An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Marketing Communication on the Service Delivery in Water Service Sector Reforms: A Case Study of Coast Water Services Board

Coast Water Services Board (CWSB) has the mandate of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, to provide bulk water to residents of the coast region, comprising of the six counties of Mombasa, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Kilifi, Lamu and Tana River, through Water Services Providers (WSPs) situated in these counties. Coast Water Services Board is a state corporation created under the Ministry of Water pursuant to the Water Act 2002 and became operational on 27th. February 2004 through gazette notice no 1328 (CWSB Newsletter 2012). This legal mandate is thus is derived from the Water Act of 2002. The Water Act was designed to spur development in the water sector that had been outstripped by demand from the public. There has been numerous changes taking place within the water sector, referred to in general terms as reforms. Sadly, community ability to effectively manage its water resources and enable easy access to water services is being compromised by men and women, who misuse water and land resources, finances, industries and other firms as well as their own governance. In Kenya, the Water Act 2002 has introduced comprehensive and, in many instances, radical changes to the legal framework governing the whole water sector. These reforms revolve around the following four themes (1) decentralization of functions to lower level state organs, (2) the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the management of water resources and in the provision of water services, (3) the separation of the management of water resources from the provision of water services, and (4) the separation of policy making from day to day administration and regulation. The current water demand for the coast region stands at 480, 000 m3/day against the water supply of 133, 000 m3/day and for population of 3.4 million across the region. The potential supply nonetheless stands at 430, 000 (m3) per day. Water for coast region is derived from Mzima springs (35, 000m3) Marere springs (7, 000m3) Sabaki water wells (72, 000m3) Tiwi boreholes (10, 000m3) Taveta Lumi springs (3, 000m3) and various water boreholes and dams and rivers (6, 000m3) C. These all total to the current production of 133, 000 m3/day. Though the CWSB has had a communications strategy in place, it has not been able to articulately communicate these changes to the public. It is therefore based on this that this study is proposed. This study focuses on communication strategy for the Board, in the context of reform processes within the water sub-sector. The study seeks to determine the effectiveness of communication in public institutions, in the context of the reforms taking place at the Coast Water Services Board. Mainly the role of relaying information, persuading the public, and specifically the customers to understand and accept the reform process, as well as continually and periodically remind them of the different roles of the Institutions in place as effected by the Water Act 2002. Chapter one of this proposal will contain an introductory part, a little background information on the proposal, statement of the problem explaining briefly what has prompted the necessity to conduct such a research, the research objectives will then be explained, then the research questions, justification and finally scope of the study. Chapter two will start with theoretical framework, then empirical review, conceptual framework, critique of existing literature, summary and finally research gaps. Finally, chapter three will contain introduction, research design, target population, sampling size, sampling technique, data validity and reliability, data collection tools and procedure, pilot test, data analysis methods. The data collected will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression, presented in tables and charts extracted from both MS Excel and Statistical Package for Social Studies (SPSS) software tools version 20.