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Service provision for Afridev handpumps through community management in Malawi is a notable challenge. Essential preventative maintenance is often neglected, and repairs are undertaken on a reactive basis. The costs of major repairs are not recognized at community level and are typically neglected across the lifecycle of infrastructure or left to external stakeholders. The aim of this study was to investigate preventative maintenance and capital maintenance expenditure over the 15-year design lifecycle of 21,997 Afridev handpumps in Malawi, and how costs change based on different local tariff collection scenarios. A total of four tariff collection scenarios were investigated, for assets both subject and not subject to rehabilitation. The findings highlight poor initial capacity building into appropriate cost recovery and maintenance approaches. Major repair costs increase over the pump lifecycle when service consists of the replacement of low-cost, fast-wearing parts. Rehabilitation/major repair costs increase as a result but tend to be focused on simple longer-life components, such as pump rods. In both cases, a reliance on external support was highlighted, as larger costs are primarily covered by donors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Proactive tariff scenarios may provide a greater capability of replacement throughout the lifecycle of major items when compared to reactive tariff scenarios. It is recommended that policy and practitioners should focus on capacity building of sustainable maintenance models that consider the full lifecycle costs of assets.
Jonathan Truslove; Andrea Coulson; Emma Mbalame; Robert Kalin. Behaviors and Trends toward Routine Maintenance and Major Repairs of Afridev Handpumps in Rural Malawi. Water 2021, 13, 1666 .
AMA StyleJonathan Truslove, Andrea Coulson, Emma Mbalame, Robert Kalin. Behaviors and Trends toward Routine Maintenance and Major Repairs of Afridev Handpumps in Rural Malawi. Water. 2021; 13 (12):1666.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJonathan Truslove; Andrea Coulson; Emma Mbalame; Robert Kalin. 2021. "Behaviors and Trends toward Routine Maintenance and Major Repairs of Afridev Handpumps in Rural Malawi." Water 13, no. 12: 1666.
Empirical insights were made into the challenges of supplying water to communities within low-income areas of peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi. A networked public water supply is provided to those without a domestic tap via communal water kiosks managed by community-based Water User Associations (WUAs) under a government mandate. There has been considerable debate surrounding the tariff charged for water supplied to such vulnerable communities. However, research has largely failed to consider the costs of WUAs operating the kiosks and the impact on the kiosk tariff. The determination of kiosk tariffs is critical to ensuring lifeline access to a sustainable water supply under Sustainable Development Goal 6. We provide evidence of this from our experience in the field in Blantyre. In particular, we argue that sustainable kiosk running costs cannot be born solely by the end user. A number of reforms are needed to help reduce the kiosk tariff. To reduce WUA costs and the kiosk tariffs, WUAs need more training in financial record keeping and cost management, WUAs should not inherit outstanding kiosk debt upon taking over their operations, and water boards should build kiosk costs over which they have fiscal responsibility into integrated block tariff calculations and subsidize them accordingly.
Andrea Coulson; Michael Rivett; Robert Kalin; Sergio Fernández; Jonathan Truslove; Muthi Nhlema; Joseph Maygoya. The Cost of a Sustainable Water Supply at Network Kiosks in Peri-Urban Blantyre, Malawi. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4685 .
AMA StyleAndrea Coulson, Michael Rivett, Robert Kalin, Sergio Fernández, Jonathan Truslove, Muthi Nhlema, Joseph Maygoya. The Cost of a Sustainable Water Supply at Network Kiosks in Peri-Urban Blantyre, Malawi. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (9):4685.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndrea Coulson; Michael Rivett; Robert Kalin; Sergio Fernández; Jonathan Truslove; Muthi Nhlema; Joseph Maygoya. 2021. "The Cost of a Sustainable Water Supply at Network Kiosks in Peri-Urban Blantyre, Malawi." Sustainability 13, no. 9: 4685.
Life-cycle assessment model and regression analysis identifies drivers that negatively impact the lifecycle of community Afridev handpumps under various tariff scenarios for rural community water supply.
Jonathan Peter Truslove; Andrea B. Coulson; Emma Mbalame; Robert M. Kalin. Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi: life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology 2020, 6, 2138 -2152.
AMA StyleJonathan Peter Truslove, Andrea B. Coulson, Emma Mbalame, Robert M. Kalin. Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi: life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 2020; 6 (8):2138-2152.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJonathan Peter Truslove; Andrea B. Coulson; Emma Mbalame; Robert M. Kalin. 2020. "Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi: life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery." Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology 6, no. 8: 2138-2152.
Local tariffs in the form of household contributions are the primary financial mechanism to fund the maintenance of rural water supplies in Malawi. An investigation was conducted into the tariffs set by rural service providers to sustain drilled boreholes equipped with Afridev handpumps. A binary logistic regression analysis identified significant explanatory variables for the most common identified considerations when setting tariffs, ‘affordability’ and ‘operations and maintenance (O&M) costs’. The results demonstrate tariffs collected less frequently and usage above the design limit of the Afridev (300 users) had lower odds of considering affordability and higher odds of considering O&M costs, than those collected per month and within the design limit. The results further suggest a recognition by service providers of an increased maintenance challenge. High usage, acquiring spare parts, and the collection of tariffs when repairs are required indicate an increased likelihood of considering O&M costs, conversely to considering affordability. The balance of affordability and sustainable maintenance is a perpetual challenge under decentralised service delivery. Investment into ongoing support and supply chains is required for the financial and operational requirements of water supply, to ensure payments for services does not prevent access to clean water at the local level and to achieve the 2030 agenda.
Jonathan Truslove; Andrea Coulson; Muthi Nhlema; Emma Mbalame; Robert Kalin. Reflecting SDG 6.1 in Rural Water Supply Tariffs: Considering ‘Affordability’ Versus ‘Operations and Maintenance Costs’ in Malawi. Sustainability 2020, 12, 744 .
AMA StyleJonathan Truslove, Andrea Coulson, Muthi Nhlema, Emma Mbalame, Robert Kalin. Reflecting SDG 6.1 in Rural Water Supply Tariffs: Considering ‘Affordability’ Versus ‘Operations and Maintenance Costs’ in Malawi. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (2):744.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJonathan Truslove; Andrea Coulson; Muthi Nhlema; Emma Mbalame; Robert Kalin. 2020. "Reflecting SDG 6.1 in Rural Water Supply Tariffs: Considering ‘Affordability’ Versus ‘Operations and Maintenance Costs’ in Malawi." Sustainability 12, no. 2: 744.
The sustainability of rural groundwater supply infrastructure, primarily boreholes fitted with hand pumps, remains a challenge. This study evaluates whether coverage targets set out within the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) inadvertently increased the challenge to sustainably manage water supply infrastructure. Furthermore, the drive towards decentralised service delivery contributes to the financial burden of water supply assets. A sample size of 14,943 Afridev hand pump boreholes was extracted from a comprehensive live data set of 68,984 water points across Malawi to investigate the sustainability burden as emphasis shifts to the 2030 agenda. The results demonstrate that the push for coverage within the MDG era has impacted the sustainability of assets. A lack of proactive approaches towards major repairs and sub-standard borehole construction alongside aging infrastructure contributes to reduced functionality of decentralised supplies. Furthermore, costly rehabilitation is required to bring assets to operational standards, in which external support is commonly relied upon. Acceleration towards the coverage targets has contributed towards unsustainable infrastructure that has further implications moving forward. These findings support the need for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) investment planning to move from a focus on coverage targets to a focus on quality infrastructure and proactive monitoring approaches to reduce the future burden placed on communities.
Jonathan P. Truslove; Alexandra V. M. Miller; Nicholas Mannix; Muthi Nhlema; Michael O. Rivett; Andrea B. Coulson; Prince Mleta; Robert M. Kalin. Understanding the Functionality and Burden on Decentralised Rural Water Supply: Influence of Millennium Development Goal 7c Coverage Targets. Water 2019, 11, 494 .
AMA StyleJonathan P. Truslove, Alexandra V. M. Miller, Nicholas Mannix, Muthi Nhlema, Michael O. Rivett, Andrea B. Coulson, Prince Mleta, Robert M. Kalin. Understanding the Functionality and Burden on Decentralised Rural Water Supply: Influence of Millennium Development Goal 7c Coverage Targets. Water. 2019; 11 (3):494.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJonathan P. Truslove; Alexandra V. M. Miller; Nicholas Mannix; Muthi Nhlema; Michael O. Rivett; Andrea B. Coulson; Prince Mleta; Robert M. Kalin. 2019. "Understanding the Functionality and Burden on Decentralised Rural Water Supply: Influence of Millennium Development Goal 7c Coverage Targets." Water 11, no. 3: 494.
Local-scale opportunities to address challenges of the water–food nexus in the developing world need to be embraced. Borehole-garden permaculture is advocated as one such opportunity that involves the sustainable use of groundwater spilt at hand-pump operated borehole supplies that is otherwise wasted. Spilt water may also pose health risks when accumulating as a stagnant pond. Rural village community use of this grey-water in permaculture projects to irrigate borehole gardens is proposed to primarily provide economic benefit whereby garden-produce revenue helps fund borehole water-point maintenance. Water-supply sustainability, increased food/nutrition security, health protection from malaria, and business opportunity benefits may also arise. Our goal has been to develop an, experience-based, framework for delivery of sustainable borehole-garden permaculture and associated benefits. This is based upon data collection and permaculture implementation across the rural Chikwawa District of Malawi during 2009–17. We use, stakeholder interviews to identify issues influencing uptake, gathering of stagnant pond occurrence data to estimate amelioration opportunity, quantification of permaculture profitability to validate economic potential, and critical assessment of recent permaculture uptake to identify continuing problems. Permaculture was implemented at 123 sites representing 6% of District water points, rising to 26% local area coverage. Most implementations were at, or near, newly drilled community-supply boreholes; hence, amelioration of prevalent stagnant ponds elsewhere remains a concern. The envisaged benefits of permaculture were manifest and early data affirm projected garden profitability and spin-off benefits of water-point banking and community micro-loan access. However, a diversity of technical, economic, social and governance issues were found to influence uptake and performance. Example issues include greater need for improved bespoke garden design input, on-going project performance assessment, and coordinated involvement of multi-sector governmental-development bodies to underpin the integrated natural-resource management required. The developed framework aims to manage the identified issues and requires the concerted action of all stakeholders. Based on the probable ubiquity of underlying issues, the framework is expected to be generalizable to the wider developing world. However, this particular application of permaculture represents a fraction of its greater potential opportunity for rural communities that should be explored.
Michael O. Rivett; Alistair W. Halcrow; Janine Schmalfuss; John A. Stark; Jonathan P. Truslove; Steve Kumwenda; Kettie A. Harawa; Muthi Nhlema; Chrispine Songola; Gift J. Wanangwa; Alexandra V.M. Miller; Robert M Kalin. Local scale water-food nexus: Use of borehole-garden permaculture to realise the full potential of rural water supplies in Malawi. Journal of Environmental Management 2018, 209, 354 -370.
AMA StyleMichael O. Rivett, Alistair W. Halcrow, Janine Schmalfuss, John A. Stark, Jonathan P. Truslove, Steve Kumwenda, Kettie A. Harawa, Muthi Nhlema, Chrispine Songola, Gift J. Wanangwa, Alexandra V.M. Miller, Robert M Kalin. Local scale water-food nexus: Use of borehole-garden permaculture to realise the full potential of rural water supplies in Malawi. Journal of Environmental Management. 2018; 209 ():354-370.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMichael O. Rivett; Alistair W. Halcrow; Janine Schmalfuss; John A. Stark; Jonathan P. Truslove; Steve Kumwenda; Kettie A. Harawa; Muthi Nhlema; Chrispine Songola; Gift J. Wanangwa; Alexandra V.M. Miller; Robert M Kalin. 2018. "Local scale water-food nexus: Use of borehole-garden permaculture to realise the full potential of rural water supplies in Malawi." Journal of Environmental Management 209, no. : 354-370.