Improvements to rural water supplies benefit health and economies. However, despite the availability of simple technology, many rural communities have not made changes to their water infrastructure. Social organisation is more complex than technology: negotiating water and land rights, budgeting for improvements and collectively managing a project require effective communication and skills within a community.

In western Kenya, more than half of community water projects fail. The past twenty years have seen little government involvement in rural water projects. The Water Act of 2002 aimed to give more attention to this issue, but focused on encouraging private sector involvement in water services. It is rarely profitable for the private sector to invest in creating new infrastructure in rural areas, however, so this had little impact on reaching remote rural communities. For many rural communities, the only practical way to improve the quality, quantity and seasonal availability of water is by forming a community water association (CWA).

Technology for rainfall collection, spring protection and for pipes to carry water is now widely available; why do so few communities succeed in installing them? Research from the University of California – Santa Cruz, USA, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) examines eight communities across in Western Kenya.  Research initiated by the late Jessica Roy indicates the following:

• The differences between gender roles are important. Women collect water, so benefit most from piped water supplies, but men organise CWAs and plan infrastructure improvements, so do not always consider the needs of women.
• Women save an average of 3.5 hours per week when water is piped to their homesteads. Women report many alternative uses for this time, including collective and individual activities (such as activities and meetings of new women’s groups, and selling vegetables at the market).In many cases, they use this time to grow cash crops, which significantly increases household incomes. However, men value profitable activities and many do not see women’s time as profitable.
• Households with piped water in their homesteads use about three times as much water as households who fetch water from communal springs.  Extra water is used for washing clothes and dishes, watering cattle, growing local vegetables and raising tree seedlings.
• A lack of land rights often discourages groups from investing in water supplies. Where land is government-owned, long-term access can be insecure. Groups also have to negotiate with private landowners, when a spring is on private land or pipes have to be laid across it.
• Previous negative experience of collective action, where projects have failed because of ineffective management and low community involvement, discourages people from creating CWAs.

Despite these problems, successful CWAs can yield major benefits for still benefit a community. Where CWAs are successful, members report improved health (such as a reduction in typhoid), saved time, greater income generation  (which is often used for other income generating activities), and improved community cooperation in other aspects of life. In other places, men are taking on some responsibility for collecting water and women are earning an income. This is helping to reduce gender inequalities.

With clear benefits from CWAs, they are worth pursuing as a water management tool. The research identifies four factors necessary for successful CWAs:

• A reliable source of good quality water that is accessible to the community, including strong and enforceable access rights to both land and water.
• Organisational skills within a community to manage a project and its finances, in ways that benefit the whole community, not just individuals.
• Good access to markets and fair prices paid for crops produced by women.
• The ability of both men and women to negotiate their activities and value each other’s roles in supplying water.

Source(s):
‘Getting access to adequate water: community organizing, women and social change in Western Kenya’, International workshop on African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, by Jessica L. Roy, Ben Crow and Brent Swallow, 26-28 January 2005 Full document.

Funded by: The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF); European Union; Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture

id21 Research Highlight: 28 November 2005

Further Information:
Brent Swallow
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
United Nations Avenue
Gigiri
P.O. Box 30677
Nairobi
Kenya

Tel: +254 20 722 4000
Fax: +254 20 722 4001
Contact the contributor: B.Swallow@cgiar.org

University of California – Santa Cruz, USA

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Other related links:
'Community priorities for water rights: rethinking assumptions, principles, and programmes'

'Tapping the rural water market in Cambodia'

'Putting water and sanitation at the heart of poverty reduction'

'Access to water: a woman’s right?'

'Working together: a ‘best practice’ in rural water supply and sanitation in Africa'

'Can South Africa’s rural poor be guaranteed water?'