summary 1: keeping the water flowing in rural villages

In her article, “Keeping the Water Flowing in Rural Villages,” Tina Rosenberg shares how the creation of the British-based charity, WaterAid, is solving the water pump problems in poor areas that cannot afford private contractors. Rosenberg explains how the governments originally install pumps in villages for means of healthy and clean water. Another plus is that women and children do not have to bear the 7-12 hour walk a day to get fresh water for their families. Eventually these pumps installed by the government would suddenly develop a leak, or burst deep down to where they would have to be fixed. Rosenberg uses research done by the Sustainable Water Services Scale and finds that 36% of the pumps installed by the government are not working now. In Tanzania alone, less than half of the existing pumps are working. These pumps have not been fixed because after the government installs them it is up to the poor villages to take care of them. The breaks in the pumps require special skills, spare parts or tools which are not found in a rural village. In Uttar Pradesh the government has been installing many water pumps but sadly out of the 12,500 water pumps, 40% of them are usually down, and when they break they stay broken. Mahoba has a different story. There WaterAid has created workshops called, Community Participation Center, where trained workers can fix a broken water pump in a neighboring village. The centers didn’t always work. Rosenberg explains that at first when WaterAid trained mechanics in the villages, they learned only basic repairs which didn’t get them very far in repairing broken water pumps. WaterAid decided to create a real business by training mechanics with higher standards. Today WaterAid has four centers with whom they have signed maintenance contracts with four villages where the governments are paying for the funds. Even women are seen fixing pumps and working for the center. Coming out from their traditional realm of covering their faces, these women at the centers are accepted publicly by men in their yellow hardhats. To conclude her article Rosenberg shares that what is happening in Mahoba is ‘promising’ but to keep the centers running the key is that the Indian government must pay the bills. This is the only way to keep the water flowing in poor villages.