Masters Thesis
The study aimed at assessing household water service accessibility in Karatu District
Tanzania, a case of world vision dream village WASH project. Specifically, the study
wanted to establish the level of access to water services before and after the dream village
WASH project, to assess community involvement in dream village WASH project, and to
determine household water users’ opinions on dream village WASH project. The study
adopted both quantitative and qualitative research approaches, whereby a descriptive
social survey research design was involved. Data were collected from 120 household
water users from three villages (Mbuganyekundu, Jobaj, and Dumbechand) and 10 key
informants. Questionnaire, interview, and FGDs were used in data collection. Inferential
analysis was involved in establishing the relationship between independent (intervention,
community involvement and water users’ opinions) and dependent variables (access to
water services). Qualitative analysis involved content analysis. The findings show that
before the project, people used to walk for more than 4 kilometres to find water and they
used unprotected water sources, but after the project the level of access to water improved
and the distance from households to the water points was reduced. The findings also
indicate that the community was involved in stages of implementing the project and
community had positive opinion on the project. The study also found the statistical
significant level ((p≤0.05) between independent (intervention, community involvement
and water users’ opinions) and dependent variable (access to water services).The study
conclude that, there is improved level of access to water services, community
involvement in water service project and household water users’ opinion in water services
may influence accessibility of water services among the households.