Ensuring Appropriate Operations and Maintenance Services

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) is a crucial element of sustainability and its absence is a frequent cause of failure of water supply and sanitation service facilities. Many failures are not technical ones but may result from poor planning, inadequate cost recovery or inadequate outreach of centralised agencies in managing the O&M of facilitates (DFID 1998). If O&M of Camps Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services is not prioritised by humanitarian actors, infrastructure may deteriorate quickly and the affected population may lose access to facilities that serve their basic needs (EUROPEAN COMMISION 2014). Hygiene levels, too, are adversely affected by poor O&M (UNICEF JORDAN 2016; IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2016).

For this reason, the The Sphere Project Standards Minimum Standard 1 underscores the importance of O&M systems for WASH facilities (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011). The O&M system requires checks and balances to be put in place to establish procedures and systems that ensure functionality and create a system for monitoring and subsequent follow-up (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). Where possible, the system should involve WASH committees, which include members of the affected community and aim to get the community to manage and take ownership for their WASH facilities (UNHCR 2014). Community mobilisation can play a key role in building capacities to effectively manage and implement WASH emergency response and to improve O&M (described in detail below) (UNHCR 2014).

Scope of O&M Activities

O&M refers to all activities that are needed to run a water supply and sanitation scheme and hygiene infrastructure (such as hand washing stations), excluding only the activities for the construction of new facilities. The overall aim of O&M is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of WASH facilities (CASTRO ET AL 2009). O&M for WASH facilities and services in camps and prolonged encampments may include the following activities (REDR 2016):

• Maintaining cleanliness and ensuring good level of hygiene for compound and WASH facilities.
• Promoting hygiene to foster a sense of accountability towards maintaining hygienic conditions and thereby strengthening people`s motivation to properly maintain and operate WASH facilities.
• Supervising and facilitating participation and empowering ownership over maintenance of latrines and toilet sanitary facilities.
• Carrying out fly control.
• Ensuring continued safe access and adequate lighting of sanitary facilities.
• Ensuring water supply infrastructure functions well (consistent fill rate) and that the lifespan of water supply facilities is maximised.
• Carrying out continued desludging.

Responsive versus Preventative Maintenance

Maintenance can be either preventative, corrective or reactive as explained below (adapted from CASTRO ET AL 2009):

Preventive maintenance: includes work that is planned and carried out on a regular basis to maintain and keep the infrastructure in good condition, such as network inspection, flushing of the water wells and water lines, disinfection of water tanks, cleaning and greasing of mechanical parts and replacement of items with a limited lifespan. Preventative maintenance not only extends the lifetime of WASH infrastructure but also saves costs in the long-term as it reduces the frequency of costly breakdowns and also reduces the frequency with which expensive reactive maintenance or emergency backup solutions are required (HARVEY 2015). It sometimes also includes minor repairs and replacement as dictated by the routine monitoring and inspections.

It is essential to schedule preventive maintenance to ensure the routine maintenance and health of the system. This can be done by way of routine check-up inspections. The camp manager or the person in charge of the WASH services, will need to ensure that the technician is doing his/her job. The key to ensuring effective equipment maintenance is to make certain that responsibilities are clearly defined and maintenance personnel have the tools and skills to do their job effectively.   

Corrective maintenance: replacing or repairing something that was done incorrectly or that needs to be changed: an example is the reallocation of a pipe route or replacement of a faulty pump.

Reactive maintenance: a reaction to a crisis or public complaint; it normally occurs because of failure and the malfunctioning or breakdown of equipment. Responsive maintenance should allow for a quick and efficient response to WASH-related problems that occur suddenly. This is best handled by mobile WASH teams that should be properly trained and equipped (with spare parts and tools) to immediately respond to infrastructure failure or breakdown and handle the situation (HARVEY 2015, IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015).

In early stages of emergencies and the camp life-cycle, O&M of WASH services generally lies in the responsibility of camp managers, coordinators and administrators (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). Decisions made by humanitarian actors and camp managers during this phase have a strong influence on later “Camp Care and Maintenance” and “Camp Closure”  phases. For this reason, it is key to consider O&M of services starting at the time when Emergency Preparedness and Contingency Planning are developed and response strategies are designed (UNHCR 2008).

Defining Roles, Responsibilities and Work Plans

In order to properly plan for O&M activities and inspections, daily, monthly and more long-term work plans need to be developed along with a clear procedure for reporting gaps or problems with the WASH infrastructure to the WASH provider (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). Additionally, a set of common roles and responsibilities with respect to O&M administration, coordination and management should be created, agreed upon and then communicated to camp staff, partners and the WASH committees (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). It is recommended that experts with experience in long-term O&M are called upon to provide recommendations on camp design, to liaise with the affected population and to identify O&M concerns (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). Refugees, IDPs and other stakeholders should be encouraged to participate in the design process. They will be more likely to feel a sense of ownership over the facilities if they were involved in the conception and design phase (UNHCR 2008). An exit strategy of WASH programming should always be planned and applied to allow the community to take over and operate and maintain facilities after humanitarian actors reduce or end their assistance (EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2014). 

O&M Considerations for Camp Design and Planning

When designing the camp and selecting appropriate technologies, the following should be considered (UNHCR 2008, EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2014):

• Select locally appropriate technologies that are as simple as possible and can be built and maintained with locally available materials and parts.
• Opt for user-friendly, less mechanised water systems.

Theses consideration can reduce operating costs, facilitate easier management of WASH services and ensure their sustainability.

When planning facilities, it is important to consider that health may not be the strongest determinant for encouraging people to maintain facilities but rather aspects of privacy, safety and convenience, as well as observation of culture and religious norms, protection of social status and self-esteem (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011). By addressing these factors in design and siting of facilities, long-term sustainability and O&M of WASH services can be facilitated and strengthened.

Planning for Reliability of Services for Maintenance

To ensure that WASH services are reliable, spare materials and parts for repair and maintenance should always be on stock at the household or community level (UNHCR 2015c). In Prolonged Encampments settings, spare parts and materials for repair and ongoing maintenance should if possible be sourced from local stores and vendors.

Monitoring for O&M

Detailed monitoring is an important aspect of O&M. It helps to (UNHCR 2008):

• Maintain an overview over the state of existing facilities
• Flag problems prioritises assistance based on risk
• Monitor effects of interventions, and
• Survey inequality of coverage of WASH services as well as of distribution of food and non-food items (UNHCR 2008).

Routine Monitoring forms are available from UNHCR (UNHCR 2008).

Following the emergency phase, camps and prolonged encampments enter the “Care and Maintenance” phase. While O&M in this phase is largely determined by the decisions made during the “Camp Set-Up and Improvement” phase (UNHCR 2008), measures should be taken to avoid a dependency system, where the affected population continues to rely on outside humanitarian aid. Monitoring should be continued and community mobilisation and participation maintained and strengthened to promote community ownership of sanitation facilities (UNCHR  2008).

Safety and good hygiene standards of latrines and toilets are best maintained when families or other groups of the affected population take ownership/responsibility for maintaining the facilities (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015). Participation and coordination of the affected population can empower and encourage them, which in turn enhances the long-term impact and sustainability of the intervention (UNHCR 2008, UNHCR 2015c). For this reason, community mobilisation for O&M should constitute an integral part of any WASH programme (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015 (see factsheets on invalid link, Camp Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Later-Stage Emergencies and Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Prolonged Encampments). The necessary capacities of the affected population to maintain the hygiene standards of their sanitation facilities as well as to monitor and report problems must be developed and supported.

WASH Committees

WASH committees/care-taker groups can be set up from within the affected population to assist the O&M of WASH services. Humanitarian response is generally more sustainable if refugees or IDPs are given autonomy and if WASH committees have the opportunity to gain acceptance within the community by taking over the maintenance of small scale infrastructure or solid waste management, by taking up the role of hygiene promoters or by establishing WASH committees. These WASH committees can help to increase the sense of ownership and accountability to operate and maintain their WASH facilities, reduce reliance on outside assistance, and offer a measure of sustainability that can extend past the emergency phase (ARAB HILAL AND MONTELL 2015). Proper training should be provided by the WASH service provider to enforce local management structures (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015, UNCR 2008). One possible composition of a WASH committees is the Community WASH committee (CWC), which is made up of six members (two maintenance volunteers, two hygiene promotion volunteers, one supply volunteer and one waste management volunteer) responsible for 25 households (ARAB HILAL AND MONTELL 2015).

The responsibilities of WASH committees may include (UNHCR 2008 and IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015):

• Developing and carrying out regular maintenance schemes,
• Monitoring and reporting,
• Assisting in carrying out hygiene promotion to sensitise the affected population on proper use, cleaning, and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure (see factsheets on invalid link, Camp Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Later-Stage Emergencies and Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Prolonged Encampments).

The sense of ownership can either be encouraged through a voluntary system or by providing incentives (UNHCR 2015b). The latter is recommended especially in early stages of an emergency (UNHCR 2008).

In order for (re)established WASH systems to run sustainably in the long-term, design considerations, possibilities of the affected population to manage the system beyond project end as well as long-term running costs must be equally considered. Camp budgets should always include a component for O&M and should include flexibility to deal with unforeseen challenges. Additionally, mobilising the community for O&M and creating WASH committees to take over responsibilities for WASH blocks can significantly reduce maintenance costs. (EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2014; IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2015).

Although cost recovery is usually not a priority in acute emergencies, it is essential that the protracted financial consequences of any WASH service are considered from the beginning. The European Commission WASH policy recommends that humanitarian interventions are open to a gradual and early transition to a fee-based WASH service system, in which water supply users (commercial and others) who can pay, furnish an affordable fee that allows a reliable supply and sustainable O&M, while at the same time liberating humanitarian funds to address other pressing needs. Such a system requires an enabling environment (e.g. connection to a local spare parts supply system) and the fee structure shall by no means compromise the needs of the most vulnerable or jeopardise their access to WASH services (EUROPEAN COMMISION 2014).

This guidance refers to O&M of WASH infrastructure in planned and unplanned Camps and Prolonged Encampments. The information and recommendations are most appropriate when there is centralised camp management overseeing and coordinating the humanitarian response.