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Guest Editors: Marc P. Lammerink and Dick de Jong
Ordering Information

Summary

The special theme section of this issue of PLA Notes focuses on community management of water systems. It presents the outcome and progress so far of a research project for the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), based in The Netherlands. Working in collaboration with six partner organisations, the project looks at the role of communities in the management of improved rural water supply systems in the South. It focuses on the many possibilities for improving community management of local water resources, working with communities based in Kenya, Cameroon, Guatemala, Colombia, Nepal and Pakistan.

Editorial

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1. We live on prayers: the use of video in community development
Hilde Van Vlaenderen

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Abstract
In the early 1990s, Kagiso Trust, a South African development agency, commissioned a research team to conduct a needs analysis in the 14 villages of the Healdtown District, a rural district in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. In one of the villages, Rwantsana, villagers argued that to really grasp the problems of the community, the research team would have to 'take a look' at how the people of the village lived. A 45 minute video was produced which took the shape of a series of interviews.

2. Walking a tightrope: using PRA in a conflict situation around Waza National Park, Cameroon

Paul Scholte, Saleh Adam, Saidou Kari and Jean-Hilaire Mbouchel

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Abstract

This paper reports the use of PRA by a third party to bridge the conflicting interests of biodiversity ('conservation') and of local communities ('development') in the Waza National Park, Cameroon. The authors focus on their experiences of dealing with sensitive information on illegal park exploitation. While this information was indispensable in understanding and in anticipating necessary national park management changes, if used carelessly, it could have disrupted the dialogue that had been initiated.

3. Project benefit-impact matrix from the Maldives - a method for participatory evaluation

Neela Mukherjee, Mohammed Zahid, Aminath Lateefa and Mohammed Rasheed

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Abstract
This paper describes the application of a participatory method called the 'project benefit-impact matrix'. This was used to evaluate the Nhilandhe Integrated Atoll Development (NIAD) Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Maldives. The evaluation team members visited eight traditional island communities in the two administrative atolls of Faafu and Dhaalu and applied the project benefit-impact matrix as a major component of the participatory evaluation.

4.Complementary methods to understand land-Use changes: an example from the Ethiopian Rift Valley
Michele Nori, Adane Hirpa and Giovanni A. Ferrari

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Abstract
This case study examines agro-pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa, exploring recent land use changes by analysing social and environmental processes. Land use changes in the research area, the Ethiopian Rift Valley, were explored using an 'holistic approach' which was achieved by interweaving biophysical information with socio-economic and cultural data derived from local communities using PRA.

SPECIAL ISSUE:

Community water management

5. Strengthening community water management Marc P. Lammerink, Eveline Bot, Dick de Jong and Ton Schouten

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Abstract
The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in collaboration with teams from six organisations world-wide share the lessons learned from a participatory action research programme, to improve rural communities' management of their water systems. Known as the PAR-Manage project, this has been running since 1994 in six countries from the South. The IRC and its partners have developed a flexible approach to community-managed water supply systems, known as Participatory Action Development (PAD).

Abstract
An approach to community water management requires a methodology that is sufficiently flexible and compatible to enable rural communities and support organisations to share, analyse and enhance their understanding, and to allow them to plan and implement problem-solving activities. Participatory Action Development (PAD) is an approach to development work in which all those involved contribute both to the creative thinking that goes into the problem-solving and planning, as well as to the action that is the subject of the development work.

7. A Detailed look at the PAD approach
Marc P. Lammerink

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Abstract
The PAD approach encompasses a number of steps, activities, methods and tools to encourage the full participation of men and women in improving the management of their water supply and sanitation systems. It involves various activities clustered into three phases: diagnosing, experimenting and sustaining. The author addresses the process as a whole, and explains the logic and the sequence of steps within each phase.

8. Aguacatán in Guatemala: how seven communities joined hands
Fabián Gonón Ortiz, Carlos Simón Perén, Milagro Escobar and Jaime Pacajoj Cifuentes

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Abstract
In 1994 the support team from Servicios del Desarrollo (SER) began a process of Participatory Action Research to improve water management in seven communities within the municipality of Aguacatán. Despite doubts expressed by institutions such as UNEPAR over the effectiveness of the process and the team's ability to improve water management of the communities, five years on, the approach had proved so successful that local government and other nearby communities are interested in adopting such a process themselves.

9. Women's involvement: a switch in thinking, Hoto, Pakistan
Nahida Aziz and Sarah Halvorson

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Abstract

The Participatory Action Research team came to Hoto in Pakistan in 1994 in order to learn if the community would be interested in participating in a process to improve their water supplies. Hitherto the community-development activities in the village had all failed and NGOs in the region had labelled it as a 'bad' village in which to work. The most important lesson was that with a little 'push' and motivation from outsiders, the people were able to 'switch their thinking' in order to assess their water problems.

AndrewTayong and Christine Poubom

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Abstract
Nkouondja village in Cameroon was suffering from a collapsed water management committee and a water supply system that functioned only partially. It is now transformed into a system that wins the confidence of donors and serves as a famous example in the area. The changes in management, and the rehabilitation of the physical system, were the result of the experimental approach taken by the PAR which allowed people themselves to develop improved approaches to fund raising, good record keeping, accountability and transparency.

11. Experimenting to solve water management problems: Lele community in Nepal
Raju Khadka, Laxmi Paudyal and Hari Subba

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Abstract
Lele Mahadev Khola village is one of the four communities in Nepal involved in the Participatory Action Research (PAR) project. Since 1995, the local NGO Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) has been working together with the people of Lele ward, number 4 in the PAR process. This process has helped to transform a disorganised water system characterised by lack of maintenance, to a better functioning water system with a regular maintenance fund.

12. Sparkling ideas in Campoalegre, Colombia: managing the watershed to sustain the water supply
Cecilia Gomez B. and Alfonzo Rojas P.

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Abstract
Work was carried out by the PAR team from CINARA (Centro Inter-Regional de Abastecimiento y Remocion de Agua) in the village of Campoalegre, Colombia to address the serious problems with the water supply system. The team held discussions with the community about these problems, and what could be done to solve them. During the last two yeas the community has been able to prioritise its problems in a participative democratic way, and the solutions developed have been of great benefit to the whole community.

13. What stimulating and committed leadership can achieve: Nkouondja, Cameroon
Andrew Tayong and Christine Poubom

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Abstract
Nkouondja, a village in the West Province of the Republic of Cameroon, is well known in the Foumbot District for its improvements in the management of its water supply system in the area. One of the secrets behind this improved management is the fact that the village has a number of strong and committed leaders who are respected by their communities.

14. Pakora in Pakistan: moving towards democratic management
Tameez Ahmad and Haider Raza

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Abstract
The water supply of the village of Pakora, in the Ghizer District of Northern Pakistan, was given to the community by the Local Bodies and Rural Development Department (LB&RDD) for political reasons. Mistakes in construction and failure to introduce a payment system for maintenance has resulted in a disfunctioning water system for most of the time since it was completed. This was the conclusion of the community in Pakora, when the PAR team stepped in to analyse what had gone wrong and how improvements could be achieved.

15. Participatory evaluation of a community water project in Tanzania
Kate Forrester Kiguga,Simon Bibby and Alfred Sakafu

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Abstract
Projects which have been taking a participatory approach are beginning to see that participation does not have to come to an abrupt halt when the time arrives to evaluate the project's activities. Thus, in recent years participatory evaluations have been coming into vogue. This is an account of the process of a participatory evaluation carried out in Tabora in central Tanzania for WaterAid.

16. Lessons learned by communities and the PAR team - Nepal
Raju Khadka and Laxmi Paudyal

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Abstract
At the end of the four years of participatory action research (PAR) by the Nepal Water for Health organisation (NEWAH) PAR team, it was important for NEWAH, IRC and the funding agency Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) to find out how the communities evaluated the progress in achieving a sustainable water supply management system. For this purpose a final participatory community evaluation at Yampaphant, one of the four communities involved in the PAR project, took place in October 1998.

17. PAR outcomes Nyakerato in Kenya
Isaack Oenga and Pauline Ikumi

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Abstract
The Nyakerato community has water from springs, a shallow well, a protected spring and the gravity scheme which uses an underground pipeline with public taps downhill to increase the number of water users. Many people wish to be supplied from the piped gravity scheme even when they live on higher ground that cannot be reached by the gravity pipelines. This issue has not been addressed sufficiently and people are not properly educated about its implications.

18. Learning from using PRA in the UK: examples from Berkshire
Anneli Connold and John Rowley

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Abstract
The Community Council for Berkshire is a small NGO based in the UK which has carried out a number of community assessments, usually at the request of local authorities, in both the rural areas and the peri-urban fringes in southern England. The most recent was in a small semi-urban area on the edge of a large town called Reading which is in the centre of the county of Berkshire.

19. A brief guide to organising workshops for training, orientation and exposure in participatory approaches

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Abstract
This tenth and final part of the Trainer's Guide serialisation describes how training needs analysis, combined with in-depth institutional analysis which can help design a training programme. This is followed by suggestions for logistical arrangements, planning the course content and structure, and evaluations and revisions for the future.

Tips for trainers:

'But why?'
Jane Banez-Ockelford

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Abstract
This exercise is a variation of David Werner's exercise on the 'chain of causes'. The author has used it with students in the UK, grassroots groups and health professionals in Cambodia and the Philippines to aid problem analysis and facilitate common understanding of such problems and their causes within groups.

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