Sustainable access to safe and adequate WS in the rural areas of Basso Libenrnworeda is very marginal. Efforts made so far towards ame liorating the situationrnare threatened by system failures to provide service as intended. Hence, thisrnstudy has attempted to identify factors that affect sustainability of WSSs in thernstudy area. To this end, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 3rnselected kebeles using a pre-tested structured questionnaire in a total of 101rnhousehold beneficiaries chosen by simple random sampling from six water points.rnData was also obtained from 12 FGDs and 23 physical site observations. Bothrnquantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were employed. In duerncourse, the study revealed the following results. First, in the rural settings ofrnBasso Liben woreda traditional sources are found to be the main source ofrndrinking water. The total time, 24.6 minutes, required for water collection andrn10.71 lite rs of water per capita consumption was also different from the WHOrnstandards. More than 35. 5% of developed water points we re not functional andrn87.1 % of the respondents have experienced non functionality problem since thernschemes get underway. Second, 97. 0% of the surveyed households didn't haverndemand for improved WS prior to construction, 88.2% didn't participaternsatisfactorily during the planning phase and the involvement women at any stagernof the WSD was very limited. Besides, the water committees were not capable ofrnmanaging the system properly and communities have weak or no sense ofrnownership to the developed water supply facilities. Specifically, conflict amongrnmembers of the committee and lacle of transparency, accountability andrncommitment are the major indicators to problems related with local waterrnmanagement board that affect sustain ability of the s ystem .Lack of adequaterntraining and follow up from implementing agencies, lack of power to enforcernrules, lacle of incentives, and absence of working manuals are also identified asrnmajor problems that cons trained the water committees from managing theirrnschemes properly. Third, all capital costs are covered by implementing agenciesrnand the user fee required for operation and maintenance has not been collected.rnIn the study area, communities are able and willing to pay for the WS service.rnHowever, inability to raise adequate f ee, misuse of the collected fund, and lack ofrnproper book keeping and saving are found to be the major financial threats to thernsustainability. Fourth, failure to consult beneficiaries in technology choice, lack ofrncommunity skill required to operate and maintain the schemes properly becausernof absence of trained local technicians, unavailability of tools and spare partsrneither at woreda or community level and poor construction quality are found tornbe major technological threats to sustainability of RWS in the study area. Fifth,rnthe institutional capacity of the leading office is limited and the external supportrnservice given to the community from implementing agencies to effectively managerntheir water systems is found to be inadequate. Therefore, the findings call forrnadopting demand respons ive approach, strengthening community participation,rnbuilding community capacity to manage WSSs properly, establishing effectivernuser fee collection system, developing trus ted and transparent system of fundsrnmanagement, choosing appropriate technology, building local technicians'rncapacity, minimizing problems related with availability of spare parts, improvingrnconstruction quality as well as strengthening the capacity of the leading office atrnworeda le vel to support rural communities in managing water supply.