To address the complex challenges of sustainable rural water service delivery, Whave has been testing a model for the provision of preventive maintenance services. Whave’s approach focuses on results-based payment for avoiding breakdowns, rather than payment for repairs. By incentivizing performance, their goal is to establish a system that reduces water source downtime and therefore improves the reliability of water supply systems. Whave is currently operating in more than 400 communities across Uganda.

This study analyzed combinations of conditions that influence regular payments for water service in resource-limited communities. To do so, the study investigated 16 communities participating in a new preventive maintenance program in the Kamuli District of Uganda under a public–private partnership framework. The authors include members of the USAID Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS).

As part of the Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS), Whave Solutions Ltd. undertook a network analysis of the actors involved in rural water service delivery in Kamuli District, Uganda in April 2018. This study set out to understand the structure of the network of actors involved in water service delivery; to identify the factors that influence services and how they relate to specific actors; and to contribute to the understanding of how to study, analyze, and strategically act to influence water service delivery systems.

This fact sheet highlights SWS’s work in Kitui County, Kenya, where Oxford and UNICEF are developing, scaling-up, and testing the FundiFix model as one response to Kitui County’s rural water challenge. The goal is to provide a model for universal, rural water service delivery. FundiFix provides a performance-based approach to maintaining water infrastructure, using ‘smart handpumps’ that collect real-time information on abstraction volumes and breakdown incidents.

Increasing water supply coverage requires an accurate assement of existing assets, which in turn enables for realistic budgeting for maintenance of those assets. Data on the status of the assets can also be used as advocacy towards local and regional government for allocating a higher share of the budget to the water sector.