Kahama, Tanzania

Actors

The Water and Environmental Development Company, Shinyanga (WEDECO); Bugilo Water Users Association (BWUA); and the Kahama Mining Corporation Limited (KMCL).

Project Description

Kahama Mining Corporation Limited (KMCL), owned by the Canadian firm Barrick Gold, operates an underground gold mine south of Lake Victoria in the Shinyanga Region of north-western Tanzania. Since mining started in mid-2001, the mine has become the largest producer of gold in Tanzania.  In 2000 and 2001, as part of its community development programme, KMCL funded the construction of a water and sanitation (watsan) system in the nearby villages of Bugarama and Ilogi.  The water system has two aims: i) to provide watsan services in new housing stock built primarily for KMCL workers, and ii) to provide the two village communities and KMCL workers in the surrounding communities with better quality communal watsan services.  Following the initial installation and operation of the hardware in conjunction with a number of new houses, it is the medium-term intention of the partnership to give local residents the skills and capabilities necessary to operate and regulate the watsan services themselves and for the scheme to become financially independent.  Assets are also to be transferred to the local community.

Context

Mining is an important source of revenue and employment for Tanzania and the regions where the mines are being developed are far from the coast and traditionally very poor, with weak government presence and few services provided.

Overall in the country less than 50% of the rural population have access to reliable water supply services.  In 2002, due to poor operational and maintenance arrangements, over 30% of rural water schemes were not functioning properly.  A new national Rural Water and Sanitation Service (RWSS) policy supports a decentralized and demand-responsive delivery mechanism, shifting responsibility for rural water supply services increasingly to the water users, and encouraging local government to work with NGOs and the private sector in order to boost delivery. 

Project Beneficiaries

As intended, the primary beneficiaries of the system are the KMCL employees who have taken advantage of the employee housing scheme in the two villages, as well as the local village population who live adjacent to the housing scheme areas.  A choice of yard or private connections is available to individuals having a house constructed under the scheme.  Subsidised standposts are intended to serve poorer segments of the community. 

Objectives and Structures of Partnership

The partnership between the three organisations arose from the need for KMCL to supply safe water and sanitation services to its workers and thus attract and retain qualified staff - as well as to contribute to the communities in the vicinity of the mine.  There is a contractual relationship between KMCL and WEDECO and a continuous relationship with the community via the recently institutionalised Water User Group (or WUG), BWUA.  Some of KMCLs objectives in forming the partnership are to: i) provide a sustainable and affordable service to both mine workers and surrounding community; ii) transfer ownership, funding and management of the water facilities to the community by December 2005; ii) build the necessary capacity in the community to do this; iii) for the watsan service to be financially independent; and iv) for KMCL to withdraw from the partnership having successfully transferred the system to local hands.

Roles and Responsibilities

BWUA represents the community, being made up of anyone who draws water from the scheme at both village and kiosk level.  It is represented by an Executive Committee (EC) their short-term responsibility is to represent community needs, their medium-term one is to act as either operator or regulator.  KMCL is the donor, having paid for the infrastructure, and having supported Bugilo with its institutional development and capacity building.  WEDECO, an expert in delivering rural watsan services in Tanzania, has a remit to operate and maintain the watsan infrastructure and to build local capacity until the point of handover to the community.

Community Liaison

Contact between the community and the other partners is evident in the hands-on approach that both KMCL and WEDECO have taken to strengthen community capacity.  Questions exist around the representativeness of the executive committee, who were formed prior to the integration of the migrant workers into the community.  The miners now make up the majority of users.    

Communications and Feedback

Stakeholder meetings take place on a regular basis, though regular reports are not circulated more widely.  Communication seems likely to take place somewhat informally.  More could be understood about communications between partners and communications within the community more generally.

For BWUA to fulfil its posited role as a water user authority (and potentially operator, for which community members have received training) the situation must evolve by December 2005.  Currently the skill level within BWUA is insufficient to manage such a complex system.  An alternative arrangement would be for a reconstituted BWUA (with appropriate training, a more representative structure, and amended governance structure) to contract an independent operator, similar to the current arrangement with WEDECO.  In the medium term, KMCL plans to exit the partnership leaving behind a technically, financially and institutionally robust and sustainable system.

Results

i) in July 2003, BWUA was granted official registration with the Ministry of Water and Livestock to operate and manage the water supply system for Bugarama and Ilogi villages as outlined in their constitution, although current ownership of the assets and abstraction licences remains with KMCL; ii) it has become clear that BWUA do not have the capacity to operate the system and that they are going to need to retain an external operator after December 2005; iii) by July 2003, 330 houses had been built, an additional one hundred were under construction, with 600 due for completion by the end of 2005.  Already the payment for water supplied to these houses was suggesting that the watsan system can be financially sustainable. 

The benefit of the service to the wider community has not been as successful: demand for piped water outside of the new housing area has been limited, especially in areas not close to the kiosks, affected by the wide availability of less clean (and less safe), but nonetheless free, local sources.  This trend has led to the closing of five of the twelve new KMCL funded public kiosks.  It appears that the population, who do not reside in or near the new houses, either consider the kiosk services too costly, are unaware of the wider health benefits, or simply do not need them.  Further investigation into this is planned, including perhaps more work on health and hygiene education and awareness.

Strengths

The tangible delivery of a quality watsan service; significant national policy alignment; good partner incentives; a commitment to community ownership; the development of community capacity; demonstration of corporate citizenship; probable financial sustainability.

Next Steps and Replicability

There is a need for BWUA to clarify its future roles and responsibilities; for the moment it is being developed as both the operator and the regulator of the service.  It is possible however, that as the national RWSS strategy is implemented, regulatory functions could be assumed at district level.  The poor representation of the miners within the EC also needs to be addressed, and a re-election/re-constitution would be recommended.  The entire project would benefit from a more in-depth baseline study to establish quantitative data on existing water supply quality and numbers, and qualitative data on policy alignment and community needs.  Following this, a relevant community engagement programme demonstrating the benefits of the new watsan services may help to ensure its use by and benefit to the wider community.  Surplus money from the new scheme could also be used to redevelop other water sources and establish water user groups that deliver to the poorest members of the community.  Wider community participation and a focus on participation processes may help to increase the community validation of the project.  These recommendations combined with the introduction of a number of reporting approaches should help to enhance the systems transparency and broader success.

Wider Lessons

i) the importance of community buy in; ii) the benefits of demand based approaches; iii) evolution of partner roles and responsibilities; iv) tradeoffs between the pricing of services and wider development objectives; v) the need to integrate cross-community issues into planning; vi) the importance of regular monitoring and evaluation; vii) care required in legitimising community structures and thorny issues of representativeness; viii) capacity of communities to manage and operate complex infrastructure; ix) feasibility of small scale private sector participation in rural settings; x) importance of leveraging all locally available skills. 

Synopsis content update: 20 May 2004