Community Participation in Water Resource Projects Management in Iringa District Council, Tanzania.
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Date
2018
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tengeru Community Development Journal
Abstract
Community participation in water project management has received international
attention to replace top down approaches to development. However, the approach receives
critiques regarding the extent to which participation in water project design and implementation
is meaningful and really engages communities in the process. This calls for continuous local
level research to identify practices that can increase the likelihood of meaningful community
participation. A cross sectional research was conducted in Iringa District, Tanzania to assess the
practice of community participation on selected community water projects. The study
specifically ought to assess participation of stakeholders in different stages of water projects
development and to determine the role of community members in maintenance of project
infrastructure. Data collection was carried out through household‟s survey, semi-structured
interviews with key informants and focus groups discussions. Descriptive analysis was employed
to answer key research questions. The study findings show that despite water being one of the
essential needs in the respective communities, the initial idea came from donors. Generally, the
community participation was low in almost all project phases. The communication mechanism in
terms of feedback and information sharing, community capacity to engage into project technical
maintenance and women participation in water project governance was found to be weak. The
paper concludes that there is less consideration of the principles of community participation in
executing water projects at Iringa District Council. It is recommended that the meaningful
participation should adhere to the key principals of community engagement in all phases of
project design and management.
Description
Tengeru Community Development Journal, Vol. 5, No.2, 2018, pg. 80-90
Keywords
Community, Participation, Sustainability, Water project, Community management