Demand-based planning of rural water systems in developing countries

In the past decade, international donors and governments have generally required water supply systems to be financially self-sufficient, with stakeholder participation in their planning and operation to ensure sustainability. Efforts are being made to shift planning from a process that tends to be dominated by governments to one with more involvement of water users. This paper integrates two tools for strengthening demand-based planning. On one hand, contingent valuation (CV) surveys can be used to determine the preferences of households for improved water facilities and the amounts they are willing to pay for them, and on the other, mathematical models built around CV survey results can be used to identify and screen alternatives to meet the objectives of improved water supply. This paper reports a CV study conducted in Rwanda in 2000 and shows how the findings can be embedded in optimization models that can be used by stakeholders for addressing the key planning questions. The models are applied to a test case in Rwanda; the approach, however, is general and is expected to have wide application.