A one-day pre-construction consultation for a new Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP)
water delivery system was held yesterday for community members of Ngongoti, Marava and
Valele in the Bahomea district of Central Guadalcanal.
The construction and installation of the community water infrastructure, officially known as
the Water Supply and Sanitation Project (WASH), is a subcomponent of the Community Benefit
Sharing Program (CBSP) to provide water supply to eligible villages in the Tina catchment
communities. Construction will include a network of pipes to carry the water from the source and
distributed to communities. The objective of the consultation was to help participants understand
how the water system will work. Participants learnt about the R-WASH Policy and Program,
ownership and management, water system design and a work plan for the actual construction.
Construction on the first water supply is likely to begin early October after many months
of community consultation and negotiation. A local WASH Contractor and a community water
specialist (CWS), has been hired by the CBSP team to oversee the construction of the first water
installation.
As part of the construction and installation of the water projects, 18 water supplies will be built
and developed throughout the Tina catchment communities with assistance from the communities
in the next 12 months.
“As soon as work on the first water supply starts, we will move on to the second water supply and
so on until all 18 water supplies complete," said CBSP Coordinator Francis Kapini.
In total, over 18 villages and more than 7000 people will benefit from this ground breaking
Project which will provide communities with better access to safer clean water.
The CBSP's Water Supply and Sanitation Project started in 2016 following a preliminary study of
88 villages in the Bahomea and Malango districts to assess the communities' water supply and
sanitation needs and will be completed in 2022.