Community-Managed Water Supply Systems in Rural Uganda: The Role of Participation and Capacity Development

Abstract

Over 85% of Uganda’s 34 million people depend on rural water supply systems and the current water and environment sector performance report (2017) reports an 84% functionality of rural water sources such as boreholes and shallow wells with a hand pump. Ensuring the continued operation of water points, and in keeping with participatory theory, the water user’s committees (WUCs) should also be a vehicle for empowering communities while bringing about greater equity of use. However, WUC members do not acquire the knowledge and skills they need by default but require different types of training. This study sought to evaluate community participation and capacity development in WUCs in relation to community-managed water supply systems. A shared dialogue workshop (SDW), as well as 642 randomly selected households across 17 villages in two Parishes in Lwengo district, southern Uganda were considered. Results indicated that 41.7% of surveyed households used an unprotected source while up to 30% had a member in a WUC. Fifty-two percent of households had never made any financial contributions to a WUC, while 34.6% did so on an ad hoc basis. This paper examines the relationship between participation, mobilization, and financial contributions. The chi-square test indicated mobilization has no impact on household financial contributions to a WUC. However, the majority of even those households that were mobilized made a payment only occasionally, and specifically when the source broke down. Additionally, the test result reveals that there is no difference between better off and relatively poor households in their contributions to a WUC, an indication that other factors influence such decisions. Training activities, especially on the operation and maintenance of water points and to undertake minor repairs, were mostly provided by non-governmental organizations (NGOs)/project staff. Abandoned boreholes, lack of rehabilitation activities, and loss of enthusiasm are all indications that the technical, financial, and institutional performance of community-managed water supply systems needs improvement.

Understanding the Functionality and Burden on Decentralised Rural Water Supply: Influence of Millennium Development Goal 7c Coverage Targets

“…However, as the MDG era strived for drinking water coverage and Malawi's policy to promote service delivery at the CBM level [28], the sustainability and performance of these systems is questionable, as shown by the functionality distribution where service providers are present in Table 1. Further research supports this observation, as financing and conducting preventative maintenance can appear a redundant exercise to service providers [15,36,41] when they are an essential part of a water systems life cycle, and a more cost-effective strategy than an often-repeated rehabilitation exercise [42]. Table 1 shows that over the MDG era, Afridev hand pump boreholes could be functional for extended periods without a service provider to conduct O&M (55.03%).…”

Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi: life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery

“…Poor management, lack of financial resources or the 'if it is not broke why fix it' approach, are commonly attributed to the lack of conducting preventative maintenance at the local level. [26][27][28] Donors and NGOs released of responsibility for ongoing O&M, while continuing to proclaim empowerment of the communities served, has made CBM a compelling model throughout its political history since the 1980s. 12,13,29,30 Communities rarely accept true ownership of a system as it is perceived responsibility lies with the implementing government or donor, 31 as O&M costs are frequently deemed 'somebody else's problem'.…”

Behaviors and Trends toward Routine Maintenance and Major Repairs of Afridev Handpumps in Rural Malawi

“…Each service provider for the Afridev is responsible for the preventative maintenance of the handpump and is therefore entitled to receive regular training from the supplier [38]. However, preventative maintenance can feel like a redundant exercise [23][24][25], and continued support for rural communities is lacking under CBM. Table 1 presents the breakdown of preventative maintenance conducted across the scenarios specified from our data, including explanations as to why preventative maintenance was not conducted.…”

“…The replacement of components before they fail through preventative and timely maintenance is crucial for the continued serviceability of handpumps, reducing the cost of premature failure [19][20][21][22]. This is often not completed and perceived to be a redundant exercise by communities [23][24][25].…”