The caretaker should be recruited from the local village, he should preferably be settled, married, land owner and well-recognised by the community. Ideally, he should also have some technical skills, however, interest and motivation to run a water supply system are more important criteria for his election. He should show his interest and skills during construction of the treatment plant. However, the future caretaker should preferably not be selected during the construction phase of a project but after assessment of the performance of different candidates during this period by the construction foreman and the design engineer who could then propose qualified candidates to the water committee for election. Each caretaker must also have a deputy who can assume operation of the water supply during his absence for reasons of illness, personal matters or other obligations. However, responsibilities of the different staff must be clearly defined and separately developed for each employee.
====Filter maintenance====
Filter maintenance is not very demanding as the prefilters do not include any mechanical parts apart from the valves. Nevertheless, maintenance should aim at maintaining the plant in good condition right from the beginning. External assistance for maintenance work can usually be avoided if the following work is carried out properly by the local caretaker:
• periodic upkeep of the treatment plant's premise (grass cutting; removal of small bushes and trees which could impair the structures by their roots; removal of refuse)
• soil protection against erosion (especially surface water intake structures, the washwater drainage channels and surface runoff)
• repairing fissures in the walls of the different structures and replacing the chipped plaster
• application of anti-corrosive agents to exposed metal parts (V-notch weirs, gauging rods, pipes)
• checking the different valves and drainage systems, and occasionally lubricating their moving parts
• weeding the filter material
• skimming off floating material from the free water table
• washing out coarse settled material (distribution and inlet boxes)
• controlling the ancillaries and replacing defective parts (tools and testing equipment).
====Potential problems====