Effectiveness of the community-based maintenance system for rural water supply facilities in Uganda

CBMS was introduced in Uganda in 1986 to address challenges of functionality of rural water facilities. However functionality has stagnated for the last 5 years at 85% as opposed to the national target of 90% by 2015. The paper assesses the performance of the CMBS in Uganda, outlining the factors that affect it including the legal status of WSC, voluntary nature of the WSC members, willingness and ability of water users to contribute to O&M, availability of back-up support to WSCs, functionality of community support water artisans, the Supply Chain for Spare-parts, vandalism of water source parts, and women participation in CBMS. Analysis is made to the emerging community approaches and innovations in management of RWS facilities. Conclusions and recommendations are made to address the challenges identified.