About Community Management | ||
|
Community management of rural water supply is the leading paradigm for rural water supply projects, programmes and even policies. No water supply system is being implemented without some kind of involvement or participation of community people. Agencies may use different methods in preparing the community to maintain the system itself and the extent in which they involve community people may vary, they all aim at enabling the community to take care of its system after they have left.
There are many interpretations of community water supply management, in theory as in practice. We introduce a number of definitions in this section. The focus of community management has so far been exclusively on the level of the community. However, it becomes more and more evident that communities can not do it all by themselves. They need support especially after the implementing agency has left the scene. Some countries have realized this and are now trying to create this support: India, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana and others. Together with WEDC, Plan, WaterAid, SKAT and the WSSCC, IRC now advocates fort this support and aims to develop models and methods for institutional support to community managed systems. This is done under the heading of "scaling up community management of rural water supply". Community management has a long history. Since the Water Decade in the 1980s community management has become the pillar of international declarations and programmes. The declarations use different words and expressions - people first, bottom-up, participation - but they all aim at the same: providing the millions of people who lack a reliable and safe water supply with systems that they are able to operate and maintain themselves. It is the unserved people that must be helped urgently and on the basis of their needs and capacities policies and institutional frameworks must be designed. Most recently this is expressed in Vision and Action 21 and the Iguacu Action Plan. Communities play and will keep on playing a major role in the management of their water systems. Much has been learned about community management but much remains to be learned. Let this website be a mean to keep on learning.
|  |
Water committee meeting in Cameroon
Woman carrying water in Guatemala
|
