1. User financing of rural handpump water services
Richard C Carter, Erik Harvey, Vincent Casey (WaterAid)
IRC: Pumps, Pipes & Promises
November 2010 1

2. Handpump functionality (%)
[Source: UNICEF/RWSN]
100 Population-weighted
90 average 63% - reduces
90
80 80 78 coverage by one third
80 75 75 75
70 70 70 69 68
70 66 65 65
60
60
50
50
40 35 35 33
30
20
10
0
2

3. Functionality v. year of installation
[Six districts of Tanzania, study by Haysom, 2006]
100%
90%
Preponderance of
80% gravity schemes (with
70%
lower failure rates)
Functionality rate
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year constructed 3

4. Defining sustainability
• Len Abrams: “... continuing to work over time ...”
Or,
• “... providing a permanent improved service ...”
• A dynamic concept – this handpump doesn’t
have to work forever, but this water supply
service does.
• Consistent with Triple-S: Sustainable Service ....
4

5. “... take me to your water pump”
Do you have to pay for
use of this water
point?
How much do you
pay? How was the fee
determined?
Do you all pay? Every
month/year?
So how many of you
are exempt? Do the
rest of you always pay?
And how much money
is there in the kitty?
What will happen if
there is a serious
breakdown?
5

6. Handpump maintenance
Typically 50 user households
may each agree to pay USD120 per annum
USD2.40 per annum.
A proportion of households
(say 10%) is exempted for USD105 per annum
good reasons.
In some years, because of
drought, flood, pest or hail, USD35 per annum
no-one pays. (average)
Typical life-cycle
annual cost of
handpump USD235
(Baumann, 2006) 6

7. A spiral of unsustainable dependence
Inadequate combined with an Inability or
tariff unwillingness
to pay leading to
Further Unaffordable
unwillingness to Back to the
repairs
pay for poor swamp, and
wait for the needed
service next donor ...
resulting in
leading to
Long
down-time 7

8. ... not to mention ...
• problems of managing cash at
village level
• inappropriate (unmanageable)
technology
• difficulty of obtaining spare
parts
• missing or broken tools
• unresponsiveness of support
services
8

9. The myth of community managed water supply
A rural community can manage its water supply on its own.
Technology inherently increases dependence ... on spare
parts, on skills, on support ...
We are actually establishing a two-fold maintenance
requirement:
Water user
committee
External support (to
External limited ability both “hard” and
intervention to maintain
“soft” infrastructure
Water supply
technology
9

10. Conceptualising sustainability
2. Full user 9. To management
Community-based,
D E S IG N &I M P L E M E N T A T I O N
participation. and monitoring
externally-
systems.
3. Technology fit supportedO&M
EXTERNAL SUPPORT
for purpose and system in place.
chosen by users. 10. Technical
• WUC functioning assistance to WUCs
4. Capital contri- • Revenues collected and users.
1. Establish bution by users. and recorded
need, demand 5. High quality of • Upkeep and
and relevant maintenance tasks 11. Recurrent cost
implementation.
service level. sharing.
being undertaken
6. Appropriate • Strong links between
tariff structure. user community and 12. Support to
support organisation supply chains and
7. Environmental
in place service providers.
aspects properly
• Environmental
addressed.
monitoring taking
8. Monitoring 13. In relation to
place
system in place externalities.
10

11. Two models of handpump maintenance
[modified from Erich Baumann, SKAT/RWSN]
“Community management” “Community management plus”
• minor repairs are managed • minor repairs and a share of
and financed* by users major repairs financed by users
• there is little or no technical • local Government or other
or institutional support permanent institution provides
• repairs which are beyond back-up and support
user capacity are not done • joint funding of O&M*
• ... service falls into disrepair. • ... sustained service.
* theoretically USD80pa or 13% of capital * total USD235pa or 40% of capital cost of
cost of pump – actually USD25pa or 4% pump – split 28% (users), 60% (LG), 12%
only. (central Government)
11

12. Unwilling or unable?
• there is a general reluctance to
pay for improved water services
in rural settings
• when users are convinced of the
necessity of payment, the ability
to pay varies enormously
• so-called “dollar-a-day” poverty
conceals the fact that many rural
households handle in the order
of one dollar per month in cash
12

13. Striving for sustainability
1. Revenues are often / usually
grossly inadequate
2. true life-cycle costs and costs
of external support need to
be factored in – but research
is needed to determine what
these are, and how they vary
3. realism about these costs
actually leads to cost-saving
4. action research is needed,
using innovative financing
and external support models
13

14. A call for realism and commitment in
relation to sustainability
• realism about what it takes
• commitment to its achievement
14