Swaziland: Mid-term Review of the Rural Dams Construction Project
The objective of the review was to evaluate the progress of the project, to identify any important lessons and to make recommendations with regard to the final phase of implementation and any future initiatives aimed at the construction and use of community dams in Swaziland.
Over the past 60 years a large number of community dams were constructed throughout the drier areas of Swaziland; many of these dams are small with storage capacities of less than 50,000 m3. However, due to inadequate design, poor construction and lack of maintenance and catchment conservation many of these dams fell into disuse either through siltation or breaching. Following the droughts of the 1980's there was growing pressure from the communities for the rehabilitation and construction of dams. As a result, thirteen existing dams were rehabilitated and four new dams constructed during the pilot phase (1989-1993). During the current phase (since 1996), the construction and rehabilitation of 15-18 small and medium size earth dams is being realised.
Activities:
Analysis of the project preparation and design process;
Assessment of the project in terms of priorities and needs of the communities in the low-rainfall areas;
Assessment of the efficiency of project implementation., including:
- Institutional aspects: review of the efficiency of the institutional arrangements and organisational structure of the project;
- Construction component: comment on the dam selection procedure, the appropriateness of the designs of the dams and auxiliary structures;
- Dam management and downstream development:
- Evaluation of state of maintenance and present use of the 18 dams rehabilitated during first phase
- Assessment of the efficiency of the dams maintenance structures put in place
- Comment on the basin management plans and socio-economic baseline studies
- Assessment of the appropriateness of the training provided
- Identification of constraints in the implementation of proposed developments
Assessment of project results;
Cost benefit analysis on the project with alternative of a smaller number of larger dams;
Review and comments on the sustainability and replicability of the project.
Contract value: 70,000 Euro
Client: Ministry of Economic Planning and Development
Financed by: European Commission
Period: 2000