Oloolaiser Water and Sewerage Company

Design and Implementation of an Urban Water Kiosk Project

The Step-by-Step Planning and

Implementation of an Urban Water Supply Project Using

ACTIVITY CARDS

CARD 16: SENSITISATION: DRAMA GROUP SKETCHES

Table of Contents

CARD 16 (A): Drama Group Sketch: Public Health 2

CARD 16 (B): Drama Group Sketch: Water Supply and the Community 3

4

CARD 16 (A): Drama Group Sketch: Public Health
The main message/theme of the first sketch is: Health and hygiene and the importance of consuming treated water.
The objective of the sketch: To dramatise to the audience the health risks that household that consume untreated water (for example water from open wells or wells in the Dambo) are exposed to. To explain the importance of using treated water, especially for drinking and preparing meals.
Required materials (imaginary or physical):
Open well. Pit latrine. Bucket and cup.	Tap/kiosk. Money. Doctor’s kit.
Important issues to consider (Frame of the sketch): A family gets drinking water from an open well within their yard, because the father insists that there is nothing wrong with consuming untreated water. Despite having access to cheap treated water at the kiosk, the family continues fetching untreated (contaminated) water from the well. The wife wants to fetch treated water, but there is no proper budgeting in the household as the husband is ever selfish and spends almost all the family money on beer together with his friends. The wife tells the husband that if they continue using untreated water: “One day one of us might get sick of cholera or dysentery. As I attend antenatal clinic, nurses usually advice us not to use untreated water for drinking and cooking”. The child, who gets a lot of information on public health and hygiene at school, also pleads with his father to start spending part of his “drinking money” on clean water. The father does not follow this advice and refuses to change his behaviour. The father argues that: “Small boy, what can you tell me. We have been using water from our well even before you were born. We do not get sick very often!” During the last 10 years many other families have settled in the compound near and next to the plot of the family. Some of these neighbours dispose of their rubbish in a pit and have built their latrines near the family well. As a result the water gets contaminated. One morning the father gets sick. He suffers from dysentery and gets admitted to the hospital. The family has to struggle to find money to meet the treatment costs. The admission and treatment costs could have bought the family a thousand jerry-cans of clean water. Because the father is in hospital, the family income suffers (the father has a shoe repair business). After discharge, the father is now convinced and starts supporting the wife when it comes to reserving money for treated water. The family is happy again. The End.
Duration of the sketch: approximately 15 minutes.

CARD 16 (B): Drama Group Sketch: Water Supply and the Community

The main message/theme of the first sketch is: Water supply and the role of the community.

The objective of the sketch: To inform, through drama, the audience on the role the community should play when it comes to safeguarding public infrastructures found within the compound, including the kiosks and the network which belong to the WSP.

Required materials (imaginary or physical): Tap, plumbing materials and fittings. Pipes. Water meter. Police uniform. Money.

Important issues to consider (Frame of the sketch): Two young men involved in the business of supplying plumbing materials to house developers. Young men from the compound have been “recruited” by a dishonest businessman, to steal plumbing materials. The system introduced by the 2 young businessmen is simple: the more materials you steal, the more money you get. As a result of repeated acts of vandalism the compound is hit by a water shortage and Kiosk No. 2 has stopped working. At the same time water is being wasted in the compound as pipes have been stolen. The surroundings of the kiosks and the vandalised pipes have become dirty and muddy as a result of these leakages. The affected community members find out about the scourge and manage to identify the households keeping the culprits. The young men and the businessman are arrested. The community, together with the Residents Development Committee (RDC) calls for a meeting in order to discuss ways and means of preventing vandalism and taking appropriate measures if acts of vandalism occur (identifying and arresting thieves). The community assigns tasks to the RDC and other residents in order to make the kiosk system sustainable. The End.

Duration of the sketch: approximately 15 minutes.

Toolkit for Urban Water Supply Projects Module 3 Card 16: Drama Group Sketches