Financial sustainability of rural water supplies in Western Kenya: comparing technology types and management models

This case study is an evaluation of the financial sustainability of 52 rural water supplies in Western Kenya, including both handpumps and motorized pumps used for pumping groundwater. The four included management models are community management, government management, combined community and government management and private management. The water supplies are evaluated in terms of service level, operation and maintenance, financial management and cost recovery. At the handpumps, the community or combined management scores bad and the private management good. At the motorized pumps the private management scores again high, but here also the community management scores better than the ones with government involvement. In general, the management is better at the motorized pumps, but still the cost recovery is better at the handpumps because of the low costs. Evaluating the management models, the private management got in total the best results.