Case study on community involvement in rural water supply Sri Lanka

Millennium Development goals create new vision to achieve current development issues in developing countries. In Sri Lanka there are various constraints to providing safe water and sanitation to the entire population. Sustainability of rural water supply systems is an acute problem mainly due to the adopted supply driven approach. To change this, the Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply Sri Lanka, together with Asian Development Bank was given responsibility by the National Water Supply & Drainage Board to formulate a project focusing on sustainability. As a result a Project was designed based on a people centred and demand driven approach. Objectives of this approach are : to induce a sense of owner-ship; to reduce capital and O&M costs through community participation; and to achieve sustainability. ADB Assisted Third Water Supply and Sanitation (Sector) Project was implemented with a view of achieving the above objectives This paper describes the positive and negative impacts of community involvement in this Project.