System Maintenance Program

Work with the water committee to come up with a maintenance program. The program should list out all the system components and when they will be inspected, replaced, and/or cleaned. While it's easy to remember when to clean the few components of the system, having a schedule makes the process more official and more likely to happen. Make sure the community is aware of what maintenance is being done, why it's being done, and how it will affect them. This helps justify the monthly quota. If possible, have the water committee present this information instead of the volunteer. Here is an example schedule:

Part

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Spring Intake

C

O

O

C

O

O

C

O

O

C

O

O

Tank

C

O

O

C

O

O

C

O

O

C

O

O

Bridges

O

O

O

O

Tap Stand

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O = Observe            C = Clean

Another key  part of maintenance is getting the labor and community buy in. To accomplish this, the volunteer can meet with the community and develop a maintenance contract that community members sign. 

There are many references for creating and implementing maintenance plans with your community.  A good starting point is “Operation and Maintenance of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Systems”, put out by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Center.

As part of system maintenance, the water committee should also define a system shutdown procedure. The first step in any procedure is informing the community of what maintenance will take place and how they will be impacted. For each piece of scheduled maintenance, the water committee should know which valves need to be closed to isolate that particular part of the system.

In addition, so that pressure does not build up in the system or create air blocks within the system, whenever a valve is closed, a valve below should be opened to bleed off any excess pressure. Once the valve above is closed, the valve below can be closed to resume maintenance work. When maintenance is complete, follow the process in reverse.