Self-supply – a cost-effective rural water option for the hard to reach

As coverage with improved water supply increases, those left behind are increasingly those most expensive to serve – households in remote areas and/or with low-density populations. Globally these are more and more resorting to their own solutions (self-supply) but in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffer from non-existent public and private sector services to ensure good standards. A few SSA countries are now developing such support services, realising that without including self-supply, universal coverage (SDG 6.1) cannot be achieved. Supporting self-supply cost-effectively leverages additional funds from households, builds up sustainable services with improved local technical and business skills for those by-passed by community water supplies (CWS). It is a complementary approach focussing on incremental improvements, rather than just a single donor-dependent solution. Piloting and going-to-scale show a win-win situation for local rural inhabitants and also for governments. Engineers should consider promoting self-financed supply improvements, particularly where low user numbers make CWS un-affordably expensive.