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Many water systems in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries are community-managed. Ensuring the long-term sustainability of community-managed systems is important to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six, which calls for universal access to safe water. Social capital and sense of ownership are theorized to influence the effectiveness of community-management. To explore this relationship, we conducted a qualitative study of how and why social capital and sense of ownership facilitate water system sustainability, and their relationship to one another. Individual interviews and focus group discussions with community members, water committee members, local leaders, and external support actors were conducted in eighteen communities with successful community-managed water systems in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. We found that social capital facilitates water system solicitation, water …