Tools to measure impacts and operations of rural small-community water supplies in rural South Africa : report to the Water Research Commission

The original question that spurred this work was whether small community water supply interventions in South Africa were beneficial to their recipients and to what extent? The purpose of the research was two-fold - to develop a methodology to measure impacts of small-community water supply service interventions. This report presents the method and the research to develop and apply it. The results showed that there were significant and seemingly beneficial function changes brought about by the water supply interventions – incrementally (from no service to rudimentary service to basic service) as well as direct intervention (no service to basic service). These did not appear to translate into any beneficial effects for the households in terms of the effect indicators used in this study. This is in all probability because of the use of containers to collect from the improved source points and store water at home while using it, as well as poor maintenance and operation of the water supply systems. This does not however, mean that the service improvements failed. [authors abstract]