Practices and Challenges of Potable Water Supply in Bonga Town Administration

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the practices and challenges of Potable Water Supply in the Bonga Town Administration in Kaffa Zone. To this end, a cross-sectional descriptive survey design was employed and a purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample kebeles and community members. From probability sampling, the study was used systematic sampling to identify respondents from three kebeles of town administration. Accordingly, questionnaire were distributed to 204 heads of households, 7 interview participants’ and 3 Focus Group discussions in three kebeles were taken as participants of this study. Consequently, the main findings of the study indicated that: the supply and distribution of potable water in the study area are insufficient. Because the perception of the respondents on the issue is almost negative. Regarding the major challenges that affecting supply and distribution of potable water supply in the study area; the findings of the study showed that shortage of budget, corrupted behaviors of officials, the technical problem of water service office workers, insufficiency of municipality office support and low public participation, weak political leadership, the bureaucracy of officials, improper plan of budget, the topography of the area is not suitable and population increase and lack of active project planner in the area were the reasons water service office was not able to overcome the potable water. The study was concluded that in Bonga town administration the challenges of water supply were many. The causes for these challenges were related to socio-cultural, economic, and political factors. It was concluded that the total of these challenges affected the sustainable use of water in the area. Finally, the researcher suggested that to improve the challenges of water supply in the study area, water service officials jointly with the municipality are expected to plan the project and search sponsors and allocate a sufficient budget to solve the problem of supply and distribution. To sum up, committed political leadership, public discussion and mobilization, prioritization of the problem, effective budget planning, and creating awareness to the public to use current water resources efficiently were suggested