Decentralizing water supply services in developing countries: Factors affecting the success of community management
| Published date | 01 September 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230110502 |
| Date | 01 September 1991 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
11,415-430 (1991)
Decentralizing water
supply
services
in
developing countries:
factors affecting the success
of
community management
DENNIS A. RONDINELLI
University
of
North Carolina
SUMMARY
This article examines the problem of extending access to potable water through conventionally
controlled government services and describes the roles of non-governmental organizations
and community management associations in improving service delivery and maintaining local
water systems. Six sets of factors that are crucial to the success of community management
are identified: adequate incentives, sufficient skills and resources, appropriate processes for
water systems operations and maintenance, effective interorganizational relationships, appro-
priate technology, and effective systems of monitoring, evaluation and feedback. The com-
ponents that must be taken into consideration in designing and implementing programmes
for decentralizing water supply systems through community management are set out.
The social and economic benefits of providing greater access to potable water in
developing countries are now widely recognized. Extending water services saves peo-
ple considerable time and energy in obtaining water from traditional sources (Tavan-
gar, 1989). But it also allows households to use more water for hygienic and
horticultural purposes, thereby increasing labour productivity and reducing the
human suffering from water-related diseases, which cause a majority of illnesses
in developing nations (WHO, 1980). During the 1980s, more than
25,000
people-
mostly childrenaied every day from diarrhoea1 diseases brought
on
by drinking
or bathing in unsanitary water and by poor hygienic practices.
Because of the direct and visible relationships between access to potable water
and improvements in health and productivity, international assistance organizations
and governments
in
developing countries have invested hundreds of millions of dol-
lars during the past several decades to extend potable water to rural communities.
At the beginning of the United Nations International Drinking Water Supply and
Sanitation Decade (IWSSD) in 1980, the World Health Organization estimated that
about 1.8 billion additional people would have to receive access to potable water
in order to meet IWSSD goals. The costs
of
providing adequate water to meet IWSSD
targets were estimated
at
U.S.
$30
billion in urban areas and nearly U.S. $16 billion
in rural areas (WHO, 1987). Rough estimates place the amount that governments
Professor Rondinelli
is
the Director
of
the International Private Enterprise Development Research Centre
at the UNC Business School at Chapel Hill, Campus
Box 3440,
University
of
North Carolina, Chapel
Hill,
NC
27599-3440,
U.S.A.
027 1-2075/9
1/0504
1
5-1
6$08.00
0
199
1
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
416
D.
A.
Rondinelli
and donors are now spending on rural water supply at about
U.S.
$1.5 billion a
year (Briscoe and deFerranti, 1988).
Despite widespread recognition of the importance of improved water and sani-
tation, and heavy investment by international donors and governments in developing
countries in extending water supply systems, more than half of the rural population
in developing countries still lacks access to clean drinking water. The rapid pace
of urbanization
in
developing countries is also increasing the demand for water
in peri-urban communities and cities. The urban population in developing nations
is expected to grow by about
51
million a year over the next 40 years (UNCHS,
1987). The World Health Organization (1987) estimated that
25
to
30
per cent of
the urban population in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East lack access
to potable water. More than one-third of the urban population in Asia and the
Caribbean are not served.
EXTENDING COVERAGE AND IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY
Experience suggests that, in the future, central government ministries and agencies
in developing countries will find it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to extend
water and sanitation services to rural and peri-urban areas through conventional
public service delivery arrangements (Therkildsen, 1989). The World Health Organi-
zation (1986) found that in African countries, water supply has been constrained
severely by national funding limitations, insufficiently trained personnel, frequent
logistical problems, and poor operations and maintenance (O&M) practices. Inappro-
priate legal and organizational arrangements, insufficient means of recovering costs,
and inadequate planning and design also
limit
the ability
of
African governments
to extend water supplies.
Examples of ineffective central management of water supply services are numerous.
Evaluations of rural water and sanitation projects in Honduras, for example, found
the government’s responsibilities for water delivery were unclear and confused
because management of the sector was
so
fragmented among many ministries and
agencies that did not communicate with each other. Rural development agencies
and the Ministry of Health, both important participants in water service delivery,
would not work together (Edwards and Salt, 1989). In Jordan, the planning of water
resource development projects was undermined by rivalries between the Water Auth-
ority of Jordan and the Jordan Valley Authority. In Egypt, responsibilities for
decision-making, financing, quality control, and operations and maintenance
of
water
supply systems became
so
fragmented and confusing that they undermined efficient
operation of the system. Rural water supply functions were carried out by national
ministries, agencies in each governorate, and local organizations in municipalities
with little or no co-ordination among them.
The high costs and administrative complexities of delivering water in rural and
peri-urban areas through central ministries and agencies have led many governments
to look for alternatives (Rondinelli, 1990b). Self-help programmes, informal sector
participation, privatization of services, user-charge and cost-recovery financing, or
public-private partnerships are some
of
the ways in which governments in developing
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