A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Award
of the Degree of Master of Development Policy (MSc. DP) of
Mzumbe University
The study was set to investigate community participation in water resources
management at Saaki Spring in Hai District. The study was guided by the following
specific objectives; to examine community involvement in the water resources
management at Saaki Spring, to explore water resources management information
sharing in the community and to identify challenges facing community‟s
involvement in water resources management in the study area.
The study used cross-sectional research design with both qualitative and quantitative
approaches. A questionnaire containing both open and closed ended questions was
administered to 80 community members. An in-depth interview was conducted with
8 key informants. Interpretation and presentation of data was accomplished through
descriptive statistics and content analysis.
The study established that community participation in the management of Saaki
Spring resource is inevitable since resources are located in their vicinity. The study
has found that few people specifically leaders participate in the management of the
spring. The large community is not full involved in the management of the spring;
community was not informed on the decisions made on planning, implementation
and evaluation stage. The members of the community do not clearly understand the
laws and regulations governing spring. It also emerged that, the participation of
people in the water related meetings in regard to information sharing is minimal. The
challenges mentioned include limited community involvement, limited knowledge on
spring preservation, difficult to protect the spring and poor supervision. Other
challenges which emerged include lack of compensation for the farms which
members were confiscated during the implementation of the project, inadequate
information and lesser involvement of the community in the spring management.
Some recommendations are given out from this study that; UBWS has to maintain
the good relationship with the community. These include involving the community in
the overall management of the spring, sharing the information on managing the
spring and maintaining the decision making system in which the community is part
and parcel.