Linking community to policy level support: the CARE-Zambia trust model

Zambia is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the Sub-Sahara Africa, but the rate of urbanization has not matched with infrastructure development and other service provision. Lusaka the capital city has 33 Peri-Urban areas, which account for over 60% of the city’s population. The Water Supply and Sanitation services in these settlements are poor, inadequate, unreliable, with at least 56% and 90% of the peri-urban populations not having access to safe Water Supply and satisfactory Sanitation facilities respectively (PUWSS Report 1999). In order to address this situation, the Government of the Republic of Zambia embarked upon a sector wide restructuring exercise in 1993 which provided an enabling policy environment for International NGOs to develop and implement innovative management models that would embrace the interests of communities and Government. This paper shares the ‘Water Trust Model’, an innovation of CARE Zambia currently operational in 6 Peri-Urban Settlements of Lusaka.