Influence of Sustainability on Community Water Projects in Imenti South, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Sustainability is an aspired outcome for any project. It’s a long-term process based on achievement of objectives. It then accelerates the successful performance and fosters change in the area of implementation. Factors under the study included community participation, funding levels, resource availability, and monitoring and evaluation analysis. They formed the research questions for the study and formed the theme for the literature review. The study adopted theories with related knowledge regarding the study topic which were; Mc Cleland Need achievement theory, Freirean theory of dialogue and society and the theory of constraints. Qualitative and quantitative data were used from where the study population included the water beneficiaries, water staff, government officials and the ministry of water officials. Descriptive survey design was adopted on the population targeted. Sampling proportionate random sampling technique was used to collect samples from the targeted population. The targeted population was 135 from which a sample size of 70 drawn to represent. Both open and closed ended questionnaire were administered and filled by the respondents. There were also secondary sources of data like; journals, magazines, books, research papers and articles as well as the internet. Collected data was analysed by method of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) and the result findings presented in tables and figures. From the findings, it’s clear that community participation affected the ownership of the community water project form which the community people did not even feel the satisfaction in using it. Funding levels was also a concern this is because all projects depend on certain allocated budget to operate in. Therefore with little allocation the project could not sustain some of its operations hence influencing the sustainability. As seen resources were a vital segment in ensuring the project prospered but from the findings there as inadequacy in availability of resources therefore this contributed greatly to some project processes declining the performance. Also the level of monitoring and evaluation analysis was not very well collected because most of the beneficiaries were not involved in the progress of the project as well as timeliness to which the analysis was done was not adequate. The recommendations based on the study findings is that community participation should be highly incorporated since these are the owners of the project as they offer labour as well as contribute in funding and resources. Funding levels should be well allocated in adequacy and early disbursement at early stages. Also for assessment on the progress it was recommended that monitoring should be frequently carried out to avoid any upcoming issues that may affect performance of the project. The conclusion was that there was correlation between the independent and dependent variables on sustainability of community water project in Imenti South. Key Words: Sustainability of community based water project, Resource availability, Monitoring and Evaluation, Community participation and Funding Level