Purpose of surveys
Surveys of proposed water projects are required for several purposes, such as establishing whether a proposed water project can supply the required volume of water for its intended users (water demand), if a proposed water project is financially viable, and for writing a proposal to the Water Services Boards for financial and technical assistance.
In the past, many water projects were built without considering their financial viability and without training the project committees in financial management.
Surveys of proposed water projects should provide the following data:
- The capacity of the water source, i.e. the number of people it can servem, or the consumption of water in each industrial project. It is important to know the volume of water that can be extracted from a water source throughout the year. Otherwise water may not reach people living towards the end of a pipeline. Also, if the construction cost is too high per unit volume of water supplied from the project, nobody may have an interest in funding the project.
- Data for designing the structures required for constructing the water project. It is equally important to install the correct size and type of pump, pipes and tanks for the water source. If a water project is over-designed, it may not be financed because it is too expensive per unit of water it can deliver. On the other hand, if the pump, pipes and tanks are under-designed, the cost ratio will look good, but water will be wasted at the source, instead of benefiting the maximum number of people.
- A bill of quantities (BQ) – a list of required labour and materials with their costs, for the construction of the designed structures. It is preferable to use the standard designs and their BQs presented in this handbook to avoid miscalculations.
- The costs of operation and maintenance, also called recurrent costs. These costs include fuel, spare-parts and maintenance of pumps and generators, salaries for pump/generator operators, line patrollers/repair teams, kiosk attendants, fee collectors, accountants, committee members, bank charges, etc