Tawilla water supply system
A case study from White Nile
Overview
Tawilla is located along the riverbank of the White Nile in Guli district, north of Kosti in White Nile, Sudan. For years, the people of Tawilla were relying on an old water supply system that used slow sand filters. Because it can be easily clogged by excessive amounts of algae, the old systems exposed the community to water-borne diseases like cholera.
This, combined with inadequately safe hygiene practices in the region, led to a severe cholera outbreak in Tawilla in 2017. As usual in a case like this, children were the most affected to falling gravely ill. Boys and girls who contracted cholera missed school for extended periods of time, leading to longer-term disruptions in learning.
To address this, UNICEF Sudan supported the community with two key preventative measures: improving access to safe water supply and promoting adequate sanitation and hygiene practices.
UNICEF Sudan, in coordination with the Water and Environment and Sanitation Corporation in Sudan (WES), established a water treatment plant in Tawilla in 2020. Following the installation of the plant, UNICEF led a series of awareness-raising and hygiene promotion activities to help community members identify disease transmission routes and mitigation behaviors. UNICEF also made efforts to promote community management of daily operation and maintenance of the water treatment plant. As a result, Tawilla water supply system is now entirely managed by the community.
From the White Nile to the households…
Tawilla is located along the White Nile River, which makes it an ideal location for setting up a water treatment plant. The water supply system collects the water from the river, purifies it and takes it to the houses of Tawilla through the following process:
Step 1: The water supply system has been set up using the floating intake platform, which collects water from the surface of the White Nile River. The floating intake provides for relatively clean raw water by collecting water from the surface of the river, which contains less contaminants than water near the river bottom.
Step 2: The collected water flows through a 12-kilometer-long pipeline before it reaches the water treatment plant and enters the pre-sedimentation tank, where gravel, sand and other heavy particles are separated from the water.
Step 3: After the pre-sedimentation tank, the water goes into another tank with a mechanical mixer where the water is treated and purified.
Step 4: Following this, the water enters the intermediate sedimentation tank which allows for the medium suspended particles to settle down, thereby providing some degree of purification.
Step 5: The water flows into another tank with the filter for the removal of fine particles from the water, after which the purified water is stored in the collection tank.
Step 6: The water enters the clean water tank where chlorine is added to the water to kill any parasites, bacteria, and viruses, making the water safe for drinking purposes.
Step 7: Safe drinking water flows to the elevated tank for onward dissemination to 600 households through water distribution network.
To what extent does the community benefit?
This water treatment plant has had a major impact on the community, especially for women and children. Around 600 households, seven villages, two primary schools, one high school and a health facility are connected to the water treatment plant in Tawilla, ensuring access to safe drinking water for over 15,000 people. As a result, Tawilla has started observing a downward trend in the prevalence of cholera, and has now become open defecation free.
The Tawilla water treatment plant is also able to support other villages, located as far as six kilometers away, by supplying them with safe and clean water through water trucking.
Sustaining the water treatment plant....
The community has played a major role in making this project a success. Following the awareness-raising and hygiene promotions activities conducted by UNICEF Sudan, the community members have shown ownership and have been making increased efforts to ensure sustainability of the water supply system.
Initially and after the completion of the water treatment plant, UNICEF Sudan and the WES were managing the operation and maintenance of the water treatment plant. For example, if a part of the floating intake structure broke due to decrease in the water level in the river, leading to disruption in water supply services, the community would inform the WES which would then resolve such issues.
This was the usual way of managing the operation and maintenance of the water treatment plant until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, after which the community wanted to play a bigger role in the management of the plant. During the pandemic, costs for maintenance and repairs increased, and there were fuel shortages that caused the generator to stop functioning. To address these issues, the community established a water committee comprised of 10 members, including two women and eight men. The community identified two female members, in an effort towards including female representation, who continue to participate in decision-making, while strengthening the management structure by incorporating the views and voices of the main users of water services as well as the most at-risk and underrepresented groups.
The water committee
In 2022, the community, through the water committee, took over the entire management of the water treatment plant. The committee meets regularly to discuss budget and expenses, any challenges related to operation and maintenance of the water supply system and potential solutions. All the households connected to the water supply system are spread across five blocks, and the water committee selected one representative from each block to be responsible for taking any issues or messages from their respective blocks to the water committee and vice versa.
The committee has a tariff system in place, and each of the households connected to the water treatment plant are contributing 2,000 Sudanese Pounds as monthly subscription fees. This increased from 1,000 Sudanese Pounds per household in February 2022 due to rising prices of chemicals needed for water treatment and fuel for generator to keep the water treatment plant running during power cuts.
If a household is not able to pay for a month or two, the community comes together to help by contributing for their subscription fees. Mosques, schools, and vulnerable communities are exempt from the monthly subscription fees.
Bridging the gap…
Initially the water supply system was only connected to the five water distribution points and not to the households, and the people had to walk long distances and queue at the five water distribution points, exposing women and girls to various risks.
Thanks to the strong community management structure, however, the community managed to expand the pipe-network beyond the initial project coverage and now all members of Tawilla (around 600 households) have access to basic drinking water through a household connection system or a nearby public stand - with plans for an additional 150 households to be connected soon.
Such achievement was possible through a well-set tariff system, as well as a transparent and accountable management of collected revenue and meaningful investment. Overall, it also demonstrates how a sense of ownership and understanding of sustainability, encourages communities to go further in fulfilling other development aspirations. For example, the more enhanced water supply system also encouraged the communities of Tawilla to organize themselves and become Open Defecation Free.
Coupled with community efforts, this initiative also benefitted from the drive of a retired civil servant, who used to work as a public health officer and whose advocating efforts were instrumental.
Fuel - an expensive option
Daily power cuts are common in Tawilla and the water treatment plant needs a continuous electricity supply to function and continue the water purification process. There is only one generator as a back-up power option and fuel prices in Sudan have been on the rise over recent months. In addition, the water treatment plant needs additional power to supply water to the households that are further away from the plant. When there are power cuts, these households are affected the most.
As a short-term solution to this, the water committee is trying to get a special quota for fuel prices from the authorities. As a last resort, the committee is also considering raising the monthly subscription fee.
Solar energy - A sustainable solution
Considering Sudan is rich in solar energy (the country receives an average of 10 hours of sunlight every day) and that Tawilla’s water treatment plant main operational cost (fuel) is on the rise, the water committee has been advocating for the solarization of the system.
Solarization would reduce the costs of running the system and minimize regular generators’ breakdown. It would also reduce the environmental impact and make them more resilience to climate change. Ultimately, it would also ensure people can continue to access clean water in an affordable manner. Particularly, as there are families in Tawilla who rely solely on agricultural activities as their primary source of income, which is often not enough to sustain both the needs of the family and pay the monthly subscription fees for the water supply system. Although the community, especially the women, come together to help such families by contributing for their subscription fees; the use of solar energy for the water treatment plant would allow families to save some money for other essential things, like health and education for children.
The community has advocated for solarization of the water facility, leading the discussions around these plans with local government authorities. By engaging with the Ministry of Finance and State Water Corporation, the aim is to include such initiative in the state water sector development plan.
How are the women supporting?
Women are taking a leading role in ensuring the sustainability of the water supply system.
Supporting the ones in need
Aisha Ali and Muneera Masoud, members of the water committee, shared that during one of the summer months the only generator supporting the water treatment plant ran out of fuel earlier than usual, and there was no money left with the committee to procure additional fuel. The water supply system stopped functioning and the people were left without any safe drinking water. During this difficult time all the women of the community came together and decided to save the clean water for drinking purposes only and use the water from the White Nile for other activities like washing. The women managed to collect 140,000 Sudanese Pounds in two days, by mobilizing their own networks and sensitizing other women groups to voluntary collect small amounts from each household. The water committee was then able to get additional fuel and the water treatment plant was functional, ensuring life-saving access to safe drinking water for the people of Tawilla once again.
Being resourceful
Since the water supply system is built using floating intake platform, which collects water from the surface of the White Nile River, the water supply services are sometimes disrupted if the water levels in the river decrease or if there are strong winds. Fixing the floating intake platform is expensive (up to 150,000 Sudanese Pounds) and can often be a lengthy process. During such times, the women of the households try to be resourceful by saving the chlorinated water for drinking purposes only and using the water from the river for other activities like washing.
What's next
UNICEF Sudan, the WES and the water quality department of the State Ministry of Health are conducting regular monitoring visits, and the findings suggest that Tawilla has the lowest reported cases of cholera and other water-borne diseases compared to neighboring areas since the installation of the water treatment plant. While huge progress has been made, maintaining such progress remains challenging:
- Increasing fuel prices are compromising the systems’ operations and affordability. Use of solar energy for the water treatment plant would minimize the operation and maintenance cost. For instance, in Tandalti and Aldewaim localities, White Nile, there are hybrid water systems that are operating both on solar power and generator. These systems are significantly reducing the operation cost by 90 per cent or sometimes even by 100 per cent, and only small amounts of tariff is collected for some minor operation and maintenance of the generators during the rainy season. In addition, sector partners are currently piloting the solarization of the water treatment plants in refugee camps using the same technology of Tawilla water system to reduce the high cost of operation, while keeping the existing generators as backup power source. These are all examples of the potential within the region.
- The water committee needs to have more female representation. For now, only two women are part of the committee.
- The floating intake structure breaks due to decrease in water levels in the river or strong winds, causing disruption in the water supply. Solution to this would be a stationary intake structure.