In all the projects Practical Action undertakes, improving the skills of people within the community plays a vital role. In the provision of infrastructure services, this need is particularly acute as maintenance is vital to ensuring the long term future for the service. Giving the local population ownership of their service, plus the skills to maintain it without expensive equipment, makes its future much more secure.

Agriculture is the main livelihoods of this village of 175 households. Its hills and steep gorges made transport particularly difficult. Prior to the construction of the community road, walking was the only means of transport and there was only one bicycle in the village as the village road was narrow and rocky.  Now a community road project connects the village to a main tarmac road.

Most of the surface was concreted in order to minimize damage by the rain.  Clearing of drains and other routine maintenance is carried out once a month on a voluntary basis.   In Sri Lanka, the electricity grid has to follow a road. One of the immediate benefits of the road to this village was the extension of the grid into the village.

Other results include improved household mobility as a result of an increase in the means of transport available. Bicycle ownership rose from 1 to 50 and 10 motorbikes and 5 tractors are now in the village. A wider variety of consumer products are now available in the village shops as vans are able to come directly to village.

An enduring impact of the project is the technical knowledge which now exists in the community and is being applied to maintenance.  A key principle was  planning and implementation through community participation.  The good condition of all the roads visited is a tribute to this process.
 

Zimbabwe

More than 75% of Zimbabwe's population lives in rural areas where they depend on underground water for domestic use. A number of these sources of water are low-yielding, unreliable and at times unsafe. Some water sources are seasonal, forcing communities to spend much of the year without safe water.

Zimbabwe’s economic decline has led to substantial reduction in maintenance of rural water services, leading to communities facing the outbreak of water-borne diseases, or having to walk long distances to reach the far away functional water sources. Practical Action’s approach is for communities to play a significant role in the management and maintenance of their own communal water infrastructure.

A total of 4 300 water points were rehabilitated and 33 boreholes drilled, in 21 districts of Matabeleland North and South, Midlands, Masvingo and Mashonaland Central and West provinces. The total number of functional boreholes in all provinces is estimated at 28 515, whilst that of non-functional boreholes is pegged at 8 668. A total of 1,848 Village Pump Mechanics were trained and equipped with basic tools to enable them to maintain the water points. 8748 members of the water point committees were trained on water point management skills as well as on constitution development.

This additional focus on the capacity building of water point committee members on water management and Village Pump Mechanics (VPM) on training on borehole maintenance was done to enhance the sustainability of rural water supply. Community participation in the maintenance of water infrastructure ensures the sustainability of the project.

Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PPHE) training was a major activities within the project. The training focused on enhancing the community members' knowledge on health and hygiene issues. The training also exploited and exposed the indigenous knowledge base on health and hygiene issues and technologies. Initial trainings on the PHHE sessions were once off trainings where Practical Action would train community members directly just one session per village or ward. But with time, the strategy changed to that of training peer educators in the PHHE field.

These were cadres chosen by the communities and have a passion on community development and they are taken through three day training sessions. After the training they were equipped with training tool kits and expected to continue to carry out PHHE sessions in the villages they stay in. Practical Action monitors the quality of these sessions in conjunction with trained Environmental Health Technicians of the affected wards.

The methodology of implementation of the project has been all-inclusive and has enhanced the To date, 398 district water and sanitation sub-committee members, 7598 community members, and 473 peer educators have received PPHE training.

In Ruwangwe, Nyanga district, during the first phase of the project, two gravity fed nutrition gardens were rehabilitated. The scope of the work involved reconstruction of 1640 metres of canals, fencing and construction of a toilet. A total of 132 additional households benefited from this project bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 540 households.

The community is now able to harvest two crops a year from the two gardens and these have enhanced tremendously their food and nutrition security. Solar dryers are now being used to dry and vacuum pack some of the excess vegetables. This has not only improved the food and nutrition security of the rural communities but has turned the fortunes of the businessmen and women at the business centre.