WATER AND SANITATION COMMITTEES

COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The following guide is an example of what a water committee could put together through
participatory methods.

Guiding Principles
The water facilities belong to the community and the community is responsible for their
operation, care, maintenance and repairs.
The community decides on how it wants to manage these facilities.
The community gives power to a water committee to decide and act on its behalf.
The members of the water committee are elected by the community.
The water committee is responsible for the management of the water and sanitation
facilities.

Functions of the water committee

Committee manages the operation and maintenance of water facilities.
Committee provides hygiene education to the community on a regular basis.
Committee operates a bank account and reports on the status of the account to the
community.
Committee is responsible for the collection of water fees.
Committee keeps water committee accounts.
Committee members hold meetings among themselves and with the whole community to
discuss issues related to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Committee buys spare parts at spare parts shops or from the area mechanic.
Committee contracts an area mechanic or service company for maintenance and repair
services of water facilities.
Committee organizes the cleanliness of hand pump surroundings.

Term of office for water committee members

After a period of two years, the community meets and decides on whether to maintain
some or all members of the water committee or to change them completely.
POSSIBLE MEMBERS OF THE WATER COMMITTEE

You may need the following members for the water committee:

Presides over and conducts committee meetings.

Ensures that each member in the committee knows
Chairperson his or her duty and is functioning in them.
Signatory to the bank account.

He or she must know how to read and write.

Writes the minutes of the meetings, prepares
Secretary
agenda, and reads minutes of meeting.
Signatory to the bank account.
Must be a reliable person.
Responsible for the accounts. Keeps all receipts, cash
book, and payment register up to date.
Treasurer
Ensures no money is taken out without the water
committee’s approval.
Reports account’s activity to community.
Responsible for holding regular hygiene education
Hygiene facilitators
sessions in the community.
Collects and submits water fees to the treasurer
Collectors
Maintains a payment register
Must be well respected persons in the community.
Must organize or carry out preventative
maintenance and minor repairs.
Caretakers Calls area mechanic to carry out major repairs when
needed.
Keeps a maintenance record.
Ensures that repairs happen without major delays.

To establish a water committee, you may build on existing groups (village development
committee, village health committee, unit committee, women’s group, farmers’ group etc.)

Pay attention on how you choose the members of the water committee.
All tasks for the water committee are important tasks.
All members must be reliable.
Make sure that all members are respected by the community.
Make sure that at least two persons know how to read and write (to occupy the secretary
and treasurer positions).
MEETINGS

Water committee meetings

Once a month, all water committee members should hold a meeting among themselves to:

Share new information.

Discuss what is happening with the water system.
Plan water fee collection.
Plan the use of money collected.
Check the balance in the account.
Discuss problems and take decisions for action.

The water committee secretary writes the minutes of each meeting.

The minutes contain all issues discussed, planned decisions, activities and achievements.
The minutes are read aloud at the end of the meeting.

Periodic meetings with the community

Periodically, the water committee should hold a meeting with the community. This should
preferably be once every three (3) months.

The water committee informs the community about its activities, achievements and problems.
At these meetings, the water committee should:

Discuss problems about water, system maintenance, site cleanliness and hygiene practices.
Inform community about activities of the water committee.
Inform community on the collection of water fees.
Inform community how water fees are being used.
Solve problems.
Obtain ideas from community members on issues relating to water system management,
sanitation and hygiene.
HOW TO CONDUCT A MEETING

Before a meeting:
Decide the agenda—

What problems or issues need to be discussed?

What things need to be done?
What decisions have been agreed on?

Then Decide--

On the date.
On the time (arrange a time which is suitable for women in particular).
On the place.

Inform everyone ahead of time, and then remind them a few days before the meeting.

During the Meeting:

Take one topic at a time and ask people to give their ideas.
Encourage everyone to talk.
Follow the agenda and keep the discussion on the topic.
After people have discussed a topic, ask for a decision.
Make sure decisions are clear and everyone agrees.
What needs to be done?
Who will do it?
When will it be done?
Make sure that the secretary records each decision.
Read the minutes aloud at the end of the meeting.
RECORD KEEPING

For good record keeping, you must write down all your transactions in an organized manner. You
need something to show that you received or paid out money. You must show proof of every
transaction.

Therefore keep all documents. It is essential to keep:

Receipts from the area mechanic for his services.
Receipts from the spare parts shop for spare parts bought.
Cheque book for withdrawing money at the bank.
Pay in slip when you deposit money at the bank.
Income records

Make sure that every official transaction has the following information:
When the transaction took place Date:
Who are involved in the transaction Names:
What happened in the transaction Purpose:
Amount of money involved Amount of Credits:

FILING
Keeping good files is important because it:
Prevents papers and documents from being damaged.
Makes location easy.
Makes handing over or moving the papers easy.
Makes inspection of the activities of the water committee easy.

Things to do when filing:

Put all documents on the same subject together with the most recent document on top.
Write the subject on the file to make finding papers easy.
Written documents should be filed immediately.
When written documents are removed from a file, they should be returned to the same
place in the file as soon as the user has finished with them.

All written documents must be kept in a file!!!

WATER FEE COLLECTION

Why does the water committee need money?

One important job of the water committee is to collect and manage money.
Specifically money is required to:
Meet the cost of operation and maintenance of water facilities and other services.
Pay for minor repairs and cleaning.
Buy spare parts from the spare parts shop or area mechanic.
Expand or improve the water and sanitation facilities.
Pay community’s contribution towards the cost of a new water facility.

How to collect water fees

It is the responsibility of the water committee to work with the community through meetings on
how to organize the collection of needed money.
Some ideas on how water fees could be collected:
House-to-house collection (register of payment).
Payment for water at the source (point source payment) or pay-as-you-use.
Regular collection on a fixed day (register of payment).
Annual festivals.
Deductions from funeral contributions.
Deductions from the proceeds of cocoa, tomato, pepper, rice, or any other product that is
specifically for water facilities.
Community enterprise (engaging in road construction or weeding of farm for payment
etc.).

Keep, manage and use the collected water fees properly!!!

PAYMENT REGISTER

You would need a payment register if you collect water fees periodically. This is because

You need to know who has paid and who has not paid.
You need to know how much money has been received.

You may use a big ruled note book (ledger) with a hard cover for the payment register. Make lines
as in the example shown.

Option 1
Under the first column (name), write the name of the person making the payment.
Under the second column (amount), write the amount of money paid.
Under the third column (date), write the date when people paid.
Under the last column, the person receiving the money will sign or thumbprint.

Option 2
Under the first column (name), write the names of those who have to pay water fees.
Under the following columns (month/year) write the amount of money which was paid by
the named person during this period.

Option 2 has the following advantages: you know exactly who has paid and who has not paid;
By calculation you easily know how much money has been paid by each person.

If the payment for water is made at the distribution point, you need to record income because:
You need to know the income received from each water point on a daily basis.
The information can be used to re-assess the sales price to ensure sufficient income.
 PAYMENT REGISTER

Option 1 Option 2
COMMUNITY: …………………………………………………………………………………. COMMUNITY: ………………………………………………………………………………….
DISTRICT: .............………………………………………………………………………….. DISTRICT: .............…………………………………………………………………………..

NAME AMOUNT DATE SIGNATURE NAME Jan Feb Mar April May TOTAL

1 Akua Pokua 1,500 15/1/09 AP 1 Kofi Mensah 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 6,000

2 Aria Mansah 1,500 15/2/09 AM 2

3 Kwadwo Mensa 1,500 16/3/09 KM 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

10 10

11 11

12 12
ACCOUNTS BOOK

It is the responsibility of the Treasurer to look after the money safely and not to use it for
personal purposes. He/she should also not use the money to provide loans to people.

One way of keeping money safely is selecting someone whom everyone trusts. Many
communities choose women to look after the money.

A bank is safer than keeping the money in the house. However, a small amount of money
should be kept in the cash box to enable the water committee to meet immediate
commitments.

Accounts Book
In accounting, money is either coming in or going out. To record money coming in and going
out, you will need an accounts book.

Use a ledger with lines drawn or an exercise book and draw your own lines as illustrated on the
next page.

Fill in all 6 columns for each transaction:

1. Under the first column (No. 1) write subsequent numbers.

2. Under the second column (date) write the date of the transaction.
3. Under the third column (purpose), describe the transaction.
4. Under the fourth column (money in), write all cash that came into the cash box.
5. Under the fifth column (money out), write all cash that went out of the cash box.
6. Under the sixth column (balance), write the amount of money you have in the cash box
after the transaction has taken place.

Reminder: When you withdraw money from the cashbox and deposit it at the bank, the
amount withdrawn will appear in the column “Money out”.
 Accounts Book

Date Purpose Money In Money Balance

No. Out
1 1/1/09 Initial Deposit 100,000 - 100,000

2 Water Fee 100,000 - 200,000

Collection
4/2/09
3 Spare Parts - 2,500 197,500
Purchased
10/2/09
4 Allowance to Area - 20,000 177,500
Mechanic
12/2/09
5 Water Fee 100,000 - 277,500
Collection
1/3/09
6 Cement for Soak - 12,000 265,500
Away
10/3/09
7 Transfer to Bank - 100,000 165,000
Account
12/3/09
8

9
BANK ACCOUNTS

The water committee operates a bank account. The water committee deposits the collected
water fees into the bank account and makes payments for the service of the area mechanic
from this bank account. The money is also used to pay contributions to capital cost of the new
water facilities and for spare parts.

Why should the water committee operate a bank account? Because:

It is a safe way to keep the community’s money.
It helps prevent the misuse of the community’s money.
It shows that the community has collected the money.

There are several types of accounts, such as:

Current Account
Deposit Account
Savings Account

Bank Books and Forms

The bank will give you a bank book. This will show the record of your money at the bank. It
should be kept in a safe place.

To open a bank account, you will have to fill in some forms. These forms are different for
current, deposit and savings accounts.

Who should sign at the bank?

It is important the water committee decides who takes out money from the bank.
It is good to have at least two people to do this. They are called signatories.
The community decides how often the water committee should render account to it.

The water committee is responsible for

a proper accounting system.