Factors Affecting the Beneficiarie's Satisfaction of the WUAs in Sahand Dam Basin in Hashtrood Township

Beneficiarie's satisfaction plays a key role in the effectiveness of water users’ associations (WUAs). Any purposeful planning in order to empower these organizations, as well as sustainable management of water resources, requires knowledge of the farmers’ satisfactions. The aim of this correlational- descriptive study was to investigate effective factors on beneficiary’s satisfaction. Research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability was approved by conducting a pilot study and calculation of Cronbach's alpha coefficient higher than 0.7 for the composite indicators. The statistical population consisted of all members of six WUAs in Sahand Dam Basin (N= 270) and, based on Krejci and Morgan sampling table, 155 were selected by using randomized stratified sampling method. Data was collected by personal interview and analyzed through software SPSS18. The results showed that 86.2 percent of the beneficiaries had a medium level of satisfaction and their satisfaction had a significant positive correlation with personal, social, and educational-information variables. Regression analysis showed that three variables, namely, social trust, households’ number, and income from the second job explained 44.3 percent of the satisfaction variance. Training courses in accordance with the principles of adult education can increase member's awareness of association, build trust among members, and increase their satisfaction.