SEMINAR PAPER

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SEMINAR PAPER

• BY
• Engr. Ifedayo Akintunde (FNSE)
• Engr. J.K. Akinola (MNSE)
• AYO OKUSI (MCIM)

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PAPER TITLE

• SUSTAINABILITY OF ENGINEERING INFRASTRUCTURES
  THROUGH CAPACITY BUILDING OF BENEFICIARY
  COMMUNITIES

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ABSTRACT
The misconceptions that the care of governmental
sponsored facilities or projects is not the
responsibility of anybody has persisted with us
for too long. Even now it is not dead. Its
extension is actual and deliberate destruction of
serviceable facilities to the selfish advantage
of a few e.g. violation of oil pipelines. The
misconception takes its toll on non-maintenance
or inadequate maintenance of facilities and
consequently their early death. It has also led
to non-taking off of important national or
community projects.
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INTRODUCTION
The Country (Nigeria) had spent a lot of money in
the past on Engineering Infrastructures in urban,
semi-urban and rural communities. Most of these
projects, built during and after the oil money
era are now in serious state of disrepair The
authors had the opportunity to interface with
beneficiary communities at the grassroots levels
and were able to understand certain basic
factors, which, if not properly put in place at
the local levels, with proper participation of
the host communities, will lead to deterioration
and demise of these infrastructures.
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THE CONCEPT OF PARTICIPATORY PARTNERSHIP

• Participatory Approach
• Private Sector Partnership
• Community Level Management of Operation and
  Maintenance

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Participatory Approach
Underlying the principle of Capacity Building is
Concept of Participatory Approach. This approach
is not a new one, as it has been applied
severally in some developing countries of the
world as it has yielded great dividends, notably
in Asian Continent. The synergy generated in
participatory techniques can bring rapid
acceleration for the wheels of development if
properly managed, and hence more wealth to
nations.
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Private Sector Partnership
Private Sector Partnership (PSP) or Public
Private Partnership (PPP) are initiatives
intended to make the best of two worlds in
providing future infrastructural projects, which
have in the past, become major cause for concern
when deteriorated, as the loans obtained in
providing them could no longer be paid back.
The greater demands for public services, poor
earnings, debts, and lack of expertise and
avoidance of tax increase have resulted in the
public sector having to look to the private
sector for the expertise and funding of such
infrastructural projects.
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Community Level Management of Operation and
Maintenance
In recent decades past, many countries,
especially the developing countries have
experimented with community Level Management of
Operation and Maintenance (CLOM), and have found
it a lot more effective and beneficial than the
direct attempts to provide these services. In
the places where it has been tried, especially
for rural water supplies, individual communities
have proved quite capable of maintaining their
water supply facilities.
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FORMATION OF COMMUNITY COMMITTEES

• Before the project takes off, each community
  was expected to inform a Water and Sanitation
  Committee (WASCOM) which will be depended upon to
  midwife the process of PSP and sustainability.
• Successful reception of government team by
  community during the location of project sites.
  This is the fist interactive contract with the
  community.
• Identification and location of major decision
  makers coupled with progressive interaction.
• Constitution of Water Committee.

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STAGES OF INVOLVEMENT
The partnershipping with the committee is made to
touch several aspect of the project, from
inception to handing over. As far as this project
is concerned, the following key areas were found
helpful for involvement and partnership, with
dividends towards project sustainability.
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Site Possession
The WASCOM members are made to witness and
endorse the site possession of each
infrastructure. Little problems encountered here
had to do with refusal to be dragged into
endorsing a site they were not initially part of
the choice of location or technology. The
Consultants spent some time educating them before
they endorsed.
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Installation and Testing
The WASCOM who obviously involved after the
initial endorsement, now saw it as her
responsibility to see to proper execution and
completion of these projects, no matter the
simplicity or complexity.
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Completion and Hand Over
The WASCOM members were deeply involved in
projects handover and commissioning, often times
with the necessary fanfare. In conjunction with
the Contractor, each community concerned inspects
every component and aspect of the completed
project before signing an endorsement of
handover.
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HELPLINES FOR PSP INITIATIVES
The programme provides the necessary
Institutional Framework within which this
Capacity Building of beneficiary communities
could work. The WASCOM set up is expected to play
a prominent role in the sustainability of these
infrastructure through transferred ownership.
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TRAINING PROPOSAL ELUCIDATED
The following are readiness indicators for
Capacity Building

• Adequate formation of the water committees
• Proper nomination of Trainees for all aspects of
  capacity Building
• Cooperation of Contractor for trainees
  mobilization and welfare
• Conducive interaction of all involved at
  community level.

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Technical
Course objectives To equip the communities with
adequate technical knowledge to facilitate
Sustainability of the Boreholes through Efficient
Maintenance Operations.
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Consequences of Inadequate Maintenance

• Hindered Operations (Breakdown)
• Waste of resources (Manpower, Material, Money and
  Machinery)
• Effect on Health (Epidemics)
• Slow down of Development in the Communities

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Financial

• Course Objectives
• To facilitate a Simple but Effective Revenue
  Expenditure management system at the Communities
• Course Strategies Content
• Use of 4 by 4 separate Accounting books
• Books to be split into four simplicity reasons
• Reconciliation on Daily, Weekly, Monthly Yearly
  basis

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Socio-Economic

• Course Objectives
• To induce and sustain adequate re-orientation
  from misconception about government projects
• Erasure of government project-government-Property
  baby of nobody.
• Course Strategies/Content
• Impress the Progressives Logical Flow of Civic
  responsibility at the Community Level
• The Need for the Right attitude (it is your
  business)
• The Need for the Right Behaviour (Be Your
  brothers keeper)
• The importance of Security(The need for adequate
  arrangement)
• Team work a Necessity
• The Great Challenge- one good turn deserves
  another

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RESULTS
The results of applying the above strategies
yielded positive results as most of the projects
were not only completed but also formally handed
over to the beneficiary communities and are being
properly maintained till now.
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE CAPACITY
BUILDING OF BENEFICIARY COMMUNITIES
The success of this programme notwithstanding,
the Authors still feel there is room for more
improvement and this will be outlined in this
section and it is believed can be canvassed at
appropriate levels for test-running.
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Involvement in Funding and Preliminary Appraisal
Beneficiary communities should be made to have a
stronger sense of ownership through their
monetary contribution to any project, no matter
how small. A minimum of 5 token of the overall
project cost will commit the community ab-initio,
for where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also
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Choice of Design and Technology
It is found out that more sense of ownership
develops when the host communities have an input
into the design or choice of technology. The
Authors found out that on another rural water
supply project which they supervised, the
beneficiary communities, who had earlier been
financially committed through a modest
contribution, were able to influence the choice
of technology to suit their preference.
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Involvement in Supervision
The Authors canvass a more active role for the
beneficiary communities during Project
Supervision. Even though they may not possess the
technical know-how, they should be made to liaise
regularly with the Project Consultants who will
have the responsibility of midwifing the
Contractor to carry the communities along.
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External Monitoring and Evaluation
After projects have been handed over, it is
necessary to have it monitored for a while
whether it is measuring up to expectations. This
is a kind of post-project appraisal. The Authors
would like to suggest that this aspect be carried
out by NGOs who would not require funding either
from government or the community but funded from
the Private Sector Initiative.
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Financial Support From External Sources
It must be reiterated that the Government cannot
provide all the needs of the Communities, and in
fact is getting more and more limited to do so.
The Private Sector in the same PSP spirit can be
encouraged to inject funds into operation and
maintenance of rural infrastructures directly
through the WASCOM members, who will in turn be
accountable to the beneficiary communities.
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CONCLUSION
This paper has strongly canvassed support for the
need to build the capacity of beneficiary
communities in sustaining engineering
infrastructures. The paper has driven the wedge
down to back the concept of Private Sector
Partnership initiatives in this respect in
finance, socio-political and technical areas.
These are concepts which if properly nurtured in
an enabling environment, possess the magic wand
to begin transforming our society technologically
in the same vein as the Asians experienced.