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Summary
Community Water sanitation and Health (COMWASH) Project is a CIDA is a government of Malawi CIDA funded projects which is being implemented in Thyolo and Phalombe districts to strengthen national, district and community capacity to implement sustainable water, sanitation and health programs through gender sensitive demand responsive approaches. During the course of implementing this project, key questions regarding the position of communities and districts in terms of the legal rights over the use of local water resources, water facilities and their management have emerged, the decentralisation process and how it affects the present ownership and utilisation of the water facilities arose over the past two years.
This report serve to answer some of these key questions which relating to traditional practices or customs regarding ownership and access to local or nearby water resources in rural areas; government laws governing ownership and use of water resources; effects of decentralisation on ownership, access and allocation of management responsibilities; and the Ministry of Water Development's strategy, guidelines as they relate to the statutory laws and customary practices.
The research carried out in October and November 2003, focused on Phalombe and Thyolo districts which are the impact districts of COMWASH. However, the research team interviewed people from Mulanje, Zomba and Salima. The team also interviewed individuals from both government and NGOs at district regional and national levels.
Findings of the research
The research results reveal that there are various customs and beliefs that relate to access to and control of water resources but they are not documented and their application is dependent on the influence of the elderly people. Most people interviewed mentioned that these traditions and customs are rarely practiced by the current generation even though they are important.
People recognize water as a God given resource and every person has the right of access. The ownership becomes stronger if the people near the water facility are the ones maintaining it. Despite this recognition there are still some people who still think that it is the responsibility of the government to provide and repair the water facilities in the villages.
The water point committees, scheme and branch committees believe that they are the rightful owners of the water facilities such as taps, boreholes as well as the main lines but they are not recognized as such under the Law. Currently, the rural people are not aware of the law requirement in order for them to claim ownership of the facilities.
The research revealed that the LGA do not have adequate human and financial resources to be able to provide the technical and supervisory support to the schemes that have been rehabilitated and constructed in the two districts.
The MWD has developed clear guidelines for supplying water to the rural areas. However, many people are not aware of the change in policy and approach to supplying water in the rural areas. Because of lack of awareness of the changes in the approach to the water supply process in the rural areas, some people have develop some resistance towards community maintenance of the water facilities.
According to section 5 of the Water Resources Act, it stipulates that any person has the right to use public water without a water right for domestic purposes only. The rural people and some NGO as well as government personnel expressed ignorance of this provisions in the Water Resources Act.
The law provides that the scheme or branch or WPC can legally own the water works or facilities if they are constituted under a modicum of legal personality as a cooperative or company or Trust. This means that the communities will have to transform their various committees to legal entities so that they can be legally recognized and have the power to sue and be sued. Discussions have not yet started between the facilitators of the water supply projects (COMWASH, DCT and the LGA) and the rural community in relation to the long-term direction and governance of the water works as stipulated by Law.
Recommendations and concluding remarks
Based on the research findings, the research team makes the following recommendations:
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There is need to evaluate and document as well as promote the good traditional practices that relate to the access and ownership of water resources. If possible, modify some of the useful traditions or customs to suit the current CBM approach in rural water supply.
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There is need to intensify awareness campaigns on the policy changes and the legal framework governing access to and control of water resources.
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The DCT with support from the COMWASH project should assist the WPCs, branch committees to develop by-laws to govern use and management of the water facilities.
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As the scheme committees are transforming into legal entities they should be assisted to choose the legal formation that will be easier and less rigorous in meeting its obligations.
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The government, donors and the NGO community need to deliberately focus on strengthening the capacity of the local government authority in order to facilitate the community based management of water resources.
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Governance of the water schemes would improve if the long-term direction of the scheme committees is clearly defined. To operate as legal entities, the scheme committees need to be assisted to develop their own policies, systems and procedures as well as rules and regulations.
Conclusion
The research has revealed that the demand response approach to rural water supply will strengthen ownership and sustainability of the water projects in the rural area. Community ownership of the water schemes and points will definitely reduce the heavy load on the government since all the repair and maintenance responsibilities of the water schemes will rest in the hands of the rural people. The policy framework is conducive to the community based management of the water resources but the rural communities are not fully aware of the framework. For the communities to fully own the water facilities, they need to form village level institutions that are legally constituted under the laws of Malawi. It will be a biggest challenge for all the village level institutions such WPC, branch committees and scheme committees to be legally constituted. As a starting point, the scheme committee are well placed to transform into legal entities constituted by law.
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