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 Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire Survey show that only 14 percent of rural households have access to safe water sources; only 24 percent have access to safe sanitation facilities. These are among the lowest figures in southern Nigeria, and may be due to a historic lack of investment by the federal and state governments.

The role of non-governmental organisations in water governance is to facilitate community-led initiatives that promote self reliance and equal access. This is important in areas where communities do not trust governments to protect their interests, or fulfil their role as service providers and regulators.

Since 2001, Concern Universal has worked on projects in Cross River State to increase the role of communities in governing rural water supply and sanitation. Concern Universal has developed a model characterised by:

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

Cost-recovery systems

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

Practices vary between communities. Some introduced household levies for commercial uses, such as moulding blocks or cooking rice for sale. On average, these were equivalent to US$0.40 per household per month. In some places, community funds were used to repair infrastructure breakdowns. People were then charged 'per bucket' for water until the community water and sanitation bank account was replenished. A portion of profits from community-run 'Sanicentres' were also used to repair breakdowns. However, no communities introduced charges 'per-bucket' as a standard cost recovery method.

Concern Universal has identified policy implications for working with communities to manage water supplies:

• 'One size fits all' solutions to cost recovery are not appropriate; systems should be based around normal community practices.
• A community contribution is essential for sustainability, but it is the principle that is important, not the actual method of contribution.
• To be sustainable, cost recovery processes should cover annual operation and maintenance costs.

Robin Todd
Concern Universal, 41 IBB Way, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
robin.todd@concern-universal.org
T +234 87238828

See also

Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire – Cross River State Summary, National Bureau of Statistics, 2006 (PDF)
www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/Connections/cwiq/Cross%20River.pdf

Annual Report 2005-6, Concern Universal-Nigeria, 2006

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