Guidelines for Emergency Water Trucking
This guideline has been prepared by the WASH Cluster and associated partners. It is designed to provide critical information for those planning, implementing and monitoring water trucking operations. This includes Government, especially at Regional, Zonal and Woreda level, NGOs and UN Agencies, including UNICEF. The guideline may also be useful for donors considering how best to support this intervention.
To the extent possible, water trucking should be avoided. It is a highly expensive and unsustainable measure. Taking into the consideration the fact that water trucking intervention is difficult to monitor and may lead to the incorrect claims, emphasis will be provided more towards ensuring that necessary checks and balances are in place. However as a last resort, water trucking may be considered as the appropriate alternative to safeguard human lives and livelihoods
With these points in mind, these guidelines focus on six areas.
(1) Justification, Planning, Implementation and Monitoring of Water Trucking operations
(2) Minimum Standards
(3) Contracting and Pricing
(4) Water Quality and Water Quality Monitoring
(5) Coordination
(6) Exit Strategy
The guidelines are governed by lessons learnt, best practice and field reality. At present, these are not designed to be a complete guide. References are provided where relevant. The guidelines will also be periodically updated and improved, based on the feedback received. Once finalized by Federal and Regional Governments, it is recommended that all those involved in emergency water trucking operations should be practicing these guidelines.
1. Justification/ Planning, Implementation and Monitoring
It is the responsibility of government to establish early warning systems that can identify emergency situations before they develop, and identify ‘hotspot’ Woredas where the situation is most serious. Early warning information is then reinforced by a rapid assessment, again involving government, UN agencies and NGOs.
Severe drought is the most common emergency that may trigger water trucking – although it may also be required in response to flood, a local outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD, symptomatic of cholera) - for example, by providing safe water to a cholera Case Treatment Centres) or to respond to concentrations of refugees or internally displaced people (IDPs).
Justification /Criteria for water trucking intervention
(1) People’s lives and livelihoods are at risk because of a severe reduction in access to safe water, resulting in
· significantly more time spent collecting water from distant – important to mention some benchmark to make this criteria more objective(determined by assessment findings through comparing the water collecting distance during the normal dry season ‘normal times’ and recent findings >5km)
· a marked reduction in the amount used for drinking, cooking and essential hygiene
(2) Attendance is significantly reduced or schools are closing because children and staff are forced to spend school hours collecting water, or tend to out-migrate without intervention,
(3) There is heightened risk of epidemic resulting from a concentration of people.
There is no other short term solution, for example, by rapid repair or rehabilitation of local water points, or the rapid development of a new water supply.
These criteria are partly objective, partly subjective. The context is very important. For example, the ‘trigger’ for water trucking in a peri-urban area would be quite different compared to a trigger used for pastoralist areas. Nevertheless, the justification to start trucking should result from an assessment of all four factors mentioned above.
The same six factors should be used to decide when to suspend or stop water trucking operations. Because water trucking is very expensive, every effort must be taken to establish the alternative water supplies needed to end water trucking operations as soon as possible, for example, by rehabilitation and repair of existing, defunct water supplies.
Note: In general, the cost of water provided for livestock by trucking would greatly exceed their replacement value. Furthermore, livestock need fodder, not only water, to survive. It is therefore not good practice – and a waste of limited resources – to attempt to sustain livestock by water trucking.
Water trucking should not be considered as a standalone operation – it is simply too expensive to sustain for weeks on weeks. It has to be complemented by major efforts to improve access to safe water by repairing or rehabilitating nonfunctional schemes, and extending or developing new water supplies. This includes the repair and de-silting of birkas, haffir dams, ponds and other rain water based supplies to ensure that water trucking operations end as soon as possible after it starts raining.
Planning
If water trucking is justified, the following information is needed to inform a plan:
(1) Prioritised locations where water is needed – drop off points would typically be at the Kebele level, serving the local community, health post and school.
(2) The minimum amount of water needed at each drop off point per day, based on (as a minimum) 5 litres per person per day, and an accurate estimate of the local population that is critically short of water (the target population).
(3) Available water storage, if any, at each intended drop off point
(4) A Woreda route map, indicating prioritised drop off points, distances, road conditions and travel times
(5) The location of operational water points that can be used to fill trucks, and their filling capacity (kiloliters per hour, based on the storage and pumps available). Filling of water trucks should not affect people living around water points.
(6) Communications available in each kebele – landline, mobile phone, radio.
This information is best shown on a simple, schematic map. It does not have to be accurately scaled, as long as the information shown on the map is correct. One way that information could be presented is shown on the next page.
A water trucking plan can then be developed, taking into account the volume of water needed, travel time, fill-up time, drop-off time, the capacity of water filling points and truck volumes. The process is iterative, in order to derive the most efficient routes for each truck. The resulting plan is basically a day-by-day schedule, prepared for each truck.
In developing the plan, it is also necessary to take into account:
Drop off points. A Roto-tank or water bladder, on a raised platform, fitted with a multiple tap stand placed nearby but not at the tank itself, can radically reduce the time needed for a water truck to deliver water at the drop off point. Investing in drop off points can save significant resources and increase the efficiency of the whole operation. Drop off points should be managed by the local authority – for example, the Kebele administration, to ensure that water is not wasted and that every family gets a share. A water point manager can also sign a water trucking ‘job card’ (see monitoring).
Water Filling Points: The same measures apply to water filling points. Adequate storage at the filling point can help manage demand which is normally concentrated at particular times of day or night. Water filling points may also need policing, especially if truck operators are being paid per kl delivered rather than per day, irrespective of what they delivered. The needs of the local population who use the water source must also be safeguarded. And water truck operators normally sign (and pay for) the water they take, the money collected being used to pay for diesel and routine maintenance. In this context, it is important that whoever is considering water trucking (i) establishes a good relationship with the water point operator, (ii) assesses the condition of the water supply and (iii) ensures its continued operation, taking into account the increase in water demand, and the impact that increased pumping hours has on the pump and the generator in terms of consumables and spare parts.
Implementation and Monitoring
To an extent, implementing a water trucking plan, typically outsourced to one or more contactors is a combination of monitoring and reporting. Carefully monitoring the operation is absolutely essential. It is strongly recommended that full use is made of the ‘job-card’ or
‘waybill’ systems of monitoring developed and used by UNICEF in Somali Region and Goal in Oromia. Such systems are based on a job card, which is maintained by the truck driver. These record, on a trip by trip basis, where and when water was collected, the distance travelled, and how much water was delivered to each drop off point. The card is countersigned by representatives of each kebele receiving water. The completed card is then checked and endorsed by an authorizing authority, such as DPP’C ’ or a Zonal Representative. If necessary, it can be used to inform spot (verification) checks. In Somali Region, UNICEF uses this system to certify delivery before payment is made. The use of the card, translated in the relevant local language, is now being introduced in other Regions.
One important aspect not to overlook is to ensure that water trucks have adequate local stocks of diesel. This may be included in the contract, or external too it. Either way, trucks should remain operational in the trucking area, without interruption caused by a lack of diesel.
If necessary, monitoring is helped by placing a field monitor with each driver. This person can also help loading and unloading, help with disinfection, and check water quality. It also helps ensure that the driver does not get lost, deal with breakdowns, or indeed, fall asleep on the road. The field monitor can also play an important role in verifying that the need for water remains, and report back important changes that may affect subsequent operations. Finally, he or she can advise households collecting water, or Health Extension Worker, on issues of safe storage and water handling, including the proper use of household water treatment chemicals such as WaterGuard, Aquatab, Pur and Bishangari.
Reporting is an important part of monitoring – much of the information collected is vital to inform the coordination mechanism. Reporting systems and checklists are included in the later section on coordination.
2. Minimum Standards
The Sphere Handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, key indicator and guidance note indicated; average water use for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene in any household is at least 15 litres per person per day. . Achieving this standard in the context of water trucking is challenging to say the least, considering its cost and the limited resources available (including the number of water trucks). So, whilst this provides an ultimate target, this guideline sets a much lower minimum initial supply level of 5 litres of safe water per capita day. This is just enough for drinking, cooking and minimum hygiene, but with no room to spare.
In this context, ‘safe’ refers in particular to microbial contamination by faecal pathogens. This issue is described in more detail in the next section.
Trucked water supplies should also be predictable, with a communicated schedule of delivery and immediate reporting of disruptions. People should also have access to suitable water containers such as jerry-cans. Queuing times should be minimised with the use of storage at off-take points. Finally, off take points should be managed to ensure water is distributed fairly, without fear for safety or security. The latter applies in particular to women and children collecting water.
3. Pricing and Contracting
The water trucking plan, in particular, the schedule referred to in the last section, forms the basis of a contract with the truck owner(s). It is not good practice to simply pay a daily rate, regardless of the volume of water delivered. This will result in paying for trucks that are laid up on the roadside. Instead, payment should be based on (i) volume delivered (ii) distance traveled, based on the planned schedule. This will, however, necessitate the careful management of water collection points (see Annex ii).
To further regulate prices in situations where demand may easily outstrip supply, a regulatory pricing model can be applied by the local authority. This is being tried in Somali Region, where water trucking prices increased by 300% in little more than six weeks.
The Somali model for pricing is based on a simple spreadsheet (see attached), developed by DPPB with inputs from UNICEF, NGOs, and a number of water trucking companies. It is based on the following variables: the volume of water delivered; the distance traveled; the water price (i.e. at source) and fuel price (based average fuel consumption, taking into account the fact that the truck returns empty). The ‘standard’ model is based on a 12 kl water truck, but can be easily modified for other truck capacities. The model is also based on the ‘standard’ Somali road. There is scope to pay a supplement if routes include a significant stretch of deep sand. [1]
In developing a model, care must be taken not to under-price water trucking, making it a loss maker for the companies involved. The intention is to control price fixing by a largely closed market. It is also good practice to engage trucks/ contractors on Long Term Agreements to be triggered by ratified Water Trucking interventions, rather than short timeframes. That said, some built-in contractual flexibility is needed in terms of location and duration, for example, if there is a ‘risk’ of rain.
As previously stated, the contract should define arrangements for refueling and payments for water at collection points. In both cases, the contracting organization should check that arrangements for each are adequate and in place, irrespective of whether they are included in a contract or not.
Water voucher system can be further studied for its feasibility according to the specific context (presence of an existing commercial water trucking market that that possesses the capacity to meet required needs) and can be piloted by interested partners.