Water system hardware and management rehabilitation: Qualitative evidence from Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia

• Published in: International journal of hygiene and environmental health 2017-05, Vol.220 (3), p.531-538
• Main Authors: Klug, Tori, Shields, Katherine F., Cronk, Ryan, Kelly, Emma, Behnke, Nikki, Lee, Kristen, Bartram, Jamie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Community Participation; Community water management; Equipment Failure; Ghana; Humans; Kenya; Local Government; Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); Organizations; Post-construction support; Rural water systems; Sustainability; Water committee; Water Purification - instrumentation; Zambia
• ISSN: 1438-4639; 1618-131X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.02.009

•Four hardware and three management pathways were identified.•Pathways show how resources can be leveraged to restore hardware and management.•Focusing on rehabilitation rather than failure.•Poor communication between communities and external actors is a rehabilitation barrier.•Community capacity building can enhance rehabilitation Sufficient, safe, continuously available drinking water is important for human health and development, yet one in three handpumps in sub-Saharan Africa are non-functional at any given time. Community management, coupled with access to external technical expertise and spare parts, is a widely promoted model for rural water supply management. However, there is limited evidence describing how community management can address common hardware and management failures of rural water systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We identified hardware and management rehabilitation pathways using qualitative data from 267 interviews and 57 focus group discussions in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. Study participants were water committee members, community members, and local leaders in 18 communities (six in each study country) with water systems managed by a water committee and supported by World Vision (WV), an international non-governmental organization (NGO). Government, WV or private sector employees engaged in supporting the water systems were also interviewed. Inductive analysis was used to allow for pathways to emerge from the data, based on the perspectives and experiences of study participants. Four hardware rehabilitation pathways were identified, based on the types of support used in rehabilitation. Types of support were differentiated as community or external. External support includes financial and/or technical support from government or WV employees. Community actor understanding of who to contact when a hardware breakdown occurs and easy access to technical experts were consistent reasons for rapid rehabilitation for all hardware rehabilitation pathways. Three management rehabilitation pathways were identified. All require the involvement of community leaders and were best carried out when the action was participatory. The rehabilitation pathways show how available resources can be leveraged to restore hardware breakdowns and management failures for rural water systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments, NGOs, and private sector actors can better build capacity of community actors by focusing on their role in rehabilitating hardware and manage