Implementing a Demand-Driven Approach to Community Water Supply Planning: A Case Study of Lugazi, Uganda

Abstract

ABSTRACT A new water supply and sanitation planning approach is now becoming accepted in many developing countries. This new approach holds that investment in the water and sanitation sector should be”demand driven,” i.e., that households should be provided with services they want and for which they are willing to pay. This paper shows how results from a rapid appraisal of household demand for improved water services were used to identify the appropriate water service level in Lugazi, Uganda. The authors argue that a demand-driven planning process requires flexibility on the part of engineering consultants, planners, and government officials to respond to the kind of unexpected findings that are likely to emerge from serious dialogue with project beneficiaries. Engineering consultants, government planners, and donors must be willing to tackle water supply problems with an open mind and to create different water scenarios for a community as a function of the community's own desires. At present, however, reference for most water supply planning jobs provide no incentive for this kind of creative problem solving. On the contrary, terms of reference typically penalize engineering and planning firms for using an adaptive, demand-driven approach. One pressing challenge is for water sector professionals, working for both donors and national governments, to craft terms of reference for water supply projects that reward practitioners for taking a demand-driven planning process seriously.