Lessons Learnt from financing WASH rehabilitation works in small towns in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

This paper describes urban WASH interventions (hardware, hygiene promotion, and institutional support) implemented in the Small Towns WASH Programme (STWP) across 14 towns in Zimbabwe with the associated costing. Key lessons in terms of urban WASH rehabilitation include the need for flexible funding and programme approaches accommodate changes during implementation, and that strong programme governance, multi-stakeholder involvement, and integration of hardware and software are required to contribute to benefits beyond infrastructure rehabilitation alone. Critical recommendations for sustaining the rehabilitated infrastructure and institutional strengthening are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Social sector – water and sanitation
• Aid – aid effectiveness
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to extend their thanks to the Government of Australia for their generous financial support to the STWP and the Government of Zimbabwe for creating the enabling environment for the successful implementation of the STWP. We also wish to thank all the targeted local authorities for their active support in the successful implementation of the programme in their localities, as well as the NGO partners, programme management team and the communities involved in the works for their time and significant contribution to the success of the programme. The views presented are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of UNICEF or the United Nations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In 11 of the towns, sewerage was the responsibility of the ULA, with the remaining three towns under the responsibility of ZINWA. For water services, production and distribution was the responsibility of ULA in seven towns while ZINWA covered six towns; the final town had the ULA for distribution with ZINWA responsible for production. Town populations ranged from 10,491 to 45,325.

2 The STWP baseline comprised data collection across all 14 towns. Enumerator areas were selected systematically with probability proportionally to size in each town, after which households were selected using systematic random sampling in each area. In total, 6725 household were sampled in 269 enumerator areas. Data entry and verification was done using the Census and Surveys Processing System (CSPro) software package. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, Version 21 and IBM Statistical Analysis System (SAS 9.3) (UNICEF 2014).

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to extend their thanks to the Government of Australia for their generous financial support to the STWP.

Notes on contributors

Arnold Cole

Arnold Cole is a former Urban WASH Manager at UNICEF Zimbabwe and currently Urban WASH Manager at UNICEF South Sudan. He has over 20 years’ experience in urban and rural WASH in Africa and Asia

Steve Mudhuviwa

Steve Mudhuviwa is an Urban WASH Specialist with UNICEF Zimbabwe, and has over 15 years’ experience on urban water supply and sanitation projects in Zimbabwe.

Taurai Maja

Taurai Maja is an Urban WASH Officer with the National Coordination Unit under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement, Government of Zimbabwe. He has over 15 years’ experience providing government policy guidance at a national level to implementing partners.

Aidan Cronin

Aidan Cronin is a civil and environmental engineer with over 20 years’ experience on water issues. He is currently the Chief of WASH at UNICEF Zimbabwe.