Sustainability of water projects: a case of selected projects in Iringa District, Tanzania

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA.The study was conducted to examine the factors for sustainability of water projects in IringaDistrict, Tanzania. Iringa District was selected as the area of study because in spite of many water projects invested at the area, the accessibility of clean water is only 40.7%. The study specifically ought to determine water sources protection strategies adopted at the study area, to assess participation of stakeholders in different stages of water projects development, to analyze the institutional arrangement for water project management and socio-economic and environmental factors influencing sustainability of water projects. A household questionnaire was administered to 180 respondents in three villages for data collection. This was supplemented by discussions with ordinary water users and water attendants. Descriptive statistical methods including frequencies and percentages were used as qualitative analytical techniques. For quantitative data, logistic regression model was used to determine the factors for successful and failure of projects. The collected data were analysed using SPSS software. In order to determine the main factors for water project sustainability binary logistic regression was applied, and the results show that cox and snell (R2) was 0.171 and Nagelkerke (R2) was 0.232.This indicates that the model was fit to explain the change in the dependent variable as a result of change in the independent variable. From the results it showsonly two independent variables which are project maintenance per annum and meetings conducted per annum were found to be significant at p ≤ 0.001 and p ≤ 0.010, respectively. The findings imply that the positive signs attached to the estimated coefficients of the variables, indicates that the greater the values of these variables the higher the tendency to maintain sustainability of water supply. The negative signs attached to time spent for water collection and economic activities in the water sources indicate also that the greater the value of the variable the lower the probability of maintaining sustainability of water supply. The increasing rate of water project failure especially in the rural areas should be addressed in order to achieve reliable supply of safe and clean water to the rural populations. Local governments, donors and communities should make sure that both technical aspects and regular follow-ups, capacity buildings to the community and water user association members become a sustainable process for the attainment of water project sustainability