Influence of Community Participation on Sustainability of Water Projects in Laikipia County: a Case of Solio Water Project

Abstract

Community participation in water programs has a number of advantages along with more sustainability, social acceptability and equalized benefits for all members. Since water is not readily available, it should be carefully protected and maintained for the good of the entire society. The key question is to find out if communities never show attention in discussions on water use or are not allowed to participate. Participation is a method where stakeholders’ impact or share controls over programs and resources that positively or negatively impact them. Study's purpose is to find out how community participation influences sustainable projects involving water in Laikipia; an example of Solio Project. The research objectives are guided by this study are; Determining how community participation in resource mobilization influence sustainability of the Solio Water Project in Laikipia, to examine how community participation in project planning influences sustainability of the Solio Water Project in Laikipia, to assess how community participation in project implementation influence sustainability of the Solio Water Project in Laikipia and to establish how community participation in project monitoring and evaluation sustainability of the Solio Water Project in Laikipia. The study is anchored by sustainability theory. The study’s design of research is descriptive research design. The participants in the study are residents of Laikipia East Constituency. Located in the Laikipia East region, the Solio Water Project serves seven villages in Tigithi ward. Laikipia East Constituency has a population of 158,243 people, according to a 2019 estimate from Kenya's National Bureau of statistics. There is one community project water officer per village in the seven villages. Simple random sampling has been used to select 353 participants for this.In the investigation, a questionnaire has been employed as the primary tool to gather information. Close ended questions are applied in collecting quantitative data after which it is organized and categorized. Interview guide is applied to interview the community project water officers. The data additionally is coded through assigning figures, symbols, signs and numerals. In conducting data analysis, the (SPSS) software is applied. Descriptive statistics is obtained from the data compiled and displayed in percentiles. Qualitative data has been examined by applying content analysis. Tables and figures have illustrated the conclusions and recommendations.