A Development Conundrum

Here’s one for all of my friends who are doing and/or studying development…

Guatemala has a long history of development agencies, missions, and various government projects trying to better the lives of the people living here. Unfortunately in the past that has often meant simply giving things- houses, wells, toothbrushes, schools, Bibles, etc. As a result many people have become so accustomed to having things given to them that they expect that model of development and aren’t interested in any other kind.

I ran into this issue this past week when visiting a community. An international development agency is interested in doing some clean water projects in my municipality, which is one of the poorest in the whole country. They approached the Municipal Planning Office with the requirements, and we in turn, went to present them to the communities. One specific community we went to is one of our poorest, with incredibly high malnutrition and child mortality rates. The women in the community have to walk for over a mile up and down a really steep ravine to retrieve dirty water which they use for cooking, bathing, and drinking, causing all kinds of sickness. The proposed project would pipe clean water from a nearby spring directly into the community.

The requirements of the project say that there needs to be a counter on each water spigot to insure that the spring is not being over-taxed and that everyone in the community gets a fair share of the water. The project also requires that a town committee be formed to be in charge of the maintenance and repair of the tubes and faucets and that each family pay a yearly 12 Quetzales ( $1.50…not much, even by Guatemalan standards) to the town committee, that they will in turn use only to repair broken pipes.

The co-workers I went to the community with feel that this is a culturally appropriate and fair system and are excited to see the project happen in a community that needs it so desperately. However, as we sat in the town meeting listening to the people talk after we presented the project, we realized that they saw it differently. They said that they are not interested in a project a) in which they have to pay a yearly fee, and b) in which their water consumption will be monitored. Basically, the meeting ended with them saying, that they didn’t think the project requirements were fair and they weren’t interested in the project. We convinced them to allow the engineer to return again and talk to them, and we’re hoping that they’ll have time to consider what they might be missing out on and will change their minds.

So here’s the conundrum that I keep rolling around in my head… this community desperately needs water but because in the past NGOs and other groups have just given things the community feels that to be expected to pay when they are already very poor is unfair. Maybe the NGO should just drop the requirements and give them the project anyway? After all, it will improve their lives, won’t it? But then, if we just give them the project doesn’t that reinforce this bad system of getting without having to give in return? Isn’t that disempowering? Maybe the community won’t take care of the water system as well because they don’t have their own money invested in it? So maybe they shouldn’t get the project? But kids are dying and living with horrible diarrhea as a result of the bad water they’re drinking. The fields are dried up because of lack of rain and people are going hungry because they can’t possibly carry enough water to keep their fields producing.

I just simply don’t know the answer. This development stuff seemed much simpler in a classroom.