Diagnosing Functionality and Sustainability of Community Managed Water Supply Scheme

Abstract

The functionality and sustainability of the water supply project is a major challenge in development in rural areas of Nepal. This study primarily focuses on water supply projects built around Dordi Rural Municipality and Sundarbazar Municipality of Lamjung district. A total of 250 water projects were studied. Data was extracted from NWASH-MIS. This research commences by analyzing various components to calculate the functionality score and assess the maintenance needs of key structures of each project. With these two derivations, the relation between these two metrics is studied. It is elaborated through different charts to effectively derive a conclusive dependency between these two components. It was found that the repair condition of an intake is not related to the functionality of a water supply scheme and there is a negative linear relation between functionality with the condition of Reservoir Tank and Collection Chamber in the scheme. Using the Inferential Statistical Analysis approach such as Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test, we were able to determine if there were a significant correlation between Institutional Capacity with the Functionality Score of schemes under study. There is a strong positive relationship between management practices and functionality (ρ = 0.76, p<0.00). The mathematical relationship between them in low-risk zone of functionality is shown through the simple linear regression model. Result shows that the scheme with lower population (less than 100) are in the higher risk of functionality. Lastly, we found that there is a moderate positive relationship between functionality and the provision of remuneration for Village Maintenance Worker in the committee (ρ = 0.57, p-value = 9.5e-24<0.05).