Sustainable rural water with demand responsive and people centered approaches

Community based rural water supply schemes are the suitable solutions to fulfill the water needs of village population in the developing countries like Sri Lanka. However ensuring the sustainability in operation and maintenance of rural water schemes are the major challenge. This paper describes the sustainability of water supply schemes, implemented in six-selected districts of Sri Lanka, under the ADB-assisted third water supply and sanitation sector project. Monaragala is one of the selected districts under this ADB project, and our analysis based on the examination of piped water supply schemes, which were implemented, within villages in this District. These schemes were implemented based on demand responsive and people centered approaches, and the community is playing the major role from the implementation to operation and maintenance. This paper describes the post-project strategies, the operation and maintenance system adapted to these water schemes and how the sustainability was achieved through community involvement. Setting up the tariff system and the billing process are also important factors for the sustainability, so the paper explains these details too, and provides the cost comparison of operation and maintenance activities, of some selected schemes.