Assessing the Sustainability of Rural Water Supply Programs: A Case Study of Pawaga, Tanzania
Abstract
Today, over 1 billion people lack access to a clean, safe, and reliable drinking water
supply. As a result, millions die each year from waterborne illness. The UN has established
a target within the Millennium Development Goals to halve the number of people without
access to clean water by 2015. Unfortunately, much of sub-Saharan Africa is not on
track to meet this target. To address this crisis, there has recently been increased
interest from NGOs and foreign aid agencies in developing community-based rural water
supply and sanitation programs. However, these programs often fail after a few years,
making sustainability an essential and timely topic. This master’s project draws upon
existing literature and expert opinions to create a comprehensive framework for assessing
program sustainability. Aspects of civil society, institutional capacity, operation
and maintenance, financial considerations and monitoring and evaluation constitute
the framework.
Based on household surveys and strategic stakeholder interviews gathered in the field,
this framework is applied to the Pawaga Sustainable Development Programme in Tanzania’s
Iringa Rural District. In all, 46 household surveys—to elicit qualitative, program-specific
data—were conducted in three of the eight villages involved in Phase I of the Pawaga
program. Project engineers, community leaders, local government officials, donor agency
staff, and NGO staff were all consulted to obtain additional information and perspectives.
To complement this information, observational study of community meetings and sanitation
training sessions was gathered and analyzed.
At the request of Tearfund UK, the project client, recommendations are provided to
improve the sustainability of both phases of the Pawaga program. This framework is
intended to be a tool utilized by both our client, as well as other stakeholders in
the water supply and sanitation sector to ensure the sustainability of future water
supply programs, particularly those in the developing world.
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Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3649Citation
Fitts, Jennifer; & Sanders, Holly (2011). Assessing the Sustainability of Rural Water Supply Programs: A Case Study of Pawaga,
Tanzania. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3649.Collections
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