Community Participation and Outcomes of Selected Community Based Development Water Projects in the Informal Settlements of Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

A great proportion of the population living in urban areas of Kenya especially in Nairobi City County reside within the informal settlements. These informal settlements are prone to water related challenges such as failure to access piped and safe water. It is this situation that has continued to attract attention of governmental and non-governmental organizations which have kept on supporting water related projects to solve such menace. Available information revealed that over 50 percent of the water projects within the informal settlements are non-operational. This is what motivated the study. This study sought to assess how various factors affect community participation in community based development water projects in the informal settlements of Nairobi City County and how such participation impact on the project outcome. The study was guided by two specific objectives which were to investigate the determinants of community participation in community based development water projects in Nairobi County and to determine the effect of community participation on project outcome in community based development water projects in Nairobi County. Primary cross-sectional data used in this study was collected using questionnaires administered to 48 respondents selected from three slum areas of Nairobi County which are Kibra, Mathare and Korogocho. Three water projects, one from each slum were randomly selected. The logistic regression estimation for achieving the first objective was conducted using five different levels of participation as dependent variable. The results showed a negative effect of sex on participation in project identification; sharing of ideas; deciding on location of the project and monitoring but positive on labor provision. Age influences all the five participation levels negatively except labor provision and monitoring. The effect of marital status is only positive on labor provision but negative to the rest while education has negative effect only on identification of water project as a need. The number of children has negative effect on participation at all levels. Moreover, the effect of employment is negative on labor provision but positive on all other participation levels. In regard to the second objective, it was noted that training as well as factoring in all ideas of members in decision making is very influential in ensuring that water projects meet the needs of the community. Furthermore, the higher the quality of the staff used to implement and manage the projects, the higher the likelihood of the water projects meeting the needs of the community.