Assessing the role of community participation in integrated watershed management in Dandi Lake watershed Dandi district, West Showa, Oromia, Ethiopia

AbstractIntegrated watershed management is the method of overseeing human exercises and characteristic assets on a water shed basis, taking into consideration social and financial concerns. It is an ever-evolving hone including the administration of arrive, water, biota, and other assets and it requires involvement of strong institutions at the grass root level. Most watershed projects were not successful due to a lack of effective community participation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of community participation in integrated watershed management schemes in the Dandi lake watershed (Ethiopia) for long-term water resource conservation initiatives and short-term livelihood activities that enables the communities of the study area to meet their needs. Questionnaires, FGD, key informant interviews, personal observation were used as data collection tools. The collected data were organized and categorized according to the intended objectives and analyzed in qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of the study showed that role of community participation in participatory watershed management was examined by involvement in different management phases, 65.1% were involved only in the implementation stage, only 27.6% of respondents confirmed as they involve in all stages, 5.9 and 1.3% of sampled respondents witnessed as they are only involved in planning and mapping stage of watershed management. This study revealed that community participation in water shade management was hindered due to shortage of resources, interest, and previous experience, as well as peer pressure. In the meantime some successful efforts have been made on different land uses meant to reduce natural resource degradation and food security problems. These efforts include, contribution of delivered extension service, infrastructure provision and maintenance. The study also realized and proved the existence of unused development potential to improve the livelihood situation of the watershed community. This study came up with a good managerial implication, typically, it enhances Community engagement status by increasing its visibility and understanding of issues and empowers communities to have a say in decisions that affect their lives, cities and neighborhoods. The watershed management guidelines have to be clear to the community.