Guidelines for the introduction of community based management of groundwater rural supplies in Malawi

Traditionally, the government of Malawi has maintained all rural boreholes and handpumps through the Water Department's long established centralized maintenance system. In recent years, however, this approach has been unable to cope due to increasing numbers of boreholes, insufficient funding, worn out equipment and transport, and the use of over 15 types of handpumps requiring different spare parts. In the past decade, much effort has been directed toward the development of Village Level Operation and Maintenance handpumps - chiefly the Afridev - and the government is now committed to implementing a national community based management (CBM) programme in which caretaker committees are responsible for the care and upkeep of the water points. This document sets out guidelines on the recommended approach for introducing CBM to rural communities who operate groundwater supplies in Malawi. It is intended to be used as a reference - to inform and give advice to interested parties on implementing a CBM programme, as a standard - to ensure uniformity of approach and standards among the many agencies implementing CBM nationally, and for continuing development - to encourage discussion in order to ensure the continuing development and refinement of all aspects of CBM. The document presents background to the situation in Malawi, outlines the general approach to be followed in implementing CBM, explains the key stages to be followed in the implementation process, discusses the logistics of spare part distribution, emphasizes the need for extension support to ensure sustainability, and looks at monitoring and future development of CBM.