Organizational Factors Affecting the Quality of Operation Services in Small Town Water Supply Systems in Central Uganda

Abstract

This study assessed how organizational factors of resource availability, community participation and organizational control affect the quality of operation services in small town water supply systems in central Uganda. These organizational factors had hitherto received limited attention in the operation of small town water supply systems leading to poor performance of the systems. The study adopted a descriptive design through a cross sectional survey conducted in five small town water supply systems of Kibibi, Nkokonjeru, Semuto, Kakiri and Nakifuma. A total of 191 respondents, representing a response rate of 75.5%, participated in the study through questionnaires and interviews. From the study, it emerged that resource availability has a weak insignificant negative effect on the quality of operation services while community participation was noted to have a statistically significant positive effect on the quality of operation services. Organizational control was observed to positively impact on the quality of operation services, albeit to a low statistical significance. The study therefore concluded that organizational factors of resources availability and organizational control do not significantly affect the quality of operation services in small town water supply systems, while community participation significantly affects the quality of the operation services. The study thus recommends that the Ministry of Water and Environment and the Local Authorities need to motivate the water supply board members through facilitation and training in order to sustain their interest in management of the water supply systems. The Ministry should also support the small town water supply systems to improve on internal and external revenue collection while assisting in developing formal and informal control systems to improve utilization of resources for service improvement.