Sustainability Of Ngo Supported Water Supply Projects: The Case Of Elct Konde Diocese Shallow Wells Project In Mbozi District, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Many large water projects that were established and managed by community and central

governments in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) failed mainly due to inadequate community

participation in planning and implementation of such rural domestic water supply projects.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania - Konde Diocese (ELCT-KOD) in

collaboration with Marion Medical Mission (MMM) introduced shallow wells project in

Mbozi District in 2002. Out of 1061 shallow wells constructed by ELCT-Konde Diocese

in Mbozi district, 45 of them are not functioning. In light of this, a study was done to

determine factors influencing sustainability of the shallow wells project. The population

for this study consisted of all heads of household. Simple random sampling technique was

used to select 20 household heads from each six study villages. This made a total sample

size of 120 of household heads. It was found that majority of the respondents (83.3%)

participated in meetings related to shallow wells project at the early stage of planning, and

that 75.8% of household heads participated fully in discussing locations for digging the

shallow wells. Therefore, community involvement in the planning stage of the shallow

wells project was satisfactory. The people in Mbozi District play a vital role and are highly

responsible for management of the shallow wells project. Nevertheless, the study found

the shallow wells technology is highly limited in terms of being easily broken and

therefore people are not very much benefiting as it was intended by project initiators. The

study recommends that the Government of Tanzania should clearly provide instructions to

the community with regard to the use of shallow wells. This may include modifications of

water policy that shallow well have to be given priority as the only way to help people

living in villages like those in Mbozi District. The village leaders should continue

mobilizing villagers to involve themselves in all stages of the shallow wells project for

continuing sustainability