Abstract:
Community participation is believed to be central to ensuring project
sustainability in the development realm. Project developers, implementers,
development partners, government officials and communities need to be
aware of the role a community plays in making projects in their
environments work better from both the theoretical and practical
perspectives. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of
community participation on water projects sustainability in Rwamwanja
Refugee Settlement Camp, Kamwenge District, Uganda. Using a mixed
methods sequential explanatory method, the study revealed that the level
of community participation in water projects in the studied settlement was
low. In addition, water projects sustainability was also low. It was noted
that community participation has a weak but positive significant influence
on water projects sustainability. Initiating action was the main aspect of
community participation that influenced water projects sustainability
significantly. Non community participation aspects such as inadequate
external funding, use of poor quality materials and corruption affected
water projects sustainability. It was recommended that governments,
development partners and firms contracted to develop water projects
should have a clear water project development protocol that stipulates the
steps, structures and processes that build and sustain effective community
participation.
