The committee is the difference between a water point that works for fifteen years and one that works for three. It should be formed, trained and collecting money before the source is commissioned.
Why before, not after?
A community that has contributed to a water point treats it as theirs. A community handed a finished one treats it as the donor's, and expects the donor to repair it. Forming the committee first also means the fund has a balance on the day the pump is handed over, rather than starting at zero.
Who should be on it
Seven to nine people, drawn from the households that will actually use the source, and at least half women. This is not a quota for its own sake. Women collect the water, notice changes in it first, and are most affected when the pump fails, so a committee without them will not hear about problems early.
Include someone respected enough to enforce rules, someone numerate for the fund, and at least one person with practical mechanical ability.
The roles
- Chairperson. Runs meetings, represents the committee to the sub-county.
- Secretary. Keeps the record book: checks, faults, repairs, decisions.
- Treasurer. Holds the fund record. Does not hold all the keys.
- Caretaker. Does the weekly and monthly checks, keeps the surroundings clean.
- Two collectors. Collect monthly contributions and record them.
- Ordinary members. Attend, verify, and take turns on collection.
Use the same box discipline as a savings group: three padlocks, three keyholders, box stored with a fourth person.
What the constitution must settle
- The monthly contribution per household, and how it is set and changed.
- What the fund may and may not be spent on.
- Rules at the water point: hours, queueing, animals, washing, children.
- What happens when a household does not pay.
- How officers are elected and how long they serve.
- Who is authorised to call a mechanic and to spend from the fund, and the limit above which the whole committee must agree.
Settle the non-payment rule while everyone is paying. It is the hardest question and it cannot be decided fairly in the middle of a dispute.
What do we do about households that do not pay?
There is no good answer that is also comfortable. Denying water to children over their parents' arrears is not acceptable to most committees, and cutting people off usually drives them to an unsafe source, which harms everyone through disease.
What works in practice: keep the rate low enough that almost everyone can pay, make payment public so social pressure does the work, allow payment in kind or labour for genuinely destitute households, and identify the few who cannot pay and exempt them openly rather than letting arrears accumulate quietly.
Training the committee actually needs
- Pump mechanics: how it works, what wears, what they may do themselves.
- Record keeping: the check book and the fund book.
- Fund management: collection, counting aloud, reporting.
- Water quality and hygiene, so they can explain to users why the rules exist.
- Where the nearest trained mechanic and spare parts supplier are, by name and contact.
Retrain when officers change, which is usually every two years.
Reporting to users
Once a quarter, at a meeting open to everyone: money collected, money spent, faults found, repairs done, fund balance. Committees that report keep collecting. Committees that go quiet find contributions dry up within a year, and the first breakdown becomes terminal.
The relationship with the sub-county
Register the committee with the sub-county water office. It gives access to district mechanics, water quality testing and sometimes major repair support, and it means the water point exists on a record somewhere other than the community's own book.