Case studies:

Hoto community, Pakistan

Institutional environment - Problems of the system - Initial approach - The construction process - Water supply management tools - Gender issues - Evaluation - Diffusion - Contact person/organisations involved

Similar to other mountain villages in Northern Pakistan, Hoto residents once relied only on traditional water sources for survival. It is not so much that the water has always been scarce, but that the seasonality affects the amount of water during the year. While in summer there may be an abundance of water and even occasional flooding, during the winter the flow dwindles down to a trickle.

The primary source consists of waters from snow-melt which flow down from the mountains into human-made channels. These channels guide the water throughout the village and bring water near the mud-brick houses where it can be used for drinking, washing clothes, cooking and bathing. In the summer domestic water is either collected in pots or jugs from one of the many irrigation channels winding through the village, or fetched from the family gulko, a traditional water pit in the ground which is used for storing water. This water is also used for irrigation. The 180 households in Hoto use the channel water in accordance with a system of norms and practices, which have evolved over time to provide every home with equal access to water.

Institutional environment

In order to understand how drinking water has been improved in Hoto it is essential to outline who the players are in creating and motivating the changes and issues in Hoto. In Hoto the water is owned and managed by the community itself while women are the ones who are largely responsible for domestic water work and some of the irrigation work, the men have traditionally been responsible for making decisions which affect the management of water resources. In the past the village elders and the numberdar, a traditional leader who makes decisions regarding communal resources, have been responsible for the management of water in the community and for assuring that all members of the community receive an equal allotment of water. However, this traditional organisation of elders has been ill equipped to deal with the management of new technologies and institutional structures required for the management of an improved water supply.

Since 1994 the Community Research Team (CRT) has filled the institutional void in the community and has become the primary organisation for managing the improved water supply scheme. The CRT is referred to as the “Water Committee” by community members and has become the catalyst of change when it comes to improving drinking water. The CRT has maintained a good working relationship with the traditional leadership structure in the village and has made a point of holding meetings, which do not exclude the traditional leaders from participating.

Additionally, there are several external actors who influence water management and community development in Hoto. One is a government agency called the Local Bodies and Rural Development Department (LB&RDD) which was the first agency to attempt to improve the drinking water supply situation in Hoto about 11 years ago. The scheme, which was built at that time, originally led to the bitter conflict between Hoto and the neighbouring village of Pakora. LB&RDD remains one of the main agencies working in the rural water supply sector in Northern Pakistan. While they do provide technical and financial support to villages, they do not give much assistance to support and develop the internal capacity of villages to manage their water supplies themselves.

Another development actor working in Hoto is the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, the most reputable NGO working in the region. On the basis of their self-help approach to community development, AKRSP helped initiate a man's Village Organisation and a Women's Organisation in the village and tried to encourage various income-generating activities. However, these organisations were not sustained by people in Hoto until recently.

AKRSP has found work in Hoto frustrating because they feel the villagers are “lazy” and uninterested in community development. From the Hoto villagers’ perspective, however, they feel that AKRSP was trying to convert them to another Islamic sect and was attempting to change their culture. They feel the AKRSP staff has not been respectful of local culture when they came into the village.

In Hoto, no changes regarding community development or social change can take place without the involvement of those who are the traditional leaders in the community. This leadership is concentrated in the hands of members of the ulema, or the Shi'a clergy, who live in the village and maintain strong ties with Muslim leaders outside of the community as well. Sheikh Ali Ahmed is the most important traditional leader in the community at this time. He opens the meetings up with “Bisma-allah” or “In the Name of Allah” and the meetings are closed when he makes a small gesture to indicate that the meeting should be brought to an end. He is well respected and is seen as one of the most important decision-makers in the community. During the process of improving drinking water in Hoto he was always invited to add his opinion and sometimes influenced the community members’ ideas in very strong ways.

In addition to Sheikh Ali Ahmed another important traditional leader is Sheikh Agha Saheb. Even though he does not take up permanent residence in the village anymore, he still maintains close ties with the community. He is now based in Karachi, but messages are regularly sent to him regarding any issues or changes in the village. He also makes regular visits to Hoto to see how the villagers are doing and to help resolve any types of problems, which may have arisen during his absence. During these visits he meets and talks to people and hears what they have to say. In this way he continues to be influential in village affairs. Also, his opinions about the types of changes necessary for Hoto are taken very seriously. He has the power to influence the villagers’ thinking in very profound ways.

These traditional leaders hold very strong opinions about development in Hoto. They have their own unique vision of change and the types of changes they would like to see or which they feel are acceptable for the people in Hoto. Their opinions are also shaped by the thinking among the larger Shi'a community living in the region. In this way their ideas and visions of the future do not exist in isolation, but also reflect other perceptions of change which exist in other villages as well.

While these religious leaders are not directly assigned responsibilities such as the key managers and planners of various activities or projects, it is nearly impossible to discuss an idea, which concerns the men and the women of the community without the participation of these traditional leaders. In this sense they have a lot of power to initiate social change. Because of their support for improving the water supply the project actually came to fruition.

Problems of the water supply system

In the winter the water merely trickled through the channels, and the people were obligated to fetch water from the Skardu River. This task is traditionally left for the women to do. It becomes a hazardous job during the cold months as the path becomes covered with ice and snow. Seven years ago two women died while collecting water from the river.

Since the water channels are totally unprotected they become easily contaminated from agricultural, livestock and human activities. The microbiological contamination results in a high incidence of diarrhoea-diseases particularly among children under five years of age during the summer months. Women at the beginning of the project reported: “our children are dying of diarrhoea.” Skin-diseases are also common. These health issues have provided the impetus for the community to devise an alternative to their traditional water supplies, an alternative that would lead to better health and well being in the community.

One of the greatest barriers to improving water in Hoto has been a heated water rights dispute with the village of Pakora. The origins of this dispute lie in the history of a water supply scheme, which was implemented by the government. This scheme was built without taking the traditional water rights guiding the use of spring water between the two communities into consideration. The spring is located within the Hoto locality. About eleven years ago LB&RDD had already built a water supply scheme to contain the spring water and to distribute it throughout the village. The Hoto people were using this water and later Pakora began using the water as well by diverting it from the distribution pipeline. A shortage of water resulted in Hoto and the conflict with Pakora broke out. Hoto was not writing to give water from this scheme to Pakora due to traditional water rights which allowed Hoto to claim all of the spring water.

The dispute became increasingly heated and was finally taken to the lower court in Skardu, the regional capital of Baltistan were it continued for 7 to 8 years. At one point there was a demonstration held by the Hoto villagers who were protesting the shortage of the water and the fact that the government was doing nothing to resolve the issue between the two communities. The police was called to Hoto to break up the crowd. The police and the villagers became embroiled in a fight and some members of the community recount that the police had actually beaten several village women. The key issue for Hoto has been to resolve this dispute by identifying a solution or an appropriate strategy. In 1997 Hoto residents proclaimed: “we have won the case!”. Yet, this has left bitterness and distrust between the two communities.

Initial approach to the community

The Participatory Action Research team came to Hoto in 1994 in order to learn if the community of Hoto would be interested in participating in a process to improve their water supplies. For PAR, Hoto was a complicated choice because it did not have a positive reputation in the region. The community development activities in the village had all failed and it had been labelled by NG0s in the region as a “bad” village in which to work because of the lack of successful projects and the lack of community organisation. However, the PAR team decided that this could be a village that would offer many lessons about communal action to improve drinking water. The most important lesson was that with a little “push” and motivation from outsiders, the people were able to switch their thinking in order to address their water problems. This was a major achievement that came out of a process of dialogue.

At first the PAR team had a lot of difficulties in approaching the people because the village is spread out and has many internal divisions. It is a large village of 180 households divided into four mohallahs. These mahallahs are largely based on family or clan membership. The community was divided into different mohallahs (Sherpa, Fishpa, Gon, Gandapa and Auzapa) and each clan has it own identities and way of looking at their position in the community.

The first strategy the PAR team took to get to know the village and to begin a process of dialogue was to approach the traditional leaders of each mohallah. Then, the traditional leaders started organising mohallah-based water committees. These committees would then be responsible for communicating with the households in their mohallahs and for organising their mohallahs at times of community-wide meetings. It was decided to organise the community according to mohallah divisions in order to reflect the traditional social organisation of the community.

The younger and more educated members of the community became the leaders of the four mohallah teams. This decision was made because the traditional leadership felt that people with an education would be better prepared to take on the responsibilities of implementing a water supply scheme. This marked the beginning of the traditional leadership giving power to other people, something which was not easy for them to do because it required a new way of thinking as well.

But a vacuum remained because the individual mohallahs committees could not organise all activities and responsibilities for the entire water system. Two members from each mohallah team were then appointed to be members in the CRT that would serve not only as the research team but also the organising body to co-ordinate the activities of the mohallah organisations. The community refers to this organisation not as the CRT but as the “Pani Ki Committee” (the Water Committee in Urdu). This hierarchical structure of village teams was a very new idea for them. It allowed information sharing and capacity building. The women's committee was also structured on the bases of the mohallahs.

It is 4:00 p.m. in Hoto, and the villagers are working in their fields, orchards and gardens after having taken a mid-afternoon meal. From the loudspeaker at the mosque a familiar male voice is heard. This is the voice of the azan, which calls these Muslims to pray five times each day. But today the message is announcing that a meeting to discuss the new water supply scheme is about to begin at the house of the President of the Community Research Team (CRT). All of the members of the team and other related persons are requested to come. Within fifteen minutes the team members have begun gathering inside the President's house. Eight male members sit beside each other on one side of the room. Three older boys, the sons and nephews of the older male members, join them. On the other side of the room the female CRT members congregate along with 3 other women who are non-members, but who are also interested in hearing the discussion. Before the meeting begins, Sheikh Ali Ahmad, an influential local leader and member of the Shi'a clergy, enters the room. Everyone stands as a sign of respect to exchange their customary “Asaalam o aleikum” with him. He takes his place in the corner of the room. The meeting can now begin.

For the past four years meetings such as this one have been held between traditional leaders and community-based researchers to discuss the issue of drinking water for the entire village. Here it has been a slow process of change. The notion that communities themselves can guide the process of improving their village drinking water supplies is a new idea not only in Hoto but also elsewhere in Pakistan. This type of meeting represents a new form of organisation in a mountain village, which has been plagued by water shortages, internal conflicts, and heated water rights disputes for many years. In 1997 the village implemented an improved water supply system and for the first time households have access to safe drinking water throughout the year.

The PAR process did more for capacity-building in this village than any other project village. The PAR project has facilitated a process, which has led people to build their own capacity. Now the community members are pushed to think at a different level. There were more than five alternatives presented to improve the water supply scheme which were articulated in the beginning. Yet, the committee members themselves were not really ready to begin thinking about those alternatives or possible ways of reorganising the management structure of water supply scheme because of the narrow focus on the water rights dispute with Pakora. This issue was still dominating their thinking.

After the PAR exercises and through many meetings this mindset totally changed. The PAR team provided an important support mechanism coming from the “outside” to give an important push to the Pani Ki Committee. This was just a small push to help the community think about alternatives and to develop a sense of ownership of the project. Gradually they were able to consider this aspect, and hence, their capacity was enhanced. Since their capacity was at a fledgling state, the community was not able to begin looking for other funding sources in the early stages of the project, which could have eliminated some of the management problems in the end. If they had planned, they may have not suffered in the end with a portion of households remaining uncovered. Yet, by making mistakes they learned very much. Their thinking capacity became stronger, and they were able to begin looking for possible alternatives to new problems as well. It was a process in which “improved” knowledge was grafted upon the traditional or already existing knowledge of the people there.

The construction process

The village was very slow to begin the construction on the water supply scheme. One of the PAR members approached the Pani Ki Committee and said: “you better start the work or otherwise you will lose the funds.” The PAR team ended up having to take this approach towards reprimanding the community when they saw that the community was not getting on track to start the construction of the tank.

The very next day after this encounter in the village, the PAR team returned to the village. Talib, the young Pani Ki Committee member came running towards the PAR vehicle with dust on his face and clothes. He exclaimed: “Look, we have started the work, all the community members are ready to work.” This young educated man was able to convince the community which was not ready to start the experiment for nearly one year that it was time to start or else they would miss this opportunity to improve their water supply. After hearing the warning from the PAR team he gathered the people together and informed them that the PAR was going to take the money back, and it will be a great loss to their community if they did not act immediately.

One reason for not starting the experiment work on schedule was that the community was still involved in the water dispute with Pakora. This had been a very negative experience for the villagers. It took this village nine months more to start working on the experimentation phase as compare to the other PAR communities. Later, the PAR team learned from the women members of the Pani Ki Committee that: “the Ghaziabad people were making fun of us because we were late in starting the construction.” This made the committee members feel embarrassed about their inability to mobilise the construction. Their response: “We will do the Tabor work!”

Winter was nearing and the committee members feared that it would become too cold to work, which would lead to more delays in the work plan. They made a plan to manage the labour and the local materials required for construction. Households were organised into labour teams, and all men and women were required to work together to move rocks, sand and other materials to the construction site. Women had never participated in this type of communal labour before so, this was a very new experience for the entire community. There was no road to the construction site so people had to hike over very rocky and hard terrain while carrying the materials in traditional willow baskets on their backs. The construction work on the water tank was completed in November 1997.

Water supply management tools

The completion of the water supply scheme did not mean that all of the water-related problems would cease. The Pani Ki Committee members realise that they need mechanisms in place to ensure that this scheme will be a lasting one. This is an ongoing process which requires the committee members to be flexible and to listen to the concerns of all community members in order to make the system last.

One problem is that ten households were left without access to the new water supply because there was not enough distribution pipes to cover their mohallah. The severity of this problem was first realised by these families during the winter months after the scheme was implemented when they found themselves totally cut off from any safe and reliable water supply. The spring water, accessible only through the standposts, was not accessible to them and any water flowing in the channels, which was traditionally used by them to charge their gulkos, was now being contaminated by women who were washing their clothes in the upstream channels. As such, the increase in clothes washing in the channels rendered this water unfit for the ten families. Members of these households argued:

“We cannot get clean water any more. People with water have started washing their clothes in the channels that were used for drinking purposes. Our houses have not been provided with tap water. Now we cannot drink the tap water and the channel water is not clean to drink.”

The female members of these ten households were the first to voice their concerns to members of the Pani Ki Committee. Those who came to Zainab, a Pani Ki Committee member, complained: “We did a lot of work on this system but we still do not have water. The channel water is now very dirty. We are obligated to use the water from the gulkos.” These women started an informal type of monitoring system and began applying pressure on the Pani Ki Committee to devise a system to protect their water as well.

In addition to this problem, the committee members identified the need for an operation and maintenance fund, which could be used to cover additional expenses for repairs. This presented a fairly serious problem. They pondered an important question: How can a O&M fund be started in this village when people are so poor, and they have very little in terms of money to contribute?

To address the first problem, the Pani Ki Committee devised a system of rotation—a water schedule—which would take into consideration all of the water needs of the villagers. The schedule allows for four days during the week for the spring water to flow through the water supply scheme. During the remaining three days the water is not flowing through the pipes, but is instead allowed to flow freely through the water channels. In this way the 10 households are ensured of an adequate water supply to charge their gulkos.

The Pani Ki Committee realises that this water schedule is not a long-term solution, but it is a means of addressing the immediate problem. Finding a long-term solution has become their first priority. Through brainstorming exercises they decided that acquiring additional pipes for these households would be the best strategy to pursue. The Pani Ki Committee is trying to find more funds to provide standpost connections to all of the households in the community. According to them, when they approached the government agency of LB&RDD, “LB&RDD nay hum sei vada kia hei,” meaning that LB&RDD gave Hoto a promise to supply Rs.10,000 to purchase additional pipes. Unfortunately, “baad mai nahi dia hei” (LB&RDD broke their promise and did not give the money). Committee members are exploring other possibilities to provide funding for the additional pipes. They have written a proposal and want to present it to other funding agencies in the region.

To address the need for an O&M fund, the women of the Pani Ki Committee took it upon themselves to begin collecting money. They went from house to house collecting Rs.10 (approximately US$.21). This money provided the basis of the fund. Today the Pani Ki Committee members are exploring other ways to sustain the fund rather than collecting money from each household. They feel strongly that households in Hoto are too poor and will not be able to make monetary contributions on a regular basis. But money does not have to be the only form of contribution they suggest. The Committee President explains:

“We are going to collect one kilogram of apricot kernels from each household this will be easy for every house to give because every house has apricots. We [the Committee members] will sell the kernels and the money will go to the fund. “

Mechanisms like these reflect a more communal way of thinking about solving problems in the village. “Before we were not able to discuss problems and solve our problems. Now we sit together and discuss these things."

Gender issues

The initial meetings were held with the male members of the community. The men of the community did not allow the PAR team to meet with the women of the community. The men distrusted these “outsiders” and feared that they would prove to be “agents of negative change” in a village in which the women follow a strict form of purdah and are not allowed to meet with people, especially men, from outside the community.

The women initially were invisible to the PAR team. For one year the men gave no permission for the PAR team to meet with women. Later, as confidence and trust developed between the PAR team and the community through a long process of dialogue and meetings, the female PAR team member was allowed to meet with the women. At this step the women were brought into the dialogue on drinking water. However, the women did not perceive their involvement to be important or even essential to the process, as they told the PAR female team member:

“We did not know any information about the meeting. The men didn't tell us about the meeting, otherwise we were free to come. Anyway, what are we supposed to do in the meeting? What concern is it of ours? This is the men's duty and not ours."

Once the women began participating in the meetings they began to see that they have an important role in the process of improving water supplies, and they quickly realised during the problem-solving exercises that decision-making regarding the water scheme is not just the duty of the men.

During the discussion of the experimenting strategies, both men and women participated to identify strategies to solve the drinking water problem. The male members allowed the women to participate in a joint meeting. The men decided that the best strategy would be to extend the distribution pipes of the old government water supply scheme to all of the households in the non-served area. The women argued that this was not the real issue at all and what was needed was a new water tank built on barren land which could supply water to the households with already existing access to the standpipes. The women felt that there was no need to extend the pipes if a system for securing the water, that is a type of tank, was not put into place first.

In the end the men's strategy was not selected by the community, but the women's strategy was! The women convinced the men by arguing: " what is the point of new pipe if the present pipe is not already being utilised?” The construction of the tank, which the women proposed, came to a cost of Rs. 20,000 and would benefit 70% of the community. The lying down of new pipe would have been more expensive and would still not have ensured that water would be secured for the system. The men gave up the idea of putting in pipes and instead focused on the construction of the new tank.

The selection of the women's strategy marked a major change in thinking. Traditionally and religiously the women in Hoto were not supposed to play a role in public meetings or in decisions about problems in the community. This was a major change from the beginning of the PAR process when the traditional leadership feared that women's participation in the PAR team meetings would lead the women towards becoming “baipurdah " which means taking the women out of their traditionally ascribed purdah existence.

In the beginning the women seemed passive in their attitudes about improving the drinking water situation, and the men were not interested in the water problems because domestic water work was not “their” problem. The women have changed from being passive to active participants. Women observe that significant changes have been made in their lives because of their involvement. One village woman said recently: “We do not have the burden of bringing water now. We can stay home and take care of our children.” In addition to this time that has been freed up from mundane water work, they feel that they are able to spend more time paying attention to personal hygiene. “We are washing our clothes in the water now that the water is available from the nulka (water) system”, states one of the women members of the Pani Ki Committee. These female members are making new demands on behalf of the women in the community such as asking for hygiene education, and they themselves are selecting the subjects, which they are the most interested in learning about in the future. Women are paying attention to the storage of water, they are taking care of personal hygiene and they feel their knowledge and understanding about disease transmission has increased.

Probably the most significant effect is the demand by women for the education of girls. When the PAR team was discussing different hygiene conditions in the community, one of the women said:

‘I wish my daughters could have got an education, but there were no schools in the village when they were young. When we see you, we want our girls to be educated too. But we know that the older girls cannot go to the school now so we are sending our young daughters to schools. We don't want them to live like us but much better than us."

In 1998 a new school has been opened in Hoto, and girls are being sent to it.

Evaluation of the project by the community

The CRT members were asked in June the question: What did you learn from this experience? The CRT members replied: “We have learned itefaq (unity) and itemad (trust)." This unity and trust was build through many different means, but mainly through thinking and reflecting together about their situation. The Pani Ki Committee members suggest that before the PAR Project, “Hamarah ahpas mai nahi banta ta (We had a lot of misunderstanding among us).” Through this they were able to see differences and spaces for making changes. Women have also been a part of identifying problems and analysing solutions. They have been a part of creating the increased unity and trust among people.

Hoto people are very proud of the fact that they have developed this unity and trust amongst themselves. Because of unity and trust in the village Hoto's once very negative reputation is slowly being altered. Recently, AKRSP has visited Hoto and their perceptions of the village have changed to more positive ones. AKRSP staff has seen the water supply scheme and the new work on the abandoned orchard, and now they too have become convinced that the community has the capacity to work together.

Sheikh Ali Ahmad, the traditional leader says, “PAR has helped the community in solving the biggest problem which was once impossible to think about. We have learned how to organise our resources and put them together to bring it in uye."

When Sheikh Agha Saheb came on a holiday in summer and discovered that households were using tap water and that the people themselves had solved their water problem, he became very impressed. The Pani Ki Committee too became very pleased by his impressions, stating: “Hamara Sheikh bahut khush hua la log safpani pi raha hei " (our Sheikh became very impressed that the village people were drinking tap water). He decided to take what was learned during the CRT experience and use the team as a model for another village-based organisation. He formed the Al-Muntazeer Organisation with the goal of applying the same participatory approach to other issues of community development.

One of the Water Committee members, Talib, feels that the outcomes have not all been positive. Now that the Pani Committee is trying to acquire funding for the additional pipes, they are finding themselves going from agency-to-agency asking for money. For people in the village the idea that they have to go outside of the village to find funding is a completely foreign and new idea. Before the water supply scheme Hoto people never went about asking for money from outsiders in this way. In June Talib felt strongly that, “You have taught us how to beg. We went to the government. They promised us they will provide us some money but they did not give us any.” While not all of the members agree with him, this is a new feeling of dissatisfaction with the process of development taking place.

Diffusion to other sectors

Hoto has gone from a village with a non-functioning water system and virtually no social organisation to a village with safe drinking water and an organisational structure to manage the system. But this long process is not just about drinking water. It has had a ripple effect on other aspects of social life as well.

After three years of PAR Project involvement the committee and the community started thinking more broadly about other village issues, including: the resurrection of a failed AKRSP orchard project; finding a solution for another court case concerning the division of barren land among family members; building a school and a first-aid post and income-generation activities through the structure of the AKRSP Village and Women's Organisations. The construction of the school and the first aid post were the result of brainstorming exercises being applied to these issues, the community members dialogue about this need in the community, and then communal action to see the idea become a reality.

Contact person/organisations involved