Abstract:
The active involvement of community members in all aspect of project design and
management has become the cornerstone of community-based development initiatives.
Community participation includes a proactive process in which community member
influenced the development and management of developmental projects and it is expected to
enhance projects sustainability. However, many development projects initiated by past
governments in Nigeria has not result in the expected benefits to people. While some of the
projects were abandoned, the few completed others in the deplorable state were not utilized
by the end users or not maintained due to the lack of involvement of the stakeholders in every
management phases of the projects. Therefore, this study assessed the participation of
community members in the sustainability of rural water supply (RUWASA) projects in Ondo
state, Nigeria. The study employed a survey research approach through which questionnaire
was used to collect primary data from 364 community members of the locations where
RUWASA projects are being implemented in Ondo State, Nigeria. The collected data was
analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The findings
of the study revealed that community members moderately participate in needs identification
(mean = 3.56), planning (mean = 3.14), communication (mean = 3.11),
implementation/execution (mean= 3.22) and monitoring and evaluation (mean = 3.45) of
RUWASA project. The findings also revealed that lack of literacy skills among community
members and time required for community participation are the major challenges inhibiting
community participation in RUWASA projects. In addition, the test of hypotheses indicates
that community participation in needs identification (P < 0.05), planning (P < 0.05),
communication (p < 0.05) implementation /execution (P < 0.05) and monitoring and
evaluation (P < 0.05) all significantly influence sustainability of RUWASA. The study
recommends that community members should be carried along in identifying the needs for
a projects that concerns their survival and development, be involved in preparing
contingency plan in case the project goes off budget and schedule and be involved in
providing regular feedback to enhance the sustainability of RUWASA.
