Clean water and sanitation is a global issue that has recently received special attention from governments and international organizations, as they essential to enhance people’s health and foster socio-economic development in different countries. Therefore, one of the United Nations’ Millennium Goals is to ensure access to safe drinking water for all as its target by 2030. However, ensuring water supply in rural regions, especially in developing countries, is a challenge. To meet the target, investing in infrastructure and maintaining the sustainability of water systems is crucial. This study takes into account the role of the management model of rural water supply systems and its relationship with the sustainability of the water systems. A weighing procedure for a sustainability assessment of rural water systems for the current study was proposed, then an ordered logit regression model was applied to examine the relationship between types of water system management models and the sustainability of the water systems in the context of Vietnam. The results from this study showed that type of management model had an influence on the sustainability of rural water supply systems, and the private management model was considered the one that significantly contributed to the sustainability of the rural water systems in the study area. The study provides some lessons learned for researchers in the field of rural water supply to select appropriate approaches to assess the sustainability of water systems and for policymakers to modify current policies toward more sustainable development of water infrastructure in the future, especially in developing countries.

This article investigates the private sector participation in investment, management, and operation in rural water supply schemes in Vietnam. Different organizations manage rural water supply facilities, including the private sector, public sector, and others. This paper aims to compare the different characteristics affecting user satisfaction of water supply facilities managed by the private sector and the remaining sectors. An ordered logit model was utilized for calculation with the data collected from semi-structure questionnaires with 1200 households using water from rural water supply systems managed by different sectors in Vietnam. The results indicate that the water-user satisfaction with rural water supply projects managed by the private sector is higher than that in other sectors (community, cooperative, commune people’s committee), whereas there is no significant difference in customer satisfaction between systems managed by the public sector and the private sector (enterprise, private management). The water availability and quality of schemes greatly influence the customer satisfaction. Findings from this study provide considerable information for the private sector on how to improve the management and operation of water supply systems efficiently through customer satisfaction assessment.