Assessment of Factors Affecting Sustainability of Rural Water Supply Schemes in Nyandarua County, Kenya: A Case of Kangui Water Scheme

The United Nations Millennium Developed Goals (MDGs) aim at reducing the Proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 50 % by the year 2015. In line with this, the government of Kenya envisages to enhance the Social Pillar that includes provision of safe water and sanitation services in its vision 2030 programme. Against this background, the country has set modalities to ensure that the vision is met in a timely manner. Water and sanitation provision has been put under the docket of regional water boards that engage companies and societies as water services providers whose mandate is to ensure that water schemes are operated in a suitable manner by utilizing the revenue generated. Despite the arrangement in place, some schemes have become conspicuously unsuccessful even without any technical failures rendering them unsustainable thus calling for the need to establish the factors that attribute to this Situation. Most of the schemes are in the rural areas Such as in Nyandarua County. The researcher carried out a research with the aim of examining the factors affecting sustainability of water supply schemes in Nyandarua County. The study population comprised the staff of water supply schemes in Nyandarua County whereas the target population constituted the water staff of Kangui water scheme which was taken as the case study. The sample size shall constitute the 62 staff members of Kangui water project. The research employed probability techniques where every unit in the population had a chance of being selected in the sample. Data collection was done by administering questionnaires which were supplied directly to the respondents by the researcher himself to avoid major errors of omission, misinterpretation or deliberate failure to respond. A pilot test involving 7 respondents who were exempted from the main study was carried out prior to the main study. Once the data had been collected it was analyzed using SPSS and used descriptive statistics to illustrate both the central tendencies and variability of the findings of individual variables, these being unaccounted for water and sustainability of water supply scheme. It was established that there exists a strong but negative correlation (r = -0.656; p less than 0.01) between unaccounted for water and sustainability of the water supply scheme. It was concluded that unaccounted for water strongly affect sustainability of water supply schemes. It is recommended that the water supply scheme must completely get rid of illegal water connections; ensure that leakages are repaired in time and that the water supply system including the meters are fully and always functional.