Recovering the costs of rural water supply: community initiatives in Nigeria

Inadequate water supply and poor sanitation are serious problems for rural communities in Cross River State, southern Nigeria. Concern Universal works with these communities to strengthen their capacity to manage water and sanitation facilities.

Surveys such as the 2006 CoreWelfare Indicators Questionnaire Survey show that only 14 percent of ruralhouseholds have access to safe water sources; only 24 percent have access tosafe sanitation facilities. These are among the lowest figures in southern Nigeria, and may be due to a historic lack of investment bythe federal and state governments.

The role of non-governmentalorganisations in water governance is to facilitate community-led initiativesthat promote self reliance and equal access. This is important in areas wherecommunities do not trust governments to protect their interests, or fulfiltheir role as service providers and regulators.

Since 2001, Concern Universalhas worked on projects in Cross River State to increase the role of communitiesin governing rural water supply and sanitation. We have developed a modelcharacterised by:

• designing community-based management structures around existinglocal institutions. For example, Age-Grade systems help to ensure fair access.However, some traditional rulers take an active role in management, which canreinforce existing inequalities and patterns of resource control.
• total community self-reliance for borehole operations andmaintenance. Concern Universal trained and equipped men and women from eachcommunity to repair and maintain hand-pumps. We achieved encouraging results,with almost 90 percent of surveyed water points fully functional more thantwelve months after project completion.
• sustainable low-cost solutions. Concern Universal encouragedprotecting natural springs (using a new method developed by our partner GRADO)and repairing existing hand-pump boreholes instead of drilling new boreholes.

To deliver effectiveservices, water governance requires inter-related systems operated by manysections of society. If these services are to be maintained, governancearrangements must provide for cost recovery. Cost recovery systems designed bycommunities are most effective, enabling communities to sustain existingfacilities while still allowing widespread access to safe water.

Practices vary betweencommunities. Some introduced household levies for commercial uses, such asmoulding blocks or cooking rice for sale. On average, these were equivalent to US$0.40per household per month. In some places, community funds were used to repair infrastructurebreakdowns. People were then charged ‘per bucket’ for water until the communitywater and sanitation bank account was replenished. A portion of profits fromcommunity-run Sanicentres were also used to repairbreakdowns. However, no communities introduced charges ‘per-bucket’ as astandard cost recovery method.

Concern Universal have identified policy implications for working withcommunities to manage water supplies:

•  ‘One sizefits all’ solutions to cost recovery are not appropriate; systems shouldbe based around normal community practices.
• A community contribution is essential forsustainability, but it is the principle that is important, not the actual methodof contribution.
• To be sustainable, cost recovery processes shouldcover annual operation and maintenance costs.