Methods for community involvement in private water supply schemes – A case study of Namaacha City, Mozambique
This study concerns the community involvement in water resource management in Namaacha City in Mozambique. The city has approximately 16 000 inhabitants. In 2005, the World Bank invested in new infrastructure for the water provision of the city, and water supply is since then handled by a private company. Water provision in the city is still insufficient and besides this, the water system faces problems of low revenue coverage for the private company, stolen infrastructure, and excessive leakages. The reasons behind the failure of the water supply system has been investigated and measures to establish a sustainable community involvement in the water supply of the city has been pin-pointed. Based on the understanding of these problems, possible solutions of how to improve the water resource management are presented.
The study shows that there are improvements to be made to the water supply in Namaacha City. Neither water tariff system used, nor the type of water meters and their locations are well adapted to the local circumstances. These are structures that impede the establishment of a sustainable community involvement. An increased community involvement in the water management is recommended to improve the awareness within the community and to create additional accountability for the water provider.