In Good Company

This past week I was lucky enough to be invited to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s (DWAF) first working group meeting to share best practices of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) projects. The reason I was invited is simple: DWAF has asked Africa AHEAD to pilot Community Health Clubs in three of the major water catchment areas within South Africa, one project of which I will be managing (Mzimkhulu-Mvoti).

First, a short interlude…So, after spending 5 days with Christy up at her site one last time before she COSs (Close of Service), I started the long journey to St. Lucia from Limpopo. 5 hours in the car put me into Jo’Burg about 3 hours before my scheduled flight, but the gentleman at the check-in counter was nice enough to put me on an earlier flight. As luck would have it, as I was settling into my seat before departure, a gentleman and his family approached me and asked if I would be willing to switch seats so that they could all sit together. When he offered me his seat in business class, I jumped at the offer. So, one nice meal and an hour of reclining in a comfortable seat later, I arrived in Durban, only to wait for an hour for my car to arrive before driving the 2.5 hours up the coast to St. Lucia (a World Heritage Site that is truly amazing).

But I digress. The people that I met at this Working Group Meeting were inspiring. I was amazed to learn that there are innovative people within the water and sanitation sector and that they are being actively supported by the South African government, through DWAF, and the Danish government (DANIDA).  I learned about nutrition groups, similar to the Positive Deviance/Hearth methodology (www.positivedeviance.org) that I fell in love with at USAID, that have been meeting and improving nutritional outcomes in the Limpopo Province for the past 2 years and how these groups are using the latest in old technologies for capturing rain water (actual rain diversion and capture on the ground using berms and trenches so as to increase the quantity of water collected and to avoid the destruction that most rainfall in Africa causes as well as 30,000 liter tanks stored underground to collect rainwater). I also learned about a gentleman promoting something called the RAM pump, which is one of the oldest pumping technologies around. Simply using the gravitational forces created from a 1 meter decent, these pumps are capable of pumping water up to 10 meters up (i.e. for every 1 meter decent, they can pump 10 meters uphill).

A representative from the Institute for Zero Waste in Africa (www.izwa.org.za) provided a glimpse into simple and sustainable ways of farming organically by moving away from ‘destructive’ and useless monoculture and using such simple things as worms, algae, and paper cups. Another gentleman from Durban, who I’m looking forward to getting to know better, invited Juliet, myself and any of our club graduates to attend a week long training on herb and nutrition gardening based upon local South African knowledge at a remote camp that he has developed specifically for training community members interested in horticulture. For our part, we shared how we are going to use mobile phone technology to conduct all of our monitoring and evaluation, an innovation that should, in time, revolutionize implementation research (just a fancy way of saying field-based monitoring & evaluation).

These are just a few small examples of the wonderful ideas that people were sharing at this meeting. In general, these are amazing technologies that people have ignored because they are not ‘modern’ or sexy. In fact, much of the rest of Africa has been using similar technologies for years. The challenge here in South Africa is that the population expects more because government has promised more. There is a serious culture of dependency here that, while I won’t go into now, is perpetuated by the government and limits the technological options that can be employed so as to increase accessibility to safe water and sanitation facilities.

What was most astonishing was that this was a government/donor led initiative to bring these individuals together so each could learn from each other and improve overall program design and implementation. This then leads me to believe that people are finally beginning to think outside of the box in regards to designing and implementing water and sanitation projects. There was a tacit understanding on the part of all participants that the starting point for any project in this sector is understanding the needs and priorities of each particular community, and then to provide them with the most appropriate technological options. Options. Yes, I said options. While the government continues to apply cookie cutter solutions around the country, I was encouraged by my fellow participants to explore all viable options and present the most feasible and appropriate to the communities where I work. And this was coming from government representatives! I couldn’t ask for a more enabling environment within which to work: free flow of information, the flexibility to provide appropriate services, and a local government nearby (Durban) that is setting the example for how to provide appropriate services to those communities most at need (this I will discuss another time). Amazing! As you can likely tell, I’m excited to be able to play a part of this larger movement that appears to be gaining momentum and hopefully we, as a group, can begin to change the system that has so far failed to deliver what communities need most: water, sanitation and improved livelihoods.

Livestock Parades

Over the last two months, I have spent most of my time pre-testing our monitoring and evaluation tool. This survey is comprised of about 100 questions and observations and takes about 1 hour to complete. However, since Florence (Flo or Mama Flo as I sometimes call her – my friend and assistant in Umzimkhulu) and I started this work, we have gotten it down to a fine art and in some households, managed to finish in just under 45 minutes.

Anyway, to date, we have visited 28 households throughout Umzimkhulu, spending about an hour at each house talking with the heads of household and poking around their kitchens and toilets. Florence would usually enter first, quickly introduce herself and ask if we could sit and talk for a bit.  Typically we would then be invited into the kitchen where we would sit for the next 45 minutes, asking our questions and trying not to choke on the acrid smoke. Since my job was merely to wait for Florence’s translation of the respondent’s answers, I spent a lot of time observing our surroundings.

There are many things that stuck with me during these household visits, but the one thing that I wish to relate to you today is the parade of livestock that usually began entering the kitchen approximately 15 minutes into our questions. First to appear were the dogs. They would poke their snouts in, hoping to go unnoticed, but they quickly retreated as the respondent either hissed or threatened to throw the nearest available object. Next were the chickens. With the chickens, there was a specific sequence. First the hen and her chicks would enter, announcing their presence with their high pitched chirps as they searched the floor for any delicious crumbs or bugs. Once they worked the room, next came the other chickens without young. Depending upon the household, a goat or two would also attempt to enter, but they were also driven out as quickly as the dogs. However, in one house, after all the animals made their appearance, I heard a familiar, high pitched squeal. Out of nowhere came a herd of guinea pigs that then fought it out with the hen for some maize that the owner spread on the floor for them.

Just as quickly as they would appear, each animal would then vanish back out to the yard to try their luck there. It was a familiar routine that made each household visit special in its own unique way.