Project management challenges in implementing foreign funded water supply and sanitation projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) is the principal authority providing safe drinking water and facilitating the provision of sanitation to the nation. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the NWSDB to ensure that the projects undertaken be completed within the prescribed period of time and budget to the prescribe quality in order to assure quality water and an uninterrupted availability of water supply. Most water supply and sanitation contracts do not meet set cost or time targets as a result of improper assessment of project management challenges. The majority of time and cost overruns are attributable to either unforeseen or foreseen project management challenges for which uncertainties were not properly accommodated. The normal practice is not to have proper review or retrospect at the end of the projects. However, the project management challenges still prevail in the industry as lessons learned but as tacit knowledge. Identification of the project management challenges was done through a comprehensive literature review and a questionnaire was developed to assess the importance and the severity of the effect of each challenge. Relative importance of the challenges were identified analysing the collected data. The key project management challenges in implementing foreign funded water supply and sanitation projects are related to human resources and should be addressed as a developing nation. National policies shall be introduced, modified, altered and diversified towards building skilled human resources, which is the demand of the future world. Additionally, findings will provide an opportunity to both the NWSDB and the contractors to forecast possible critical scenarios and identify common pitfalls so as to eliminate the avoidable and highlight them to the management to avoid recurrences of such phenomena.