ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Donors have come to recognise the importance of the socio-cultural context within which the implementation of rural water supply programmes is unfolding. Among the technical, institutional and beneficiary components, recent programmes tend to incorporate socio-cultural factors as additional components. There seems to be a gap between the actual benefits from an improved water supply and the targeted benefits specified through programme goals and criteria. This gap resides in the fact that the implicit and unconscious role of culture is often overlooked. If there is no incentive to act upon this cultural phenomenon, this ignorance may lead to crosscultural miscommunication and deficiencies in the participatory process required to fulfil the programme goals. In this paper, it is shown that water supply programmes in Bangladesh can be improved by making the role of culture explicit by institution building at the local level.
