Presentation O&M in Malawi

Malawi is in Africa and has an estimated population of 13.2 million of which 80% live in rural areas and generally practice subsistence, rain-fed agriculture.

The main improved rural water supplies in Malawi are boreholes installed with handpumps, shallow wells fitted with handpumps and piped gravity fed schemes (GFS). Coverage of improved water supplies in rural Malawi is estimated to be 71% (UNICEF, 2006b. However, it is estimated that 31% of the improved rural water points are not functioning, thus effective coverage is reduced to 55%.

To improve this functioning ratio, some Operation and Maintenance (O&M) have been undertaken in Malawi since 1999. Operation and Maintenance applied on water supplies (hand pumps, etc.) means:

• Operation means the safe, reliable and economic use of a facility over its Life Span. The Life Span of a system is the number of years that the facilities are expected to operate.
• Maintenance describes the set of measures and activities aimed at keeping, or restoring optimal and reliable functionality of equipment.

The map above shows where these projects are now present (Click on it to enlarge it).

Districts where O&M projects are active are Lilongwe, Salima, Dowa, Mchinji, Nchisi, Zomba, Mulanje and Chiradzulu. Deployment is ongoing in Kasungu and Dedza.

Salima presentation

Project in Salima was lauched in September 2008.

It comprises 9 shops and 28 Area mechanics.





Click on the picture to enlarge it.


Next posts will present impressive figures about this district since 2008.

Material provided to Area Mechanics - File

In addition to the bike and tools, a file is given to Area Mechanics, containing:

• a copy of the contract they signed with InterAide
• a laminated page with the name and description of all spare parts
• the price list of spare parts
• a Blue book (small manual explaining theAfridev dismantling )
• a technical booklet on Afridev maintenance (done by Skat)
• a calendar the next 12 months
• 2 pens
• an example of contract repair and maintenance as they are done in other projects InterAide
• some stickers to put on the pumps after repairs.
• a book of 50 contracts in triplicate.

Area Mechanics zones

When Area mechanics start to work on their zone, a map representing it is provided to each of them.

These zones definition criteria are:
- The  Area mechanics lives quite in the center of it
- It must contain a sufficient number of hand pump (about 50 Afridev or Malda is a good number) to give enough work to the Area mechanic to perform its activity actively
- Its size must be compliant with bike travels

A geographic information system (GIS) has been used to define these maps.

See above an example of a zone in Mchinji: