Community Participation
Each new water resource's sustainability depends on the beneficiary community. Therefore, it is essential to establish community participation and ownership. On every water project, the beneficiary community is involved from planning through to hand-over, and they are empowered to take ownership of their new water resource. In addition, every community is provided with training on sustainability strategies to plan for future maintenance and repairs.
Training
​We provide capacity building to community-based structures on good WASH practices.
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Water User Committees (WUCs) to manage the water facility on every borehole installation is integral. The role of the WUC is to collect equitable fees from each water user, which will be kept and used to maintain and repair the water resource. Village leaders nominate WUC members. Community representatives consist equally of men and women. Partners provide training on WUC governance.
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Community members are provided training on good WASH and safe water chain practices, which includes keeping water safe from the point of collection through transportation and boiling up to the point of consumption.
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WUC members are provided training on how to be caretakers of the water well, including the operation and maintenance of the equipment.
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Maintenance team training - partners train a team of technicians selected by community members to determine spare parts and repair requirements.
Monitoring & Measuring
The well's operational status is regularly monitored through cooperation with community-based structures. After construction, the infrastructure's physical condition, water yield, water quality, sanitary hazards and financial viability. Initially, this is done by the implementing agency jointly with concerned water user committees so that timely corrective measures can be taken without disrupting the functionality of the well.
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BridgIT and its partners monitor and periodically offer refresher training to WUC's ensure they are working correctly.
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BridgIT personnel and donors conduct regular monitoring and evaluation site visits to review the sustainability of the asset.
