Case studies:

La Sirena: women taking leading positions

For many years La Sirena was a recreation center for the people of Cali, Colombia. The Cañaveralejo river was the place where those who like to take a bath found some amusement, back there in the sixties.

Nowadays, if you go to La Sirena, you can find a highly populated settlement, with a migratory flow coming from Cali and from the south-western part of the country. Some sectors are located in high risk areas, where inhabitants have no legal holding of their households, there are many settlers who are devoted to informal economic activities (street vendors, household servants, little family companies, etc.) and the Cañaveralejo river, which used to be a tourist attraction, is now highly contaminated.

Doña Rubiela, when describing the community, showed through her illustration the situation of the 3800 inhabitants, where men and women, in their daily lives, go back and forth through the narrow and steep streets trying to survive on something, either as street vendors, small merchants, employees of small and big companies, and young grade and high school students.

One of the biggest problems in the community was the procurement of a potable water supply system that could encompass the entire population, thus overcoming all distribution-caused problems of untreated water. During the last twenty years there has been an important group of leaders trying to call the attention of state entities to offer a way out of these problems.

The complicated political situation of the country, replicated in La Sirena, is part of the “normal situation”. This means that some groups that are outside the law exert control over some communities, depending of the interests they are defending. These are procedures that many times are in contradiction with community-fostered democratic processes.

The so-called “urban militias” (organized groups formed outside the law, made up of guerrilla soldiers, self-defense groups or common delinquents) also control the management of community organizations, using intimidation procedures. For instance Doña Fabiola, the chairwoman of JAC (Community Action Board, a state-fostered organization, elected by the community assembly, who is in charge of managing governmental resources that were mostly for infrastructure works) was under pressure to resign.

The first contacts

Cinara, Cali municipal companies and the Health Departmental Secretariat arrived in 1995 with an invitation for the community to participate in an international project of community management of water supply systems. This was a project based on the application of a participative action research methodology.

During the last years, some municipal institutions such as the Mayor's office, Cali Public Utilities Company and the Community Development Secretariat have had a closer approach to the community because of the effects of the decentralization process and the new public management scheme developed in Colombia. This is how some subsidized health and culvert projects are reaching the community.

The aqueduct

Since the very beginning, groups of settlers, men and women, who were gradually building their houses, were able to build the first water intakes and install the first hoses to bring water to the community, a task that remained through time until the currently operating treatment plant was built.

“By that time, the most exotic character in the community was the plumber, who always had some rubber rings and pneumatics around his neck to repair the hoses,” said don Luvín Orozco (chairman of the aqueduct administrative board). Every time he narrates the story of the onset of the aqueduct to the visitors from other places who are going there, to relate the community experience of the good quality management of the water supply system.

But even today not everything works as it should:
“Well, then ... here we have the water intakes. This one is the one for the Melendez river. This one is the Valencia´s one. This is the Epaminondas´; here we have the problem that they are sawing, cutting trees, there is organic matter contamination ... and here we have the filters. Here we have the problem that the water going down is too much because it has been designed for a given amount, but this is overloaded.” Fabiola Gómez, describing La Sirena´s water supply system.

Community diagnosis

Within the participatory diagnosis analysis made by the community and institutional working team, applying the Venn Diagram, which is a quick diagnosis participatory tool, it came out clearly that there were conflicts between the JAC (that administrated not only the water supply but other public services) and the users. One of the main conclusions was that the water system should be administered by an independent board, with its own rules and with the exclusive dedication to this service. Even during the exercise of problem prioritization, the separation of the administration of the water system remained a problem to be solved in the short term. Doña Fabiola, one of the aqueduct builders, accepted this situation as something that necessarily had to be done, but that they were not prepared for. In other words she accepted it, but not immediately.

The old forms of leadership are very rooted. Working for an agreed participation and giving the opportunity to renew it, is something that is easily said, but requires both the time and instruments to do. In the case of La Sirena, during the last 15 years, three groups have fought for the management of the JAC either independently or through some alliances. There is don Luvin Orozco from the group of aqueduct founders, don Alfonso Azcárate and his wife doña Rubiela, and also doña Fabiola with her group of women.

The diagnosis and problem prioritization tasks led to the fact that in 1996, when the new election of the JAC took place, four members of the local research team (that was trained by the project) were elected for the community action board (out of five directors). There was, however, a peculiar fact: Fabiola and Rubiela were on the same list and were elected, which is something that would have been impossible some years before due to the leadership rivalries in the community.

Doña Fabiola became the chairwoman of JAC, establishing some changes with regard to the previous administration, but her autocratic leading style did not let her make the necessary progress in the administrative improvement process. She ended up making the same mistakes as the ones criticized within the research team: low participation level of the community to make decisions, as well as in the management of the administration, which was done by two people.

The harm caused by the discontent of some people about the administration of the aqueduct under doña Fabiola´s administration, resulted in the fact that she was substituted even before finishing her mandate.

Building capacities

The community members have been actively participating in operation and maintenance workshops. These workshops aimed mainly at having an in situ practice about how to operate and maintain each and all of the structures in the treatment plants. They were conducted by the members of the community in cooperation with some institutional enablers and were addressed to all the members of the community as a way to socialize the knowledge. “In order for the people to become aware of all the things that have to be done, to have good water and also to know the value it has.”

Water administration

The aqueduct has been managed through the JAC and their various leaders were the ones who managed and promoted the construction of the system they have now. “The aqueduct is to continue to be as it was born: a community aqueduct, otherwise, we shall miss the sense of belonging.”

“The aqueduct has 510 members but there are no water meters ... right now the meters are Oscar and Luis [the operator and the plumber], who are constantly knocking on every door so that people close the water faucets and pick up the hose.”

Although community leaders have made great progress in their management, their working style has been affected by political patronage, a vertical education with the prevalence of authoritative attitudes and a low capacity of reaching agreements for making decisions.

The enhancement of the aqueduct became the central task of JAC and the one that generated a management dynamic and a collective participation which extended to the power supply, streets paving by sectors, litter collection, and the construction of the school and a health post.

The problem of the water meters

The administrative mess of the various boards resulted in payment delays from some users, thus creating a large group of delinquent payers, on top of the unsuitable use of the water and its waste. This situation generated the need for the board to prepare a users' census and try some new alternatives to control the use of water, such as the installation of water meters a the homes of some community key users, who were suspects of wasting a lot of water.

The institutional and community research teams held several meetings to coordinate and prepare the census. During the accomplishment of this activity it was evident that women were leaders. This was the case of doña Beatriz, who made herself responsible for accompanying the couples to walk for several blocks and it is also the case of some men, such as Oscar the plumber, who was a permanent support for all the groups due to his knowledge of the community.

“This has to be told to the rest of the community; it was there where I learned most and I understood all we have said about how important it is that the community itself is the one that has to do its own things. I never thought I would be able to make an inventory because that is always done by Dane [a governmental agency] people.” said doña Beatriz, a member of the local research team.

“Don't let run the water you won't drink,” is exactly the opposite of what the popular saying states, “Let run the water you won't drink.” “But in the case of La Sirena we can not afford to waste water, now we have more people and there are still two nearby sectors that need treated water. We could give it to them if we make a rational use of it.” This is what teacher Barbosa (a member of JAC and the local research team) said, while planning the alternatives for water control. A way to make an experiment was installing water meters and the other one was undertaking an education process.

With these two working alternatives, some water meters were installed in households where a high consumption had been detected and to do this, a dialogue was held with the dwellers. With the aid of the plumber, a questionnaire was designed to keep a record of the water meters installed and the comments of the people in this regard.

Two months after accomplishing this job, the whole community and the institutional working team had a meeting to reflect upon the experiences with the water meters. This is what Oscar, the plumber, said: “You know what you are doing: obviously, where we installed the water meters, consumption is high. Out of the 20 that have been installed, I have the record of 122, 93, 80, 56, and the lowest one was 26 cubic meters. People did not like it at the beginning, but they allowed it to be installed and, therefore, after the second month consumption was reduced almost to half of the beginning, and so the neighbours did it too. One can tell this, because there was more control in the use of water.”

The board decided then to gradually increase the installation of water meters, since not everybody accepted it. Some people thought that it was something arbitrary and they wouldn't allow the meters to be installed. However, the local research members organized themselves and started the educational process. They began to have meetings with the people of the seven sectors of the community in order for them to understand the value of water and the benefits for their health.

Gender issues

The role played by women in the leadership of all civic activities in the place is outstanding, because they have been dynamic agents of social processes and the engine for community organization. Doña Edith Cáceres is recalled as the chairwoman of JAC, back there in 1975.

“Truthfully speaking, at the beginning it was tough, since all organizations were mastered by men, and when women wanted to participate in it, we had to impose ourselves by force. It was a hard task, but we let them see that we were also able enough, and we did better than them, and we were never discouraged,” said Fabiola.

Concerning other organizations promoted in the community, women also play an important role. As Doña Mercedes Astudillo (chairwoman of the Women's Associated Company's Board of Directors, an associative enterprise that makes brooms and mops, and does the cleaning in some public schools) said:
“The associative enterprise has affected the economic part because it offers employment to La Sirena´s family head women and also regarding organizational aspects. We have gained more and more experience in this organized work but at the same time, while there are some women who are supported by their families in their household tasks, there are others that have doubled the work.”

Partnerships

La Sirena community has been in permanent contact with several institutions in its search for district improvement projects.

In the case of water, this project was accomplished with the University of the Cauca River Valley and Cinara Institute, where the design of the aqueduct and its FIME technology (multiple stage filtration) treatment plant aqueduct began. Other institutions concurred further on, such as Beneficencia del Valle, the Cauca River Valley Departmental Health Secretariat and the Cali Municipal Health Secretariat, who helped to finance this job.

Practical results

“With the construction of the treatment plant many things have changed in the community. For instance, diarrhoea and other children's skin diseases have been reduced, as well as cholera outbreaks”. Says doña Fabiola Gómez: “If there were some outbreaks of cholera in Cali, in La Sirena, due to the good quality of the water there was no cases of it.”

Other sectors

In La Sirena, based on the aqueduct participatory process, a dynamic process was generated for self-development and strengthening of local organizations. This resulted in the construction of the health post, the paving of some streets, the phone service, power supply and the enhancement of the excreta disposal. Because of the way they faced their problems La Sirena became an example for other communities.

The group of youngsters, which has been strengthening over the last two years, has accomplished some reclaiming and cleaning activities for the Cañaveralejo river, thus performing educational tasks with other youngsters to improve the image of the place and getting support from municipal entities. At present, they are developing a popular library project for which they have procured an international donation. This qualitative change of management has been a strong engine given by the Community Management project.

Contact:

In Colombia, the participatory action research was undertaken by CINARA, a research and development institute of the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. For questions and remarks, please contact Johnny Rojas of CINARA.