Assessment of the 2012 Mandela Park Facility

To assess the Mandela Park WaSH facility, we interviewed those involved in its construction, the caretakers who maintain it and community members who use it.  We also used usage data collected by the caretakers in addition to our own direct observations.  We compiled our findings and cost analysis in the following assessment.

Assesment of the Langrug WaSH Facility [449 KB, PDF ]

Based on this assessment and the current operations of the facility, we created this ideal guide for operations and management at a WaSH facility:
Operations and Management Guide for a WaSH Facility [160 KB, PDF]

 

The assessment yielded the following findings on the sustainability of the Mandela Park Facility:

•Though the uniqueness of this prototype facility justifies the high cost to construct and maintain, this facility is not economically sustainable.
•The general acceptance and use by the community makes the facility socially sustainable.
•The facility incorporates some environmentally sustainable features (i.e. solar geyser), but also has some features that are not as environmentally sustainable as they could be.
•The facility management structure is fairly institutionally sustainable, but leaves room for improvement.
We also identified the following improvements that could be made to the existing facility, and which should be considered in future WaSH Facilites:
•Expansion of social programmes, especially for children, that utilise the facility as a central community social space.
•Record keeping of income and supplies for the caretakers maintaining the facility.
•Minor technical improvements to the environmental sustainability of the facility, including but not limited to:
-Rain water collection and reuse
-Grey water channel re-routing
-Window coverings for exposed sides of the facility
 
•Operational improvements to ensure the institutional sustainability, including:
-Establishment of a WaSH coordinator to oversee caretaker
-Training of caretakers, particularly in public health educatio
-Expanding the promotion of public health through sales of basic health supplie
-Establishment of basic emergency procedures