Assessing sustainability of rural gravity-fed water schemes on Idjwi Island, D.R. Congo

To assess the sustainability of rural gravity-fed water schemes on Idjwi Island, the association between four hypothesized drivers of sustainability - perceived sense of ownership, willingness to pay for maintenance, trust in the water committee, and household involvement in the project - and service reliability, the main outcome variable, was analyzed. Primary data were gathered through in-person surveys of 1253 user households. The results provide two significant insights. First, during the 5-10 years after implementation, in the presence of an external intervention, a lower perceived sense of ownership for the water system was associated with higher service reliability. This stands in contrast with much of the existing literature, which outlines a consistent positive association between sense of ownership and sustainability of rural water systems. Second, despite 77% of beneficiaries stating that they were willing to pay for maintenance service, such contributions were not forthcoming, due to lack of trust in the water committee. In this scenario, almost 42% of the water points are reported as non-functional, 5-10 years after completion.