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 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
IN
VILLAGE ROAD CONSTRUCTION
AND
MAINTENANCE

Presented at
The International Seminar on
Acessibility and Rural Development Planning
Rajasthan, India
November 25, 26 2000
by
UPALI PANNILAGE
Programme Manager
Transport and Manufacturing
ITDG – South Asia
5, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha
Kirulapone, Colombo 5
Sri Lanka

Telephone ++ 94 1 852149 / 829412 – 5

Fax ++ 94 1 856188
E-mail upali@itdg.lanka.net
The International Seminar on Acessibility and Rural Development Planning - Rajasthan, India 1
25, 26 November 2000
 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
VILLAGE ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Village Road Development Project
- An experience from ITDG Sri Lanka.

1 INTRODUCTION
Development of a country or a community depends largely on people's access to
services and goods. As such, identifying and addressing accessibility issues have a key
role to play in development and therefore, improvement of people's transport facilities is
a crucial factor. On the one hand we see isolation of communities due to the lack of
transport facilities to their villages. From such places, we often here that "Roads are not
enough."

Is it true to say that for the development of rural transport, “roads are not enough”? In the
case of rural Sri Lanka, the roads are still needed for comprehensive development of
rural transport services.

ITDG- South Asia carried out a Needs Assessment Survey on Rural Transport, in 1994.
This study, done in collaboration with the Ministries of Transport and Policy Planning, the
Transport Studies and Planning Center, National Transport Commission and the
Universities of Colombo and Ruhuna, revealed that the major transport need was rural
access roads. Appropriate transport modes followed as a second priority. The study
highlighted to us that although roads are not enough, roads have to be the first in a
process that brings other developments.

ITDG, then, carried out more investigations to find out the key reasons for the lack
of/poor quality of rural access roads. The main areas that we looked at were:

1. How are the classified roads in Sri Lanka are maintained? Who are responsible
for what category of roads?
2. Under whose purview are the unclassified rural access roads placed?
3. How does the funds flow, from the central government to provincial
organisations, for construction and maintenance of rural roads?
4. What are the levels of resources, both financial and technical, at the lowest level
of local government authority.
5. How effective was the popular “Shramadana” (free labour) work carried out at
village level to improve rural roads?
6. Can labour-based methods developed by the ILO be implemented in Sri Lanka?

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2 Context
ITDG- South Asia has been active in the area of rural transport in Sri Lanka since 1990.
The main focus of the early efforts were directed towards improving the load carrying
capacity of the bicycle which over 75% of the rural communities use as a key transport
mode. This work gave us a deeper insight into the rural transport issues and the dire
need for improved access roads in rural areas. This experience and understanding was
substantiated by several studies carried out rural road construction.

These investigations, by showing the broader picture, gave a clearer view of the position
in which rural access roads are placed. The road network in Sri Lanka is classified into
A,B,C and D. A & B types are main roads and have a total length of approximately
11,000 Km which run through the country. These two categories come under the
purview of the Central Road Development Authority (RDA) of the central government.
The C & D roads, which amounts to about 15,000 Km in total length, comes under the
Provincial RDAs placed within the Provincial Council's purview.

Interestingly, there is also a road category named "Unclassified" under which are placed
the majority of rural access roads. The total length of road in this section is over 69,000
Km. These are the roads that are mostly used by the majority of the country's population.
In Sri Lanka, over 72% of the population live in rural areas.

In addition to this, there are the footpaths, cart tracks and narrow earth roads that are
not motorable except for tractors, but which are the only road link some communities
have with the nearest motorable road. There is no official statistics of such roads and
neither are they marked on the maps. Communities who are linked to the outside world
through such footpaths or tracks actually live in isolation and often in poverty which is
perpetuated by access and mobility issues. As people in such communities have told us
" A road is all they need."

2.1 Availability of resources to develop rural access roads

As far as resources are concerned, the Pradeshiya Sabhas (PS), the lowest level of
political administration or the local government authority, are severely handicapped.
They hardly have funds for infrastructure development and do not have a steady income,
which affects their planning. The available funds are not enough to meet the
maintenance costs of existing roads. Generally, the PSs have funds to maintain only
20% of the roads they need to repair. Construction and maintenance of roads is usually
done through private contractors by calling tenders. The general feeling of the people is
that this practice is highly corrupted. This, together with the irregular flow of funds which
are also time – bound, result in sub standard roads being constructed/repairs carried
out. Obviously, this sets a detrimental cycle in motion where poor quality roads need
frequent maintenance, and this being met with low quality repairs again.

In addition to this, most PSs (local government authorities) do not have technical
expertise within their organisations. The Technical Officers (TOs) rarely have
opportunities to participate in advanced training programmes that improve their
knowledge, which enables them to meet current development needs.

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2.2 People's attitudes

Roads are planned, constructed, and maintained by the government. without the
involvement of the communities. The general public feels that building and maintaining
roads is the sole responsibility of the government. This is further spread by the
politicians who use roads political bait, making false promises during election times to
improve rural access roads.

In parallel to this, we see the free labour campaigns popularly known in the country as
Shramadana (donation of labour). Sharamadanas are carried out generally as a
community service by the communities them selves who work on a selected holiday to
improve a facility in their area. When complaints to government offices and pleas to
politicians repeatedly fail, people resort to shramadanas and repair their roads as they
best can. This is usually by clearing the roadway of vegetation and filling the
carriageway. Due to the lack of technical know how, these roads often do not last more
than a few heavy rainfalls. However, it should be noted that much of the unaccounted
footpaths and cart tracks, especially in the hilly terrain, are made by the communities
through shramadanas. Yet these are not motorable, and only remotely meet the
transport needs of rural communities.

3 What are the alternatives?

ITDG approached the ILO ASIST in Nairobi, Kenya to find about labour-based road
building and maintenance. A team from the ITDG Transport programme visited ILO
ASIST and the Kisi Training Centre for Labour-based road construction in Kenya. They
were highly impressed with the method but had concerns whether that is possible to
implement it in Sri Lanka. The existing “free labour donation” (shramadana) system
practiced widely in the country is not a sustainable mean on long term work. ITDG
decided to test the “half pay, half free” method together with the community and with the
involvement of all stakeholders.

In this approach, two aspects were vital. One is the use of appropriate technology. The
second is the project approach of involving the community from the planning stage of the
intervention and their continued participation upto maintenance and monitoring. In this
approach, close interaction with other stakeholders is strongly linked with the
involvement of the community.

3.1 The technology

Appropriateness of the technology is in relation to several aspects. It is necessary for
the technology to be affordable, adaptable to local conditions, and within the operational
level of both the young and the older, the women and the men, and the formally
educated and those who are not. The ability of the people to grasp the technology and
use the equipment easily and its affordability is necessary to ensure the sustainability of
the intervention and its benefits. People will not continue to use what they do not
understand, or cannot afford.

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In consideration of this, the pilot projects of the Village Road Development project,
carried out by ITDG South Asia chose a technology with the following features:

 Build earth-gravel roads. Most of the material that are needed for construction can be
found from close proximity to project sites. The project recommends that earth (soil),
gravel and grass for turfing be found from within 10 Km of the project site.

 Use equipment that are relatively low cost / which can be found in the local areas/
are simple and easy to use / less heavy. As such most of the equipment used were
mammotys and crow bars (for digging the earth), cane baskets and wheel barrows to
carry cut soil. These equipment are easily found in villages, and often used by
communities in their routine work. In addition, the project introduced to them simple
equipment such as camber boards, ranging rods, simple-designed manual rammers
and water tubes to measure road levels. The small roller that was introduced by the
project is pulled by a hand tractor. All these can either be made at / bought from
local workshops/local hardware stores.

 Where the terrain was rocky, the project encouraged the community to use
traditional/adaptations of traditional methods to blast rocks rather than use dynamite
which can be hazardous to the environment.

 Adapt the ILO approach to create space for use of machinery in vitally necessary
circumstances. (for example when cutting gravel is extremely difficulty in the dry
season).

3.1.1 Training

Transferring community based road construction approach through the Village Road
Development Project of ITDG South Asia gave a good opportunity for sharing of skills
between two Southern countries. Participation in a training programme organised by
ILO in Kenya was unaffordable to the project at that stage, and therefore ITDG South
Asia looked for other options. This paved way to develop contacts with the Labour
based Roads Rehabilitation Project in Nepal, and as a result, two engineers carried out
two five day training programmes in the pilot project sites, prior to construction of the
road.

The key features of the training programmes:

The training programme was carried out as an on the job training, combining both
theoretical and practical aspects. As part of the programme, the selected road was
mapped and a sample constructed with the community. The practical sections gave the
community a chance to try out the theory and discuss their doubts/difficulties. The
project regarded this as a very important aspect in adult training.

The target trainees were four community leaders in each site. This group included both
women and men, and were to be developed as village technicians. However, the two
five day training programmes were carried out at the sites itself, enabling many
members of the community to participate in the training and learn the technology. This
turned out to be especially useful when constructing the road because the community

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could understand the importance of maintaining certain specifications in the
construction.

The training programme presented somewhat complicated theories in a simplified form,

which helped the community to grasp the crux of it and use it confidently. This,
combined with the use of simple equipment such as camber boards and bonning rods
helped the community maintain correct measurements without being hassled by lack of
formal education/low exposure to road construction technology.

The project ensured that the interpretation into local languages was in a form that is
easily understood by everyone in the community. This meant use of some words that
are colloquial and use of idioms to stress points. It is also important to note that
discussions were encouraged through out the five day training programmes.

Soon after the completion of the focused training programmes, the two communities
began construction of their roads. the "real" work brought up many technical issues for
which they did not have complete guidance from the training programmes. This gap was
filled by assigning an engineer to work with the communities on the project sites.
Technical issues were discussed and explained to the community. The project was
cautious not to decide on technical matters, but allow the community to improve their
understanding of the pros and cons of technical options and then decide for themselves
which to use. Nevertheless the project provided guidance, and the process involved a
great deal of time. But in the long term this was very useful to improve the technical
capacity of the community.

3.1.2 Adaptations

The original equipment such as camber boards that were used at the training was made
according to the specifications of roads in Kenya. When using these in rural areas of Sri
Lanka, we found that our roads are not as wider. Camber boards were redesigned to
suit dimensions of rural roads in Sri Lanka.

In one project site, the majority of the community participants were women and they
found the rammers too heavy to use. These were redesigned to a less heavy model.

A key adaptation was the conclusion to use machinery such as bulldozers and tractors
selectively when faced with time-consuming heavy earthwork.

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25, 26 November 2000
3.2 The Approach
The approach used by the project to involve all stakeholders from the inception,
especially the active participation of the community in the decision making in all aspects
of the project, is crucial to ensure sustainability.

The key feature of this approach is the central place given to the community.

After the initial awareness raising of the project approach, and ascertaining their
willingness to participate in the demonstration of this, the community was mobilised to
organise themselves as a society. These are identified a Village Road Development
Committees (VRDCs). Details of the project such as sharing responsibilities, payments,
work patterns, systems to interact with other stakeholders (for example the PSs) and
disseminate project information was discussed and agreed on at VRDCs. ITDG was
sensitive to the need to give the VRDCs, and through them the communities a key role
in decision making regarding all aspects of work in the field and in the interaction with
their PSs. The close involvement of the community and giving them a larger share of
the responsibilities helped inculcate a sense of ownership among the community.

3.2.1 Involvement of the community

Involvement of the community was through different stages:

3.2.1.1 Planning – The need for the project intervention was identified through
the study carried out in 1994 where information was gathered from a sample of the rural
community of 4 local government administrative divisions.

The project after establishing links with the ILO, selected the community-based road
construction approach, but the focused intervention itself was again designed together
with the communities of the selected pilot project sites. Specific needs of these
communities and their capacities were taken into consideration here.

3.2.1.2 Awareness raising – On formulating the project design, the project held
awareness raising programmes in the two pilot sites. Carried out in a participatory
manner, these gave the community a good opportunity to discuss the project initiative,
their aspirations and their capacity to contribute to the project.

3.2.1.3 Mobilising and increasing the community's capacity to actively

contribute to the project – Through social mobilising, the communities of the two pilot
sites were organised to form societies to carry out the project work. Named Village Road
Development Committees (VRDCs) these enabled the project to systematically involve
the community in the decision making process. Decisions on various aspects were
discussed and decided at the VRDC meetings. For example, rates of payment, working
hours and patterns, saving through the society and starting a road maintenance fund.
The VRDCs gave a validity for the community decisions and was accepted by the
members of the community.

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3.2.1.4 Guidance and direction – Through the VRDCs, the project also found a
forum to discuss technical and social issues that are related to the project initiative. This
helped broaden the communities' understanding of the wider context and also develop
confidence to address socio-economic or development needs through collective effort.
The emphasis given to the VRDCs in the decision making process helped develop a
strong sense of ownership among the community for the road they were constructing.

3.2.1.5 Promoting interaction – The project ensured that the community

interacted with useful strategic alliances to meet their needs. Where necessary, the
project helped them establish the links by having the initial discussions with the officials.
Whenever issues related to other stakeholders arose, the VRDCs were encouraged to
have discussions with the stakeholders. This also was extended to obtaining additional
construction material through the VRDCs. Representatives of the two pilot sites were
also linked with a local network that shares information on alternative development
experiences.

3.2.1.6 Monitoring and redirection – The communities played a crucial role in

monitoring. The regular monitoring system started with the community, where their
views on the project/issues/ suggestions etc., were brought to VRDC discussions.
Social mobiliser/partner organisations brought these issues the discussions at ITDG.
Similarly suggestions of ITDG were taken back to the community and discussed at
VRDCs. In addition to that representatives of the community participates in quarterly
meetings of the project. A review with all stakeholders is held annually in a location that
is closer to the pilot sites. The review is common for both pilot sites and facilitates the
valuable opportunity to share experiences between the sites and learn from each other.
Participating in the regular monitoring process also gave the community ample
opportunity to, when necessary, redirect the project to be more beneficial to them.

3.2.1.7 Sharing the project cost – The community shares part of the project
cost by working at half rate on the road construction sites. Since it is necessary to work
relatively long periods on a road construction, the community had to be somewhat
compensated for their time, and their economic security had to be ensured. In addition
to working at half rate regularly, the community also carried out shramadana's
occasionally when exceptionally heavy construction work/expedited work had to be
carried out. For example, when tractors were given by the local government authority to
carry earth from nearby locations, more workers were needed to load and unload this,
level and compact the earth.

3.2.1.8 Contribution of land – In some places the road had to be broadened

and strips of land on either side were required. In over 98% of the cases, the community
willingly donated a strip of land for their road. In one particularly difficult spot, the owner
of a cinnamon small holding gave up a considerable amount of his land. Through the
VRDC, later, the community decided to pay a compensation for this, as this was an
important source of income for that family.

3.2.1.9 Contribution to maintain the road – The community has undertaken to

maintain the road they made. In one site, the community has divided sections of the
road among the families who live on either side of the road. In the other site, the VRDC
members have divided this responsibility among small groups. Through this, the
community looks into minor repairs such as filling, clearing drains, and maintaining the
turf. They also have discussions with their local authorities on the condition of the road,

The International Seminar on Acessibility and Rural Development Planning - Rajasthan, India 8
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and helps keep their interest in this approach, in case future assistance from the local
authorities are needed for future heavy repairs.

Through such steps and processes, the project was able to raise a sense of ownership
for the road among the community. This was useful in many ways: They took personal
responsibility for high quality construction of the road. When one member lapsed, the
others were quick to point out that poor quality work affects the sustainability of their
road: The extended this responsibility to maintaining their road. They felt it was part of
their work. They are more careful in using the road. When outsiders damage the road,
they intervene and come to a settlement through which they ensure assistance to repair
the road. They maintain close interaction with the local authorities to sustain their
interest in and support for the road.

3.2.2 Involvement of other stakeholders.

Apart from the community, the key stakeholders are the Pradeshiya Sabhas (lowest
level of political administration), under whose purview the “Unclassified roads” are
placed. As explained in the Context, most PSs lack resources to maintain the roads that
are placed under them. An approach that shares the road maintenance responsibility
with them and helps them construct/reconstruct as many roads as possible with limited
resources is of immense importance to them.

The PSs are involved from the stage that project design is planned to be implemented in
a selected area. In one project, in Kohugoda, the site was selected by the Akuressa PS.
In Malberigama, the Weeraketiya PS was informed after identifying this as a potential
site. As the PSs hold the legal authority over rural access roads, it is important that they
are informed of the project initiative, and approval obtained.

The support and involvement of the PS is useful in several ways. The key areas are as
follows:

 The PSs can, if necessary, intervene to access land to broaden the road. This helps
reduce disputes in the community should a family refuse to donate land for the
widening of the road to suit motorable transport. In Kohugoda, a person who lived
outside the village but owned a tea land in the village refused to give a strip of his
land to widen the road. Attempts to settle this issue failed when this party sought
legal support to deter the construction of the road. However, the PS has intervened
and the legal advice is sought by them and the disputing party. This minimizes
chances for further disputes among the villages on this issue.

 PSs of both pilot sites have contributed by providing extra building material for which
the project had not budgeted earlier. This helped work progress without undue
delay. Moreover, it created space for the PS to be actively involved in a project in
their area. The PSs have provided cylinders for culverts, cement and have facilitated
the use of a backhoe and a tractor with trailer to avoid undue delays.

 PSs, similar to the community, participate in the Annual Review the project holds
with all stakeholders. This helps them understand not only the potential of the
project approach to help them build better and more roads. It also helps them to

The International Seminar on Acessibility and Rural Development Planning - Rajasthan, India 9
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 closely link with the project and work collaboratively with the community to improve
rural access roads.

 The capacity of the PSs and the Provincial Councils above the PSs to help share
project outcomes and promote alternatives for rural access road construction is high.
Their interaction with the community, extensive knowledge of their area and the
relevant issues as well as being part of the monitoring process enables the PSs to
speak more convincingly of the potential of the project approach to reduce the
transport burdens of the rural communities.

 Other stakeholders – the other group that can benefit from the project approach is
the non-governmental organizations that also use rural road construction process as
part of their development work.

3.4 SUSTAINABILITY

Combining the strengths of several forces, as well as supporting these forces to

individually function effectively facilitates the sustainability of the project approach.
These forces are the community, the PS (local government authority), technical support,
and national level policy support.

The capacity of the community is strengthened by giving them:

 technical know how
 developing their collective strength through formation and support of their
organisaiton
 helping them to network and establish links with organisations that serve them
 increasing their exposure to alternative development approaches/thinking.
 guiding them to develop their financial strength.

The capacity of the PSs to sustain the project benefits is ensured by:
 sharing experiences of an alternative approach to road construction and
maintenance
 introducing a cost effective method for road construction
 establishing links with community groups that have demonstrated this approach
 sharing information on relevant technical developments
 forwarding to the national level policy makers the issues faced by the PSs in road
construction

Technical support to ensure sustainability is through:

 a technology that has a potential to be relatively low cost
 the adaptability of the technology to local conditions
 ability to use resources from the project sites
 ability to be simplified and be understood by those who have not gone through
formal education systems
 equipment used being user friendly to women

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At national policy level, sustainability is looked at
 bringing proven examples of alternative road construction to national policy
forums
 facilitating the voice of rural communities to be heard by national policy bodies
 increasing the understanding, at national level, of issues faced by PSs
 sharing information of project experience through networking.

4 THE PILOT PROJECT

4.1 Sites.

The first two pilot sites of the project are Kohugoda in the Akuressa DS division and
Malberigama in the Weeraketiya DS division, Based in the Southern Province, these
two sites have different geographical and sociological settings that gave the project a
deeper understanding of the technical and social aspects involved in a development
intervention such as this.

Kohugoda is in the wet zone in the Matara district, and has a rocky, hilly terrain. An area
with tea small holdings, the community were not facing dire economic hardships, but
were faced with many issues that stem from isolation. The women in the area are pre-
occupied with housework and work on the tea estates, mainly tea plucking. This is also
a more traditional village. The only available track up the hill to Kohugoda was a
footpath over rocks. This was so uneven and difficult to travel on that it was known in
the Akuressa PS "as the most difficult path in the area."

Malberigama in the Hambantota district has a very different setting. It is in the dry zone,
has a flat terrain with much hardened soil during the dry spell. Malberigama is a
settlement that was later abandoned due to a range of issues. Therefore, the village
developed more or less on its own, and lacked basic facilities such as roads, electricity,
water. The community makes their livelihood from farming, but this is often adversely
affected by the harsh weather prevalent in the area. As such all the families in
Malberigama live below the official poverty line, and are recipients of state welfare. The
men in the village travel out of the village in search of work, and women look after the
cultivation in the village. Since the women are ones who stay behind in the village, their
participation in the project was very high. Over 80 % of the participants in the project
were women.

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4.2 The process

The process involved the following key steps.

 Selection of sites
 Discussions with the relevant PSs to inform them of the project purpose and
approach and have an assurance of their support.
 Awareness raising programmes with the two communities, separately to discuss
project approach and assess their willingness to participate in it.
 Identify partner organisation in Hambantota. In Kohugoda ITDG worked directly with
the community, while in Malberigama Giruwapattu Community Development Square
(GIDES) joined the project as partners. In addition to this, the project also placed a
social mobiliser in these two areas, who alternated his time between the two sites.
 Mobilise community to organise themselves and form VRDCs.
 Facilitate selection of office bearers of VRDCs and four people from each site to be
trained as village technicians.
 Carryout a five day technical training programme in each site. A total of 8 leaders
(including 3 women) and over 100 members of the two communities participated at
this training.
 Help the two communities to formulate basic norms/rules and regulations for working
on the project and set up community savings schemes through the VRDCs. The
community drew up a roster to ensure that there was sufficient labour available daily.
In Kohugoda each person was paid Rs 100 daily (The day rate for casual labour
in the area is Rs 200). In Malberigama the daily wages of a casual labourer
being Rs 150, a daily wage of Rs 75 was paid for every worker on the road
construction site, Both women and men were paid equal wages, in contrast to
the prevailing practice in both areas of paying women lesser.

Another very positive outcome of the latter is each person saving of Rs 5 or 10

from the daily earnings through the project. Part of this money is set aside,
under a Maintenance Fund, for the future maintenance of the road. The rest is
available to the community as loans in personal needs. The loans have to be
approved by the community.
 Begin construction work. Assist project-trained village technicians to guide the
community and provide additional technical support as necessary.
 Guide and assist the community to function effectively as a group and through this
collectively address their development needs. A large share of the mobilisation was
on the community's capacity to use and control technologies to meet their needs and
the imbalances of the society and how this affects people.
 Maintain close links with the local government authorities (PSs in this case) and
encourage the VRDCs to do so.
The involvement of the PS was especially useful in settling land disputes. The
Akuressa PS willingly intervened and their support helped all members of the
community reiterate their faith in the project approach.
 Construction is a lengthy span of the project life and many issues can arise in this
stage.
In Kohugoda the construction work took an unexpected turn when a 7 ½ ft rock
wall had to be built to strengthen the road. This involved skilled labour but none
of the experienced workers who visited the site were willing to undertake this,
because this seemed a massive task. Finally, after repeated discussions at their

The International Seminar on Acessibility and Rural Development Planning - Rajasthan, India 12
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 VRDC, the community decided to do this themselves. The task demanded a
great deal of time, effort and commitment from the people, but this was willingly
given because the need for a proper road was keenly felt by all. The heavy
workload clashed with the regular economic activities of the people. Again
through discussions, the project plans were altered, while some communities
who were economically more stable devoted all their time for the road
construction.

In Malberigama, the dry weather clashed with the work plans. The soil was too
hardened for the people to be productive in their daily work at the construction
site. During the particularly dry spell, the community spent much of their time on
the project cutting earth, but the output was not satisfactory. At first the
community started watering the soil that had to be cut, but this too was not
productive, as water had to be fetched from far. Finally, the VRDC decided to
postpone the construction work until the weather condition improved.

 Involve the community in monitoring of project. Facilitate their participation at the

reviews with project teams and the PSs. Redirect project work when necessary.
 Assist communities to organise formal opening of the road they constructed and help
them use this as an opportunity to link with useful agencies that can collaborate with
them to address other development issues.

5 IMPACT

The project generated a range of impacts. The availability of a satisfactory access road
reduced the communities' transport burdens and thereby significantly improved their
quality of life. However, it is more beneficial here to look at the impacts generated by the
specific approach chosen by the project. How has the community based & appropriate
technology linked approach helped people and their service agencies to overcome a
problem that is prevalent in the country?

We can look at the impacts under two broad categories : short term and long term.

5.1 Short term benefits:

The community had access to a reliable source of income for a relatively long period of
time. This was especially useful to the community of Malberigama who live in poverty.

The project used material and equipment that is available in the area. This too
generated a short term source of income, because the community was able to sell
gravel/rocks and hire equipment for project work.

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5.2 Longer term benefits:

5.2.1 Influencing policy changes:

5.2.1.1 Bringing rural voice to policy forums -The approach enables the voice of
the rural communities to be heard and local policy making and implementation bodies.
Earlier, they had little or no access to these places and were not consulted when
deciding on transport systems for rural areas.

5.2.1.2 Capacity of rural communities to contribute to transport service planning

& implementation increased - The approach helps the local authorities identify the
capacity of the rural communities to better contribute to the development of their areas,
especially the transport sector. In the two pilot projects, both PSs have consulted some
members of the respective VRDCs when identifying other roads for development. The
chairmen of both PSs have given the assurance that in future rural road constructions,
opportunities to use this approach will be sought to use this approach and in such cases
the existing VRDCs and their members would be used. The two PSs have also
facilitated resources to reconstruct the roads that link to the roads developed by the
project. In these, the village technicians who were trained by the project have filled the
role of social mobilisers.

5.2.1.3 Village technicians contribute to other road development projects - The

community’s capacity to take on a larger share of responsibility in developing their roles
is also seen in the fact that some village technicians being in charge of work in the new
project sites. They are able to not only mobilise and organise the community, but are
also able to transfer the technology to the new project sites.

5.2.1.4 Interest among the TOs about the project promoted technology - A very
positive indication of influencing policy is indicated by the interest the Technical Officers
of the PSs in the project approach. Initially they were very skeptical about the
effectiveness of this technology. But in the last year’s review, the TOs requested for
technical training. A programme for this is planned for early next year.

5.2.2 Potential for scaling up:

5.2.2.1 Requests for replicationby GOs and NGOs - The potential to scale up is
clearly visible in the speedy replication of approach in other areas. Even before the pilot
projects were completed, requests came for replication in two sites. At present, work in
six new sites are under way and of this two sites are in the central province. These sites
have created space for 5 PSs (Mulatiyana, Katepolakande, Anugunakolapellassa,
Madulla and Kirikontenna) one NGO (PLAN-International), one commercial construction
orgnaisation (Southern Masters) and one semi governmental development programme
in the central province (Area Based Growth and Equity Prorgramme – ABGEP) to be
exposed to the project approach. It is expected that these organisations would use the
project approach in their future work too.

5.2.2.2 Interest indicated by a commercial contractor - A very high potential

stands with the commercial organisation Southern Masters. This is a private contractor
organisation formed by a group of young graduates who are exercising their skills to

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generate incomes as well as contribute to the development of the country. They have
already expressed interest in using this technology and approach in their work.

5.2.2.3 Interest at national policy level - Other opportunities for scaling up are
also seen through the links with a national network on rural transport – Lanka Forum on
Rural Transport Development (LFRTD). This network has representatives of all the key
government institutions in the transport sector. It also has representatives from
provincial councils and a few NGOs. ITDG is the initiator and a key member of this
network, and has shared the outcomes of these pilot projects with the LFRTD. The
LFRTD in its strategic plan has expressed interest in supporting this work. It is expected
that this interest could be extended to facilitate a systematic training programme on
Community based Rural Road Construction.

5.2.3 Organising community for other development work & social

improvement

The community is organised through the project intervention and this offers a good
foundation on which other development initiatives can be based. In both the pilot sites
this development is visible. In Kohugoda, the community are members of several small
village societies such as the Funeral Aid Society, Electricity Consumer Society, Youth
Society etc. In the latter stages of the project, the community expressed an interest to
bring all these under one umbrella organisation through which the community can plan
to develop their village more systematically. This process is now under way.

In Malberigama, where basic facilities are more scarce, the VRDC has helped being
processes that address several needs. They started in a small way by building a
Community Center for the village through voluntary labour campaigns, which was
organised by the VRDC. This was a very low cost structure with coconut trunks for
seats and a thatched roof. Although small, this met a keenly felt need in the village,
because the people had no where to meet together for a discussion. When the project
first entered the village, discussions were held by the side of the road, or under a tree.
Witnessing their effort, a year later the PS provided them with a permanent building as a
community centre.

This was later followed by Shramadanas to help building a house for a family that could
not afford to build a home for themselves, assistance during family crises such as
funerals. More recently the community, through their partner organisation GIDES, have
been able to access a water supply project for their area.

5.2.4 Gender impacts

The project involves women and men at different aspects of project implementation i.e.
in VRDCs, in road construction, in supporting construction work by preparing
refreshments, in carrying out skilled construction work and heavy labour work.

In some sites the participation of women is high in both VRDCs and in road construction
work, while in others (Kolaveniyagama) women participate less in construction work.

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The key gender impacts are:
 Women's technical capability proven - Women's capacity to effectively use this
technology as well as provide guidance on it proven by Kanthi, a former group
leader, supervising the technical and non technical project work of the extended
section of Malberigama. She is able to identify technical gaps in the routine
construction work, guide community to construct to specifications, prepare reports,
co-ordinate between community and offices.

However, the project also has identified advantages the other two male supervisors
have over Kanthi. A mother of young children, Kanthi is unable to leave home for
residential training of even two days. She is, sometimes, unable to attend meetings
in Colombo because cultural influences discourage her from hitch hiking her way to
the closest town as men do when the expected bus does not come.

 A total of 5 women group leaders (village technicians) and 10 men work on current
construction sites. In Katepolakande 3 out of 6 group leaders are women. One out of
three supervisors is a woman.
 Positive labour division - In Katepolakanda the community has divided labour based
on their economic priorities, and this has created more space for young girls to be
actively involved in the construction work during daytime. The older women and men
are involved in tea cultivation and are unable to set aside time for construction work.
The young girls have effectively filled this gap. Over 75 % of the daytime work force
are women and they carry out work from filling and compacting, forming the camber
and turfing. They handle all aspects of construction work except removing large
boulders and rocks and excavating earth for filling. This is done by men who work
from approximately 7 to11 p.m. This labour division has contributed towards the
construction work progressing smoothly.
 Cultural and economic barriers in Kolavenigama – Women need to attend to tea
plucking during daytime and are unable to participate in construction work; A few
women have expressed a willingness to do constructions but are hesitant because
they would be a noticeable minority. However, they participate in VRDC activities.
The treasurer and the vice president are young girls (one is still a schoolgirl).
 In Heenbunna where the ITDG works in partnership with Plan International, the
project work is coordinated by the women society in the village. Out of all the
societies that the project is working this is the first society that 100% membership
consisting of women. Discussions with them indicate that selection of their society
for a technical project has boosted their confidence.
 Women working on Malberigama-extended section are able to earn a much welcome
regular income at least for a short while. Informal discussions during field visits
indicate the economic benefit has helped them to meet needs of reproductive
responsibilities such as ensuring a healthy/filling diet for children.
 At the pre-review of the project a representative of GIDES mentioned that developing
the Malberigama road has reduced the risk of maternal deaths due to delay in taking
pregnant mothers to hospitals in time.

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5.2.4 Environmental impacts

 Much of the unnecassary excavation and felling of trees was avoided when road
ways were cleared in the new sites by using labour based construction.
 Construction of drains using manual method is more effective in the road
construction and this minimises the erosion to a significant level. During the technical
training programmes for the three new sites such aspects were emphasised.
 The project promotes the construction of drains that are shaped at approximately 45 0
angle. This is more effective in reducing the soil erosion. The method that is
generally used by the PSs and the communities are to cut square shaped drains.
 The community of Malberigama are encouraged to excavate the gravel in a manner
that is useful for subsequent agricultural work. This prevents the creation of pits that
can later become an environmental hazard. Identification of suitable gravel is difficult
in Malberigama and therefore large amounts need to be excavated once suitable pits
are identified.
 The depletion of gravel in the long run might create a problem in the future. However
this will only happen if rural roads are constructed only using gravel. In the last year
the projct adapted the technology to using lesser gravel by first forming the camber
by compacting earth. A layer of gravel is compacted on this afterwards. Earlier the
camber was formed with compacted gravel.
 In order to accelerate the work rock blasting has to be done using dynamite or
blasting powder. Although no visible harm is recorded yet, the project is aware that
this has a risk of causing cracks in rocky hills and injuries to people. The latter is
prevented by giving ample warning before rock blasting is done. Anyhow the project
strictly advocates the use of blasting powder or dynamite only in unavoidable
situations. Mostly manual methods (heat & cool) are used for this.
 The construction of a good draining system along the road will minimise the erosion
of the road surface and this will reduce the injuries that will cause to the people
especially children.
 Promoting gravel roads reduces the use of mateiral/processer that are
environmentally hazardous. For example to make 1 Km x 3.6 meter tarred road the
following are needed: 375 cubic meters of stones, 4320 – 5400 Kg tar and
approximately 1732 to 2160 Kg of firewood (400 Kg fire would is needed to heat
1000 Kg of tar to 200 0C).

6 CONCLUSIONS
 The project approach is versatile because it is flexible. The technology and the
approach can and should be adapted to suit the local need. The main priority is that
the community should accept it as one of their own. Examples on technology
adaptations were earlier discussed. While maintaining the community focus this can
be further adapted to include inputs from technologies practiced in different
locations/countries.

 Even more important is the need to adapt to the approach to suit the local situations.
In Sri Lanka, shramadana (voluntary labour campaigns) is a traditional feature.
Organising people to do this more systematically and with technical inputs is
therefore easy. But if the same approach is to be implemented in a country or a

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 social background where voluntary labour / sharing of work among members of a
community is alien, this approach may not take root in its raw form. In such
situations it is necessary to start from a positive base that already exists and bring in
to this the necessary features from the approach.

 Although the project approach develops a sense of ownership among the community
for their roads, it is important to recognise and remember that the local government
authority has a legal binding over it. This should not be viewed as a limitation, but as
a support to the project where the assistance of the local government institution can
be sought to settle legal issues. Therefore, from the inception of the project the
community has to be linked with the local government institution that is closest to
them. Such institutions should also be involved in the project as a stakeholder.
When the project withdraws the link between the community and the local
government authority will help sustain benefits of the project, as well as spread it
further.

 It is vital that the community not only carries out the construction, but also
understands the technology behind the constructions they do. This technical know
how will help the community to effectively maintain their own roads. Developing the
technical capacity of the community is especially important in countries such as Sri
Lanka where communities access to technical officers is very limited.

 The high potential of the project approach to reduce the cost of maintaining rural
access roads is the key feature of the project. This approach is important to the
resource-poor PSs in Sri Lanka (or other local government institutions) because it
helps cut down the cost of maintaining rural roads. Often rural roads fall into a
dilapidated condition due to lack of proper maintenance. Through the project
approach the responsibility of maintaining rural roads is shared equally between the
communities who use those roads and the authorities under which the roads are
placed. As this is the key feature of the approach, maintenance has to be stressed
from the start of the project.

 Cost effectiveness of this approach depends largely on the level to which the
community is mobilised to feel that they share an ownership for this road. During the
extension of the road in Malberigama, the new comers to the project were not
sufficiently mobilised and the project temporarily experienced a situation where the
cost of labour was increasing in parallel to the output. This issue was discussed with
the community and alternative payment systems were explored. This experience too
highlights the need to inculcate a sense of ownership for the road among the
community to ensure cost effectiveness of this method of rural road construction.



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