I spent the week Jan 18-27 2012 in Guaimaca, Honduras, with another member of the Boston group working on a drinking water system for 3 villages outside the town center. Unexpectedly, the people and politics aligned perfectly for some big steps forward.
The group's focus to date has been on the technical aspects of the work, with a goal of getting something in the ground. I have been one of the few concerned about management, since drinking water systems in developing countries are famous for being technically successful but failing within a few years for human reasons such as: users don't pay, they hoard water, water boards don't keep up records, etc. Then, when the system breaks, there is no money or community will to make repairs and the community reverts to the 'caudillo strategy' - go ask the mayor to fix it.
To get permission from Engineers without Borders to build the system, we are required to do all we can to ensure this doesn't happen with our project. A key reason for my hopping into this trip was to share this message with the communities: until you form a water board, set a sustainable tariff, and sign a project agreement, we can't move forward. Fortunately, the Mayor agrees with this strategy. (Here's where the local politics come in: the mayor now owns land in the furthest village and wants to have the electricity and water get there. His holding has also given him the opportunity to see first hand how water-poor the villages are. We can work with his motivation - it seems to me rather like the situation in Boston, where the current mayor's neighborhood is the one with lots of new trees, buried power lines, and well-paved streets).
But - how to get the commitment of users and the Water Board, without someone there overseeing the project on a regular basis?
Luckily, we have found some human resources in AHJASA, the Honduran Assn of Water Boards. Thanks to Sr. Maria Ceballos, our local project champion, we have enlisted the services of Tomas, a Caritas community worker. And the mayor designated his community development person to be the project contact.
At our first community meeting, 50 families came mostly on foot and bike over rutted dusty roads to the school, where we gathered outside because no one had found the teacher with the key. My colleague Bill described the status of project design and I started in on the management pieces needed before we build.
Suddenly, up drives the mayor and his community development fellow, with refreshments. The mayor has tremendous power in the community and the respect of all. We all stood and applauded, and he started right in on his constituents: ' It's embarrassing that US people are coming here to help, and you all are just fighting amongst yourselves instead of thinking about the whole community. And families are hoarding water so that others don't have access to it. How can you say you can't afford clean drinking water when you pay 3 or 4 times as much each month for soda? Why is that some members of the Water Board haven't paid their bill in over a year?' And so on.
Then, he ran the election for the new Water Board. Position by position, 3 people were nominated, made very quick speeches, and the mayor went around to each person asking for whom he or she wanted to vote. In 25 minutes the communities had a 7-person board, mostly young and willing, and 5 of them women.
The next day, the new board and 20 families gathered again to hear from AHJASA, and the final day, the new board showed up at City Hall to pressure the mayor to spend money on the community and Water Board training offered by AHJASA. The mayor promised to consider their request and it seems he understood that the costs of training may be essential for the long-term sustainability of the system.
As the outside group, we agreed to a phone meeting twice monthly to update all parties on the status of work. All of us ave much work to do, but I feel for the first time that if the stars continue to align and we all keep our commitments, we have the makings of a long term success.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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