Assessing Cost Recovery Mechanisms for Peri-Urban Water Supply Schemes in Tanga City

Sustainability of public water supply schemes in peri-urban communities has always been a problem due to lack of enough income of the communities, but also due to an assumption that, peri-urban population cannot pay for water supply services. However, in real sense the peri-urban/rural poor are willing to contribute for this essential service. Therefore, there was a need to assess and address the failure of sustainability of these projects. Discussion, Questionnaire. documentary review, evaluation methods and participatory approach were used to get socio-economic and data on revenue collection, cost recovery mechanisms being executed together with factors affecting effective cost recovery. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS 1 1.0) version together with Microsoft Excel soft wares were used for the analysis and revealed the financial factors, income levels, alternative sources of water, affordability and willingness to pay as the dominating factors affecting effective cost recovery of' water supply schemes' sustainability. The majority of water users in the study area express the willingness to pay for water service as an essential service despite the fact that doing so required even cutting back of essential food intake and other human needs. Hence the necessity to sacrifice one need in order to fulfill another should be taken as an indication of low ability to pay. In this regard, the study indicates that enhancement of institutional capacity at the villages' community level and a water education is essential for the sustainability of water supply projects in peri-urban communities.