Small steps count - building on traditionalmethods for rural water supplyby Peter MorganAll that glitters ... can end up as a rusty heap ofuseless technology. Are we overlookingtraditional methods of water provision? Can'tsomething that has stood the test of time copewith some careful improvement?

'The designer knows he hasreached perfection, not whenthere is no longer anything toadd, but when there is no longeranything to take away.'

Anon.FOR THE LAST 20 years or more,during an era of enhanced internationalinterest in bringing improved water

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Unless the new technology issuitable, people will return to theirold source, even if dangerously dirty(right), or practically dried up(above).

supplies to the rural peoples of theworld, many fine innovations havebeen achieved, not only in design, butalso in methods of reaching people

~ and involving them in community-::J"0 development projects. Several ques-i:i::g tions arise constantly, however - andffi one of the most important centres '0-~ around sustainability.g If we take rural Africa as an exam-II pIe, many, perhaps most, of all the"iiiz mechanized rural water supply

systems installed within recent years,at great cost and with supreme effort,will have turned to rust - often

literally - within the space of adecade. We know that many schemeshave failed because far too littleemphasis has been placed on mainte-nance. We also know that most govern-ments lack the funds and, in somecases, the will, to maintain the largenumber of installations that are put intoplace every year, mainly with donorsupport. Communities are asked tocontribute - but, all too often, they areunwj]]ing or unable to do so, and returnto their former traditional supplies. Ifthis is the case, a serious questionarises - is the method that has beenchosen truly appropriate - or has thewrong level of technology beenselected?

This issue of Waterlines focuses onusing upgraded, traditional methods toprovide water in rural Africa. Is thisone viable option that should be con-sidered more seriously in future?

What evidence is there?On a recent visit to Maputaland, in aremote part of South Africa, I wasstruck by the stark comparison of therusted remains of two old, brokenhandpumps lying next to a closed welland, some hundreds of metres away, inthe same wetland area, the constantactivity of women and children arounda waterpoint which the community haddesigned and built with no outsideintervention. This image reminded meof other occasions, in other countries,where the same local ingenuity hadbeen used to gain access to water bythe simplest and most sustainablemeans. It also reminded me of theenormous effort and cost (not to men-tion the high hopes which had beendashed), of installing more up-to-datetechnology in an environment whichwas not yet ready to sustain it.

For the villagers of Maputaland, I amnot sure whether this community'sefforts sprang from the frustrationof walking to a modern supply whichbecame unreliable and finally failed,or whether the traditional supplywas constructed before the new supplywas introduced, was used in parallelto the new supply, and continued tooperate long after the new supply

had ceased to function. Isuspect the latter.

Looking at localmethodsPerhaps the time has cometo reinforce a trend which,clearly, is being talkedabout far more; studyingwhat local villagers do oftheir own accord and help-ing the community toupgrade these efforts. Evi-dence suggests that tradi-tionaJ methods of providingwater, whilst simple in con-cept and design, have agreat intrinsic merit -basically, they often outlasttheir more modern counter-parts. Such methods usu-ally stand the test of timebecause they actually workin practice, surviving gen-eration after generation.They are the result of along, evolutionary processwhich has proven to be

2 WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.3 JANUARY 1997

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Zimbabwean villagers collect water from a springled gravity tanksource is eliminated, quality is improved.

as contact with the

In the April issue of Waterlines

Capacity Building: perhaps the development buzzword of the late1990s. But how does It work in real life? Can all stakeholdersparticipate and balance their Interests? And how can themomentum be sustained in the face of cutbacks and conflict?

This issue - produced in conjunction with the Delft-based Intema-tionallnstitute for Infrastructural. Hydraulic and Environmental Engineer-ing - highlights some resourceful solutions to these problems at differ-ent levels: from the organization - how Sri Lanka's Water Board is turn-ing itself into a consumer-oriented institution, up to the basic level: howRhine riparians finally came to co-operate on pollution control; and wehear how Israeli and Palestinian experts are faring in their struggle toovercome political differences to work on joint aquifer management.

Faced with a drop in aid, poor South African communities find thefunds to Improve their W&S facililles. and Filipinos develop a trainingnetwork. Plus more stories from around the world bnng us up to dale onlocal capacity-building experiences.

both practical and effective. Tradition-ally evolved water technology harmo-nizes with its environment - it is com-patible with local conditions and cul-tures, and this gives it great strength.

Ancient principles still holdSince the time of the ancients, localcraftsmen and those skilled in the art offinding and protecting water sources,have devised ways and means of bring-ing water to where people live. Manytexts feature references to ancient wellsand cisterns used for hundreds and, insome cases, thousands of years. Threethousand years ago, the Persianslearned to dig qanats to bring mountaingroundwater, by the force of gravity,to the arid plains. These horizontaltunnels were built on a huge scalein Iran, Pakistan, North Africa andAfghanistan, and many survive today.In Oman, 60 per cent of the rural popu-lation still depends on the same tech-nology, there called a falaj, whichrecently has undergone refurbishment.

In Yemen, where water is abundantfor only a short time every year, greatingenuity has been directed intoimproving the catchment and surfacestorage of water. There are manyexamples of remarkable feats of cisternconstruction, some holding as much as6000m3 of water. The cisterns are con-structed of stone and lined with gad-hadh, a locally produced lime mortar,which stays waterproof for centuries. I

Surface storage reservoirs, or hafirs,are also used in Sudan. These hugedepressions in the ground are sited inareas of natural runoff, and many havebeen rehabilitated in recent years.2Similarly, efforts have been made torestore the 2000 year-old run-off irriga-tion schemes built by the Nabatheansin Israel's Negev desert. There aremany other examples.

Rainwater harvestingSuch local ingenuity did not die outwith the ancients, but is still much inevidence in developing countries. Insome parts of Mozambique, notably inthe more remote parts of northern Mac-haze district, an area known for its bar-renness and deep groundwater, the

local people build cisterns to collectrainwater. This appears to be an age-old method in a land which lacks oper-ational pumps and other forms ofimproved water supply. These cisterns,which are hand-dug, steep-sided holesin the ground, can hold between 5 andISm3 of water. The catchment areaaround the cistern is sloped in such away that water feeds into the storagesystem. In many cases, these traditionalcisterns were built by a man for hiswife or wives, and so were erected on afamily basis. In 1994, 1421 cisternswere recorded in northern Machaze.3Care International is currently imple-menting a programme of repairing andupgrading.

John Gould, in his article onupgrading rainwater catchment systems

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A newly completed well in Tif.!.re. Ethiopians have designed anddeveloped methods (!{ raising water for thousands of years.

in Botswana, describes the upgradingof pan catchment systems in the Kala-hari desert. Traditionally, the localbushmen excavated pits in the calcretesurface of pans to capture and storewater. The Rural Industries InnovationsCentre (RIle) in Kanye, realizing thesignificance of this method, set up aspecific upgrading project and the pancatchment systems are proving to bemore reliable than the diesel-pumped,piped system also installed in the area.Gould's example shows that, by care-fully combining traditional conceptswith modern materials. it is not onlypossible to retain the inherent merit of

a design, but also to give the facilityadded vigour.

Traditional springsIn the more remote parts of Mozam-bique's Mossurize district, local com-munities, without outside intervention,have upgraded natural springs in the

simplest way. By using well-placedstones to reduce soil erosion, and re-channelling water from the site of theoriginal spring to a new collection siteat a lower point, regular contact ismade, not with the source of the spring,but at a point some distance below it.This simple principle forms the basisof all modern protected springs, wherecontact with the source is eliminatedand, as a result, the quality of the watercollected is enhanced. On page 21,Zvidzai Zana describes several meth-ods used by the indigenous people ofMozambique to upgrade their ownwater supplies.

Traditional springs have beenupgraded on a massive scale in theEastern Cape Province of South Africa,where, for kilometres, water is fed bypipe from the site of the original sourceto new waterpoints adjacent to people'shomes. The scale of such projects ismind-boggling, but the basic principleis the same as for those simple units in

Mossurize; water quality is improved ifthe source is separated from the take-off point.

Simple traditional wellsWells have been used as a source ofwater since the dawn of mankind. It isnot surprising, therefore, that in manyparts of Africa, people have devisedsimple methods for lining the upperpart of the well and protecting the well-head. Throughout much of ManicaProvince, in Mozambique, communi-ties have dug and preserved relativelylarge numbers of shallow wells, whichthey protect at the surface with anopen-ended steel drum. By both raisingthe upper end of the drum aboveground level, and 'doming' rammedsoil around this central point, Manicansprevent wastewater running back downthe well, an essential ingredient of allimproved wells.

Remarkably, very similar wells areconstructed in Ethiopia, using the sameprinciple of digging down from theunlined well-head, laying two logsacross the well about half a metredown, inserting an open-ended steeldrum, and then backfilling with soil sothat the rim of the drum is aboveground-level, and is surrounded by araised dome of rammed soil. InEthiopia, the 'buckets' lowered into thewell on traditional ropes, are no longermade of leather, but of car-tyre innertubes; extremely effective at raisingwater. These simple, easily maintainedand locally designed wells serve count-less thousands of Ethiopians outsidethe Government's national water-sup-ply programme.

The same simple principles of partlyprotecting the well-head with a drum,or even discarded car tyres, can be seenin most countries in southern and east-ern Africa. When the well is very shal-low, in a wetland area or river bed,water is scooped out directly by handusing a bailer. In Maputaland, the localpeople have worked out a method ofimproving water quality by insertingsticks into the 'eyes' of tubular capil-laries which collect water from thesandy soils and open up into the baseof the well. This reduces the flow rateof water entering the base of the well,but enhances the filtration effect of thesand.

Improved traditional wellsIn Ethiopia, people have access tomore sophisticated wells, often goingdown to a depth of 30 metres or more;some use a pulley to assist in the rais-ing of water, but the more interestingexamples use a windlass to raise a

4 WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.3 JANUARY 1997

A modified family well - although VVlJterAidprovided the materials, the owner did the rest.'

rubber bucket. The Ethiopian windlassdates from antiquity. The ancient worldknew the capstan and the windlass -both of which may be described as aset of wheels with spokes but no rims,the former having its shaft vertical andthe latter its shaft horizonta1.4 In eachcase, however, the spokes by whichmen turned the mechanism radiated outfrom the hub. Such windlasses are stillin use in Ethiopia, and can be seen onwells protected at the surface with araised well-lining and apron. The shaftis made of wood, running on a woodenbearing. This method of raising wateris over a thousand years old - thehanging gardens of Babylon arethought to have been watered by achain of buckets driven by a windlassof this type.

The windlass method of raisingwater, which both lightens the load andis a hygienic way of storing the rope orchain, was used in Europe for hundredsof years. Although by the end of thenineteenth century it had largely beenreplaced by the handpump, some wellsin remote areas - notably Sweden -continued to use the windlass.

[n Zimbabwe, the windlass IS

thought to have been introduced bygold-miners at the turn of the century.Since these shafts often penetratedwater, they often turned into wells. Thelocal people recognized the windlass asa simple and useful device which couldbe copied easily. This 'modified' tech-nology was soon absorbed into the tra-ditional way of life and spread widelyacross the country. Tens of thousandsof home-made windlasses can still beseen raising water from family-ownedwells throughout the Zimbabweancountryside. The uptake of this tech-nology into traditional culture did nottake place as part of a developmentprogramme - it was copied because itwas seen as a valuable tool which wassimple to build and maintain.

The concept of lining a well withstones and adding some protective cov-ering was introduced into Zimbabwe'sculture in a different way - as part ofa Ministry of Health campaign. Meth-ods which prevent well-collapse, andimprove both safety and water quality,have been promoted by Hea]th Assis-tants and their successors for over 45years. The combined use of a windlasson a stabilized well was already com-monplace some 20 years ago. The suc-cess of the current upgraded familywell programme,5 is, no doubt, basedon the long-established, traditionalacceptance of the method.

The potential for similar programmesusing upgraded wells without the useof a hand pump, has also been realizedin Zambia, where simple upgraded

traditional wells, using the bucket andwindlass, are being used. There is alsoconsiderable potential in northernNamibia, where examples of owner-built windlass-wells can be seen. Suc-cessfully introduced intoMozambique and inWestern Tanzania, thenon-handpump option iscurrently being consid-ered for the remote partsof South Africa. It hasenormous and, as yetunrealized, potential formany villages throughoutthe continent.

For areas nearer theHorn of Africa and in theMiddle East, the remark-able shaduf, anotherhygienic method of rais-ing water from shallowwells, has enormouspotential. Like the wind-lass, the shaduf can bedated back to 1550 Be,and is still used today.

Lessons?Whilst using upgradedtraditional methods as ameans of providing wateris of growing interest,they have been largelyoverlooked in mostrecent programmes, andreplaced by more moderntechniques.

The new technical approach iscertainly seductive - promoting thelatest technical advance will always becommercially expedient and politicallyacceptable - whether it be a hand-pump or mechanized supply. And inthose situations which are ready andable to absorb and support such meth-ods, there can be nothing more appro-priate - the new technology will pro-vide more water of better quality. Butthere is overwhelming evidence that,for the more remote areas of Africa,where the poorly developed infrastruc-ture and the capacity of the recipientsto manage their own supplies is lim-ited, an alternative approach must besought.

It is true that most of the more basic,traditional methods highlighted in thisissue of Waterlines do not providewater of the quality expected in mod-ern programmes even whenupgraded, most could not meet WHOstandards for water quality. Neither dothey produce water in volume; andthey also have their limitations in termsof making deep groundwater available.Such factors have played a part indiminishing the potential role they

might have played during the recentphase of rural water development.

Surely, however, another closer lookat traditional indigenous innovations,and building on local knowledge to

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provide a more sustainable watersupply can only be productive. Animproved water supply is one that pro-vides cleaner water more reliably. Eachstepping stone in the developmentprocess must not be too far from theone preceding it. Upgraded traditionalsupplies can offer water of improvedquality, and can provide facilitieswhich are more permanent. By goingstep by step, at a rate which localresources can manage, there will be noend. to truly sustainable development.

ReferencesI. Merabet. Zoo'How the Yemen is trying to meetthe aims of the Water Decade.' Waterlilles 2. 4.2. Dodge, Cole PooZelenika, Moo 'Rehabilitationof l/lIftrs in Sudan.' Watalilles 6, I.3. Wesson, R .• 'A Water Resources Study ofNorthern Maehale District'. Care International.Mozambique, 1994.4. Sprague de Camp. L.. The AI/(,it'llI Ellginl'er.I·.Ballantine Books. New York, 1974.5, Morgan. P. R.. Chimhunde, E.. Mtakwa, N.,Walerkeyn, A" 'Now in my hackyard -Zimbabwe's upgraded family well programme.'Waterlilles 14,4.

Peter Morgall (,WI he [,(/llIactl'd at Box MP 1/6'2,MOll/It Plell.l'alll. Haran'. Zimbabll'e. f:-mai/:IllOrgall0) harare, iqt'rit'a.('(lm

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