Abstract:
This study assesses community participation for sustainability of rural water schemes in rural areas. Two villages of Emao and Nkelei were taken as a case study. The methodology applied to assess community participation was thoroughly discussed to see the extent of community involvement at different stages of the project. The techniques used included interviews, questionnaires, focused group discussions, physical observation and literature review. A total of 100 respondents were interviewed 92 of whom were project beneficiaries.
The study found that community participation in the study area took different forms at the different stages of the project cycle. The nature and extent of participation for the majority of local communities was generally limited to information giving, consultation and contribution. Local communities were generally not involved in decision making, planning, monitoring and evaluation. The key factors in participation are staff with knowledge and skills on participatory approaches, continuous community sensitisation and mobilisation. Poverty was found to be the main inhibitor of local community participation. Other factors are contradicting policies and approaches of different agencies inflexible organisational policies, poor community leadership and dependency.
The study also found that participatory approach leads to water project sustainability only when the elements of project sustainability are considered at the early stages. Capacity building was significant when it trained community water attendants and when it formed local communities or water user groups to carry out project activities for immediate intervention. The study concluded that little attention was given to community involvement at different stages of project implementation and that this threatened future sustainability of the water schemes. There was ineffective community participation in both villages.
Lastly the study recommends firstly that water attendants and WC members should be trained, secondly that there should be periodic sensitization seminar on O &M, finally that the community should be involved in all stages of project development.
