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This study uses multi-criteria analysis to assess water services performance provided to rural communities. The approach is based on five indicators (water availability, water quality, accessibility, affordability, and reliability) and allows the assessment of service levels. The indicators used provided a solid baseline for water services to identify a strategy for the improvement and achievement of universal access to water. We empirically applied the approach to rural water services in Cameroon and particularly in Mvangan and Mandjou councils. A total of 77 water services has been investigated through technical inspection (water point inspection, flow measurement, and water quality analysis), semi-structured interviews with the technical services of these councils and surveys with water point committees, including 25 in Mandjou Council and 52 in Mvangan Council. The main results show that 43.40% of villages have enhanced services in Mvangan Council while only 4.76% of services are enhanced in Mandjou Council. Results also suggests that monitoring rural water services can improve the levels of services provided to populations and, hence, universal access to water. These assessments represent only a current snapshot of potable water delivery system conditions and should be conducted at regular intervals to track changes in overall and local conditions.

This paper presents updated water handpump functionality estimates for eight councils in the Mvila Division, southern region of Cameroon. The methodological approach was based on a technical inspection of 647 water points (181 boreholes and 466 wells) and semi-structured interviews with 500 stakeholders, including 103 water point committee members, 389 water users, and 8 water experts. According to the findings, one out of every three hand pumps is inoperable. Based on this rate, approximately 1.3 billion CFA francs (approximately 2 million US dollars) invested by the government, communities, and development partners are immobilized and do not generate any benefit for affected rural communities. This high level of handpump non-functionality is due to the low economic viability of water point management, the poor functionality of water point committees, and the poorly structured handpump maintenance chain. The pooling of water point management at the scale of the Mvila Division appears to be an avenue to be explored to improve the functionality of the handpump.

This chapter examines the situation of rural water and sanitation services in Cameroon within the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs), to establish whether Cameroon is on right track of meeting the SDG, and proposes actions to be taken to achieve universal access for water and sanitation. Based on the analyzed data obtained from national surveys and the Joint Monitoring Program for 2021, it argues that Cameroon is unlikely to reach universal access to water and sanitation in rural area by 2030. Factors contributing to poor access to rural water and sanitation services include the poor application of the policy and legal framework, the poor coordination of interventions between the actors involved in the sector, the low financial viability of the sector, the low efficiency of expenditure related to water and sanitation, and the lack of human resources in the sector. The implementation of the policy and legal framework, the stability of the institutional framework, the reaffirmation of the major role of the State of the changed Ministry of water, and the collaboration of all the actors of the sector within the mechanisms provided for this purpose are of fundamental importance to achieve SDG 6.1 and 6.2 in Cameroon.

The aim of this article is to present the state of the art on the sustainability indices of rural water services in order to identify gaps in knowledge. The methodological approach used was to conduct online searches using the databases of Google Scholar, Web of Science, Pub Med, the International Water Association, and ResearchGate. Several indices have been identified in the literature including the Canadian Water Sustainability Index, Index of Drinking Water Adequacy, the Sustainable Water Governance Index, equity index in water and sanitation, WASH performance Index, Sustainable Water Management Index, and Index of water service quality. However, these indices do not provide an integrative, contextualized and prospective analysis of the sustainability of water services. In addition, these indices select only a few evaluation criteria deemed relevant. In other words, these indices make the choice to make visible certain phenomena and therefore in invisibility of others according to the logic of action of each and certain social compromises. These difficulties therefore encourage the development of a new index to provide an integrative, contextual and prospective analysis of the sustainability of rural water services.