Operation and Maintenance of Rural Water Supplies

This paper focuses on engineered water supply systems paid for and constructed by Governments and NGOs, with varying degrees of user participation. These are communal systems providing public water points (such as protected springs, handpumps, and public taps supplied by pumped or gravity flow systems), with few if any private connections. They are intended to offer improvements in water quality, reliability of supply, and closer access (and consequently increased consumption) than former unprotected and/or distant and/or unreliable sources. The paper examines the concept of operation and maintenance (O&M), discusses some myths, and offers suggestions for improvement.