Rural water system functionality and its determinants: a twelve-country study

This paper presents results from a 12-country study of water systems installed by Living Water International from 2001-2014. Results from a random, representative sample of 3,815 water systems indicate that 77.1% were functional, with an additional 5.8% having limited functionality. These results fall in the upper end of an expected range based on similar studies. Several factors increased the odds of water system functionality, including when water users made financial contributions to the system and whether a community used a management structure. Any type of management increased the odds of functionality, but village water committees had the largest effect. Additionally, Afridev pumps were associated with higher odds of functionality than India Mark II pumps.