Searching for success in community management for rural water supplies over 30 years

Community management of rural water supplies is an approach that gives control of the water systems to the communities. Over the past three decades, it has become common for rural communities to adopt this approach to manage their water systems. Past experiences have shown that community water supply needs some add-ons or "Plus factors" to ensure sustainability and scalability. The present study contributes to the Community Water Plus project funded by Australian Aid, which aims at determining the extent of "Plus factors" required for success. The aim of this study is to critically review and analyse the development pattern of successful community-managed rural water supplies over the past three decades. Two research questions were addressed:
- What Plus Factors are associated with successful community managed rural water supplies?
- Is the socio-economic setting indicative of the likely success of a community managed rural water supply?
The research method consisted of a systematic review of the case studies using a "SuccessFramework" followed by in-depth evaluation of the case studies and the socio-economic setting. The study has shown that for community management to be successful, a certain level of socioeconomic wealth is necessary, but not sufficient. A combination of different Plus factors, both internal and external, is also needed to make the community management approach sustainable and successful.