Abstract
Service provision for Afridev handpumps through community management in Malawi is a notable challenge. Essential preventative maintenance is often neglected, and repairs are undertaken on a reactive basis. The costs of major repairs are not recognized at community level and are typically neglected across the lifecycle of infrastructure or left to external stakeholders. The aim of this study was to investigate preventative maintenance and capital maintenance expenditure over the 15-year design lifecycle of 21,997 Afridev handpumps in Malawi, and how costs change based on different local tariff collection scenarios. A total of four tariff collection scenarios were investigated, for assets both subject and not subject to rehabilitation. The findings highlight poor initial capacity building into appropriate cost recovery and maintenance approaches. Major repair costs increase over the pump lifecycle when service consists of the replacement of low-cost, fast-wearing parts. Rehabilitation/major repair costs increase as a result but tend to be focused on simple longer-life components, such as pump rods. In both cases, a reliance on external support was highlighted, as larger costs are primarily covered by donors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Proactive tariff scenarios may provide a greater capability of replacement throughout the lifecycle of major items when compared to reactive tariff scenarios. It is recommended that policy and practitioners should focus on capacity building of sustainable maintenance models that consider the full lifecycle costs of assets.
Highlights
The delivery of sustainable rural water services requires appropriate financial and maintenance approaches to sustain and repair an asset across its lifecycle [1,2]
This paper draws upon data associated with the service provision, operations and maintenance (O&M), and CapManEx domains for drilled boreholes equipped with Afridev handpumps installed during the period of 2000 to 2019 in Malawi
Preventative maintenance can feel like a redundant exercise [23,24,25], and continued support for rural communities is lacking under community-based management (CBM)
Summary
The delivery of sustainable rural water services requires appropriate financial and maintenance approaches to sustain and repair an asset across its lifecycle [1,2]. While investment into new infrastructure and rehabilitation programs has increased the global coverage of improved water supply [3,4,5,6], capacity building and lifecycle assessments to sustain such services have been lacking [1,7,8] This focus on capital expenditure (CapEx) has led to impulsive investment, with limited comprehensive planning into the additional costs required for long-term sustainability of the water supply [9]. The community-based management (CBM) approach emerged in the 1990s in many developing countries (including Malawi, where CBM is embedded in national policy) as a decentralized model for service delivery and management of rural water supplies. The well-acknowledged limitations of this one-size-fits-all approach showed that the promotion of CBM was “a triumph of
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