Learning from Different Models to Address Water Point Management in Karamoja
Summary
This learning brief, produced by the USAID/Apolou Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA), summarizes how the Apolou Activity piloted two slightly different operation and maintenance models for waterpoints in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. Uganda endorsed community-based management of water point infrastructure in the 1980s, and more recent refinements of this approach have favored partnerships between communities and professional services providers. In Karamoja, Apolou worked with a social enterprise, Whave Solutions, and with Hand Pump Mechanics Associations and Save the Children, to ensure that community-based water user committees have the professional support they need to address infrastructure maintenance and breakdowns.
This combination of community management with a professional area services provider is known as integrated community-based management system plus (ICBMS+) in Uganda. A survey of water points in Karamoja in 2016 found that only around half (53 percent) were functioning at the time of the survey. After Apolou supported interventions and the application of ICBMS+, water point functionality rose to more than 95 percent. However, it remains unclear whether these improvements can be sustained without continued external professional and financial support.