Clarissa Brocklehurst recently posted on the RWSN network the following:
At the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina, we decided to make community management the focus of our most recent WASH Policy Research Digest.
We’ve included in this issue a critical review of a paper by Ellie Chowns, and a literature review by Harold Lockwood of Aquaconsult. We conclude that:
- Community management has proven to be problematic in its most basic form, but there are well-performing examples
- Community management that relies exclusively on users, without some level of external support and oversight, will not ensure high levels of functionality
- Well-designed, performance-based post construction support is needed to support rural communities to maintain their water systems
- A range of options for management of rural water supply systems should be considered
- Governments should consider supporting recurrent costs of rural water supply systems, but avoid removing user fees altogether
The UNC WASH Policy Research Digest-6_Community Management is attached, and also available at http://waterinstitute.unc.edu/wash-policy-research-digest/