Assessment of community management of water sources in Pakele Town Council, Adjumani District, Uganda

Abstract

In Uganda today, the operations and maintenance of Urban and Rural Water Facilities are largely based on the Community Based Management Systems, which emphasizes community’s responsibility and authority over operations and maintenance of their water facilities. Pakele town council being one of the newly created town councils in Uganda, water supply is largely from old existing deep boreholes and new piped water taps under the management of the community. However, the community still faces a number of water supply challenges which is believed to be due to poor management of existing resources. This study aimed to establish the status of existing community water sources; to determine knowledge of users on community management, to establish attitudes of community towards management of their water sources and to ascertain community’s operation and maintenance practices of water sources. The study utilized simple random sampling design of which 344 households were selected. Semi-structured questionnaires and checklists were used to collect information that was analyzed in both qualitative and quantitative data. The average age of respondents was 35.6 (SD 11.1). Majority were females 250 (72.7%), farmers 150 (43.6%) and Catholics 256 (74.4%). The major source of water in Pakele town council was public deep boreholes. Majority of the boreholes 31/32 (96.9%) were community owned, were functional 31 (96.9%) and had a water source committee 30 (93.8%). However, the water source committee was trained in only 10 (31.3%) of the boreholes. The knowledge of critical hand washing times was poor as only 45 (13.1%) mentioned after visiting the toilet, 14 (4.1%) mentioned before and after eating and only 12 (3.5%) mentioned after cleaning babies bottom as the critical hand washing moments. From qualitative data, respondents had mixed reactions on who should take care of the community water sources. Some said it should be government while others said it should be community members. Majority of the respondents reported that they were okay paying monthly fees for water source maintenance. Community management of public water sources in Pakele Town Council was good despite the knowledge and attitudes of community members towards management of community water sources. The study recommends community sensitization, empowerment and support so as to address the identified knowledge/attitude gaps.