Assessment of Community Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions Toward Effluent Quality Discharged from the Shirere Wastewater Treatment Plant to the Isiukhu River, Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

For waste removal, advanced infrastructural technologies can be adopted in the drainage channels of effluents into water bodies though they are limited and scarce. The aim of the study was to asses community knowledge, attitude and perception towards effluent quality discharged from Shirere wastewater treatment plant up to river Isiukhu. Correlation and descriptive survey were the main research approaches adopted. The measurement of the knowledge, perception and attitude was limited to only the community members, as well as Kakamega County Water and Sanitation Company (KACWASCO) staff members. The study was anchored by the risk management theory to demonstrate the vulnerability of community hazards like water pollution. The social-economic sampling approaches applied were stratified for the community members and random for the KACWASCO workers. The population targeted was eighty community members and four KACWASCO staff members. The questionnaires were pretested through a pilot study to ascertain their reliability. This pre-test was conducted at a different Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) at Nabongo. The Pearson coefficient (r) was used to compute the correlation coefficient between the two test scores. Data was analyzed using regression and correlation methods. For socio-economic, reliability test was administered by use test- retest method. A code book was prepared and scores of the first test correlated with scores of the second test, and Pearson product moment of correlation was computed using SPSS software version 21.0. By applying the analysis of variance (ANOVA), researcher was able to determine whether differences observed between groups are likely due to actual variations in their perceptions or simply due to chance. From the reliability test, all of the variables obtained had Cronbach's Alpha greater than 0.7, indicating that they met the necessary 0.7 for data internal consistency. The Bartlett's test for validity was examined using the chi-square test, which revealed that all of the variables were significant at the 5% (0.000) level of significance. Only 82 of the 84 questionnaires provided to the sampled respondents (KACWASCO staffs and community members) were filled out and returned in this study. From the study findings the value of R-square was 0.429. The ANOVA test indicated that in this model the independent variable namely; knowledge of the residents is important in predicting of waste water treatment as indicated by significance value=0.002 which is less than 0.05 level of significance (p=0.002 < 0.05). Additionally, the response under attitude and perception, the value of R-Square was 0.045 which implied that, 4.5% of variation of Wastewater Treatment Plant in Shirere was explained by attitude and perception of the residents within the area. The study also revealed that attitude and perception of the residents in Shirere had a significant influence on wastewater treatment at Shirere in Kakamega County (t-statistic = 25.674, p-value = ). Therefore, it was concluded that, at 5% level of significance, indicating that community knowledge, perception and attitude had a positive influence on waste water treatment at Shirere in Kakamega County. Likewise, for every unit increase in attitude of the residents there was a corresponding increase in wastewater treatment at Shirere in Kakamega County by 0.628. The study recommended that, the community members need more sensitization on matters pollution as revealed by this study.