ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT OF TECHNICAL UNIT FOR 2000

The current phase of Technical Unit starts from May 2000, when its fund was released directly from "Water Aid" to EPS. However, its activities from January to March of the same year were carried out through unutilized budget of its previous phase (Decmber1998 -November 1999).

The present team consists of a civil engineer, social organizer and a sub-engineer. The activities of the January to December 2000 are detailed below:

SHAGAI SANITATION SCHEME

Shagai is a village of about 5000 population in the south of Mingora city at a distance of 4 km. The main road of Saidu Sharif, which passes through Shagai, divides it in two parts. In the west is the hilly portion of Shagai, while the lower one towards east has enough gentle slope.

The people of Shagai have formed an organization "Falahi Tanzeem Shagai", to serve the community. The people of Shagai asked EPS to provide them technical and financial assistance in order to improve the sanitation condition of the area.

EPS sent Technical Unit team to survey out the area. TU prepared estimates, designs and working drawings. It took three months.

EPS submitted this project proposal to MoELG&RD Govt. of Pakistan for carrying out sanitation program in Shagai and other areas of Mingora municipality, which were identified by EPS during activists’ identification drive, carried out earlier. This project was approved and EPS started work with CBO of Shagai on cost sharing formula.

In the first step a street of 18 houses was selected. According to estimates carried out TU, each house was supposed to contribute Rs.1050/- for 660 ft long street, in the street, RCC pipe had to be laid upto the communal septic tank.

The contribution of Rs. 1050/- of each house contains WC, P-trap, internal pipe, labor charges and manholes. While cost of septic tank and main RCC sewer line were paid from Ministry of Environment fund.

NGO contribution in the form of community organization, technical inputs and managerial cost was borne by EPS.

Although much of the work of Shagai sanitation was completed during the previous phase of the TU, yet some of the leftover work was done during May-June, 2000. Work done in this phase was mainly related to connecting the houses to main sewer lines. Sewer lines were connected to an already constructed communal septic tank. Technical unit supervised the work in Shagai sanitation.

AMANKOT SANITATION SCHEME

During the same activist identification drive another area selected was Amankot. After presenting the sanitation program being implemented in Shagai, it was accepted by the community. TU started work on estimates and designs. 212 houses were planned to be connected to two communal septic tanks, which were to be located at different points.

Same methodology of cost sharing was adopted here too. According to the estimates each house was supposed to contribute Rs.1000/-, which included labor charges, manholes’ cost, internal pipe and material cost. Cost of septic tanks and main sewer line were planned to be paid from Ministry of Environment’s fund.

Till the end of this year, about 2000 ft long main sewer line have been laid, which will connect 80 houses to the big communal septic tank, that has already been constructed.

SHAGAI SANITATION EXTENSION

After completing and launching Shagai sanitation successfully, more houses showed their willingness to extend the sanitation scheme facility to them.

Technical Unit designed and estimated connection of more houses. Six more houses were connected to the already constructed septic tank through a cast iron pipe. Another small septic tank was also constructed for five houses. Technical unit supervised the whole work of Shagai sanitation.

WORKING WITH CBOs

Technical unit also provides assistance to CBOs in their constructional initiatives. EPS have contacts with more than 200 CBOs. When they are to carry out any type of construction work on self- finance idea or present it to different donors, they ask EPS to estimate and design the project. The projects in which TU-EPS gave assistance to CBOs in this year are:

In the next year planing some assistance to CBOs have been included because they have asked it, like:

PLANNING AND ZONING OF KALAM

River Swat Conservation Project (RSCP), another project of EPS is working for zoning and planing of Kalam, which is the tourist spot of Swat, and haphazard construction is destroying its natural beauty badly and is the major cause of pollution of River Swat. For proper zoning and planing of Kalam RSCP were in need of different maps of the area. Technical Unit prepared topo sheet, zones map, map showing roads and other different maps for RSCP. The survey of Kalam took two months.

MINGORA SANITATION SURVEY

Mr. Arif Hassan during his visit to EPS discussed sanitation plan of Mingora city with EPS. For this purpose He selected Mingora Khwar (perennial streams passing through city ) as the place along which sewer lines can be laid on its banks.

Consequently survey of Mingora khwar was started by technical unit. Mingora khwar was surveyed in about one month time. The initial work was discussed with Arif Hassan for further suggestions.

Survey of sewerage inlets (to the Khwaras) was carried out by two teams, comprising staff of TU and relevant personnel of EPS. The purpose of the survey was to find out each drain that discharge to the Khwars, its direction and no.of houses on it. It was door to door, drain to drain and street to street survey of Mingora municipality area.

Survey is completed and will be discussed with Arif Hassan and OPP for further suggestions.

PLANING FOR THE YEAR 2001

Chalyar is a small village of Khwazakhela Tehsil, at the distance of 27 km from Mingora city towards north on main Kalam road. The main Chalyar village is in about one kilometer west of the road adjacent to river Swat and is linked by an access road with the main road. Its population is about 2596 persons residing in 290 houses.

During the survey conducted by RSCP the community prioritized sanitation as the top priority which is also a source of the pollution of River Swat. Technical Unit prepared designs, different maps and working drawings for the sanitation scheme in Chalyar. Scheme is designed for whole village with three septic tanks of different capacities at different locations, main sewer line and manholes at several suitable points.

EPS prepared a proposal and submitted to Trust for Voluntary Organizations (TVO) for financing its external component which has been approved. Funds have been released and work will start in February in 2001. Technical Unit team will provide technical inputs and will supervise the project.

Mingora is the main city of district Swat having a population of about 0.2 million. Sanitation problem is one of the most serious problems of the city, indicated by the locals during the socio-economic survey carried out by EPS. Sanitation Survey of the city has been completed by TU-EPS in a period of three months time while the present sanitation situation of the area is yet to plotted on the map. The survey after the completion of paper work will be sent to Mr. Arif Hassan for his expert opinion. His expert opinion and suggestions will be incorporated and will be submitted then to Provincial Government for financing. The technical team will be fully involved in the scheme if approved.

Although much of the work in Amankot is completed, yet more work will be done. Four more streets containing about 70 houses will be connected to main septic tank through main sewer line. Another tank for 50 houses will also be constructed keeping in view the direction of flow of these houses.

Banr is another ward of Mingora city. It is situated on the right bank of Mingora khwar to the north.

The selection criteria of this region for sanitation was its worst condition of sanitation and keen interest of the community as they observed the ongoing work in Amankot. In this area there is no CBO, so on the request of some of the community activists, EPS sent its social team to know the public opinion. The team had a meeting with the activists and discussed the approach of EPS which they accepted overwhelmingly. TU team then visited the site and prepared different maps, estimates, designs and working drawings of the area. Individual septic tanks for each street is designed. The total households of these three streets are 83 houses. The construction of the scheme will be started in year 2001 which will be supervised by the TU-EPS.

Tegdarai is another village situated in Tehsil Khwazakhela at the same distance as is Chalyar. Total population of the village is 1944 persons residing in 187 houses. The community put the sanitation problem as a prioritized need of the community in problems prioritization list. On the request of the community of Tegdarai, TU-EPS visited the site and had a meeting with the representative of the CBO "Awami Falahi Tanzeem Tegdarai". TU has prepared Maps, designs and estimates of the Scheme. Two communal septic tank of different capacities are designed at different locations.

The scheme has been estimated on component sharing basis. For external component EPS is looking for some suitable donor the community is willing to finance the internal. It is expected that the work will be started in the year 2001.

Technical Unit provides technical support to the initiatives of EPS other projects as well as to their partners on their demand. Apart from this TU provides support to the initiatives of those organizations that directly contact EPS.

 

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