Kumbo- an example of community management

Having highlighted issues of community management I m going to use this post to analyse a specific example of its implementation to better illustrate the implications of such an approach. The example I will be using is Kumbo- a town in Northwest Cameroon. This is an especially interesting example, as community management occurred here not even as a result of policy, but rather in 1991 the citizens themselves forced out the national water corporation of Cameroon (SNEC). A community management system was brought in instead and the Kumbo Water Authority (KWA) was created in December in 1992. 

In my previous post I mentioned how community management is advocated for on the basis of western generalisations that communities in low income courtliness will be perfectly harmonious. Kumbo is an example of how there is no reason that this should be the case. For instance, conflicts began in 2005  whereby the local government accused the people in the Palace (the Fon of Nso) of corruption. This resulted in two bills for one water  tap, as the mayor insisted they should take over the water supply. This is far from a harmonious outcome. 

In the case of Kumbo, community management is often portrayed as a story of triumph, whereby the income of the KWA was £2000 greater than expenditure, with a greater number of consumers being willing to connect their homes to the water supply, due to greater confidence in the management (Page 2003). As such, simply looking at figure 1 we may assume the KWA was a success. In reality, the sustainability of the KWA is very questionable. The pipe network is in need of replacement and in 1998 the estimated cost of repairing it was 781 million CFA- an amount that the KWA was unable to fund itself and so was required to find other sources (Page 2003). The reason as to why the authority itself may still market itself as a success story of community management, is because this make its the community appear more attractive when applying for grant proposals from NGOs and international funding bodies (Page 2003). The romanticising of community management may lead to us failing to assess this sustainability and question the true motivation's as to why it is being promoted. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge as to what actually determines the success of community management (Njoh 2006). By avoiding being sucked in by the appeal of such an approach we can assess this and thus be able to understand when community management truly is a viable approach. I have stressed Africa' variability through my posts and this makes it even more important to understand the determinants of community management success, as maybe only certain contexts are suitable.

Figure 1.Table showing a comparison of water prices and connections before and after the KWA was created. Source: (Page 2003)

This specific example builds on my assessment of community management by further highlighting how we must question its sustainability , despite how it can so often be lauded as a success. Community management is not just attractive for governments to promote as it reduces financial responsibility for them, as I mentioned in my last post, but it is also advantageous for communities themselves to promote, in order to receive funding. Therefore hopefully this post gives a clearer explanation as to why we must be cautious of community management's potential and question the positive light it is so often shown in.