Motivation for This Research

Montgomery et al. (2009) observed that countries like Malawi with poor levels of sustainability but high coverage of access to water, offer cause for concern because investments in the current infrastructure may be squandered by services that quickly fall into disrepair. Furthermore, the high proportion of the population reported to be served may dissuade donors from investing in these countries, when in fact, more resources, alongside a more sustainable focus for action, are required. Malawi in particular needs a “more sustainable focus for action” for the rural water supplies which can only happen through research work like the current.

According to Harvey (2008) the most common theme that has been laid out in poverty reduction strategy papers and national strategies for different countries for sustainability of water supplies is community management, yet it has failed to deliver satisfactory levels of sustainability meaning focusing on community management alone is not a solution to rural water supply sustainability. Researching on what underlies the human interest to efficiently and effectively operate and manage a water supply system in rural areas motivates the researcher to undertake the current research.

Functional sustainability has been a focus of many researchers in the water supply industry including being a focus of discussion during global UN forums (UN, 2003; Carter et al. 1999); researchers conclude that lack of sustainability is largely caused by poor community participation and public acceptance which affects continuous functionality of water supplies. This creates two painful scenarios for the researcher to reconcile; one scenario is where the consumer is well aware of the health benefits of using safe drinking water from protected sources and the other scenario is where the same consumer is not willing to sustain the safe water supply facility that sustains his or her life. Solving the circumstances surrounding this paradox motivates the researcher to carry out the current research and unearth the root causes.

A press release from UNICEF in New York on 22 March 2013 on world water day urged governments, civil society and ordinary citizens to remember that behind statistics are the

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faces of children. According to UNICEF, globally, an estimated 2000 children under age of five die every day due to water related illnesses. Sanjay Wijesekera, the global head of UNICEF WASH programme said “Sometimes we focus so much on the big number, that

we fail to see human tragedies that underline each statistic. If 90 school buses filled with kindergartners were to crash every day, with no survivors, the world would take notice. But this is precisely what happens every single day because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene”. According to the WHO/UNICEF JMP report (2012), 760,000 under-five aged children died in 2011 alone due to poor access to safe water; a figure that the researcher says is too big and a tragedy. These deaths of children especially in areas where safe water is not accessed because the water source is not functional are totally unacceptable to the researcher. It hurts the researcher when innocent children die from preventable diseases especially deaths that can be avoided through access and utilization of safe water; this motivates the researcher more to conduct the current research.

A policy report named “off track, on track” by Water Aid on progress towards 2015 MDGs on water and sanitation suggest and advocate for doubling global aid flows to water, sanitation and hygiene; that meant releasing an additional US$10 billion per year in the run up to 2015 and beyond (Wella, 2005). This investment would be heavily affected if functional sustainability of the water facilities will not be managed effectively and efficiently necessitating cutting edge solutions on water supplies sustainability now than latter. The advocated US$10 billion investment in the water sector is huge and it will be disappointing to see holes (boreholes) punched up everywhere on earth and yet not providing the safe water to the communities they were meant to serve because they are not functional. This motivates the researcher in finding solutions to this life threatening problem.

The researcher is motivated to understand elements or factors that significantly contribute to overall satisfaction of the rural water supply consumer to the point of motivating the consumer to positively behave towards sustainability of a water facility. The researcher is also motivated to establish the strength of the relationship between consumer satisfaction and functional sustainability of rural water supplies. The researcher understanding of the problem from a cognitive behavioural point of view assists in knowing that some kind of stimuli (external factor) that triggers a thought process in the consumer leads into a behaviour that can be instrumental in rural water sustainability and discovering that motivates the researcher to conduct the current research.

A further motivation is to contribute to the body of knowledge by developing a consumer satisfaction based framework for enhancing sustainability of rural water supplies thereby

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filling in the gap that exist in literature; and that is the non-existence of a practice framework that stimulates positive consumer behaviours that are essential for sustainability of a water facility.