The impact of community participation in rural water management in Ndarugu-Thiririka sub-catchment, Athi Basin, Kenya

Abstract

In rural areas, water availability in the right quantity and quality is an important step towards achieving socio-economic development. Thus, the provision of sustainable water supply has been a central issue in Kenya with priority on low-income rural communities and underdeveloped areas with poor water resources. This has forced many rural communities to embrace community management model in rural water systems. Community participation in rural water management is purportedly a key element for community water projects to be sustainable. The objective of this paper was to assess the impact of community participation in rural water management in four community-managed rural water supply projects, namely Kinyathena, Juja Farm, Munyu and Kamunyaka. Different types of data were collected using household questionnaires, in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). The data type collected included the socio-economic characteristics of the sample households and level of community participation. . The collected data was organized in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 and Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were used to describe and summarize the data while inferential statistics, chi-square and ANOVA were used to reach conclusions and make generalizations of the population. Results indicate that 56.5% of the respondents agreed that community participation in rural water management has improved their livelihoods. Therefore the study concludes that community participation in the sub-catchment has impacted on the local community livelihoods by providing constant access to adequate water for domestic, agricultural uses, construction, reducing time wastage, general development and catchment management.

Keywords: Ndarugu-Thiririka sub-catchment, water management, Community participation