Making water services last: a community-based management model for service sustainability in Ethiopia

It has been known for many years that efforts to professionalise community management and establish some of the necessary support functions required to keep services running can help to improve service levels and ultimately the longevity of services. This paper outlines WaterAid’s experience in Ethiopia of establishing management arrangements for multi-village piped schemes. Since the early 1990s, WaterAid has established a number of Rural Water Boards which remain operational today and ensure water supply services reach hundreds of thousands of people. Their relevance remains as strong today as the Government of Ethiopia seeks to establish more multi-village piped schemes as a means of providing greater water security to rural populations. This paper presents the Ticho multi-village water supply scheme to highlight positive lessons and some of the remaining challenges in professionalising community management.