Small Water Enterprise in Rural Rwanda: Business Development and Year-One Performance Evaluation of Nine Water Kiosks at Health Care Facilities.

ABSTRACT: Small water enterprises (SWEs) have lower capital expenditures than centralized systems, offering decentralized solutions for rural markets. This study evaluated SWEs in rural Rwanda, where nine health care facilities (HCF) owned and operated water kiosks supplying water from onsite water treatment systems (WTS). SWEs were monitored for 12 months. Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient (rs) was used to evaluate correlations between demand for kiosk water and community characteristics, and between kiosk profit and factors influencing the cost model. On average, SWEs distributed 15,300 L/month. One SWE ran at a loss, four had profit margins of ≤10% and four had profit margins of 45-75%. Factors influencing SWE performance were intermittent water supply (87% of SWE closures were due to water

SUBMITTER: Huttinger A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5751002 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature