Sustainability Dimensions of Rural Water Services in Semi-Arid Tanzania: The FIETS Framework Lens

Abstract

Sustaining rural water supply services remains a persistent challenge in sub-Saharan Africa despite infrastructure investment and various sector reforms, this is particularly pronounced in rural settings where functionality and continuity are vulnerable to institutional capacity constraints, affordability, maintenance, and environmental stress. Drawing on the Financial Institutional Environmental Technological Social framework (FIETS). Sustainability was operationalised using a composite index based on household perceptions of water quality, quantity adequacy, reliability, accessibility, and affordability as key service delivery attributes associated with sustainable rural water services. The study employed quantitative approach using household survey to collect data from 384 households in Chemba District. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples was used. The measurement model demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity based on indicator loadings, internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity. Structural model results indicate that environmental factors is most strongly associated with sustainability with (β = 0.322, t = 7.677, p < 0.001), followed by technical with (β = 0.152, t = 3.595, p < 0.001), social with (β = 0.142, t = 2.785, p = 0.005), institutional with (β = 0.137, t = 3.305, p = 0.001), and financial with (β = 0.119, t = 2.506, p = 0.012), with all hypothesised relationships statistically significant. These findings indicate that rural water sustainability is best understood as a multidimensional of combined factors, rather than a single-factor.” The study contributes to the evidence base on rural water sustainability and support integrated policy design aligned with Sustainable Development Goal number 6 which aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.