Project Management Practices and Sustainability of Community Managed Water Projects: A Case of Prepaid Water Kiosks Projects in Saku –Marsabit, Kenya
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Date
2023
Authors
Mole, Boru Guyo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
“Marsabit County government lacks effective policy strategies on funding of projects that
influences the prioritization of projects evidenced by the county’s inability to fund water
and irrigation projects that would mitigate effects of recurrent droughts affecting the
cultural, economic and social lives of the people of Saku subcounty. These projects also
have weak monitoring and evaluation framework that have led to the failure of the
projects to meet the required quality standards of the users. Most of the community water
projects initiated in the county have not been able to exist more than two years. The
sustainability of water provision is not guaranteed if a permanent solution is not sought
and a proper framework on sustainability is not found. The general objective of the study
was to determine the effect of management practices on sustainability of prepaid water
meter kiosks project in Saku constituency, Marsabit County, Kenya. The specific
objectives of the study were to assess the effect of fund management, stakeholder’s
involvement, monitoring and evaluation and risk management on sustainability of
prepaid water meter kiosks project in Saku constituency, Marsabit County, Kenya. The
study was anchored on the systems theory, theory of constraints and the stakeholder’s
theory. The study was conducted in five prepaid water meter kiosks projects. The
respondents of the study were the members of self-help groups running the five Kiosks,
ministry of water officials within Marsabit County, and key informants within Marsabit
County. The study used a descriptive research design. A census of all group members
running various Kiosks was conducted to obtain primary data. SPSS software package
version 21 was used to analyse data. Regression statistics was used to assess the
correlation between the various variables in the study. The study foundd that fund
management, stakeholder involvement, monitoring and evaluation and risk management
had a positive and significant effect on sustainability of prepaid water meter kiosks
project in Saku constituency in Marsabit County, Kenya. The study concluded that proper
fund management ensures a systematic procedure in which a project manager maintains,
deploys, operated and upgrade assets in a cost-effective manner while they ensure
successful sustainability of the project. Stakeholder involvement provides opportunities
to further align practices with societal needs and expectations, helping to drive long-term
project sustainability. monitoring and evaluation objectively assess outcomes related to
objectives and goals of the project. M&E efforts alert project managers to what works
and what does not for the project and also helps with tracking progress of implementation
and record keeping of the project. Project risk management helps in predicting and
mitigating the risks which help in avoiding any kind of loss or conflict in the project. The
study recommended that the project managers should focus on a few critical financial
metrics that are essential to specific project cases to a greater clarity obtained from
project deliverables. The constituency should define and identify the relevant
stakeholders both from internal and external sources. The constituency should create a
plan for monitoring and evaluating the projects being undertaken by creating a platform
or system to capture and organize the project’s data in one place, track each team
member’s progress and allocate resources accordingly. The project managers should
identify individual risks that might affect the project by making a list of risks that might
arise, explore the probability of each risk occurring, as well as the potential impact each
risk will have on the project.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School Of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfilment for the Award of Degree in Master of Business Administration (Project Management) of Kenyatta University, June 2023.
Keywords
Project Management Practices, Sustainability of Community Managed Water Projects, Prepaid Water Kiosks Projects, Saku –Marsabit, Kenya