Challenges of Good Governance in Urban Service Delivery: The Case of water supply in Habicho Town, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Abstract

The reason of this study is to assess the challenges of good governance in urban service delivery; the case of water supply problems in Habicho town. Good governance is the best mechanisms to enhance economic, political and social development in developing countries. Descriptive survey studies design was employed to find the cause of the problem and reap solution for water supply problems in Habicho town. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through questionnaire, key informant interview, FGD, and field observation. Primary data are gathered from 279 Households selected by simple random sampling techniques and 17 respondents purposively selected from different public sectors. The 2 public officials and 1 water committees were interviewed to get in-depth information related to the problem. And additionally FGD was performed with 7 department heads and 7 village leaders in Habicho town. The result showed that the most important factors diagnosed to challenges of good governance in urban service delivery in water supply were poor coordination and participation of stakeholders; lack of capacity in municipality office, confined budget that makes the provision services difficult in the area. With respect to households perception on the status of good governance in Habicho water service delivery; the service providers are not providing information about water service delivery to the society. On the other hand, lack of information about water service delivery aggravates the dissatisfaction of the clients and availability of drinking water in Habicho town is unpredictable. So, the provisions of water supply are not adequate for urban residents in the study area. Building human resource capacity, replacing the generator with electricity, changing all old water pipelines, expanding service standards to water service delivery, preparing community forum in the town are the possible measures to improve water service delivery in habicho town.