Sustainable Management of Community Development Projects: A Study of Selected Macro and Mini-Water Projects in Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District, South-South, Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper was premised on the fact that even with increasing government efforts and interests in formulating effective policies for rural community development (specifically water) in Akwa Ibom State, rural communities still seem to lack sustainable community water projects to show for. This paper is an ex-post facto evaluation and assessment of selected failed/collapsed mini-water projects in communities in Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District (a.k.a. Uyo Senatorial District), Akwa Ibom State. Interest was, among others, in investigating the reason so many community water projects become moribund soon after completion or commissioning, and weather issues of sustainability related to technical, social, human and environmental factors played a critical role in the problem. Interest was also on finding out why measures of sustainability were not incorporated during the initiation, implementation and evaluation phases of community projects. Specifically, the focus of this papaer was on the prospects and problems facing the sustainable management of community water projects Survey and content analysis approaches were adopted in the research. Critical issues bordering on the sustainability of community water projects were examined. The
findings of the study showed a multiplicity of factors such as non involvement of the intended
beneficiaries, use of sub-standard materials and poor community management approaches.