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Operations and minor maintenance expenditure is the cost of routine minor maintenance needed to keep water and sanitation systems running at the designed performance. It includes recurrent, regular and on-going expenditure on labour, fuel, chemicals, materials, or purchases of bulk water. Operational expenditure also includes ''household coping costs'' by which households spend money to achieve a satisfactory level of service; i.e. cleaning products for sanitary facilities, energy costs, etc.
Operations and minor maintenance expenditure does not include major repairs or renewals of water or sanitation infrastructure. This is considered expenditure on [[Capital Maintenance Expenditure (CapManEx)|capital maintenance (CapManEx)]].
===Examples===
'''Benchmarks capital maintenance expenditure''' <br>
Based on research from [[#WASHCost|WASHCost]], the minimum operations and minor maintenance expenditure to provide a basic level of water service with a borehole and handpump (at 2011 prices) range from US$ 0.5 per person to just over US$ 1 per person (see table 1). For all piped schemes, including mechanised boreholes and piped supplies, the costs range from US$ 0.5 to just over US$ 5 per person.
* If a basic level of service is being delivered and expenditure is outside the cost benchmarks, then there may be context-specific explanations; such as the service is in a densely-populated area with economies of scale, or, conversely, the area is difficult or remote to reach.
===Operational expenditure on water services in Ghana===
WASHCost Ghana (Nyarko et al., 2011a) measured operational and minor maintenance expenditure by using the actual recorded expenditure from 53 water point-systems. Actual operational expenditure at current cost (2009 year) ranges from US$ 0 to 102 per facility per year, with a mean of US $ 40 per year (median US$ 21) (see table 1).
Of the 53 systems, 12 reported spending no money on operational expenditure at all (Nyarko, et al., 2011a). Annual operational costs per person based on actual (observed) population are from US$ 0 to US$0.72, with a mean US$ 0.15 (median US$ 0.07). It can reasonably be assumed that the generally low expenditure reported on operations and minor maintenance is linked to the high observed levels of non-functioning systems (29%) (for more information see Nyarko et al., 2011b)
===Key documents===
* Gibson, J., 2010. [http://www.irc.nl/media/irc_symposium_2010_pdf_s/3_gibson_operation_maintenancecostsofrwssinsafrica3 Operation and maintenance costs of rural water supply schemes in South Africa]: paper presented at the IRC symposium ''Pumps, Pipes and Promises: Costs, Finances and Accountability for Sustainable WASH Services'' in The Hague, The Netherlands from 16 - 18 November 2010. The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
* Nyarko, K.B. et al., 2011b. [http://www.washcost.info/page/2319 Life-cycle costs in Ghana: functionality of rural water systems in Ghana]. (WASHCost briefing note Ghana; 6). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
===Links===
<div id="WASHCost">'''WASHCost'''</div>