of all people – but especially young children.

Poor sanitation and hygiene, and most likely contaminated water used by the community and children at Tunguli and Manyinga primary schools puts them at risks of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, and typhoid.

Water Supply

The community and its institutions in both Tunguli and Msamvu villages highly depend on uncovered shallow wells and tube wells fitted with hand pumps that are operating beyond its economical life all located in one valley. In general, the area has good ground water potential.

The assessment team visited 8 water points (6 – community owned and 2 – owned by private individuals). The status of each water point is as summarised in the Table below, most of wells are located in the middle of the valley with high risk of contamination from the rain surface runoff. At all public water points community are getting water for free as compared to private wells where they are paying TZS 100 per 20 litre bucket (that is 5TZS/litre).

Nija Panda Well (Lat -5.942675 Long 37.2812916)

5m deep tube well, with SWN 80 hand pump.

Serving the community all year, but overworked in dry season

to the extent that the community have to queue to wait for the well to recharge.

The existing pump can be repaired to keep it going

but the maintenance costs may be high worth to replace the new pump.

Its surrounding is not hygienic with stagnant dirty water around the well and in the drainage

Kwipipa Well (-5.9401417 37.2825083)

About 13m open ring well, built in 1970s.

It is close to Tunguli secondary school

It has a water column of about 7m. currently not used and dirty.

It can be cleaned, covered and fitted with a rope pump.

KwaAmina (Mkwajuni) (-5.9389028 37.2843722)

7m deep open ring well dug and financed by the community.

It has about 2m water column.

It can be deepened covered and fitted with rope pump

Mjuii (-5.9384417 37.2798972)

Open ring well. It was originally 7m deep, the community deepened it to 9m.

The pump pedestal indicates that the well (in its life time) has been fitted with two different hand pumps.

It is unhygienic as every user comes with her own rope and bucket.

The well surrounding itself is not clean.

This can be covered and fitted with hand pump

Kichangani (-5.9382556 37.2748944)

5m dry tube well.

Its pump was broken, the well is full of sand and rubbish.

Kwa Pendo (-5.9382556 37.2748944)

Private well. 7m deep open ring well, a year round well.

It has no pump every user comes with her own rope and bucket.

Water is sold at 100TZS/20 litres bucket.

With good supervision the owner collects 10,000 to 20,000 TZS per day especially during the dry season.

Dr … (-5.9383444 37.2715916)

Private well with a submersible pump. The owner also owns a dispensary.

The water is pumped, about 500m, to plastic tank at the owner’s premises.

The Water is sold at 100TZS/20 litres bucket.

Msamvu KwaGradice (-5.9380139 37.2707416)

A dry well.

This was originally a tube well.

In 1997 it was dry and therefore changed into a ring well used for few years before it dried up.

Msamvu (-5.9378389 37.2692527)

13m deep tube well, with SWN 80 hand pump.

Reported giving water all year round.

However at the time of the visit it was not working

and seems it has not worked for about a week due to spare parts problems.

The community was organising funds for repair.

Other

Community mentioned a possibility of gravity water supply from a spring – about 6 Km from the village, and other possible gravity scheme sources which can be explored for longer term plans

Community collecting water from Upendo private well

Locations of Water points In Tunguli and Msamvu

Sanitation Situation

Msamvu leadership reported that out of 503 households about 200 households (about 40%) are practicing open defecation. Tunguli reported that 50% of 423 households have not latrines. There were evidences of open defection during the visit of the water points and worse enough faeces were seen in the valley which feed the open wells used by community.

Hygeine

Dirty surroundings of the wells and dirty sanitation facilities were observed at wells, primary schools and house hold levels. There were no sign of hand washing facilities inside and outside of the community toilet which signify they may not be washing their hands after using toilet.

Hygiene and sanitation awareness should be part and parcel of water supply interventions in Tunguli and Msamvu area for the realization of full potential of WASH services.

The top ten out-patient diagnoses in the project area (Tunguli, Msamvu and surrounding communities) are summarised in Table below. (source: Tunguli Health Centre)

Rank	Disease
1	Malaria
2	Diarrhoeal diseases
3	Urinary tract infection
4	Acute respiratory infection
5	Gastro uteritis
6	Bacterial pneumonia
7	Schistosomiasis
8	HIV infection/PTIS
9	Pelvic infection ('PID')
10	Pneumonia

Key issues observed:

· The community are queuing for long period in fetching water from the functional shallow wells. There is a need of providing more water points to reduce time spent on each water point.

o Assuming a water policy figure of 250 people per water point of single outlet within 400m distance from users, Masamvu and Tunguli population needs 17 water points in total. However, experience shows the community have their convenient walking distances in such a way that many water points result in redundant water points.

o Community leaders feels that 7 additional water points will be sufficient Tunguli(3) and Msamvu (4). They have gone further by identifying site for water points construction.

Queuing at Njiapanda well- heavily used

· Community is not aware of the Water supply and Sanitation guiding policy and acts. By raising community awareness on these it will significantly contribute to the sense of ownership, water sources protection, contribution towards operation and maintenance for sustainability enhancement.

· Water points are managed by water committees mainly appointed by and involving village leaders. The water resources management act of 2009 requires all community water projects to be managed by registered entities called Community Owned Water Supply Organization (COWSO). These are legally registered management bodies responsible for overseeing water and sanitation for sustainability enhancement.

· Water is free on all public water points. However, community leaders reported that they have agreed to contribute TZS 500 per month for O&M of their water points. Practically this is not done and once money is collected to emergency repairs no accountability (feedback) is done. This sometimes discourages the users to contribute.

· Most of the diseases affecting Tunguli communities are water and sanitation related diseases. Hygiene and sanitation awareness is low. This can be linked to the hygienic surrounding of the wells and the prevailing top ten diseases as depicted on the table above.

Source of water contamination

· There are clear evidence of environmental degradation resulted by ongoing human activities such as mining and livestock keeping upstream. Land conservation and protection with the focus of water resources with a changing climate is of paramount.

· No water treatment. Awareness on water related diseases will help the community understand the risks of their unhygienic behaviour and therefore treat at least their drinking water.

Asha Athuman (14) form one student carrying drinking water from Mkwajuni open well

General recommendation to improve wash situation

During our visit,two community meetings were convened, one as an introductory and getting brief on the status of WASH services in the villages. The second meeting was set at the end of the visit to provide feedback on summary key findings and to create an avenue for the community to agree on types of interventions and plan of action.

Additionally, The team also used that opportunity to create awareness to village leaders on their fundamental roles such improving school learning environment, hygiene promotion especially hand washing with soap at critical times as it reduces greatly diseases found in Tunguli, importance of having improved latrine, environmental conservation with the focus of water resources management. The discussions triggered the village leaders to commit themselves to start taking appropriate actions to address some of the raised issues that are within their reach as depicted on immediate community action.

In summary, the team deliberated to categorise the interventions in three phases, first is called immediate plan (to be implemented by the community without external support), short plan (need less resources - to be implemented under the support of MM and SAWA), long plan (need huge investment-Collaborating with other development partners).

The Community seems keen and committed. It has managed to maintain the pumps in difficulty ways; they have dug wells on their own initiatives, what they need is some facilitation, triggering and support on management.

Immediate Plan (Community commitments)

o temporarily put covers on wells to reduce contamination risks

o advocate for few common buckets well-kept to reduce the risk everyone coming with her/his own bucket

o Clean regularly the water points and provide drainages to remove accumulated dirt water

o Ready to provide labour and locally available material

o Every 2 sub-villages contribute 1,000,000TZS as part of initial investment in improving existing Water points and developing new ones.

o Repair the broken hand pump at Msamvu

o At least to install one rope pump for testing its usability as they were happy with less cost involved in operation and maintenance compared to the existing hand pumps whose spares not readily available and are expensive in Operation and Maintenance

o Improve latrines situation for Tunguli and Manyinga primary schools

o Fencing of water points for health and safety

o Start improving household latrine improvement- agreed leaders to show examples

Broken hand pump at Msamvu

Tunguli village government chair-promises to improve his toilet

Short term

· Rehabilitate and improve (cleaning, deepening, covering and installing pumps) existing water points and Tunguli and Msamvu. Appropriate hand pumps which can be maintained by community and whose spare parts can easily be accessed are proposed. The link below shows a rope pump which is locally made whose spares the community can manage. (please note that this is 25.6MB): https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6383676_0159249_9018526

· Add more 7 water points – digging, and installing hand pumps

· Water quality testing. This will show the level of contamination – especially bacteriological results will help in community awareness raising for sources protection.

· Facilitate community to form appropriate management bodies (COWSO) inline with National water policy.

· Hygiene and sanitation promotion and promote for open Defecation Free (ODF) community

· Hygiene promotion in schools for behavioural change – including forming peer group school health clubs.

· Facilitate community to make regular contributions as agreed for O&M.

· Facilitate community to make miners/mining activities going on in the village are contributing to maintain the water points from which they are taking water.

Medium and Long term

Explore the possibility of gravity scheme. According to community the District Water Engineer’s office has promised to send the team to assess the stream – potential for gravity scheme

Explore possibility for deep boreholes (1 or 2), then a pumping scheme which involves storage tanks and distribution networks

Explore possibilities for lagoons (big ponds) for livelihoods activities.

Annexes

Assessment Timetable

Mon 17^thJul 2017	SAWACommunicate with Dr Alex Ngogwe and arranging community visit
Tue 18^th Jul 2017	SAWA travel from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. Overnight Morogoro.
Wed19^th Jul	Travel to Tunguli via Berega with Dr Alex Gongwe. Meeting with Tunguli and Msamvuvillage leaders and Water committee. Visiting (with Tunguli and Msamvu village leaders and Water committee) existing water points (both functional and non-functional). Overnight Tunguli.
Thu 20^th Jul	Visiting (with Dr. Alex Gongwe) institutions(2 primary schools and 2 Secondary schools) Debriefingwith village leaders and Water committee. Overnight Morogoro
Thu 21^st Jul	SAWA team travel Morogoro to Dar es Salaam.

People Met

Tunguli and Msamvu villages:

Tunguli and Msamvu village and water committee leaders – 18 people in the first meeting and 15 people in the Debriefing meeting (see the attached list below)

Tunguli Secondary School

1. Protas Felix Ringo

Tunguli Primary school

1. UpendoMwafongo

2. Asha Eliza

Vibaoni Secondary School

1. John Kwambaza

Manyinga Primary School

1. Lightness Nasari

2. Halima Dengi

First meeting:

Debriefing meeting:

[1] We have disgusting evidences which can be shared if required.

[2]Unfortunately, the village leadership did have reliable population data.