Hydraulic ram pumps and Sling Pumps

Key Factors for Sustainable Cost RecoveryTable 15:Financial management issues and possible optionsFinancial management issuesWhat type of financialcontrol?How to monitor?How to inform users?What to do with bad payers ?Particularly crucial if they includeinfluential members of society orpublic institutions.Possible options− Receipts from book-keeping− Regular meetings of water committee− Double signature required to pay our from funds− Feed back to users− Cross-checking bill against meter reading− Cross-checking against bank statements− Registered auditors− Use log book− Make a quarterly review and overview of the situation onexpenditures, incomes, % of people who do not pay− Establish an independent committee to check accounts− Use indicators− Regular meetings of users− Annual meetings− Notice boards; leaflets− House to house visits− Through newspaper or radio reports− Analyse reasons for bad payment− Improve service− Improve relationship with the users− Campaign to increase awareness of benefits of promptpayment− Reschedule debt− Introduce sanctions or cut-off supplies2.5 Service efficiencyService efficiency is the direct outcome of appropriate management and is therefore a key factor inuser satisfaction, willingness to pay and effective cost recovery. Efficiency implies good performancefrom a service that provides the best benefits/outputs for a minimum cost.2.5.1 PerformanceAchieving a good performance does not mean only looking at all possible ways to reduce costs, butrather involves looking for ways to get the most benefits and best results at a cost people can afford.The difference is significant, because in the first case, the priority is given to costs, while in the secondpriority is given to benefits at a given cost.Appropriate management capacity and skills are necessary to run a service efficiently. Crucial skillsinclude all those linked to budgeting, organising bills, collecting and recording expenses or revenue,monitoring, and applying sanctions. An assessment of the management capacity of the community istherefore crucial. If capacity building activities are too complex to organise for a given technology, itmight be necessary to consider another technology that requires fewer management skills.A high level of unaccounted for, or non-revenue, water is an indicator of poor efficiency. According toWASH (1991) “Unaccounted for water is the difference between the volume of water produced ordelivered into the network and the volume of water consumed, whether metered or not”. Many factorscan produce unaccounted for water: leakage, wastage, fraud, illegal tapping, inaccurate meter readings,poor billing, and poor identification of payment centres. These factors are not only of a physicalnature, but also administrative, and hence are strongly related to the managerial practices of theorganisation running the service.Levels of unaccounted for water can be as high as 30% to 50%. According to WHO (1994), control ofunaccounted for water is a result of efficient management, which helps the organisation managing theservice to attain its objectives at the lowest cost. A programme to reduce levels of unaccounted for49