A systems-strengthening model piloted in Uganda’s Mid-Western region is now being tested in Tanzania and Malawi, as development actors look for ways to wean rural utilities off donor dependence.
Since 2018, WSUP Advisory has been working to turn Uganda’s regional water utilities, known as Umbrella Authorities, from technical support bodies into commercially minded service providers. The goal: utilities that recover their own costs, run efficiently, and can eventually raise capital without leaning indefinitely on government or donor funding.
The results from one pilot, the Mid-Western Umbrella of Water and Sanitation (UWS-MW), suggest the model is gaining traction. Since the intervention began, the utility’s customer base has grown from 8,000 to 28,000, while revenue has risen from 124 million to 425 million Ugandan shillings. UWS-MW has also set up a functioning board of directors, introduced a customer charter, adopted a delegated area management structure, and rolled out equitable services programmes, improvements that have coincided with better non-revenue water performance, more consistent water quality monitoring, and rising customer satisfaction.
From cost recovery to creditworthiness
For many rural utilities in low-income countries, breaking even operationally is itself a rare achievement. But WSUP Advisory argues that cost recovery is only the first milestone on a longer road to self-sufficiency, one that requires access to capital investment, particularly as government budgets tighten and development finance becomes harder to secure.
To get there, UWS-MW is piloting what WSUP Advisory calls a “dummy” loan mechanism: a simulated borrowing exercise that lets the utility experience the full lifecycle of a loan, from preparing a bankable proposal, to managing capital expenditure, to making repayments and reporting back to financiers, without the risk of a real facility. It’s a low-stakes way to build the institutional muscle memory that commercial lenders will eventually look for.
Building on that pilot, WSUP Advisory is now working to establish a guarantee facility that would help UWS-MW secure commercial, concessionary, or supplier credit for future system investment. The intent is a phased transition: building capacity now, so that dependence on government and donor support can gradually decline.
Exporting the model to Tanzania and Malawi
In 2025, WSUP Advisory began applying lessons from Uganda to two new contexts, joining the WASH Systems for Health Programme to support rural water supply strengthening in Tanzania and Malawi, working alongside SNV in Tanzania and Water for People in Malawi.
The approach centres on identifying and clearing the systemic bottlenecks that stall service improvement, rather than funding isolated infrastructure fixes. In practice, that has meant developing new procedures for clustering community-based water supply organisations (CBWSOs), strengthening monitoring and reporting so utilities can use data to drive continuous improvement, and building common systems, procedures, and skills that make operations more cost-effective.
Two national institutions are testing the approach on the ground. In Tanzania, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) is piloting the new clustering procedures. In Malawi, the Southern Water Board is piloting a process for taking over Water User Associations and bringing them under formal Water Board operation, a structural shift in how rural water services are delivered, with implications for service standards across thousands of rural connections.
What comes next
WSUP Advisory says it will continue working with SNV and Water for People to evaluate pilot results, refine procedures, and produce final clustering and takeover guidelines for national dissemination, a step intended to support institutionalisation and allow the approach to be replicated in other districts and utilities.
The broader bet underlying all three programmes is the same: that professionalisation and bankability, not one-off grants, are what will let rural and small-town utilities in sub-Saharan Africa eventually stand on their own. Whether Uganda’s early gains can be replicated at the scale needed across Tanzania and Malawi’s rural water sectors remains to be seen, but the pilots now underway will offer an early test of the model’s portability.