failures of water supply and sanitation systems failures of water supply and sanitation systems failures of water supply and sanitation systems describe situations where water supply and sanitation systems (also called wash systems) have been put in place (for example by the government or by non-government organizations (ngos) but have failed to meet the expected outcomes. often this is due to poor planning, lack of choice of appropriate technology depending upon the context, insufficient stakeholder involvement at the various stages of the project and lack of maintenance. while hygiene behavior change is important in achieving the health benefits of improved wash systems, the achievement of sustainability of wash infrastructure depends on creation of demand for sanitation services. destroyed water supply pipes in kariba, zimbabwe national government mapping and monitoring efforts as well as post-project monitoring by ngos or researchers, have identified the failure of water supply systems (also known as water points, wells, boreholes, or similar) and sanitation systems (one part of sanitation systems are the toilets). the following sections provide examples of those failures sorted by country. monitoring some national and local governments monitor water services regularly. one example is the sistema de información de agua y saneamiento rural (rural water and sanitation information system) a monitoring system in honduras and nicaragua. for organizations that work on wash interventions, monitoring means using indicators to measure effectiveness of a development program. some organizations or research organizations do "post-implementation monitoring", which occurs after the wash intervention has been completed. the water point data exchange (wpdx), launched in 2015, is a global platform for sharing water point data collected by governments, non-profit organizations, researchers, and others. failures of water supply systems afghanistan during a wateraid-irc-rwsn webinar in 2011, leendert vijselaar of dacaar said that 35% of 30,182 water points surveyed were non-functional. nationally, 45% of water supply systems in public schools need extensive repair or replacement (2010). africa / sub-saharan africa a 2013 survey of 23 european community-funded projects in six sub-saharan countries found: overall, equipment was installed as planned and was in working order. however, fewer than half of the projects examined delivered results meeting the beneficiaries’ needs. while the projects examined were sustainable in technical terms, for a majority of projects, results and benefits will not continue to flow in the medium and long term unless non-tariff revenue is ensured; or because of institutional weaknesses (weak capacity by operators to run the equipment installed). rwsn (rural water supply network) estimated in 2010 that only two out of three handpumps are working at any time. figures collated by the rwsn in 2007 indicate an average rate of 36% non-functionality for hand pumps across 21 countries. this level of failure represents a total investment of between $1.2 and $1.5 billion in the last 20 years. almost 40% of sub-saharan handpumps are not working in 2005. sutton (2004) compiled data on non-functionality for several countries. bangladesh among 972,865 existing water options for arsenic mitigation, 29% are not active (2009). belarus 14.5% of rural water supply systems do not meet microbial quality standards and 30.1% do not meet chemical standards (2011). bolivia in over 100 communities visited in the rural municipality of tiraque, fewer than ten had no water system, 17 were functioning per bolivia government norms, and the rest were providing sub-par services, requiring anywhere from complete rehabilitations to minor repairs to ensure water of adequate quantity, quality, and continuity was being provided to all citizens (2007). cambodia in 2014 snv cambodia found these results after surveying 1008 water points in chum kiri district: 12.1% of 672 tubewells were not functional, 5.8% of 13 protected dug wells were not functional, 262 unprotected dug wells, and 1.1% of 94 community ponds were not functional. central african republic only 10% of the wells and boreholes provide safe water despite these being the main source of water for urban dwellers (2011). croatia 70% customers of 443 small water supply systems receive water that is not in compliance with the respective quality standards (2008). czech republic water quality data from approximately 1700 small public groundwater well supplies and 3300 private wells from the period 1991–1998 showed there was a non-compliance rate with health-related parameters of approximately 70%. dominican republic a 2011 sustainability assessment of 61 rural water systems found that 18% are unlikely to be sustainable (it is unlikely the community will be able to overcome significant challenges). dr congo out of 2,051 water points in three provinces – bas congo, equateur and kinshasa – non-functionality was highest in bas congo at 68%, 24% in kinshasa and 14% in equateur. in bas congo only 39% of functional water points provided safe drinking water while in kinshasa it was just 32% (2012). ecuador a sustainability study conducted by the secretariat for water in 2004 found that 13% of the systems were sustainable, 29% had mild problems, 20% had severe problems, and 38% were broken down. england & wales an analysis of data collected from 150 local water authorities covering approximately 35,000 microbial water quality results for approximately 11,200 private water supply sites from 1996–2003 showed that e. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) was detected in 19% of samples, with at least one positive sample being detected at 32% of water supply sites (compared to 0.1% of samples from mains water supplies). ethiopia a 2013 survey from the 57 diverse water schemes showed 38.6% were non-functional on the day of the visit. a 2012 survey was carried out with 160 household in 16 water supply systems constructed by different organizations. in mecha woreda, 20 of the 21 systems (95%) installed without community support were not functioning while only 12 of the 142 systems (8%) installed with community failed. 25.5% of more than 93,000 water schemes across the country were non-functional according to the national water inventory (2011). of 91 water schemes in farta and west estie surveyed, 17.5% were not functioning and 10% were functioning with difficulties (2011). non-functionality of rural water schemes in 10 regions ranges from 18% to 35%, with a national average of 20% (2010). out of the 70 water supply schemes in mirab abaya woreda, 30 (43%) were non-functional (2008). it has been estimated that 33% of rural water supply schemes are non-functional at any time (2007). 60% of the somali region’s birkado (cement-lined underground cisterns) are damaged and unused, calling into question the building of new birkado versus rehabilitating existing structures (2007). a 2006 survey found that 29% of handpumps and 33% of mechanized boreholes in rural areas were not functioning because of maintenance problems. germany in baden-württemberg, 523 samples from approximately 13,500 private wells were analyzed in 2007; non-compliance rates for e. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and total coliforms were at 18% and 43%, respectively. ghana of 898 wells surveyed, 20% were not operational at the time of a university of north carolina study in 2014. ampadu-boakye and hebert stated in 2014: "the atebubu water system, in the brong ahafo region, served a group of eight urban communities with a total population of 32,000. the system was completely non-functional at the time of our visit—sand filters were overgrown with weeds, standpipes had been shut down, and the chlorinator appeared run down." because of the failure, "many residents now obtain water from boreholes installed by the district assembly or by ngos....however, at the time of our visit some 40% were broken." 21% of 1,509 water points were not functioning on the day of visit (2013). in three districts (east gonja, akatsi, sunyani west), more than 30% of the surveyed infrastructure was not functional, and as little as 2% was providing the basic level of service for which it was intended (2012). by the late 1980s and early 1990s, 33% of the water supply systems had deteriorated greatly or completely broken down due to inadequate funding to carry out maintenance and rehabilitation (1990). haiti a 2012 survey of 1096 water kiosks and 2,266 water fountains showed that more than half of existing water kiosks are out of service in four geographical departments: nord (63%), sud (60%), grand’anse (59%) and artibonite (53%) and 41.6% of existing water fountains inventoried are not functional. in port-de-paix there were no functioning public water sources in the city and 14 of 19 different sites throughout the city that investigators tested for water quality were bacterially contaminated (2007). india a dilapidated borehole in basudih, india of 2500 households in 80 villages across the country, 53% do not receive an acceptable level of service (2015). 25% of india’s water infrastructure is believed to be in need of repair (2004). evaluation in 1989 of a representative sample of 10 water points found that consumers are not receiving protected water of the required quality in any scheme evaluated. unicef assisted the government of india with water access by drilling thousands of wells starting in 1967 when a severe drought hit several states in india. approximately 75% of the installed cast iron pumps were not working in 1974, just seven years later. kenya 2010 pilot mapping showed that, of 1011 ‘improved’ water points (all source types), average rates of non-functionality were 28% (west pokot), 32% (kyuso), and 20% (mbeere north). of 100 water systems assessed (built between 2006-2010), 75% are still in use. 45% are affected by minor technical issues, or even serious damages, although they have the potential to be remediated. 14% of the systems are non-functional. only 58% of rural water sources are functional (2009). in western kenya, nearly 50% of borehole wells dug in the 1980s, and subsequently maintained using a community-based maintenance model, had fallen into disrepair by 2000. liberia 40% of over 10,000 improved water points mapped nationally were failed or needed repair (2011). the first systematic sampling of water points and study of water quality from 2011 in monrovia found that 57% of the water points were contaminated by e. coli, which is an indicator of widespread fecal contamination. 100% of the unprotected hand-dug wells sampled showed the presence of e. coli. 75% of the kiosks sampled showed the presence of e. coli. 67% of the lwsc city water taps sampled showed the presence of e. coli. 52% of the protected hand-dug open wells fitted with hand pumps showed the presence of e. coli. 44% of the drilled wells fitted with hand pumps showed the presence of e. coli. macedonia local piped water supply systems, used by 54% of the rural population, had a bacteriological failure rate of 23%. local (non-piped) water sources, used by 13% of the population had a bacteriological failure rate of 30% (2007). madagascar 27% of water systems were not functional on the day of a survey which was published 2014. out of 186 communities visited, "nearly half of all systems broke down in the previous year, and a third of them were reported not to have been fixed satisfactorily. so, by implication, one sixth of all rural water systems breaks down and are not properly fixed, per year.while half of all systems were reported to be functional for the most recent year, a tenth didn’t work at all; systems worked for an average of nine months per year. note that the survey sample was of systems that had been built or rehabilitated within the last five years. so, at any one time, around a quarter of the rural population of madagascar has no safe water." functionality of existing water points is 90% for boreholes according to a 2009 rwsn report; 20% according to a 2010 baseline survey of the usaid-funded rano hampivoatra project. actual functionality rate is likely between 40 – 50% nationally. malawi in a 2013 survey of 48 villages, 66% of malda handpumps installed one year before the visit were recorded as being non-functional."he proportion of fully functional maldas was between 29% and 50% in all age cohorts." a survey of the water schemes in the early 1980s showed over 90% of taps were functioning, but now (2011) only 42.4% are functioning: in the northern region, 74% of 2305 taps from gravity-fed piped water schemes are non-functional; in the central (1,465 taps) and southern regions (10,215 taps), 55% of the taps from piped water systems are non-functional. 31% of the improved rural water points are not functioning (2008). 49% of all gravity flow system taps were not