preventive maintenance

Brief

Maintenance Approaches to Improve the Sustainability of Rural Water Supplies

Numerous studies have sought to understand the factors that most influence the sustainability of rural water supply services. This understanding has led to the development of maintenance approaches, both reactive and preventive, that seek to improve functionality rates and maintain reliable continuity of rural community water services. This document reviews literature about the factors influencing the sustainability of rural water services, and the emerging maintenance approaches seeking to address these factors and improve service reliability.

Brief

Emerging Lessons on Sustaining Rural Water Services in Uganda: A Case Study of Whave's Preventive Maintenance Model

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.

Research/Study

Factors Influencing Revenue Collection for Preventative Maintenance of Community Water Systems: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

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).

Report

A Water Infrastructure Audit of Kitui County

In Kitui County, Kenya, an information gap exists on water coverage and quality of water service delivery for a large segment of the county population. To fill this gap, the Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS) supported the University of Oxford to undertake a water audit in seven sub-counties from November to December 2017. The water audit located major rural water infrastructure and collected information on installation and operational performance to inform county planning, investment, institutional development, and dialogue on sustainability.

Report

Network Analysis of Actors Affecting Rural Water Service Delivery In Kamuli District, Uganda

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.

Brief

An Examination of the Causal Conditions to Successful Revenue Collection for Preventive Maintenance Services to Sustain Rural Water Systems

This research brief presents findings from a comparative analysis by University of Colorado Boulder of the conditions that influence whether rural water users pay for preventive maintenance of water services. Whave, a partner of the USAID-funded Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS), uses a preventive maintenance model to support sustainable water services in Uganda’s Kamuli District.

Fact Sheet

Adopting a Risk-Based Approach to Rural Water Supply Sustainability in Kenya

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.

Fact Sheet

Develop and Scale District Public-Private Partnerships that Sustain Reliable Rural Water Supply

This fact sheet highlights SWS’s work in Uganda, where Whave is working to cultivate a sustainable model for rural water service delivery by testing a preventive maintenance approach in three pilot districts. Operating as a Ugandan regional service provider, Whave is signing multi-year preventive maintenance service agreements with communities that require community leaders to charge operation and maintenance tariffs, manage the collected funds in supervised bank accounts, and pay an annual service fee.