O&M in Malawi - End 2012 Situation

In 2011 and 2012, InterAide O&M activity has been extended to Chiradzulu and Mulange (South Region) and to Ntchisi and Dedza (Central Region).

This program covers now 10 districts, and 250 area mechanics propose their services to the communities (skill are mainly on Afridev hand-pump model). In all these area, InterAide also provides Afridev spare parts accessibility through a network of shops (complementary with Chipiku stores).

 2300 have been repaired from January to October 2012 thanks to Area mechanics interventions, allowing access to safe water for 575 000 people.

 

Kasungu - Area Mechanics distribution

Kasungu district is the biggest district manage by the Tikonze Mjigo project in central region (140 km from North to South and 115 km from East to West). According to UNICEF datas from December 2009, we find here 2106 Afridev handpumps. The number of Area Mechanics which is necessary is about 37 (areas above are 15 km diameter, and contain about 75 Afridev).

O&M efficiency indicator - Salima example

An inventory on hand pump has been organized in Salima district from July to December 2010.

The 28 Area Mechanics of Salima District made this study and visited 1,871 water points in total.

On this total, 1714 are equipped with a pump, and 1507 are equipped with a pump and are functioning. Consequently, the functioning rate is 88%, and 409 WP can be added to the data base of 1305 WP . Out of these 1714 WP equipped with a pump, 78 WP have a pump totally worned out, 17 WP are not working but don’t need any repairing because water is salty, and 25 WP are dry. Consequently, we should consider that the WP without pump or with a pump totally broken, which represent 12.5% of the WP, don’t need repairing, but rehabilitation. These are out of the maintenance project. It is the same for the dry water point, and for salty water point (2.4% of the WP). Then, 1594 WP are possible to be maintained in Salima district, we will deal with this figure on the project. On these 1594 WP, 1507 are functioning, which gives a functioning rate of 94.5%.

If we compare the figures of 2004 and those of 2010, as we see in the following table, we can see an improving of functioning rate of 19% for Afridev and 23% for Malda, as we can see in the following table.

These figures show the high level of efficiency of O&M projects.

Hand pumps and Security

Number of hand pump thieves and vandalizing has increased a lot in the past few years.

The high cost of stolen spare parts replacement for community leads to many non working hand pumps.

To prevent that, O&M project propose security systems.

An optimized way to secured the water point (picture shows an overview of the solution for Afridev) has been elaborated and promoted (with fliers) through Area Mechanic network.