Abstract:
Supplying water for a community is very essential and especial emphasis is to
be given to remote areas where the community is suffering a lot. To do so
evaluating the sustainability of schemes already implemented and to look
forward to what actions to be taken is necessary.
In this study the water supply schemes in Kamashi zone of Benishangul Gumuz
I
Regional State was seen from the documents available about the water supply
situation in the area. As can be seen from maps showing the distribution of
water supply systems most of the systems are concentrated around urban
centres. From the study it was see - n that . the most frequently failing parts of
schemes are the 0-ring, U-seal and crack on PVC pipes for the hand pumps
and unavailability of night storage to accommodate the freely flowing water
during non-service hours for developed springs. As was seen, the challenges
and problems identified as aggravating the failure of water supply schemes are:
poor organizational structures and low profile of O&M, lack of spare parts within
the local market, lack of trained personnel, inaccessibility of many of the
community villages, non-involvement of the users, inappropriate tariff collection
systems and loose contact between the central bureaus in the region and
sector bureaus at Woreda level. The average number of users on hand pumps
is 325 households and the actual yield of the pumps for which field
measurement was taken is 0.161itres per second and for springs it was
0.1 Olitres per second. The average distance of households from the water
sources they are using as taken as a sample for Belojiganfoy Woreda town is
656.2 metres which is much higher figure. From physical and chemical water
quality analysis made in lab and which was taken from FHI the water quality
approximately fulfills the WHO standards except for some parameters like
nitrate, nitrite, Iron and Manganese.
Key words: sustainability, hand pump, community participation, Operation and
Maintenance, Spare parts, Kamashi
