ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN SUSTAINABILITY OF RURAL WATER PROJECTS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

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.