Lack of proper operation and maintenance (O&M), lack of participatory planning procedures, lack of flexibility to apply different management models for water supplies and inappropriate technology choices are among key issues identified which hindered sustainable WASH services during the Water Sanitation Development Plan (WSDP) Tanzania. The results of the national water point mapping clearly highlights the fact that more than 30% of all water points are not working.
To overcome these issues the leading Ministry of Water (MoW) in Tanzania included various measures in the design of the 2nd phase of the WSDP.
To address the issues around sustainability, in particular on technology choice, and to improve the involvement of all stakeholders in the initial planning phase, the MoW decided to include the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) in the Project Implementation Manual (PIM). The PIM guides all actors such as regional water or health officer, District water or health officer, consultants, communities and suppliers in the implementation of the WSDP.
In February 2015, the TAF was presented to all regional water advisors of the Ministry in a 5-day workshop dedicated to various parts of the PIM.
In order to better understand the TAF for water and sanitation technologies and to start the process of Training of Trainers, a 5 day training on the TAF was provided on 9-13th of March in Singida. More than 35 participants representing water and sanitation from 13 regions, from NGOs and suppliers attended the training. The full TAF methodology was applied to an existing community piped water supply scheme and to household latrines including VIP toilets in the rural area of Iramba District. Participants were introduced to the TAF, went to the field to collect data and did the scoring in the workshop format based on validated data.
Based on the results of the TAF recommendations for mitigation measures were developed which should be followed up by the specific stakeholders in charge. All participants want to use the TAF methodology in their projects and many applied to be selected to be trained as trainers for the TAF in Tanzania.
Rural Water Supply Network - blog 