Abstract / Description of output
The United Nations (UN) set as a target to halve the proportion of the populations without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. While the world is on track to meet the drinking target in urban areas, accelerated and targeted efforts are needed to secure access to drinking water in rural areas. The considerable lack of research methodology and data on the reasons
behind the decline in access to improved water sources raises critical questions on project sustainability and organisational accountability and ultimately, how should the Millennium Development Goal for access to safe drinking water be measured. Sierra Leone is one example of this challenge. It is one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world and is still recovering from a brutal civil war (1991-2002). Only 1% of the population has access to piped water and
access to improved water sources has been declining in the rural areas for the past decade, even though there has been a sustained effort to combat the decline through the widespread installation of community level hand pumps and wells. A large community level survey was carried out in Northern Sierra Leone on hand pumps and wells installed after 2004. This study develops an innovative non-biased methodology for quantitatively assessing the socio technical trends in the
failure rates of rural community water projects through the use of case-based reasoning and
discusses the results with respect to project sustainability and continual monitoring. The study has
the potential to impact not only how organisations define the failure of a project, but also how
projects are continually monitored and evaluated.
behind the decline in access to improved water sources raises critical questions on project sustainability and organisational accountability and ultimately, how should the Millennium Development Goal for access to safe drinking water be measured. Sierra Leone is one example of this challenge. It is one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world and is still recovering from a brutal civil war (1991-2002). Only 1% of the population has access to piped water and
access to improved water sources has been declining in the rural areas for the past decade, even though there has been a sustained effort to combat the decline through the widespread installation of community level hand pumps and wells. A large community level survey was carried out in Northern Sierra Leone on hand pumps and wells installed after 2004. This study develops an innovative non-biased methodology for quantitatively assessing the socio technical trends in the
failure rates of rural community water projects through the use of case-based reasoning and
discusses the results with respect to project sustainability and continual monitoring. The study has
the potential to impact not only how organisations define the failure of a project, but also how
projects are continually monitored and evaluated.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Changing Course |
| Subtitle of host publication | Global Engineering Education Conference Proceedings 2012 |
| Pages | 73-78 |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Mar 2012 |
| Event | The EWB-UK & EAP Global Dimension To Engineering Education Conference 2012 - University College London, London, United Kingdom Duration: 26 Mar 2012 → … |
Conference
| Conference | The EWB-UK & EAP Global Dimension To Engineering Education Conference 2012 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | London |
| Period | 26/03/12 → … |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- Sustainability
- Case-based Reasoning
- International Development