Designing Sustainable and Scalable Rural Water Supply ...

The community of Ingá gathers under their newly constructed water tower.

Contributing Authors:

Tanya Heikkila

Francisco Osny Enéas da Silva

Daniel Stellar

Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho

Samantha Tress

Upmanu Lall

Designing Sustainable and Scalable Rural Water Supply Systems: Evidence and Lessons from Northeast BrazilJune 2012

2012

BRAZIL

WATER ACCESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 4

Demonstration Project Context 5

Rural Water Supply Challenges in the State of Ceará 6

Selection of Project Location in Ceará 8

Summary of Key Challenges and Project Questions 9

Processes Developed to Support Project Sustainability and Scalability 10

Processes to Support Sustainability Community Assessment and Planning 10

Community Engagement and Capacity Building 12

Community-Supported Monitoring and Evaluation 13

Processes to Support Scalability The “Toolkit” 14

Institutionalization of the Process through Public-Private Partnerships 15

Project Impacts: Indicators of Sustainability and Scalability 18

Benefits in the Communities of Ingá and Pedra Fina 18

Benefits in the Municipal District of Milhã 18

Benefits to the State of Ceará and Beyond 19

Conclusion 20

References 21

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3Designing Sustainable and Scalable Rural Water Supply Systems: Evidence and Lessons from Northeast Brazil

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The Columbia Water Center initiated a project in northeast Brazil, in the state of Ceará, where many rural communities lack access to safe, reliable drinking water. Obstacles to implement-ing safe drinking water supply systems are com-mon in many developing country settings, which highlight the need for a systematic approach to sustainable design and operation of a scalable, rural water supply system based on an analysis of the local physical, environmental and socio-economic contexts.

In partnership with the Federal University of Ceará, this project established and tested a pro-cess that aims to ensure both the sustainability and scalability of rural water supply systems. The process was implemented via a demonstration project in the rural interior of northeast Brazil, in the state of Ceará. Some of the critical chal-lenges of developing sustainable and scalable water supply systems within this region stem from: limited financial capacity of rural residents, limited capacity to achieve economies of scale, highly variable and limited rainfall, and a failure of existing institutions to fund, operate or incentiv-ize the types of alternative water supply delivery mechanisms that can benefit rural communities.

The key features of this project that were de-signed to support project sustainability include: an inter-disciplinary assessment and planning process that studied a suite of alternatives for rural supply options , a community engage-ment and capacity building effort in the selec-tion, implementation, and management of the water supply infrastructure, and a community-supported monitoring and evaluation process. To support the scalability of the project, the team developed a “toolkit”, which included a municipal water supply plan and technical manual, as well as engaged with funders and local and state agencies to institutionalize the process through public-private partnerships

The project has proven successful in a number of ways. For the more than 600 individuals served by the demonstration project, benefits have in-cluded improvements in physical health, reduced time and money accessing drinking water, and increased time spent on subsistence activities (e.g. farming). Additionally, the engagement of the communities in monitoring the system and paying for the operations and maintenance has led to capacity building. Household meters were installed and the community association leader has been in charge of tracking meters and col-lecting funds. So far, all community members have been able to pay for the electricity costs of pumping and additional funds are collected for maintenance planning. Interviews with village residents to date indicate that community mem-bers feel proud of the system and their role in its planning, design, and management. This has, in turn, led to increased awareness of water chal-lenges and solutions in the region as residents discuss the project with their neighbors. With the current project expansion, undertaken by the government, it is estimated that it will benefit nearly 50,000 more individuals in the region.

While the specific tools developed in this proj-ect (i.e., the PAM and Technical Manual) would require adaptation to the social, environmental, and institutional contexts of other regions, the next steps are to apply the processes estab-lished for planning, community engagement, and infrastructure development and monitoring beyond Ceará.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


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The Columbia Water Center is working around the world in regions of high water stress to iden-tify and promote new technical and policy tools that can foster sustainable water management and adapt to changing social, hydrologic, and climatic conditions.

Globally, 80 percent of the people who lack ac-cess to drinking water live in rural communities (United Nations, 2010). The CWC is exploring sustainable and scalable public-private strategies to address this widespread problem, with fund-ing from the PepsiCo Foundation. As part of this

agenda, the CWC, in partnership with the Fed-eral University of Ceará, initiated a demonstration project in northeast Brazil in the state of Ceará, where many rural communities lack access to safe, reliable drinking water. Assuring the safe and sustainable supply of drinking water to rural communities is a complex issue in regions such as northeastern Brazil. This region’s arid climate and highly dispersed population – often living in communities of less than 50 people - have made it difficult for both the public sector and donors to develop reliable water supply systems in these communities.

Despite extensive efforts to address this chal-lenge, worldwide, many development projects intended to provide water to rural communities

are unsustainable (RWSN 2012). These systems are often in disrepair or not functioning properly. Water development experts increasingly recog-nize that more engagement by rural communities is needed in the planning and operations of rural water supply systems, as is the participation of the private sector in providing these systems (Water for Tanzania 2009; World Bank 2011; Water Services That Last 2012). Given the per-vasiveness of rural communities that lack access to reliable water supplies, a related challenge is how to devise systems that can be replicated or “scalable” across dispersed communities.

An inter-disciplinary team of researchers, includ-ing engineers, sociologists and policy scientists, from the CWC and UFC examined these ques-tions during the development and implementa-tion of the pilot water supply project in northeast Brazil. As we discuss in more detail in this report, the project involved three key components:

1) Planning and implementing water supply proj-ects to households in two small communities in the municipality of Milhã, with more than 600 inhabitants.

2) Working with the municipal district in which Milhã is located – encompassing nearly 50,000 residents - to create a process for water supply planning that promotes the scal-ability of the individual community projects.

3) Engaging with state-level agencies and policy actors who could assist in scaling up the planning processes and financing water sup-ply systems at the state level.

Before examining these components of the project and the steps, tools, and approaches undertaken, this report offers a more detailed background on the project context, including the specific rural water supply challenges facing northeastern Brazil. This report concludes with an examination of the project outcomes and next steps.

INTRODUCTION

In response to these calls, this project therefore sought to ask: What project design and imple-mentation elements are essential in order to make a rural water supply project sustainable and scalable? As part of this question, this proj-ect further aimed to explore the ways in which community involvement and alternative service delivery arrangements can support the goals of project sustainability and scalability.


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Although Brazil is the world’s sixth largest economy, in terms of GDP, it is still a country of disparities. Many urban areas, especially in the southeast are growing rapidly and standards of living are fairly high, while rural communities and large areas of the northeast (see Figure 1) remain steeped in poverty. As a result, northeast Brazil

is a useful setting to develop a rural water supply demonstration project because it is representa-tive of many of the most pressing challenges facing rural regions worldwide.

For instance, in rural areas, households and businesses typically have more limited financial capacity than wealthier urbanites to raise the

DEMONSTRATION PROJECT CONTEXT

FIGURE 1:

PROJECT LOCATION.


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capital needed for water infrastructure. Even where financial support is available and water infrastructure can be designed to access and store water in these regions, it is challenging to achieve economies of scale in water supply and treatment due to the diffused nature of rural populations. Thus, private companies can be un-willing to invest in the construction and operation of water supply systems. An additional complica-tion is that water supplies in the northeast, as a semi-arid region, are constrained by highly vari-able and limited rainfall.

The challenge of providing water supplies in northeast Brazil also stems from institutional fac-tors. Since the 1990s Brazil has developed fairly extensive national and state level water supply policies and administrative agencies, however rural water supply has been left out of water sup-ply policy and planning. It was not until 2007 that rural water supply was recognized as a national policy concern, through the Federal Sanitation Law.1 Notably, sanitation policies are largely divorced from water supply policies. Further, the federal legislation grants ownership of sanitation services to municipal monopolies and any action towards implementing structural supply systems requires the approval of a specific municipal law to authorize the construction of systems. This creates additional obstacles for the private sector to engage in the provision of local water supply infrastructure.

1 Federal Law nº 11445/2007

The fragmented institutional arrangement at the federal level is replicated at the state level: the state of Ceará has a Secretary of Water Resourc-es, responsible for planning, management and investments in water resources, and a Secretary of Cities, in charge of sanitation services in cities and communities larger than 250 families. The smallest rural communities (less than 50 fami-lies), lack state-level institutional support, with the exception of a few interventions supported by the State Secretary of Agriculture.

Rural Water Supply Challenges in the State of Ceará The demonstration project developed by the CWC and UFC team focused on a rural area of the north-eastern state of Ceará (see Figure 1). This state has been the poster child for the types of challenges described above. The rural population (about 35% of its 8.5 million residents) in this state is significantly poorer than in the state’s urban regions, with 25% of its rural population classified as in extreme pov-erty (Instituto de Planejamento do Estado do Ceará, 2010)2 . Central Ceará is one of the poorest regions in rural Brazil. For instance, the community selected for the pilot project in this study, Milhã has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.632, whereas at the country level Brazil has an HDI of 0.769. Thus the capacity to fund and maintain water supply infra-structure in these regions is highly constrained.

2 Extreme poverty is defined as a monthly family income below R$ 70.00 (approximately US$ 40.00).

FIGURE 2: TyPICAL LAND-

SCAPE AND HOUSE IN

RURAL SEMI-ARID MILHã

IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL.


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In addition to the economic and institutional chal-lenges facing Ceará, the rural interior region is semi-arid, with hot, dry conditions and low rain-fall throughout most of the year (see Figure 2). It has a short rainy season concentrated between February and May, and high interannual variability. Rain ranges from 353 mm/yr to 1382 mm/yr with an average of 763 mm/year (standard deviation of 254 mm/yr), as shown in Figure 3. The dry condi-tions also mean that water evaporates quickly, with an annual average potential evaporation rate of 2400 mm/yr.

As a result of these challenges, the majority of communities in central Ceará do not have piped water supply. Instead, they rely on a range of piecemeal solutions to meet their water needs. For example, a common source of water for rural com-munities in Ceará is a barrel truck program that the federal government operates through the Brazilian Army throughout northeast Brazil. In addition, the government’s Million Cistern program and various NGOs have sought to promote the use of cisterns in small communities, which collect rain water and provide on-site storage for households to use dur-ing the dry season (Figures 4, 5).

While such efforts are laudable, most small com-munities in rural Ceará continue to lack universal access to water for various reasons, which we identified and discussed above. As a result, there are still people who must walk many kilometers each day to collect water from nearby ponds or small reservoirs. This means spending many hours each day collecting water - hours which could be spent in more productive activities such as tending to household farms (Figure 6).

FIGURE 3: AvERAGE

SEASONAL RAINFALL

IN MILHã, BRAZIL.

FIGURE 4: WATER TRUCKS

PUMPING WATER FROM

A SLURRy RESERvOIR TO

SUPPLy WATER TO RURAL

POPULATION.


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Selection of Project Location in CearáAfter an initial assessment of five municipalities in rural Ceará, the research team selected the municipality of Milhã as a target locale. Milhã’s low population density (14,800 people living in an area that covers 312 square miles equates to 47 people per square mile) and high poverty – with a per capita income of US$ 2,061/yr - is characteristic of much of central Ceará. Within Milhã are some 82 small communities (where 3 or more houses are in relatively close proximity to one another). At this scale, two neighboring communities, Ingá and Pedra Fina, were select-ed for constructing targeted water supply infra-structure. The communities are representative of community types in rural Ceará (Figure 7).

Our work in Ingá provided an opportunity to ad-dress the challenges of a location that has no direct supply of water, whereas Pedra Fina allowed us to examine the needs of a community that already has partial service. As they are neighboring com-munities it also allowed the team to consider the tradeoffs between an integrated system connecting the two communities, or two separate, more de-centralized systems. In working with the municipal district and the state, we were able to explore ways to integrate the decisions at the community scale with governmental and non-governmental partner-ships to foster the expansion of the project at the municipal district scale and state scales.

FIGURE 5: CISTERNS

PLATES FOR SUPPLyING

WATER

A survey of the community members, con-ducted by the project team, found that, prior to the pilot project, approximately 13% of families spent up to an hour per hour access-ing water, 17% spent one to two hours, and 65% spent more than three hours accessing water every day.


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Summary of Key Challenges and Project QuestionsWithin the rural interior of northeast Brazil, and within Ceará specifically, the challenges of devel-oping sustainable and scalable water supply sys-tems stem from: limited financial capacity of rural residents, limited capacity to achieve economies of scale, highly variable and limited rainfall, and a failure of existing institutions to fund, operate or incentivize the types of alternative water supply delivery mechanisms that can benefit rural com-munities. Within the community of Milhã, which the project team selected for the demonstration proj-ect, disparities between villages also exist in terms of the availability of water supply infrastructure.

In studying the question of what project design and implementation elements are essential in order to make a rural water supply project sus-tainable and scalable in this context, the project team considered the following sub-questions:

• What types of planning and assessment steps are needed to effectively identify and select sustainable water supply infrastructure tech-nology within a community?

• What project design features can facilitate community engagement and capacity building?

• How can monitoring and evaluation of project outcomes be designed to support project sustainability?

• What tools can be developed to foster the upscaling of projects?

• How can the process be institutionalized?

FIGURE 6: LONG

JOURNEy TO FETCH

WATER EvERy DAy.

FIGURE 7: SCATTERED

HOUSES IN THE COMMU-

NITy OF INGá.


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A key pillar underlying the planning and water supply demonstration project was that sustain-able rural water supply systems involve admin-istrative-financial, technical, social and environ-mental dimensions. This means communities not only need a reliable and safe supply of water over a long period of time, but they also need to be able to pay for and manage the operation of a system. It is also important that the design and technical components are feasible to operate, maintain and repair. Finally, the system should not seriously impair the quality and quantity of water available to other communities or species. In light of the multi-dimensional challenges of developing sustainable rural water supplies, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including engineers, sociologists and policy scholars, led the technical team for the project, while engag-ing closely with the community associations, local and state government, and funders.

Another pillar underlying the project was the need for rural water supply to be scalable or replicable in other communities. However, one of the challenges is that in trying to meet the multi-ple facets of sustainability, water supply systems may need to be tailored to a given location at a given point in time. Thus what is sustainable for one community may not necessarily be sustain-able in other locations or at other points in time. This challenge can hamper the ability to devise sustainable projects that are also replicable in other settings. To address this challenge, the research team established a set of mechanisms (ie. a “toolkit”), which can be used to replicate the methods and processes used in the planning and in the demonstration projects. These mech-anisms are discussed below (see Figure 8).

Processes to Support SustainabilityCommunity Assessment and PlanningThis project underscored the importance of a planning process that can identify a “basket” or a set of water supply infrastructure choices – our technical manual – that could serve commu-nity needs at different scales and price ranges. Organizations seeking to develop rural water supplies often target either the household, or a village, municipality, or state, depending on their resources and goals. The success and failure of applications at each of these scales, whether promoted by NGOs, or government programs and agents, or by development banks, has been documented in Carter, Gleitsmann, Narayan and Jiménez, and no clear choices are evident across different social and physical settings. Conse-quently, laying out a strategy that facilitates the exploration of options across these scales and their associated economies and potential reliabil-ity is a key step in the evaluation process.

THE PROCESSES DEVELOPED TO SUPPORT PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY AND SCALABILITY


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One phase of the assessment and planning involved an exhaustive survey of the small com-munities in Milhã to assess the sustainability of current and potential water resources in each. This part of the assessment process allowed the project team to evaluate the specific water supply choices that individual households in the region currently rely upon, and critical limitations with the existing water supply infrastructures were identified. For instance, many communi-ties rely on the federal barrel truck program for household water needs, but households reported that the program offers only a minimal quantity of water, its supply is inconsistently delivered, and the quality of the water is suspect. Some of the prior infrastructure development programs have been incomplete, or left unfinished. This creates disparate water access, which can lead

to social tensions in a community. Some water supply infrastructures, although well-tuned to the local water supply context (i.e. cisterns or small pipelines from local ponds that fill in the rainy season), may not be reliable. In these cases, the systems, even when completed, were often abandoned after a few years as either the water supply dwindled due to poor design or the com-munity’s inability to maintain the system led to failure. These sustainability lessons were taken into account in identifying feasible water supply options during the project planning and infra-structure implementation phase.

PROCESSES TO SUPPORT

SUSTAINABILITy

PROCESSES TO SUPPORT

SCALABILITy

FIGURE 8: OvERvIEW OF

THE STEPS THE CWC

AND UFC TEAM TOOK TO

IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABLE

AND SCALABLE SySTEMS

IN A PILOT PROJECT IN

TWO RURAL COMMUNI-

TIES IN CEARá, BRAZIL.


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To help assess the feasibility of deploying new water supply systems that could avoid some of these limitations and ensure sustainability, the research team collected geo-referenced data on the quantity and quality of available water sup-plies in each of the individual communities in the municipal district, water demand and consump-tive uses, topographic conditions that would affect infrastructure siting and capacity for alter-native infrastructure options, and recommended options for new water infrastructure at the com-munity, municipal and regional scales. Pricing of diverse types of infrastructure options was also evaluated, along with consideration for manage-ment and administration requirements. These physical and technical options were further com-pared against evidence of local community social capital (e.g. presence of community associations and prior collective action in water management).

Community Engagement and Capacity BuildingAfter the planning and assessment stage of the project, the selection and implementation of specific infrastructure was conducted at the scale of the two small communities within the district, Ingá and Pedra Fina. In identifying and implementing specific water supply infrastructure from the “basket” of alternatives identified in the PAM (explained in further detail below), the project team engaged directly with community associations and leaders. Teams of sociologists

and engineers together visited the project sites around 35 times and held about 10 meetings with community members before the implemen-tation of the project to discuss (Figure 9):

1) What were the community members’ pre-ferred infrastructure and management options from the basket of alternatives?

2) Would any of the options result in conflicts within or between communities?

3) What capacity and knowledge existed in the community for maintaining and operating dif-ferent alternatives?

To inform this analysis, the engineers on the team provided detailed design specifications, cost considerations, and treatment needs to the communities, and developed alternative designs in response to questions and feedback during the meetings.

The design alternatives discussed with the com-munities concerned, for instance, decisions such as the selection and number of the water supply sources; whether to connect the supply systems of the two communities or build them as sepa-rate; the type of water treatment that would be adopted and how it would affect operating costs and maintenance; and the automation of system operations or manual operation.

The results of these community meetings and social analyses underscored that community preferences place a heavy emphasis on equity considerations and long-term sustainability. In this process, for example, the study team learned that for social reasons it would not be possible to build a single supply system to serve both communities. While this was the optimal system from a technical perspective, it would not be considered equitable from the perspective of both communities. Therefore, the communities decided to build two separate systems, both of which would supply all households directly with water from the common water source – local ponds – piped to a small storage reservoir and then delivered to houses.

FIGURE 9: MEETING WITH

INGá COMMUNITy RE-

GARDING WATER SUPPLy

SySTEM PREFERENCES,

JANUARy 2010


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Another key finding was that local capacity is important in helping ensure that there is support for the operations and maintenance costs and management. For example Ingá had a strong community organization that was able to work easily with the team to develop the project. The community decided on household level treatment options, through filtration. After an initial design, the project purchased and installed a pump, built a community water tower and installed metered taps in 13 households; within a short period of time, the residents of Ingá had running water for the first time. However, prior experience with an unsustainable water supply project in Pedra Fina meant that more investments had to be made in overcoming community skepticism. By working closely with the community the CWC/UFC team was able to complete the unfinished project and connect all community members to the system.

The engagement process also provided oppor-tunities for capacity building, particularly among community members who were exposed to project design specification and information on project costs and operations. Community lead-ers, namely association presidents, were provid-ed more detailed training on system maintenance and operations.

Community-supported monitoring and evaluationProject sustainability rests partly on the extent to which planning efforts and infrastructure design can be adapted over time. Thus, this project includes monitoring and project evaluation that will be conducted by project staff, with support from local community members. Project staff continues to meet with and interview community members every 3-6 months. Such information is critical for the communities, project funders, and government partners in order to provide evidence of possible pitfalls and areas for adaptation and improvement. Some of the key areas of monitor-ing include:

• the residents’ satisfaction with the quality and quantity of water available

• the extent to which residents are using the water for new water uses (e.g. new crop pro-duction) or expanding existing uses

• the ability of community members to continue to pay for the system operations and mainte-nance

• challenges with operations and maintenance• the relationship between the community’s

system operator and residents

After monitoring the project for the initial six months, we learned that the quality of water in Ingá was still not satisfactory for drink-ing because household-level treatment varied considerably within the community. This led to a modification in the system, adding a simple filtration system, which did not add to the costs substantially. Additional feedback further indi-cated that some of the households served by the pilot project had substantially increased the use of water from the system for watering livestock. In one of the communities, the increased water use was fairly limited and the residents paid more for their water due to the pricing structure set by that community. In the other community, however, the pricing structure was set at a fixed rate. So residents are now engaged in discus-sions about how to most equitably price use, or whether to limit the use of water from the system to certain uses. Without such feedback, the community and project developers would miss out on opportunities to adapt and adjust the infrastructure design and management in ways that ensure it meets the communities’ needs and that it is sustainable.


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Processes to Support ScalabilityThe “Toolkit”

To scale up the project beyond individual rural communities, the project also devised a toolkit for local governments and/or funders to use when exploring supply infrastructure options at larger scales (see Figure 10). First, using the data from the community assessment provided the prelimi-nary information needed to identify and plan a basket of alternatives for all individual communi-ties within the full municipal region of Milhã. By developing the alternatives at the municipal scale, the project allows for consideration of supply infrastructure that may supply multiple communi-ties. This provides different cost considerations and tradeoffs of different types and scales of infrastructure and emphasizes opportunities for project scalability. This PAM contains the following information:

• Demographic and environmental information for each community in the broader municipal area/district.

• An assessment of the existing water supply infrastructure, if any, of all communities.

• Alternative types of water supply systems which could be constructed, given a commu-nity’s unique characteristics.

• Priority interventions for communities with no existing household access to water.

• Priority alternatives that can sustain an ad-equate water supply and demand balance for the larger, central town of Milhã.

• Analysis of costs of different water supply alternatives.

• A management plan for how communities can operate and maintain different types of infra-structure.

FIGURE 10: ELEMENTS OF

THE PAM.


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The aim of the PAM is to base proposed rural water supply solutions on accurate field diag-nostics and the potential arising from the social capital of each community. In addition the PAM tries to frame the proposed interventions for small rural communities, which are on the micro-scale, with water resource planning for the basin, which is on the macro-scale.

Another key element of project scalability which the team created for the toolkit, as a supplement to the PAM, is a technical manual3 that describes the specific project design and construction re-quirements for each type of water infrastructure that is commonly used for rural water supply in semi-arid regions (e.g. cisterns, deep wells, sur-face reservoirs, tributary/shallow wells), as well as alternative water treatment infrastructure. The first phase of this manual, as developed for this project in Brazil, focuses on the infrastructure that is most commonly found in northeast Bra-zil, as well as water treatment options for these infrastructure types. It identifies the infrastructure components or inputs, labor required, and a calculation tool for assessing costs at different scales. The manual provides specific engineering documentation on how to build needed infra-structure.

The manual addresses the lack of standardiza-tion of design specifications and construction standards for water supply systems in rural communities. The Brazilian Technical Standards address large public systems, and the standards are not always compatible with the water sup-ply issues facing small rural communities. In the manual there is special emphasis on designing systems that require minimal energy to operate, since energy costs are a large part of the cost of operation and maintenance of a water systems. Ensuring high quality design standards while minimizing operating costs is the main focus of the technical manual

3 The PAM and the technical manual will be made available at water.columbia.edu.

Combined, the PAM and the technical manual have the potential to serve as a resource not just for Milhã but also for the entire state of Ceará and beyond, as project funders or government agencies can use the manual to identify the range of types of infrastructure that are feasible in northeast Brazil and what the costs, manage-ment and tradeoffs are of different alternative technologies.

Institutionalization of the Process through Public-Private PartnershipsEnsuring the long-term sustainability and repli-cability of the project beyond the municipality of Milhã is a key challenge. One of the assumptions underlying this project is that while the specific demonstration project(s) may be site specific, the process and methodology used in the process is replicable.

One of the major hurdles in developing sustain-able and replicable water supply infrastructure systems is to minimize the “transaction costs”. These costs involve the time and effort involved in data collection to understand community sup-ply and demands, planning and community as-sessments for water infrastructure preferences, processing information on available technologies or supply alternatives, negotiating across commu-nities when considering economies of scale, and establishing rules and procedures for monitoring and evaluating projects. By following the planning steps laid out in Figure 3, it is possible to system-atize the infrastructure development process and thus reduce the transaction costs. For instance, a state agency can use our recommendations to engage in district-level or statewide data collec-tion, following the steps we recommend above, while a nonprofit group interested in local commu-nity development can gain access to that informa-tion and use it more effectively to select commu-nities in need, identify infrastructure alternatives that are feasible, and consider alternatives across communities that may not have been feasible without this information.


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FIGURE 11: TWELvE

STEPS FOR DEvELOPING

A PAM


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Replicating the project further requires finding a way to institutionalize the process and methods applied. We have hypothesized that institutional-ization can be fostered by building public-private partnerships. Thus, in this project, financing for the demonstration project, provided by a corpo-rate foundation, was leveraged through partner-ships with local and state government actors and other donors. This included partnering with the Milhã mayor to identify ways to implement water supply infrastructure from the PAM in the other communities. It also involved working closely with the state, informing and advising them on the project and discussing avenues for possible investments. Namely, our team has collaborated with the Ceará Secretary of Agriculture’s staff, which has been engaged in the São José project (which is aimed at assessing needs and helping fund new water infrastructure in Ceará). These efforts have fostered additional linkages between the project and other possible funders, including development banks, who can then work with the state in applying the methodology of the project.

In addition to engagement and networking, the planning documents devised for the Milhã PAM and the technical manual will be disseminated to potential water supply providers or funders to foster their learning about the process. In addi-tion to this the project team has:

• Delineated the key steps involved in creating the PAM for Milhã and other communities in Ceará via a report developed for the Ceará Secretary of Agriculture on community plan-ning for rural water supply infrastructure. This includes a detailed set of instructions on how to identify priority communities and identify a basket of supply alternatives (see Figure 11).

• Identified the management models and pro-cesses for ensuring long-term sustainability of the infrastructure, namely through appropriate development of local capacity for the opera-tion and maintenance of the new infrastructure. This information has been put together in a paper for the International Journal of Water Re-sources Development. It emphasizes the social engagement piece of the planning and oppor-tunities for building capacity for operations and maintenance within the communities.


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Although project implementation is relatively re-cent, the impacts seen thus far, at the local com-munity scale, municipal scale and state scale offer preliminary evidence that the processes and methodology used in this project can produce sustainable and scalable water supply systems for rural communities.

Benefits in the Communities of Ingá and Pedra FinaAt the village level, the infrastructure funded and constructed by the project has provided 580 people in Ingá and Pedra Fina with a reliable source of water. Impact is seen in several areas. Residents in Ingá and Pedra Fina benefit from having a reliable source of water at their homes. This leads to improvements in health, since water quality can be more easily monitored and controlled.

The communities’ management approach to pricing water has also proven to be sustainable and feasible for both communities. The Ingá community association decided that each

household would pay R$ 10 per month (about US$ 5) for up to 10,000 liters of water. House-hold water use is tracked through meters and monitored by the community association leader who bills each household for their water use. Only a fraction of that money goes toward the energy costs of pumping — and the energy bill is paid by the community association. The remain-ing funds collected are saved for future mainte-nance needs, such as cleaning the water tower or fixing pumps. The Pedra Fina community association decided that each household would pay R$ 10 per month for up to 12,000 liters of water. Both communities also have established a system for collection of payments and monitor-ing water use. All households have been paying their bills and no problems with maintenance have been encountered.

In addition to immediate benefits of improved water reliability and quality of life, the sustain-ability of the project has been evidenced by the capacity building efforts. Interviews with village residents to date indicate that community mem-bers feel proud of the system and their role in its planning, design, and management. This has, in turn, led to increased awareness of water chal-lenges and solutions in the region as residents of Ingá and Pedra Fina discuss the project with their neighbors. Momentum is building in other communities for similar types of projects.

Finally, we have seen evidence that the systems are adaptable, which can enhance the likelihood of long-term sustainability. Based on initial feed-back on the Ingá infrastructure, modification (the addition of a water treatment facility) has already been made as described above.

Benefits in the Municipal District of MilhãEfforts to engage closely with the mayor of the municipal district of Milhã have proven success-ful in fostering project scalability. Since the PAM for Milhã included technical options for all com-munities in the municipality, in 2010 the Mayor of Milhã used the PAM to begin planning water

PROJECT IMPACTS: INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABILITY AND SCALABILITY

Since the infrastructure installation, 36% of residents have reported that their health has improved. Further, there are quality-of-life and economic benefits, since time and energy are no longer expended to gather water. Prior to the project, 65% of residents reported spend-ing more than three hours a day accessing water. Now, 93% say they spend less than 15 minutes to an hour accessing water. There is also a direct income benefit, since for many residents the cost of water has decreased, due to the construction of the supply system. In addition, 58% of residents reported that they have taken up new subsistence activities now that they spend less time fetching water.


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infrastructure projects in 13 more communities (total population 1,313) in Milhã, with the support of the State (Figure 12).

Among the communities targeted for new infra-structure, construction, in accordance with the PAM, was completed in the following areas in 2011:

• José de Paz and surrounding area, which includes José de Paz (11 people), Bom Alívio (105 people); Cruzeiro (16 people); Lajes (16 people) and Morada Nova (125 people);

• Monte Grave community (600 people). • Ipueiras (390 people), whose supply system

had been destroyed by flooding of the dam Antenor Pinheiro

In addition, the municipal government of Milhã is soliciting funding for supply infrastructure for the community Alto Santo/Cabeça-de-Boi (213 people). The mayor is trying to include it under the umbrella of the state’s São José Project III. Finally, the mayor of Milhã has further submitted a request to the Brazilian Senate to fund a reser-voir and distribution system as we recommended in the PAM (Capitão Mor reservoir), which is a strategic reservoir intended to supply not only the seat of Milhã (5,054 people), with a flow rate of 2,381 liters per second (l/s) and the Monte Grave district (600 people) with a flow rate of 241 l/s, but all rural communities in its surround-ing area. The Capitão Mor reservoir project was

started by the Secretary of Water Resources of the State of Ceará in 2003 but it was aban-doned. It encompasses the most important physical intervention for water supplying the municipality of Milhã, with water supply pipe-line building and also including a sanitation and environmental program for assuring the reservoir water quality.

Benefits to the State of Ceará and BeyondAt the state level, the CWC/UFC’s efforts to network with the Secretary of Agriculture’s of-fice and potential funders has resulted in a state commitment to supporting the implementation of the PAM, in cooperation with the municipal gov-ernment, in Milhã, as well as supporting PAMs in two other municipal districts -- Senador Pom-peu and Deputado Irapuan Pinheiro - where the CWC project team conducted initial scoping and community assessments. (Total population in the 3 municipal districts is 48,626). To extend these efforts, the state plans to develop its own PAM studies in 24 municipalities in Ceará, beginning with four municipalities in the Curu river basin. Funding is planned through the Brazilian bank, Banco do Nordeste. The goal is to eventually complete PAM studies for all 182 rural munici-palities in the state of Ceará (affecting 500,000 people), with the aim of using funding from the World Bank.

Beyond Ceará, the PAM process has the poten-tial to expand to other regions in the world. Of course, the PAM and Technical Manual would need to address the particular social, environ-mental, and institutional features of other re-gions. However, the process set in place to apply these toolkits arguably is not context specific. We welcome engagement in different locations to help develop these as standardized, but adapt-able, methods and tools.

FIGURE 12: UFC PROJECT

TEAM AND MAyOR OF

MILHã WITH PROJECT

SIGN.


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The provision of water supplies to communities dispersed in rural areas, especially in semi-arid regions, is a serious challenge. In northeast Bra-zil, as in many other regions globally, the action of public authorities alone has yet to solve this challenge. This project demonstrated a process and methodology for rural water supply systems that can be both sustainable and scalable. In this case, the project was structured around:

• A demonstration project of two community scale infrastructure projects that were select-ed by the local communities, and supported by capacity building, management and moni-toring efforts in the local community.

• The creation of planning and management tools, via a Municipal Water Plan or Plano de Agua do Município (PAM) and Technical Manual. These provided a range of water supply, management, and financing options and recommendations to guide community level and municipal level governance actors in sustaining and upscaling the demonstration project.

• Close engagement with government actors and private/non-profit funders to support project up-scaling and the institutionalization of the planning methods and processes.

One of the key lessons learned from this project is that pursuing the steps toward sustainable and scalable rural water infrastructure requires coordinated action among local communities, government agencies and policymakers, inter-disciplinary technical experts, and private do-nors. We recognize that this coordination is not cost-free and can be time consuming. yet, the planning process we identified arguably helps minimize the costs of information gathering, communication and implementation. Additionally, the PAM process can help identify the potential for economies of scale and key nodes of cross-sectoral coordination, while the Technical Manual reduces the search costs that may be required in identifying appropriate infrastructure options and O&M needs.

In sum, this project has provided a strong foun-dation for improving water supply availability in northeast Brazil and we hope to see water devel-opment professionals, governments, and donors applying the tools and processes from this proj-ect to other regions. Given that 78 million people currently are without reliable drinking water ac-cess in Latin America alone, the diffusion of the tools and processes from this project can make a tremendous impact. As our project found, the benefits can accrue to individuals who save time and money accessing water; to communities that gain new technical knowledge and social capi-tal in selecting, managing, and operating water systems; and to local and state governments, donors, and researchers in learning about new opportunities for alternative water supply delivery models. While the specific tools developed in this project (i.e., the PAM and Technical Manual) would require adaptation to the social, environ-mental, and institutional contexts of other re-gions, we believe that the processes established for planning, community engagement, infrastruc-ture development, and monitoring are replicable. Future steps are to engage with rural communi-ties and the water development sector in apply-ing and testing these processes and lessons.

CONCLUSIONS


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REFERENCES

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Gleitsmann, B. A., Kroma, M. M., & Steenhuis, T. (2007). Analysis of a rural water supply project in three communities: Participation and sustainability. Natural Resources Forum, 31(2), 142-150.

Instituto de Planejamento do Estado do Ceará. (2010). Os Determinantes Espaciais da Extrema Pobreza no Estado do Ceará, Texto para Discussão nº 97. Fortaleza.

Jimenez, A., & Perez-Foguet, A. (2010). Challenges for Water Governance in Rural Water Supply: Lessons Learned from Tanzania. Water Resources Devel-opment, 26(2), 235-248.

Narayan, D. (1993). Focus on participation: Evidence from 121 rural water supply projects. UNDP-WB Water and Sanitation Program and Social Policy and Resettlement Division. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN). (2012). “Sustainable Rural Water Sup-plies.” Available at: http://www.rwsn.ch/prarticle.2005-10-25.9856177177/prarticle.2005-10-26.9228452953

United Nations. (2010). The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010. Available at: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202010%20En%20r15%20-low%20res%2020100615%20-.pdf

Water Aid Tanzania (2009). Management for Sustainability. Available at: http://www.rwsn.ch/documentation/skatdocumentation.2009-11-18.8639330812/file

Water Services That Last. (2012). “Building Blocks.” Available at: http://www.waterservicesthatlast.org/Resources/Building-blocks

World Bank. (2011). “Trends in Rural Water Sector Development and Implica-tions for International Aid Delivery: A Discussion Paper.” (15.09.11). Available at: http://water.worldbank.org/sites/water.worldbank.org/files/event-discus-sion-paper.pdf

The Columbia Water Center and Federal University of Ceará gratefully acknowledge the PepsiCo Foundation for financial support of this research.

Columbia Water Center’s mission is to creatively tackle global water issues through innovations in technology, public policy and private action. Combining the rigor of scientific research with the impact of effective policy, we aim to design reliable, sustainable models of water management and development that can be implemented on local, regional and global levels.

Columbia Water Center 500 W 120th St, S.W. Mudd Room 842, New york, Ny 10027

212-854-1695 [email protected]

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