Second Participatory Assessment: Water Supply and Sanitation Situation at Evululuko (urban) and Epyeshona (rural) (August/September 2007) 

Additional and new questions with regard to rainwater harvesting and community sanitation systems with decentralised waste water treatment and waste water re-use that resulted from the first participatory assessment were focused on during the second participatory assessment. Tools for the assessment were developed in cooperation with the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN). As for the first assessment, the analysis combined qualitative social-empirical methods with participatory rural appraisal methods (PRA). Participants in Evululuko were comprised of the local Community Development Committee and selected residents. In Epyeshona, village residents representing members of the Water Point Committees and the Water User Association contributed to the workshop. Central issues during these workshops were to gain further information for and from the participants to fine-tune and adapt the technology options to the local conditions and needs of the people and to develop an implementation concept. Physical 3D-Models were used to illustrate the technological options and to facilitate the participants of the workshops to give their views, suggestions for changes and improvements. It turned out that institutional arrangements, ownership and maintenance of the infrastructure as well as the use of the treated waste water and biogas are of specific interest and need to be addresses carefully.

From the workshops in Evululuko it revealed that in principle it is accepted to share sanitation facilities and to use the by-products biogas and treated waste water. Security of the users of the community facilities needs to be taken seriously and several users have to be trained for the day-to-day maintenance of the infrastructure. The community is willing to take the responsibility for the sanitation facilities and will arrange for a committee to be established, whereas it is preferred that the municipality is taking the responsibility for the waste water treatment plant. As gardening and irrigation are not common in the region, proper training and accompanying consultation are necessary and probably organisation in a cooperative or a commercial company.