Demand responsiveness as an approach towards sustainable rural water supply in Uganda: a case study of Mukono district.

Demand responsiveness is one of the concepts intended to ensure sustainability of rural water supply. Demand responsive approach is when the target group shows need for a facility to be installed in their locality by contributing financially or in kind. Sustainability must seek to balance the water available at any particular point in time and space with the demand for water for various uses and the need for enough water to safeguard human health and aquatic ecosystems. The study involved assessing rural water use, sustainability of rural water supply, demand responsiveness of the people, current domestic water demand, predicting future water demand after 10 years under the existing water demand management practices and in the end to propose a way forward to ensure sustainable rural water supply. This was done using a comparative case study of Mukono District whose water supply is not demand driven and Semuto Rural Growth Centre whose water supply is demand driven. The results as obtained show that sustainability was 49.2% for Mukono and 66% for Semuto Rural Growth Centre. The results also show that communities that were not demand responsive, had most of their water facilities non functional. This proves that sustainability of a rural water supply system is directly related to how well the project responds to the demand responsiveness and participation of the community.