Small rural water systems project evaluation : the Yemen Arab Republic

Special evaluation covers the period 8/80-10/83 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with project personnel. The project has made excellent progress. Despite some start-up problems, construction of small water subprojects (SP's) is on schedule; 32 SP's - all of good to excellent quality - will be completed by 11/83. SP survey and design activities are ahead of schedule and cost estimating, construction, and construction supervision appear to have gone smoothly. Villagers have created adequate maintenance and repair systems for completed SP's and are collecting funds and managing recurrent costs in a satisfactory manner. Improvements in health status are impossible to substantiate given the newness of the SP's, but anecdotal evidence suggests these have indeed occurred, and that time spent fetching water has decreased; there is no evidence, however, for the social impacts envisioned in the project paper. The MPW does not yet have enough trained staff to replicate project activities, but it has improved its skill in SP planning and site selection. On-the-job and classroom training has been provided to 28 Yemeni construction supervisors and to village operations and maintenance personnel. Three Yemenis are almost fully qualified to independently supervise construction. Due to the high quality of its work and of its staff, New Transcentury Fund (NTF), the contractor, has established excellent relationships with the MPW and the RWSD, which bodes well for these agencies' ongoing institutional development. To allow time for completion of the institutionalization process, a 5-year project extension is recommended. Lessons learned are: quickly achievable and visible products strengthen A.I.D. and contractor credibility and provide the basis for institution building; good personal and working relationships between contractor and Ministry are equally important to institutional change; and Peace Corps volunteers can make major contributions to small-scale development projects.