Assessment of Sustainability of Community Water Supply Projects in Kandy District

Introduction of community water supply projects, implemented and managed by the community with an initial support from governments or international organizations has been considered as a useful strategy to provide access to safe drinking water to rural communities. Sri Lanka has also adopted this strategy through the Community Water Supply & Sanitation Project. Since there were concerns about the sustainability of numerous water schemes implemented throughout the country, a research was carried out in 20 community managed water schemes in eight Divisional Secretariat divisions in Kandy district to assess the sustainability of community based rural water supply projects using a methodology adopted by the UNDP and World Bank in six other countries. Participatory research methodology tools were used for the assessment based on 5 sub-indicators, such as physical condition, operation and maintenance, consumer satisfaction, financial management and willingness-to-sustain the system. The results show that the community water supply projects to provide water to rural areas of Kandy district has been a success since 14 out of 20 schemes were found to be sustainable indicating that the strategies followed during the project implementation have succeeded. However, the study has also highlighted areas which require further attention to ensure that these systems would continue to provide the expected services and improve the functioning of other potentially sustainable schemes in the longrun. A capacity building program along with an institutional arrangement to provide the support services by the authorities, at least in the short term, is considered vital to help improve the Community Based Organizations and to make them capable and mature entities. <em>Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 23 (1): 51-60 (2011)</em> DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/tar.v23i1.4631