Achieving a lasting impact in rural water services: a case study from south-west Uganda

The achievement of lasting beneficial impacts through rural water supply services has been elusive. In too many cases significant effort and investment has been devoted to providing a service, but after a few years (or even a few months) the system breaks down and no longer provides a useful service to the community. Much thought has gone into the question of what is required to bring about sustainable services, but there remain missing dimensions in much of the existing literature and practice. This paper describes a small research project, focused on one long-term rural water and sanitation programme in south-west Uganda, which specifically addresses the question of sustainability. The paper outlines the research aims and methodology, and presents part of the conceptual thinking derived from literature and key-informant interviews. Field work is on-going at the time of writing, but will be completed in time for oral presentation at the conference.