Community water plus: results from an investigation into community managed rural water supply in India

This paper reports on the outcomes from the ‘Community Water Plus’ (2013-2016) project that was designed to give donors, IFIs and low-income country governments the evidence base to determine and justify the ongoing resources needed to support community rural water services. The research demonstrated that significant recurrent financing from government and other sources subsidised the costs of services in successful community management programmes in India. The Gram Panchayat, the local-self government institution, also provided on-going support and carried out everyday operation, maintenance and administrative functions. The implications of the Indian experience are that successful rural water service delivery requires such significant on-going support, including funding and the delivery of key functions, that it is better to conceive of it as a form of coproduction between state and citizens, rather than community management, and governments should allocate resources accordingly.