| dc.description.abstract | This study was set to assess the aspects of capacity building that influence the performance of Water Resource Users Associations in Tharaka-Nithi County. Previous studies carried out in Kenya on management of community projects show that the condition of many of these projects was between poor and pathetic. Poor management and coordination, partnerships, institutional funding, poor project leadership, lack of transparency and accountability, lack of participation and ownership of the WRUA and high illiteracy rate leading to low technology adoption were cited as possible factors that influence performance of community based projects. The purpose of the study was to access how community capacity building influences the performance of water resource users association in water catchment management in Tharaka Nithi County.
The objectives of the study were.-to access whether improved education and training of members of Water Resource Users Associations, community coordination and management, and availability and accessibility to resources are related to improved WRUA performance in water catchment management. Descriptive and correlation research method were used in this research. Descriptive design was used to collect data in order to answer questions concerning the current status of the water resources users association. Since this study aimed at clarifying relationships, correlation research was used. The instruments used included the use of structured questionnaires and interviews. Interviews were conducted to give in-depth information which was omitted by the questionnaire.
The survey was administered to 115 respondents out of 693 members of the nine WRUAs in Tharaka Nithi County. The data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and Excel spread sheet. The data output is presented in form of tables and description. The researcher also used the Karl Pearson's product moment correlation analysis to access the relationship between the variables. The study found out that there were very strong relationships in various aspects of education and training, coordination and management, availability and accessibility of resources with performance of WRUAs in water catchment management. The key ones being high positive relationship between the numbers of executive committees with education levels of at least secondary level and number of WRUA community members trained with the performance of the WRUA.
The study also found out that various types of trainings offered to the WRUA have varying influence on performance. There is also a strong positive correlation between accrued WRUA benefits and performances of the WRUA. It was also found out that WRUAs that have high number of volunteers working for them were performing poorly. The study also found out that WRUAs required diversified . consistent support e.g. technical, infrastructure and equipments to improve their performance. The study recommends that there is need for WRUAs to be capacity built not only in training but on skills on networking, information and knowledge management. The WRUAs also requires support in technical, infrastructure, equipment and human in the early stages of WRUA operation in order to make them self sustaining. | en_US |
