Choosing a water project
A village of 600 people has two boreholes. One borehole is broken. The nearest working borehole is 5 km away, and women and girls spend about 2 hours a day collecting water. The village council has P250,000. An NGO offers two options. Option A: repair the broken borehole for P180,000. It would serve about 400 people within 2 km, but the pump has broken twice in the last three years. Option B: build a small pipeline from the working borehole for P500,000, serving all 600 people; the council would need a loan for the balance and pay P40,000 a year maintenance. The population is growing at 2% per year. A councillor argues for Option A because it is cheaper and can be done now.
1. Calculate the cost per person served for Option A and Option B, ignoring maintenance. Which is cheaper per person, and does that settle the decision? Explain.
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Option A: P180,000 ÷ 400 people = P450 per person.
Option B: P500,000 ÷ 600 people = P833.33 per person.
Option A is cheaper per person by P383.33, but this does not settle the decision. Option A serves only 400 of 600 people, so 200 people still face a 5 km walk. Option B serves everyone and may reduce the 2 hours a day spent collecting water, which has economic and social value. Option B also requires a P250,000 loan and P40,000 annual maintenance, which the council may not sustain. The comparison also ignores the repeated repair history of Option A and future population growth.
2. The council chooses Option A. Two years later the repaired pump breaks again and repair costs P90,000. Was the choice justified? Use the information and one additional criterion.
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The choice was understandable but risky. With only P250,000, Option A was affordable immediately and left P70,000, while Option B needed a P250,000 loan plus P40,000 a year. For a low-income council, avoiding debt is a valid criterion.
However, the pump’s history was a warning. After the second repair, total spending is P180,000 + P90,000 = P270,000, which is more than the original budget and more than the P250,000 available. The village also still serves only 400 people, and the repeated breakdown causes renewed water insecurity. A better decision could have been Option A plus a maintenance fund and a service contract, or negotiating NGO co-funding for Option B. The choice was only partly justified.
3. Recommend one condition the council should attach to any future water project to make it sustainable.
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The council should require a written maintenance and financing plan before approving any project. This could include a community water fund, trained local pump caretakers, a spare-parts supply arrangement, and a small user fee or council budget line. For Option A, part of the P70,000 remaining could have been kept as a repair reserve. For Option B, the P40,000 annual maintenance must be budgeted before the loan is accepted. A condition like this links the capital cost to long-term operation and prevents the village from repeatedly paying emergency repair costs.