The community of Ruyigi, Burundi, has been involved in the various phases of the project to provide access to water. And now, the various families are getting ready to manage and maintain the supply points.
At the heart of AMU’s development projects is the full involvement of local communities at every stage – conception, preparation, implementation and sustainability. In the “Water as a source of life and development in Ruyigi” project, having already contributed to building the infrastructure and drinking water supply points, the community is now concentrating on training committees to manage and maintain the facilities that have been built.
The process began in the Nombe, Rubaragaza, Nyarunazi and Kigamba hills and involved families who share the same water fountains, in collaboration with local council representatives, the municipal water council, AHAMR (Agence de l’Hydraulique et de l’Assainissement en Milieu Rural) and the project’s technical team.
Users of one and the same “water point” chose five people to represent them on the committee and now training has now begun for the members of the 36 new committees. The aim is to understand and organise the joint management of the infrastructure, starting with cooperation between the families who rely on the same water supply source.
So the “Water as a source of life and development in Ruyigi” project is going ahead and, since the infrastructure has been built, can now enter the phase of accompanying the community towards conscious, lasting and sustainable development.