Community Participation and Water Supply Sustainability: Evidence from Handpump Projects in Rural Ghana

We investigate the extent to which different forms of community participation explain variation in handpump sustainability using data collected from 200 rural communities in Ghana. Data sources include household surveys, engineering assessments of water points, and interviews with water committees and village leaders. The depth of community members' involvement in project planning is positively associated with handpump sustainability, whereas the breadth of community participation is not. All else held constant, handpump sustainability is enhanced by household members' involvement in management-related decisions, but is compromised when households are responsible for technical decisions.