Causes and Consequences of Completion Time Delay of Urban Water Supply Projects: In the Case of Kafa Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Nowadays, completion time delay of water project is common problems in our country and other developing countries. With regard to this the delay of urban water supply projects in Kafa zone is also common problem. Due to this, the current study was conducted in order to identify the causes and consequences of delay and to provide recommendation. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, explanatory research design with mixed research approach was used in this study. To get appropriate data, 47 respondents were selected by purposive sampling techniques. The data for this study were collected by questionnaire, interview and document analysis and, finally analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively depending up on the nature of data. Based on the finding of the study, the average delay extent of urban water supply projects in the study area were 372%. In relation to the causes of delay, the most significant causes for delay of those projects were; inconstancy of the price of construction materials, unrealistic contract duration, improper project feasibility study, ineffective planning and scheduling by contractor and lack of particular material accessibility in market. Additionally, delay in approving design documents and decision-making process, referral of bid to the lowest price, poor contract management, poor procurement programming of material and unexpected geological and weather conditions plays a great role in affecting completion time of water supply projects. Then, the delay of those projects was leads to the different consequences. So, the main consequences were; time and cost overrun, reduced profit or total loss and, extended site and general overhead expenses, dissatisfaction by project owners and consequently by end-users, public grievances were high due to delay of the project and late service delivery, arbitration, create stress on stakeholders, bad public relation and mistrust of the client (government) by the people and quality problems on the constructed project. In addition, challenges in providing clean water access to the community, bad public - government relationship and raise issue of good governance, loss of competitive advantage and market share to contractors and negative impact on the contractor's reputation were the other consequences of delay of those projects. In generally, this all causes and consequences of completion time delay of projects are more or less related to the project management system of those projects. Therefore, in order to complete the projects with in planned time and to avoid unnecessary delay, effective project management system should have to be implemented.