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Uganda's Vision 2040 aims to modernize rural water supply through a transition from community-managed point sources to professionally managed piped water services. At the start of the transition period, a learning alliance established in Kabarole District participated in action research to develop scenarios predicting possible future development trajectories. The diversity of its membership, whose formal institutional roles spanned national, district and niche levels, increased the robustness of the strategies proposed for the adaptively managed transition of the public water service. The learning alliance has been facilitated by a non-governmental organization providing funding and expert advice; the effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based projects play an important role in developing countries' efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the population without access to improved water sources. Often associated with rural communities, they are increasingly being implemented in urban areas, where rural community-based management practices may be unsuitable. This research examines a small community-managed water supply scheme in Buea, a rapidly growing urban area in Cameroon. Stakeholder interviews and household questionnaires were used to better understand the implications of urbanization on community-managed water supply projects. The urban context adds management and planning pressures because of larger, more diverse, populations and rapid population growth. Urban community-managed schemes require an institutional framework to encourage participation, which is at an increased risk of failure due to the urban context. Finally, urban community-managed schemes need to be implemented in an institutional context, where they have legitimacy in the urban water supply framework, thereby allowing them to have access to the institutional and technical support they require to function sustainably. The consequence of failure is a return to ‘unimproved’ water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Trinidad and Tobago's 1.3 million residents are provided water supply and sewerage services by a national utility whose service levels have been inadequate and deteriorating through the recent past, largely due to a lack of investment in utility infrastructure. A “willingness to pay” study assessed the degree of coverage and quality of service and the residents' willingness to accept water tariff increases for an increase in service level. Willingness to pay for change is low, below current tariffs, due to scepticism about the likelihood of change and due to the ability to cope with bad service through the pervasive use of local storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient use of water is necessary in water scarce regions like Barbados. This study provides an insight into the impact of two water demand management measures, water pricing and metering, on residential water use in Barbados. Econometric demand models of residential water use are developed to assess the potential of pricing policies to conserve water. The models are used as policy tools to investigate the impact of future increases in water price on water use and revenue generation, considering also the equity of price increases. Metering must be accompanied by a substantial increase in price to encourage water conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]