Sustainability of water services implemented using community-managed project approach in Amhara Region of Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Sustainability of rural water supply of Africa does not work as it was intended. Between 20% and 70% of installed hand pumps in Africa are not functioning. In Ethiopia 35% of the hand pumps are in the same situation.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the sustainability of rural water services using Community Managed Project (CMP) approach of Amhara National Region State (ANRS) of Ethiopia. In addition, the aim was to find factors which affect the sustain-ability and find solutions to factors threatening sustainability.

This was conducted in five woredas (districts) in South Gondar region of Amhara Na-tional Regional State (ANRS). It became important to Community-led accelerated WaSH (COWASH) of Ethiopia to check the sustainability of water services imple-mented in rural areas of Amhara region of Ethiopia using the Community Managed pro-ject Approach (CMP). It was also important to underline major issues influencing the sustainability of this area.

For their being necessary to this study both secondary and primary data collection were utilized. In order to find necessary primary data, different set of questionnaires were prepared for different stakeholders and local beneficiaries. Officials from local water offices and regional level offices were also interviewed to get the secondary data collec-tion.

Reliable results came out in terms of functionality rate of schemes, sense of ownership and high community participation in all levels of scheme management from planning to financial management. An average functionality rate of 98% was observed during this study. However, the major and common threat in all schemes whether they are CMPs or non-CMPs was the shortage of water in a dry season period.