| dc.description.abstract | Water is a basic need for all living things. The Government of Kenya has over the years made tremendous efforts towards enhancing accessibility to quality and affordable water to its citizens. Since 2002, the Kenyan government has been carrying out reforms in the water sector, which are geared towards improving performance in this sector. Expectations have been high that commercialization of the water sector would lead to automatic success, but this has not been the case with many water service providers perfo~ing poorly over the years. Amidst all these troubles, Othaya Mukurweini Water and Sewerage Company have continued to improve over the years. This prompted the researcher to investigate the effect of management practices, water, and sanitation coverage, adoption of technology and social-economic factors influence in performance of OMWASCO.
This study was significant because it focused on recently established rural based water service providers which have been largely ignored in many studies. The main objectives of this study was to investigate the influence of management practice, water and sanitation coverage, adoption of technology and socio-economic factors of communities around the water service provider on performance of OMWASCO. The study adopted a descriptive survey design to describe the factors influencing OMW ASCO. The target population was eighty nine OMW ASCO employees and its twenty thousands four hundred and seventy two water and sewerage customers. Stratified and random sampling was used to get a representative sample of twenty seven employees and three hundred and seventy seven customers.
Data was collected using self administered questionnaires filled by water and sewerage customers and OMW ASCO employees, and secondary sources. Data collected was analyzed using the SPSS computer package of social sciences and presented using descriptive statistics such as tables, percentages, pie charts and bar graphs. The findings of the study revealed that the performance of OMW ASCO has continued to improve over the last five years it has been in existence. This was attributed to good management practice, high water and sewerage coverage, adoption of technology in its operations and a well educated young clientele earning above average incomes.
The findings of this study will be useful to OMW ASCO management and employees in helping them to identify and maximize their strength and also minimize their weakness. The report will also be useful to policy makers in the ministry of water and irrigation in formulating policies on rural WSPS. Other WSPS can also learn from the report on how to improve their organizations. The researcher recommends that the water service providers should modernize the water supply infrastructure so as to minimize water leakages. Patnering of WSPS and mobile telephone providers should be enhanced to introduce mobile phone bill checking and payment. Further research should be carried out on the sustainability of the water bodies relied on by WSPS and also the effect of population explosion on water and sewerage provision in developing countries like Kenya. | en_US |
