Revisiting the history, concepts and typologies of community management for rural drinking water supply in India

Abstract

Community management has been widely criticized, yet it continues to play a significant role in rural drinking water supply. In India, as with other ‘emerging’ economies, the management model must now adapt to meet the policy demand for ever-increasing technical sophistication. Given this context, the paper reviews the history and concepts of community management to propose three typologies that better account for the changing role of the community and external support entities found in successful cases. It argues that external support entities must be prepared to take greater responsibility for providing ongoing support to communities for ensuring continuous service delivery.

Keywords:

• Community management
• rural water supply
• participation
• service delivery
• India

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the Community Water Plus project, a three-year research investigation funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian government as part of the Australian Development Research Awards Scheme. The research is being undertaken by a consortium of partners including the Administrative Staff College of India (Hyderabad), the Centre of Excellence for Change (Chennai), Malaviya National Institute of Technology (Jaipur), Xavier Institute of Social Service (Ranchi), IRC from The Netherlands and Cranfield University, UK, who are also responsible for overall project coordination. Dr Snehalatha Mekala is the national research coordinator. This manuscript builds on and develops the discussion presented in the Community Water Plus Concept and Methods Working Paper (Smits, Franceys, Mekala, & Hutchings, 2015).