Role of a development worker

First of all, apologies for not keeping this blog up-to-date. As is to be expected from a lot of developing countries, progress is hampered by the mañana approach - that is, no matter how much you ask for things to be done, it's necessary to try for days, if not weeks, to achieve even the smallest of things. That, and a complete change of expectations by us as to what we can achieve, have made the past month or so quite frustrating.

Since the last time I wrote on this, we have been able to visit the Kurume village twice. The journeys are interesting, to say the least - four of us squashed into the back of a taxi (and two people plus the driver in the front) for a two-hour trip on appalling roads. If there's just one period of heavy rainfall (and we are currently in the wet season), the roads become near impassable - on our second trip there a lorry had blocked the main 'carriageway' as it had tipped up through slipping in the mud. This road is labelled N8 - that is, the National Highway 8, which connects the south west province with the north west province, yet for at least four months of the year, is not suitable at all.

During the visits we had the pleasure of meeting the village chief, Chief Epie, and the elders, who are effectively his advisers. Cameroon is a very traditional country, and, even like many projects in developed countries, there is a large amount of community participation involved, and the chief of a village/town has to agree to every one that is made. Also, it is not possible for us to just go into a village and ask to speak to the locals - this has to be agreed to by the chief.

Thus, these two initial visits have been an opportunity for us to talk to the chief and elders to find out more about what they want out of us as part of the water project - we also had tours of Kurume and the existing water system, and have been shown the nearby village of Kukaka, which it is hoped the Kurume water system can be extended to.

These visits were a large eye-opener for us:

• Kurume has a population of around 700 people (estimates that have been told to us have been anything between 700 and 7,000!) with six working communal tapstands (although some of the taps are faulty) and three that are either broken or have been taken out of service. In theory, each male villager should pay 3000 francs a year (around £4), and each female villager 1500 francs a year (around £2) to help pay for the maintenance. Unfortunately, very few villagers pay this, so the maintenance budget is inadequate to do much of what needs to be done.

• 
• Kurume does not have sufficient tools which would make carrying out maintenance easier, and, although some villagers are able to replace the tapheads, they are unable to for most of the year due to lack of funds. There are also nine private connections to houses, for those who can afford to have them, although many more of the villagers would like one to their house.

• During the dry season the water system is restricted to use in the morning (6am – 9am) and evening (2pm – 8pm) – the villagers collect the water at these times using buckets to store the water. There is no limit to how much water the villagers can collect during this time and enough water is available to water cocoa plants during the dry season! There is also, apparently, no incidence of water-bourne disease, such as cholera or typhoid, and the water, so we were told, tastes quite nice.

• Kukaka, on the other hand, has a few hand dug wells. However these are often too close to the toilets leading to poor hygiene. They have one India Mark II hand pump, which runs dry during the dry season, and their only other water source is a nearby stream. If it rains runoff, including that from cocoa farms, pollutes the water turning it brown. This stream also dries up during the dry season and so villagers have to travel 5km to get water. There is also, apparently, incidences of water-bourne diseases, sometimes including cholera.

• Konye, the sub division's capital, has a source which also dries up during the dry season, and there is a lot of illness during this time

Technically, our work here should consist of maintenance work to the Kurume water system, training the locals how to maintain the system themselves, and mapping out an extension of the current system to other villages, such as Kukaka, Ngoi and Konye, to help RCSC obtain funding. Should we, as development workers, really be doing this? Maintenance work is already carried out on what seems like a regular basis by the Kurume villagers, who are trained in what to do, and so should be able to train village youths on how to carry out maintenance. The water that Kurume has is already sufficient for their needs - even during the dry season - and it should not be a foreign development worker's role to come in just to help replace tapheads, add some tapstands, and provide tools!

In effect, should it even be our role to try and gets funds to provide the other villages with water? The Kurume system was built in 1970 by Community Development, a governmental organisation (although on a visit to their office in Kumba, the office was pretty much empty!) - why have they not ever considered using government money to either extend the Kurume system, or build new, clean water systems in the other villages?

Apologies for my cynicism, but, despite the good work that could be done out here, and in most developing countries, part of me still thinks - should I really be the one that comes to do it...