Oscar's Story

Oscar Balongo is eWATER’s Head of Operations & Maintenance. With over 8 years of experience across East Africa, he is a distinguished Water Engineer and a recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship. Through this program, he earned his MSc in Water, Sanitation and Health (WaSH) Engineering from the  University of Leeds. Oscar’s passion for improving water access for the most vulnerable communities has also earned him the Mandela Washington Fellowship and ultimately led him to eWATER – where he ensures our system delivers clean water with 100% uptime. We sat down with him to understand his motivations and perspectives as an outspoken advocate for water access across Africa.

Your story begins in Mishenye, Tanzania. How did your upbringing shape your decision to pursue a career in the WASH sector?

I grew up in a village that still does not have access to electricity and running water. People around me seemed to be ailing round the clock, and my primary school education helped me associate these ailments with waterborne diseases. By the time I completed my undergraduate studies in Environmental Sciences; I felt that I could really do something that impacted the lives of those around me. I kicked off my initial engagement in the WASH sector as a volunteer for an NGO in Tanzania.
 
As Team Lead, my role involved overseeing a SWASH (School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programme where we would venture into schools to teach children about better sanitation practices. The idea was that children would take these lessons home, influencing their families and ultimately the broader community. While the impact of this program was direct, it dawned on me that 3 to 6 months down the line; people quickly forgot and went back to their old habits.
 
Curious about what long-term impact could look like I made the decision to pursue a WASH program at the University of Leeds.

What drew you to eWATER? What is it about our model that stood out to you?

I joined eWATER in 2022, initially as the Scoping Lead. I felt incredibly excited to be stepping into the role as eWATER’s offering was innovative and unlike anything I had seen in Tanzania before.
 
My role entailed heading into villages in Tanzania, pitching eWATER to residents and assessing whether it was viable to set up a water system in that locality. In my experience, the interest from residents was overwhelming. After my initial visits, community residents would come together, entirely on their own accord and write letters to the Ministry of Water, advocating for eWATER to expand its services into the region.
 
Tanzania is still lagging behind in water access, particularly in rural areas. The national government is not able to meet the finance requirements to set up adequate water services, and while multilateral and bilateral organizations try to fill the gap, they too appear unable to meet the full financing needs of the sector.
 
I was so hopeful that we were going to be able to bring these vital services to the people that needed them most – but ultimately the governance structure in Tanzania made working conditions particularly challenging.

Having lived and worked in Kenya and Tanzania, what do you see as the biggest challenges in accessing safe water?

Tanzania’s water sector has a largely centralized governance model, where approvals and oversight often sit at the national or regional level. While rural water schemes are managed by Community-Water Based Water Supply Organizations (CBWSOs), navigating multiple layers of government is still required before systems can be set up. In rural areas, CBWSOs play a crucial role but are often facing a number of challenges. Many don’t have the full technical expertise required to build and maintain water systems.
 
Additionally, when there are disputes or issues within a particular system, it is often the case that the CBO does not have the financial resources or means to resolve these issues.
 
I recall a situation in Morogoro for example where the managing CBO was not able to maintain its water system. Ultimately, residents were forced to trek 5KM away to a nearby river, wait two hours and pay 500Tsh for contaminated water – in this case they paid more for water than their urban counterparts.

How did you come to lead eWATER’s O&M team?

As eWATER navigated the institutional challenges it was facing in Tanzania, we saw a need to scale up into a full system delivery model. In this way, our organization would become entirely responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of our water systems. I moved to Kenya in September 2023, and began working on developing eWATER systems in the County of Tharaka Nithi.
 
As Kenya utilizes a devolved government model, County Governments can make decisions faster. Within three months of arriving in Kenya; we were given the greenlight to begin the scoping, design and installation of eWATERtaps.
 
eWATER gave me the opportunity to grow into Operations and Maintenance (O&M), as we continued to install new eWATERtaps, I stepped up to ensure that we could maintain system uptime. My work ensures that we are able to deliver clean water, 24/7 in every community we are in.
 
O&M is what justifies eWATER’s model, and we ensure that every payment made by our customers is invested back in keeping the systems running for the long term.

With 8 years in the sector, what do you wish people understood about water access?

In many ways, we talk and frame water as a human right. This is something we can all understand, but we treat water as if it should be completely free, and forget the real costs of installing and maintaining reliable systems. People everywhere, including in developed countries, pay for water. If we are serious about achieving wider access to water in Africa in a sustainable way, we must promote the principle that users contribute to the systems they depend on. This will ensure reliable, long-term access for all. To read more about Oscar’s reflections on the water sector; read this article and follow his
blogspot here.