Agro Pastoralist’s Perception and Willingness to Participate in Water Harvesting Practices in South Omo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Asmera Adicha,Melkamu Mada

doi:10.11648/j.ajaf.20200805.16

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess agro pastoralist’s perception and willingness to participate in water harvesting practices that could improve their decision to construct and manage water storage technologies at individual household level or community level in the study area. A total of 192 agro pastoralist’s households were assessed and 92.7% of them were willing to participate in rainwater harvesting practices and the rest 7.3% were not. Of the willing respondents 27.53%, 54.49% and 17.98% preferred clay lined pond, plastic lined pond and aboveground tank water storage technologies. And also the study specified the binary logistic for the participation decision and multinomial logistic for the choice decision model to identify factors that affect participation decision on water harvesting technologies and preference of water storage technologies. Accordingly, estimation of the binary logistic model showed that labor availability, distance to water source, perception towards water harvesting practice, age of respondent and credit services significantly affect the willingness of agro pastoralists to participate in water harvesting technologies. Whereas labour availability, ownership of plot, plot distance and area of particular plot affect the choice decision of agro pastoralists on rain water storage options among alternatives in the study area. It can be concluded that policy makers must give attention on factors affecting perception/participation decision of agro pastoralist’s in water harvesting works and their preference among water storage options, and on gender issues in the planning/implementation of water harvesting activities.

Highlights

Water is essential for the environment, food security and sustainable development [1]
As revealed in survey result 178 agro pastoralist or 92.7 % of the total respondents were expressed their willingness to participate in constructing water harvesting structures by supplying labor force and covering some costs, whereas 14 agro pastoralist or 7.3 % of the respondents were non-willing to participate in water harvesting technologies because they situated near river and landscape and is not suitable to construct water harvesting structures
Willing respondents were identified in participation decision and they were asked to reveal their preferences among water storage technology groups

Summary

Introduction

Water is essential for the environment, food security and sustainable development [1]. Water is becoming increasingly scarce because of climate change and population growths which lead to a drastic decline in the amount of water available in many parts of the developing world. Millions of people throughout the world and most of peoples in Arid and Semi-arid parts of Africa do not have access to water; economic water scarcity is especially linked to low income and poverty [3]. To alleviate water shortage problem in the arid and semi-arid parts of the country which threatens the lives of millions of people, the important strategy is to store water. Water storage spurs economic growth and helps to alleviate poverty by making water available when and where it is needed [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion