Page 142 - Prathima Volume 12

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However, by the year 2009, 84.8% of the population of the country had facility to safe
drinking water and 35% had the access to pipe borne water (Central Bank Report,
2009). Even though water supply and sanitation coverage had increased in many
developing countries including Sri Lanka, there is an uneven progress between rural
and urban areas (Hutton and Bartram, 2008 & World Bank, 1998). In the Sri Lankan
context, most of the population is largely rural segments with about 81.52% percent
living in rural areas in 2018, according to the report of the World Bank collection of
development indicators (World Bank, 2018).

Many rural people suffer without safe water and proper sanitation in most of the
villages in Sri Lanka, especially in the selected coastal villages in the Akkaraipattu
region, Ampara district of Sri Lanka. The selected villages namely; Pottuvil,
Lahugala, Alayadivembu and Navithanveli, where community-based water supply
projects have been implemented by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board
(NWSDB) with the participation of CBOs in order to reduce water crisis.

The Government of Sri Lanka is very keen on implementing many programs and
policies to control water crisis in rural segments. Some remarkable achievements have
been made in the water supply and sanitation sector in Sri Lanka over the last decade.
The government's continued efforts to improve national social development indicators
have placed the country ahead of most other South Asian countries. Provision of
drinking water supply and sanitation is a government priority and periodic targets have
been set for the proportion of the population that should have access to safe drinking
water and improved sanitation services (Fan, M, 2015). Thus, the community
participation is one of the key measures which is keenly followed by the government in
successful water deficiency reduction programs. Many activities have been
implemented in eradicating water dearth with the participation of local communities,
especially CBOs. And these activities have been planned to implement in-
collaboration with the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage, National Water Supply
and Drainage Board (NWSDB) and the Department of Community Water in the
island-wide.

At the same time, the government and non-governmental organizations have
implemented various rural water supply projects during the last two decades in order
to control water crisis. In this effort, they have tried to use participatory approaches
and utilize community-based organizations to provide them better services to the rural
communities in providing safe drinkable water. Access to safe and clean drinkable
water is an indicator of development sort in terms of health, nutrition and societal
upgrades. However, many rural areas in developing countries have lack of access to
good, quality, and affordable water due to various factors. In this backdrop, this study
paved its attention to understand the role of CBOs and institutional motivation for
mitigating rural water crisis in the coastal areas of the study community. Therefore,
this study significantly explores why community participation in relation to CBOs

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