Abstract:
This study focused on the Factors affecting sustainability of Rural Roads Projects in
Tanzania with a case of Monduli District Council. The specific objectives were to
analyze the impact of environmental factors on the sustainability of rural road
projects in Monduli district, to examine the role of community involvement in
maintaining the sustainability of rural road project in Monduli district and to
determine the economic factors influencing the durability and maintenance of rural
road projects in Monduli district. The study was guided by Systems theories. The
target population of this study was all 227,585 population of Monduli district
according to the recent census data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS,
2022) who are in any circumstances the stakeholders of rural roads projects and the
sample size obtained consisted of 400 respondents of whom were sampled through
non-probability sampling techniques. Data was collected through questionnaires,
interviews and focused group discussions and analysed by using IBM-SPSS. 29.0 for
quantitative and the results were presented in charts and tables. The qualitative data
were analyzed thematically alongside the research questions and presented in
narrative forms. The findings of this study show that, unexpected natural calamities
such as flooding and occasional earthquakes and local communities’ low awareness
that some of their own human activities such as overstocking contribute to the
destruction of the road infrastructures. Additionally, it was found that poor
mechanisms used to involve local communities in road development projects have
subsequently affected their willingness to participate in roads development projects
and as a result it affected the sustainability of most rural road projects. The study
concluded that, there is a positive and great relationship existing between dependent
and independent variables. In order for the rural roads projects to be sustainable the
government in collaboration with other stakeholders need to mobilize and inject
sufficient financial budget and create massive community awareness on how some of
human activities and other factors have been affecting rural roads projects.
