Factors influencing performance of community water projects in Bomet east, Bomet county Kenya.

Abstract

Water is a basic need of life, the most precious and important of all natural resources, without which the human species cannot survive. Governments, NGOs, local and international organizations from all over the globe have implemented water projects to encourage safe rural water supply and sanitation in the past few years. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing performance of community water projects in Bomet County. It was guided by the following objectives; investigate the effect of technical competence, stakeholder involvement projects, governance structures and monitoring and evaluation influence performance of community water projects. The researcher used descriptive research design. Stratification and simple random sampling technique was used to obtain 2 Community water projects from each location which will yield 18 water projects. Morgan’s table for sample size was used to determine the sample size from the targeted households. A sample of 398 was selected. The data was collected using questionnaires and interviews schedules and was analyzed and interpreted both quantitatively and qualitatively using statistical tools such as Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The data was presented using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The findings will be useful to stakeholders in the water sectors such as the County government, NGOs, donors, community members and other interested stakeholders in coming up with sustainable interventions to improve water access. It was found out that there was a significant relationship between technical competence and the performance of community water projects (P=0.04). A weak positive relationship between stakeholders’ involvement and performance in community water projects (r=0.224, p=0.081) which confirmed insignificant relationship between stakeholders’ involvement and performance in community water projects. A two-tailed paired t-test indicated a strong significant relationship between governance and performance in community water projects. Further results indicated a positive relationship between governance and performance in community water projects (r=0.318, p<0.05). It was concluded that, among the four independent variables under investigation, technical competence is the factor that had the most influencing effect on the performance of community water projects in Bomet East sub-county. The study suggest that community water projects should increase the involvement of key stakeholders such as relevant government agencies, financial advisers, and other professionals in order to enhance the success of projects