Le-Gouais-A-1049.pdf (378.28 kB)
Abandoning community management for professionalization of water supply in rural Benin
conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:09 authored by Anna Le Gouais, J. WebsterHow to achieve sustainability in rural water supply is an ongoing challenge and involvement of the community is often seen as crucial for long term success. However, in Benin community management is generally viewed as a disaster after years of poor management, particularly misuse of funds, which has led to unsustainable systems. As a result, the national strategy has shifted away from community management and towards ‘professionalization’ and promotion of the private sector in rural and small town water management. This study analyses the attitudes of key stakeholders, particularly decision makers, towards four forms of management which local authorities can chose to impose, involving community Water User Associations (WUAs) and the private sector to varying degrees. It shows a strong preference towards excluding WUAs by the water services, who advise local authorities, as well as by facilitators. However, some areas continue to include WUAs to avoid conflict with communities.
History
School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Research Unit
- Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Published in
WEDC ConferenceCitation
LE GOUAIS, A. and WEBSTER, J., 2011. Abandoning community management for professionalization of water supply in rural Benin. IN: Shaw, R.J. (ed). The future of water, sanitation and hygiene in low-income countries - Innovation, adaptation and engagement in a changing world: Proceedings of the 35th WEDC International Conference, Loughborough, UK, 6-8 July 2011, 8p.p.Publisher
© WEDC, Loughborough UniversityVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2011Notes
This is a conference paper.Other identifier
WEDC_ID:12784Language
- en