Wadi Halfa community development

PES covers 11/78-12/79 and is based on project personnel/beneficiary interviews, document review, and site visits. The project is behind schedule because the grantee, International Voluntary Services (IVS), lacks sufficient personnel. In the potable water subproject (SP), outputs are being achieved, though not as planned. When the addition to the Community Three pump/filtration facility was scrapped due to its high cost, IVS, without notifying USAID, used funds to double the capacity of an existing 25,000 gallon reservoir and to construct a new 64,000 gallon reservoir; both reservoirs should be operative by 6/80. Instead of the planned floating lake platform with one pump, a stationary platform with 4 pumps has been installed. Financed by the Government of Sudan, the platform still needs chain blocks to raise/lower the pumps and a cable to connect it to the generator on shore. Delivery of pipes and fittings needed to complete the water system will likely take years due to difficulty in obtaining railway car space. In the sanitation SP, plans to dig 48 long-drop borehole latrines have been abandoned since the latrines would have infiltrated the water table. IVS is seeking other-donor support to expand the town septic tank system. Sanitation education activities are being planned. In the irrigation SP, a few test boreholes have been drilled, and it has been found, contrary to expectations, that well casings will be needed; procurement must await CRS" $65,000 contribution. Work has not yet begun on the cooperative youth training farm, and this SP does not look promising, due to lack of enthusiasm for the farm and uncertainty about the roles various cooperating agencies are to play. The nutrition education/preschool feeding SP has serious problems - the need for the feeding program is questioned, no Title II foods have arrived for 6 months due to lack of rail space, and no nutrition education has been provided (except by CRS) due to lack of personnel. Lessons: OPG"s sometimes lack detailed pre-design analyses and adequate back-up; and projects in remote areas need more logistical support and longer timeframes.