Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/592194
health officers, environmental health assistants, water and sanitation members, engineers, assembly members, district chief executives, and chiefs. The topics covered were financial sustainability, technical sustainability, and institutional and social sustainability. "We're trying to work alongside them, not try to work through them," Powell says before the trip. "They've got to have some responsibility if this is going to move forward and have com- munities grow and thrive and expand. At some point it's not helping them or us by giving without them taking re- sponsibility—long-term it's not helping them, it's hurting them." Some water relief organizations train a villager to be the pump mechanic. Powell questions the viability of this model. He doesn't envision a village- trained pump mechanic who doesn't work on them every day retaining the instructions. Instead, Powell's five subcontracted pump mechanics who will have access to GIS mapping of all the well sites will handle the calls when a pump is non- operational. Powell believes it's vital to drill the water well and install the pumping sys- tem for free for the village because they simply can't afford it otherwise. This is Powell's multi-prong approach: • Help set up business for the sub- contracted pump mechanics by pro- viding access to Wells for Relief International's trucks and spare parts for maintenance of hand pumps. Since they installed the pumps, they should be able to repair them more quickly. The mechanic will then charge the village for their work. • Each village has a water sanitation (WATSON) committee which is in charge of sanitation practices and fig- ures how much to charge per bucket of water or set a monthly fee. This money is used for the cost of future maintenance and service of the pumping system. • The government in each district has environmental health officers who visit villages and check in on the WATSON committee. Powell understands no one sustain- ability model is perfect and some vil- lages are better than others at adhering to these guidelines, but he has faith in the plan and the people of Ghana. "We're trying to take care of one basic need—their health with water— and give some training on organization and hopefully take some skills and com- pound it into other parts of their lives," Powell says. "Eventually, what I'd like to see is us pulling back with our equip- ment transitioning into a Ghanaian infrastructure." Living Water International, a faith- based non-profit organization that helps communities create sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in developing nations, believes effective community management is essential to sustainability efforts. A Living Water International position paper, "Cultivating Sustainability: An Organizational Approach," identifies management support, technical support, and supply chain feeding into the com- munity management structure. The or- ganization generally performs one or more of these roles for some period of time. Its goal is to strengthen the local management and hand off each of these support functions to a local service provider within a two-year period. Based in Houston, Texas, Living Water International also offers a four-day hands-on course for equipping volunteers and development professionals with skills to apply to its operations and main- tenance strategies. Maintenance is per- formed on more than 10 different types of hand pumps found around the world. Sustaining success Investing his time and resources in Ghana for six years has taught Powell it boils down to three necessities to make headway in this line of work. • Have a point person in place who you trust with money when sending equipment, who knows how to work with the government, and who over- sees human resources. Ensuring no communication gaps or responsibili- ties exist is the goal. Powell leans on his manager, Christine Pomary, who lives in Ghana's capital, Accra, and is employed by Wood's organization, Lifetime Wells For Ghana. "None of this would happen without someone like her," Powell says. • The drive to do it. Powell admits he doesn't need any motivation after witnessing the drinking water condi- tions for the first time. • Money. "It's so damn expensive," Powell says. As of now, Powell has not committed to a timeframe for his sustainability model. He prefers to take a wait-and-see mind-set. Wood planned on joining Powell in Ghana for last month's three-day work- shop. Wood knows many of the Ghana- ian environmental health officers. He has shifted his focus from Ghana to Tanzania where he has drilled nearly 400 wells in four years. Originally scheduled to travel to Tan- zania last month, Wood was warned not to due to the general election taking place during the month. It's the first trip he has missed in nine years. "I want to make it to Dave's work- shop," says the 72-year-old Wood, who is the recipient of the 2015 National Ground Water Association Life Member Award. "That's a very important pro- gram to keep these things going. We need to keep them charged with what they're doing." Twitter @WaterWellJournl To view a list of organizations involved with groundwater projects overseas, including the ones in this article, visit the National Ground Water Association website, www.NGWA.org, and click on "Groundwater industry links" under the Professional Resources tab. Mike Price is the senior editor of Water Well Journal. In addition to his WWJ respon- sibilities, Price produces NGWA's newsletter and contributes to the Association's quarterly scientific publication. He can be reached at mprice@ngwa.org. WWJ THE FUTURE from page 26 "We're trying to work alongside them, not try to work through them. They've got to have some responsibility if this is going to move forward and have communities grow and thrive and expand." WWJ November 2015 71