Assessment on the Approaches Used for Water and Sanitation Programs in Southern Ethiopia

Water supply and sanitation systems using the supply-driven approach have not met the demands of consumers. Systems are also facing problems of underuse, poor maintenance and inadequate cost recovery. This study reports about approaches used by water and sanitation program implementers in Shebedino District, a rural area in Ethiopia. A community-based study was conducted using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and a structured questionnaire. A total of 635 households were studied. The supplier-induced approach was found to be the main approach used by program implementers. The involvement of beneficiary communities at different stages of the projects was limited. Water and sanitation services were subsidized by implementing agencies but households were dissatisfied with the outcomes. More than 88 % of respondents stated that they did not have any relevant skills or expertise to enable them to maintain the facilities. Logistic regression analysis results showed that approaches used by sanitation program implementers were statistically associated with sex of household heads (2.144, AOR 95 % Cl: 1.520–3.025), family size (1.554, AOR 95 % CI: 1.100–2.196), subsidy (1.699, AOR 95 % CI: 0.390–0.921) and occupation (15.196, AOR 95 % CI: 1.946–118.660). However, no statistical significant association was found among age, sex, marital status, income, family size, education and occupation and approaches used by water program implementers. Generally, the unsatisfactory results of the supplier-induced approach (80.8 % for water and 33.1 % for sanitation facilities) point out the need for program implementers to give more attention to the demands and preferences of users.