Community Management of Rural Water Supplies: Lessons for Developing Countries from a Western Canadian Experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT External support agencies and national governments are advocating community management of rural drinking water supplies and sanitation facilities as an appropriate and realistic way ofguaranteeing the long-term sustainability of systems in developing countries. Experience with community managed rural water supplies in the developed world can provide useful insights and guidance for the conceptualization, planning, and implementation of community managed water projects. Lessons from a successful water supply program in Western Canada suggest that a sustainable community managed water supply project must be demand driven, that the implementing agency provide an enabling environment, and that beneficiaries be legally empowered to assume ownership and responsibility for the completed systems.