Engineers fly around the office, clearing stock, getting mission orders signed, filling gas and delegating orders. In the car, Ellie, the driver, is listening to bad Rwandan choral music, which, it turns out, continues to play, on a continuous loop, for the next 3 days. After leaving, we bump through the alpine forest, spotting a local bee keeper on the way, who has just collected fresh forest honey.  We accost him for a bite, which we suck directly off the comb.  It’s like honey chewing gum, but not the sickly honey we get at home, this is fragrant, and woody, and so sweet, it makes my teeth tingle. Today, is the start of a three day evaluation of the ‘Regie Communal’, trained and set up in 2002 to manage the water systems constructed by COFORWA (our partner NGO).  Their role is to collect tariffs of 40US cents per family per year, and use this money to repair breakages. The supervision of the Regie was handed over to the authorities in 2002, and naively, COFORWA have not been back since.  They assume everything is functioning fine.  This evaluation, instigated by PROTOS, will look at, what, if anything exists and what lessons can be learnt. We find that the Regie office is made up of three people, President, Vice and Treasurer, located in the Sector office.  The two men are old, one, has the early signs of cataracts, the other, stares vacantly into space in reply to our questions, and the woman is the largest lady I have seen in Rwanda.

After introduction and general chit-chat, we start, what turns out to be a very confusing if comical evaluation, as we try to understand the extent to which they still function, and their relations, if any, with the authorities and communities.  The evaluation begins in their office, looking through receipts and expenses.  They still have a little money in the bank, US$5, and this year, in June, the secondary school paid their tariff so the Regie were able to carry out some repairs.  On the whole though, most of the receipt books are unused and the stock cards empty.  They have little information on the status of the water systems, (other that most have a low discharge) and no information on the names of the water committees or users.

With the Regie, and a representative from the local authorities, we visit water points, springs, reservoirs, committees, churches, schools, the communities and the local authorities.  It is an interesting tour into the interior, where stick men and women, clothed in earth coloured rags, struggle to grow something in the dust. During our visits, we find users are collecting between 6 and 11 l/p/d, which is very low, but surprisingly fits into the national average of 8l/p/d.  A man describes taking a bath with a cup of water, hand washing must be almost non existence. The discharge at the taps is also low, around 0.01l/s - 0.04l/p/s.  The community complain that it is always low in the dry season, and is even lower this year, because of last year’s drought.  In the three days, we only find one water management committee; they at least managed to collect some money to repair a broken tap earlier this year.  Other communities report that the committee is there, but they don’t collect money.  Few people have heard of this Regie.  In two communities the tap has totally broken. Internal disputes over different quantities of water used, plus the high price to replace the Teflon taps, have left this issue unresolved. In another two communities we find that they have managed to raise the money to repair the broken taps and the water point is functioning.

We find out that, the hierarchical structure of this society, has made it difficult for the Regie to approach the authorities for support, and burocracy makes the process slow.  As a result, they have not been working together. There are allegations that the district has been using the Regie’s motorcycle and their stock (donated by UNICEF), which has also hampered their work.  There is also much confusion, as, following decentralisation in 2005, 90% of staff are new, young graduates, with little experience, support and no transport.
 
Finally we arrange a meeting with the Executive Secretary at 9am the next morning. Until 11am, he is busy with the monthly free civil wedding services.    This new initiative will empower women, giving them the right to land and property on the death of their husband.  And so, beautiful women, dressed in traditional clothes (much like the Indian sari), queue up, with their husbands to be, clad in over sized jackets and borrowed ties.

Our evaluation was initiated in order to help COFORWA in their future work with the Regie Communual.  Infact the outcomes are beyond our initial objectives.  Firstly we have been able to regenerate the relationship between the Regie and the local authorities and in some ways assist their negotiations.  Secondly we have re-motivated the Regie, they now know that we are there to listen and support them, and thirdly we have realised our mistakes and gained some learning into how we can better support our partners in East Africa.  All this, has only really been possible because of our 5 year funding programme. 

While change is slow, we build on what we know with our partners, and hope, it is everlasting.