Operation and Maintenance

Operation and maintenance (O&M) activities, which encompass not only technical issues, but also managerial, social, financial and institutional issues, must be directed towards the elimination or reduction of the major constraints which prevent the achievement of sustainability (BRIKKE 2000). Operation and maintenance is a crucial element of sustainability, and a frequent cause of failure of water supply and sanitation service facilities in the past. Many failures are not technical ones. They may result from poor planning, inadequate cost recovery, or the outreach inadequacies of centralised agencies (DFID 1998).

Operation and maintenance has been neglected in the past, or been discussed and introduced only after a project was completed. This neglect or delay in applying proper operation and maintenance has adversely affected the credibility of the investments made, the functioning of the services, the well-being of rural populations, and the development of further projects. However, the importance of O&M has gained considerable visibility over the past few years, and it appears that policy-makers and project designers are now more conscious of the direct links between improved O&M practices and the sustainability of water supply and sanitation services. There is also greater recognition of the need to approach these projects in a comprehensive way, emphasising not only the design and construction but also post-construction activities (BRIKKE 2000).

Operation and maintenance refers to all of the activities needed to run a water supply and sanitation scheme, except for the construction of new facilities. The overall aim of operation and maintenance is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of water supply and sanitation facilities (CASTRO 2009).

The two activities of “operation” and “maintenance” are very different in nature. Operation refers to the direct access to the system by the user (e.g. operating the hand pump), to the activities of any operational staff (e.g. operators of motorised pumps), and to the rules or by-laws, which may be devised to govern who may access the system, when, and under what conditions. Maintenance, on the other hand, is to do with the technical activities, planned or reactive, which are needed to keep the system working. Maintenance requires skills, tools and spare parts (CARTER 2009). Maintenance can be classified as follows (adapted from CASTRO 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 well, cleaning and greasing of mechanical parts and replacement of items with a limited lifespan. It sometimes also includes minor repairs and replacement as dictated by the routine examinations.

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 complaints; it normally occurs as a result of failures and the malfunctioning or breakdown of equipment. In order to ensure the routine maintenance and health of the system, the technician should adhere to a routine check-up. The project manager will need to ensure that the technician is doing his/her job. If done correctly and on a regular schedule, preventive measures can reduce the risk of costly repairs. 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. It is also essential to schedule preventive maintenance.

(Adapted from DFID 1998)

The ease of operation and maintenance of a facility is central to its sustainability and must be given careful consideration in design. Some operation and maintenance issues are location-specific, but urban and rural projects differ fundamentally in the complexity of the technologies involved. In rural areas, the concept of Village Level Operation and Maintenance Management (VLOM) is a philosophy which has been gaining favour over the years. The VLOM approach restricts technology choices to those that can be operated and maintained within the community for which the intervention is intended. In urban situations, where supply systems will generally be more complex, the design and technology chosen will shape the long-term operation and maintenance requirements. When designing a piped water supply or sewerage system, the engineer must, for instance, take into account operation and maintenance factors such as the availability of chemicals for treatment, spare parts, and equipment, the reliability of power supplies, and the availability of local skills and capacity to undertake O&M.

The standardisation of equipment, parts, designs, construction methods, etc., has many benefits: Design is simpler. Choices are made from a limited range of options. In the short term, this may marginally increase construction costs as the standard designs may not be perfectly suited to the situation. But it requires lower skill levels in the design process, and repetitive construction of the same item improves quality. Operation and maintenance benefits too: Limiting the range of spare parts increases the quantity of each item that is required (i.e. more of a few items rather than less of many). This encourages local manufacture because the limited range reduces start-up costs and the increased quantity improves profitability. Standardisation also reduces the number of skills required to install and maintain the piece of equipment, thus increasing the probability of local craftsmen being able to carry out the work.

In many cases, in order to ensure the sustainability of the sanitation and improved water solution, it is necessary to have a community ownership and management approach, making the end-users directly responsible for the operation and maintenance of the installed facilities. Successful operation and maintenance require following an “owner’s manual” prepared by the contractor and engineer at the onset of the planning process. This should spell out a schedule and procedures for maintenance and should also include methods to carry out tasks such as bookkeeping, paying employees, collecting bills (utility management), inspection, refurbishments, replacement of parts, etc., giving an integral framework for operation and maintenance (NETSSAF 2008).

Households and members of the community need to be informed about the system that has been put in place for a proper operation. When new user-interfaces or management approaches have been introduced, such as Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilets (UDDT) or a new system for composting of kitchen waste, which heavily rely on the correct operation from the user’s side, the end-users have to be properly trained to ensure that they will operate the systems correctly.

In a district level, communities and their organisations (Community-Based Organisations) that will undertake O&M and/or management of local infrastructure will need training on technical matters, accounting and simple financial management, basic contract procedures, and monitoring and reporting. NGOs that will become involved in the programme need similar training, but at a more advanced level, as they are probably going to have to train the participating communities (EAWAG 2005).

Local technicians and caretakers need to be trained for the proper operation of the new infrastructure. In this case, on-hands training is desired in order to ensure the fully understanding and the implications of the new system. Private operators or local engineering companies, which will take care of the maintenance of the systems, should be also trained in the type of maintenance activities that have to be carried out periodically.

Organising for O&M does not represent a huge task, but it does require certain level of planning, commitment and monitoring. The aspects to be organised are:

• What: the activity which is to be carried out
• When: the frequency of this activity
• Who: the human resources required for the task
• With what: what are the materials, spare parts, tools and equipments needed

The following table gives an idea of the type of tools which have to be developed to support the operation and maintenance of a new infrastructure. The example relates to the O&M of a septic tank (adapted from CASTRO 2009):