Assessment of the sustainability of community-managed water supply services in Ghana

How community participation in water and sanitation interventions impacts human health, WASH infrastructure and service longevity in low-income and middle-income countries: a realist review

“…In the absence of this, a community may need to rely on external sources for the longevity of resources 17 49 63 91 92. Ownership is enabled when communities are allowed or granted decision-making authority in operations and have responsibility for the maintenance of hardware 17 94. Taking ownership requires a leader or committee to champion action,16 34 48 50 87 especially when a leader or committee has to manage the hardware (eg, in terms of speed and adequacy of repair) and to raise and manage funds necessary to maintain the hardware (eg, their water system) in the long term 46 48 50 55 61 74 78 87.…”

Towards Financial Sustainability: Beneficiaries’ Perception and Performance of Community Water Supply Services in Ghana

“…Mobilizing funds from different sources supports longterm financial sustainability [1]. Most evaluation reports revealed that sustainability can greatly be achieved if tariffs generate adequate resources to operate a system, finance the expansion of the service to new customers, and ultimately replace the infrastructure after its useful life [2][3][4].…”

“…This has raised a fundamental question of whether or not any costs should be covered through tariff/billing or external support, be it financially or otherwise. As noted by Nti et al, 2019 [1], most beneficiaries of communitymanaged water systems do not attend community forums organized by management teams aimed at disclosing to beneficiaries the financial position of the system. Thus, most water supply systems, especially those in developing countries, do not get the necessary incentives that allow them to listen to their customers to enable beneficiaries to participate and play a role that could help achieve financial sustainability [5,6].…”

“…Financial sustainability in the water sector reflects the financial capability of water users to meet their obligations [6]. The important criteria for achieving sustainability of community water systems are quality drinking water and reliability [1], which cannot materialize without the needed financial sustainability and effective management [22]. Importantly, financial sustainability requires that only revenues collected from the provision of water services delivery should be used to cover all associated costs [23].…”