Past rural water supply and sanitation projects have often not invested sufficiently in building community capacity to plan, implement, operate and maintain services in ways that benefit and satisfy all sections of rural societies, conditions necessary for service sustainability.
Previous initiatives focused on rural water supply and sanitation often neglected to consider the social dynamics of rural communities, failing to invest in capacity-building programs that would enable local stakeholders to design, deliver, and sustain services that meet the diverse needs of all rural populations.