Rural water and sanitation project

The evaluation covered the period 7/81-6/83 and was based on document review, site visits, and interviews with beneficiaries, project staff, and host country personnel. The project is perhaps the most popular and successful donor program in Lesotho. Thirty-one Basotho have been trained and assigned to positions within the Village Water Supply Section (VWSS) of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Rural Development (MCRD), the implementing agency; 31 water supply systems reaching 17,200 people have been constructed, with 29 more in progress; 217 village waterminders have been trained and equipped with basic tools; and one regional and three district maintenance centers have been completed and are operational. Over 1,100 applications for water supply systems have been received from local communities; by 1988, 20% of the rural population will be directly affected by project activities. The project"s success is due mostly to the proficiency of the TA team, but other factors have contributed as well. For example, the unusally high literacy rate of the rural poor in Lesotho (about 50%) has played a key role in the success of the waterminder training program. Also, many of the beneficiaries are artisans (e.g., masons, plumbers, drilling mechanics, etc.), and are currently serving in the project. Further, project design, which emphasized replacing traditional water collection methods (i.e., carrying water over long distances, hand drawing water with rope and pail from hand dug wells) with very simple single hand pumps and gravity type supply systems, simplified construction and maintenance requirements. The major benefit to villagers served by the new systems is increased access to a more reliable water supply. The project"s effect on disease prevention cannot be measured at this time. Thirteen action decisions are made, to, inter alia, improve the institutionalizability of project activities within the VWSS, improve interagency coordination, undertake latrine construction (through the UN), investigate health-water linkages, and improve health education efforts. (Abstract based in part on material from XD-AAV-932-A)