Self Supply

Approximately one billion people around the world do not have access to a safe and reliable water supply at a reasonable distance from their home. Many more consider their existing water supply to be inadequate in terms of quality, quantity, reliability or convenience.  Consequently increasing numbers of households have improved their own water supply in small and affordable steps using their own resources. Their capacity to do so and the advantages this may bring are seldom recognised or built upon.

Supplies that have been improved with household investment tend to be more effectively managed and maintained. They are particularly relevant in small or remote communities, and where there is easy access to groundwater or plentiful rainwater. In such conditions conventional community supplies (see abbreviations/definitions) tend to offer high per capita costs combined with low sustainability, and so often lead to low coverage.

Under the Self Supply flagship, the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is encouraging authorities, NGOs and the private sector to recognize that many households and small groups can actually construct, or pay for the construction of wells and rainwater harvesting facilities. Households can also improve water quality by upgrading existing water sources or undertaking household water treatment, or a combination of the two. Many are showing the demand for such improvements and the constraints which they face in achieving their aims.