**1. Introduction**

Community water supply may acquire region or county specific definitions. However, it is generally identified by the people it serves, the purpose it serves and the manner in which it is operated. The meaning ranges from a public water system that serves at least 25 residents throughout the year and may consist of one or multiple wells or reservoirs as in Sri Lanka. Ref. [1]; an alternative to private sector participation in water supply, particularly with respect to urban areas [2] to a community-run small-scale water projects which play a crucial role in the provision of an essential service, especially in the absence of any other alternative [3]. Irrespective of the finer details of the typologies, there is a consensus on the nature and purpose of community water management. Typically, local community groups or 'community-based organizations' (CBOs) bring together people for a common purpose and are agreed on how to achieve the objective through their own management, in the pursuit of which they could be partnered in their operations by NGOs which facilitate technical and financial resources and help relax the prohibitive restrictions regarding land tenure [3]. They could also be partnered by the government or other communities for the realization of the same objective. The Community-based self-provision allows communities to form their own institutions for water delivery without formal connections or partnerships with utility operators or municipal governments. Community self-help initiatives tend to be smaller

in scope than formal utility-community partnerships and often operate in small towns [4]. The rise of community water initiatives in different parts of the world gained momentum after the UNDP led Community Water Initiative (CWI) to support decentralized, demand-driven, innovative, low-cost, and community based water resource management and water supply and sanitation projects in rural areas through participatory development approach for water supply scheme planning, construction and scheme management.

From 1990s, the community water management has gained more credence as an alternative source of water supply especially in the rural areas and informal settlement areas in the urban centres. Community management of rural piped water supplies is now widely established in many countries and will become even more common in future [5]. This increasing emphasis on institutional dimensions of service delivery is also reflected in the Delhi Statement1 of 1990, which was to provide guiding principles for water supply and sanitation in the 1990s. While maintaining a focus on the use of low-cost appropriate technologies, the Statement include principles for institutional reforms, institutions of community management of services and sound financial practices [6]. In Latin America, the disadvantaged segments of the community get supply from leased regular water pipelines operated by richer businessmen on behalf of the government. In Cochabamba-Bolivia, 74% of the poorest residents lack access to municipal water service and therefore rely on communities built commonly managed wells and water systems. Although Sub-Saharan Africa is making the slowest relative and aggregate global progress with one in three people (30%) without improved drinking water access [7], most clean water is delivered via community-managed water points, either hand pumps or piped gravity-fed systems. In Bolivia the dissatisfaction of the community against privatization of water services caused serious riots that resulted into the cancelation of Multinational Water supply contract. There are scholars who have little faith in service delivery under the community management mode. In separate studies, argued that community management is less impressive than theory suggests and has serious problems have regarded the concept of community management approach as 'myth' in common pool resource management in Africa [7–10]. This is further lent credence by the fact that whether at central, regional or local, governments play dominant role in all-Africa infrastructure assessment except in water. It is only in the area of providing and maintaining water services that local communities have a leading role.

In Africa, community water supply operates mainly as an informal sector. Whereas in some countries, the supply has been a deliberate move by the government to distribute water to the disadvantaged through water communal points like in Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi and Tanzania [11], in others especially, Kenya; community water supply has been orchestrated through self-help initiatives by local communities with no direct involvement by the government. It is prevalent in both rural and urban sectors. Once established, the community water projects seek support from donors which may include the government and its agencies; nongovernmental organizations, Church and even individuals to help them increase water access, first to the members of the organization and secondly to customers. To that extent, community water has increasingly become an alternative means to water supply to increasingly larger and economically disadvantaged segments of the society. Despite the evidence that the community water supply has contributed positively more than any other single approach to provision of water supply in Africa, it is still regarded as an informal approach.

The paper argues that community water management approach has not been pursued through its optimal level. Either the state has not used the right approach or has neglected the community. The argument is that the state ought to have used deliberate and formal approach to facilitate the management of community water

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*Community Management and Water Service Delivery in Africa*

supply. It is therefore the absence of a strategic approach which paved way for the community to be engaged through some semi-formal Public Private Partnership

To what extent has failure of the governments to source and distribute water to the deserving population responsible for mushrooming of community water management approach in Africa? The obtaining trend is the observation that the government is inadvertently acknowledging its inability to provide water to its citizens in the required quantity, quality and time and thereby inviting alternative suppliers/communities. Are the communities competitors or partners of the government in this endeavor? By analyzing community water management systems in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria, the paper argues that Community water management increases access to water through enhanced PPP, popular

The paper is based on the theory of New Public Management in the delivery of public services as propagated by Hood 1990, Kaboolian, 1998, and Page, 2005. The assumption is that governments need to disaggregate public services to their most basic units and focus on their cost management. In this context, the government shall increase access to water by recognizing and establishing community water organizations by focusing upon entrepreneurial leadership under community management, each of which will initiate their own innovations to ensure result based outputs. The community water organizations that will then be subjected to input-output control and evaluation upon performance management and audit. By doing this, more efficiency, public private partnerships and innovation shall be realized resulting into increased access to affordable water to the undeserving segment, currently unprioritized. This is informed by the argument that as currently constituted, community water management has largely been ignored. They either operate informally and independently as in Kenya, direct control under local governments like in South Africa, managed public private partnership as in Ghana or with under loosely managed and unmonitored outfits in countries where the government had initiated the projects like

in Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania, hence gross underperformance.

The paper has used a comparative case analysis method to discuss community water governance in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. The countries present a geographical diversity; Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa while Malawi in Southern Africa. All are part of Anglophone Africa. All except Nigeria have gone through water sector reforms and adopted mainly commercialization of water services. Whereas Kenya and Nigeria have non institutionalized community water management approach, the other three have institutionalized government driven community water management approach, with Ghana most vibrant. Tanzania and Malawi are cases of overwhelmed state projects, which are steadily giving space for private community water management interventions. Final the states form different categories of role of state in community water management. Whereas, Kenya demonstrates an Inspector/Prefect role, Tanzania and Nigeria are Mediator category while Ghana and Malawi are Benevolent States. We evaluated (1) the different sources of water for the communities, (2) The membership of community water organizations (3) the role of government in community water management and (4) The role of public private partnerships in community water service delivery. We conducted a desktop analysis

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90746*

participation, and institutional governance.

**1.1 Theoretical framework**

**1.2 Methodological approach**

especially in Kenya.

*Community Management and Water Service Delivery in Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90746*

supply. It is therefore the absence of a strategic approach which paved way for the community to be engaged through some semi-formal Public Private Partnership especially in Kenya.

To what extent has failure of the governments to source and distribute water to the deserving population responsible for mushrooming of community water management approach in Africa? The obtaining trend is the observation that the government is inadvertently acknowledging its inability to provide water to its citizens in the required quantity, quality and time and thereby inviting alternative suppliers/communities. Are the communities competitors or partners of the government in this endeavor? By analyzing community water management systems in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria, the paper argues that Community water management increases access to water through enhanced PPP, popular participation, and institutional governance.
