Presentation by Living Water International SL at WASH Coordination meeting, Water Directorate Tower Hill, Freetown, 19th Nov. 2015.

By: Rosemarie Blake, Operations Manager, LWISL.

History/Background of Living Water International:•Established as Texas non for profit organization in 1990. LWI exist “to demonstrate the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water, and to experience ‘Living Water”-the gospel of Jesus Christ which alone satisfies our deepest thirst”

•LWI implement participatory, community-based water solutions in 24 developing nations by training, consulting, and equipping local people to serve their own communities.

•Living Water serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender in developing countries.

•Over the last 25 years LWI has completed more than 11,000 water projects, and is currently working in: Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Sierra Leone program

The program was launched in the wake of the nation's civil war, during which many wells were destroyed.

• The country office drills boreholes, rehabilitates wells and hand pumps, builds toilets at schools, demonstration latrines in communities and teaches a robust hygiene and sanitation curriculum in schools and villages.

• Beginning SL operations in 2008, LWI-SL has rehabilitated close to 472 wells • constructed 15 new wells (note:drilling of boreholes started in 2014)• constructed 24 sanitation facilities in 22 schools, and 1 Community Health Center. • More than eight hundred students are members of Child Health Clubs who implement

hygiene training in communities where wells are rehabilitated

Considerations for water source

• 100ft from any possible contaminant factors:• Toilet• Fuel tanks• Burial sits• Etc.

Drilling in progress in REC Primary School Bassa town Waterloo

2014 & 2015 Geographical Area• Operations are done in two sections of Western Area District namely Koya rural

and Waterloo.• From a research LWISL conducted in 2014, only 25% of households in the two

sections draw their water from ‘protected sources’. • 47% of them access safe water within the recommended time of less than 30

minutes meaning that 53% of those who access safe water source do not do so by LWI standards.

• Much as 56% of the people /communities have latrines, the quality of the facilities, their use and maintenance are key challenges.

• On average, 38% of the sanitation infrastructures are clean and it is a common site to see flies and other insects in the latrines.

• There are also 12% of latrines located within 30 metres of a water point which can be an easy source of contamination.

• The rest of the people that do not have latrines either use shared toilets or simply use the bush for open defecation.

• Only 23% of the households in the area participate in the management of water sources.

• 48% of these pay maintenance and user fees while others provide labor (30%), leadership (12%) and the rest simply attend meetings.

• This poses challenges to ensure a sustainable supply of potable water to the communities.

• The knowledge of hygiene practices and existing infrastructure in the community is quite high as 65% of the people know how germs are spread and can correctly identify different diseases which are a result of poor hygiene practices.

• However, this knowledge does not translate into practice in most areas.

• For example much as 82% of the people have hand washing facilities, only 25% of the people can identify properly the critical times when someone needs to wash their hands such as after use of toilets and before taking meals.

List of Villages

Water Access FY 2015Activity Planned for the year Estimated Beneficiaries

Projects within geographical focus area / WPA

New boreholes 18 4,500 (min 250 per water source)

Alternative water projects (AWPs) 0

Rehabilitations 20 5,000

Projects outside geographical focus area / WPA, if any budgeted

New boreholes 0 N/A

Alternative water projects (AWPs) 0 N/A

Rehabilitations 0 N/A

Operation and MaintenanceActivity Number planned for

yearEstimated number of beneficiaries (total)

Capital maintenance projects

6 1,800

Service visits 30 6,000

O&M Strategy• Communities always sensitized on proper use, care and

maintenance of water facility• Each water point has a Water committee comprising members of

the community using that particular water point.• These are linked to Ministry of Water Resources (WARD-C) who

provide technical back up.• The committees collect a user fee from the communities and the

funds are used for repair costs of the water facility.• Training in basic maintenance of the pump is done for at least one

person who can undertake basic maintenance and repair.• Only when the communities have a problem which they cannot

easily maintain eg underground/inside well, will they communicate with the office for repair of the pump.

• At times during our routine visits or community calls, some non-functional wells are identified & fixed up.

Hygiene Promotion • The promotion of hygiene uses an integrated approach.• Hygiene trainings are held on all wells.• Usually uses the LWI traditional methods to teach people basic hygiene practices.• Taking advantage of the community gathering, the training also includes other

contemporary emerging health issues affecting the communities e.g. Ebola, cholera

• Average number of people trained at each well site is 50 (caretakers and comm.)• Hygiene promotion is also conducted outside places where we have not

constructed or rehabilitated wells. • Using approaches such as CLTS, PHAST communities are mobilized and trainings

are conducted to encourage them on basic health and sanitation practices.• Mobilization of the communities is done through local leaders• About 30 people are trained in each community training session. These are

however challenged to pass on the message to others.• In schools, Child health clubs are being established in selected schools.• These are equipped with hygiene knowledge and in turn the members play a

critical role to encourage and facilitate promotion of proper hygiene amongst their peers and even in the community.

Sanitation Facilities• In 2015, we have planned to rehabilitate eight Sanitation toilet with

support from UNICEF.• The sanitation toilet is rehabilitated/constructed in schools and it is

a VIP toilet with separate sections for boys and girls.• previously constructed (Port Loko district)toilet have an outside

chamber where they put saw dust to allow decomposition of the excreta which is later harvested and used as manure.

• The toilet is connected to a water facility where water is pumped into an overhead water tank.

• The water is used for flushing on the urinal as well for washing hands inside the toilet as the pupils use the facility

• Construction of the facility is done in close liaison with the ministry of education since the facility is constructed at a school and the ministry of health who oversee implementation of all health and hygiene activities in the area.

Community EngagementEngagement with the community uses various ways depending on nature of activities. These include the following•Entry point is usually through local leaders.•Mobilizing of the people is done by the local leaders themselves. Meeting places arranged by the locals.•Participatory approaches are used when interacting with the communities. It helps to let them discover more about themselves and about the situations affecting them.•Through use of action research, presentation of lessons and issues highlights what is actually on the ground. •Communities are encouraged to develop realistic action points that are implementable. •They are encouraged to identify assets and resources available that can be exploited to improve their health and quality of life.•Implementation is done with relevant stakeholders such ministry of health, ministry of water resources, the district council•Monitoring mechanisms are established during the interface meetings with the community. These include identifying people who will be responsible to monitor implementation of the action plans. Both community members and other stakeholders form part of the monitoring.•Follow up sessions are planned with the communities especially with the various leaders e.g., local leaders, members of wash committees, church leaders etc.•Sport visits, observation of knowledge and behaviour change practices in the communities also form part of the monitoring of the activities.

Equipment

• LWISL owned a Drilling Rig (DR 100) used for boreholes

• We have made orders for compressor in the coming year to be of support to the DR 100

• Regular servicing of equipment is done by competent people where dealers are not available at the moment.

• LWISL staff are exposed to field equipment manual to enhance the knowledge on proper use and care of the equipment

Human ResourceThe following is the list of current staff•Country Director•Operations Manager•Human Resources Officer•Finance Officer•Hygiene Specialist•Christian witness Officer•Messenger•Guard/ Stores Clerk•Hardware Team Leader/Engineer•Assistant Driller •Community Animators/Mobilisers Besides these, we have two set of contract staff that are doing well rehabilitations and sanitation construction/rehabilitation.

Challenges

Hitting rocky formations-sometimes the drill bits are stocked aground

Low water yield in some terrines some times results in slow pace of work. In most cases we had to wait till water table is high or sometimes just abandon (if proven seasonal)

Rehabilitating sub standard hand dug wells-(no casing, no lining, deepening, etc)

Community ownership and control-paying water user fee is challenging

Off shore procurement of large stock-undue delays at the port. Availability of essential services such as energy, resulting in high

office running cost